Module 1 Complete!

Module 1 was completed on Monday when I turned in my last final.The three take home finals varied with expectation.
The first final was due a week after we returned home. It was a 5 page paper identifying a problem with a company and then solving said problem using a non market strategy. The second final was a 4 page paper answering 3 questions regarding a business case study. The third final was a take home, open book exam with a mixture of calculations, essay and analysis.
The five page paper was the most fun to complete as well as the most challenging. Originally the assignment was based on team presentation that we did for class.  The class was broken into 6 teams. Each team identified a problem with Amrut, a whisky company in India, and then made a case for a non-market strategy to solve the problem.  Our individual papers then, could be based on our presentation so that we could apply our research from the presentation directly to our paper. It was a win-win for the class in a way. However, 4 days after we returned from class, I received an email from the teacher grading our presentation. He was not fond of my team's thesis, and suggested we try another strategy for our individual papers. (I found out later, that he did this to a few groups-possibly all of them). I had roughly three days to find another non market strategy. The challenging part for me was working with the time line to not only identify a new strategy, but also write a well written paper.
I did it though. I though long and hard. What is Amrut's problem? How do I solve Amrut's problem. I identified the problem to be: Amrut is not penetrating their domestic market effectively. (I don't have the paper in front of me-so the paper may differ slightly). There is a host of reasons why they are not. Amrut, like I said earlier, is a spirit company. They make whisky and other liquors.  India, like many countries, does not have unified liquor laws. Even the age to drink differs by what kind of liquor you are drinking and what geography you are in. Some counties in India are completely dry and therefore bootleggers and illicit liquor businesses prosper. The standardization for liquors also varies and consequences are sever for health and safety of the population. I have heard the abuse of alcohol is also worse then AIDS/Malaria/TB combined in India. Identifying a problem with Amrut, made me realize that even India has an alcohol problem. My solution then aimed at solving the problem for both.The killing two birds with one stone analogy-even though I never understood why someone would want to throw stones at birds and why they want so many birds to die is beyond me. And hence I used it? Hm something to look at later. Back to my point.

Amrut needs to expand its reach in India, and India needs to solve its myriad of problems.
Alcohol then can be a tool used for good.
Solution: Incorporate women in to the value chain by creating micro-financing loans for women to start their own businesses.  Business would include: small whisky bars, alcohol distribution channels, recycling bottle companies, etc. Each small businesses could expand as well, for instance the whisky bars could expand into restaurants, distribution channels could expand into small markets and recycling bottles could even expand into a larger recycling plant.

By bringing women into business you can teach them financial literacy and business practices. It is shown that when women have economic freedom the domestic abuse goes down as well as AIDS transmission decreases, and family planning increases. This solution thus has potential partnerships built right in with many non profits. 
My paper goes in to great depth proving my case. Well three days worth of depth.
Since this paper was turned in over a week ago, I was given my grade. I received my first A in grad school. The teacher provided me with good follow up questions for me to consider in the future, which I do hope to expand at a later date. 

What I decided through this process is that when given an opportunity in this program (and in life) I will stretch myself to think of solutions that really work. What I mean by that is not some cheesy person's acronym such as the three Ps-People, Profit and Planet. Or some other cliche business book regurgitation of some half thoughtout idea.
What does a solution need. It needs to consider the workers, the executive managers, the shareholders, the environment-locally & globally (and not just by some CO2 emission report but by the impact to the holistic geography such as wildlife, people, water + air quality, etc), human rights, culture, history as well as the future. It is midnight on a Friday night. This list will grow or get restructured in time and is not exhaustive as of yet. My premise is that there can be win-win for everyone by having business solutions that think broader while staying focus on their own impact on all the different levels in this world.

My second final was answering three questions about a case study that compared two companies. I did not enjoy writing this paper at all. I could not find my voice for question one. It was a compare and contrast question with providing history and evolution for context of why the organizations are the way that they are. My mind just went to graphs and timelines. All I could see was visuals-power point slides if you will. But I had to write. I wanted to look into the human aspect more of the company. One of the companies had dualing brothers. But I wanted to know more. Did they get along, did they respect each other, did they spend holidays together? I wanted to know because the company seemed so polarized and dualistic nature, I wanted to explore that. How does a company get created by a family and then leave this dualistic imprinting in the organization. We are not asked those sorts of questions yet. I was asked something that I felt you could answer by just reading the article. Or maybe I just misunderstood the first question. The third question on that final was interesting. It asked something to the effect of,  if you were hired to be a CEO of one of the companies, pick one, what would you do immediately. Again, I don't have the assignment in front of me, but my solution was for the other company-the company that had a fantastic communication infrastructure in the organization-but just lacked innovation. I went and outlined an educational campaign on how to create innovation and then created a competition to exploit said learning so that it could be applied immediately into practice in order to get the company to actually innovate. I am interested to get comments back on that part as the entire educational campaign for education outlined a 7 part process that I just made up on the spot-but came from years of self study on the matter. I will keep you posted, but the overall final grade I expect will be low B.

My last final was on Financing. Calculating financial information for the financial statements is not my passion. I will leave that to the accountants of the world. However, I love financial footprint analysis and overall analyzing company financial information. I am not sure how I did on that final, but I learned a lot. That makes it worth it.

Once I get my first module grades in, I will let you know. When Paul and Pedro started GEMBA they didn't want to assign grades. They thought it more useful if they provided people with evaluations.Georgetown and ESADE insisted on grades and there you go. I agree with Pedro and Paul. I wish I didn't' have grades. Yet, in saying that, I do find the usefulness in knowing where I am today, and knowing where I can improve in. I expect my grades to raise as the year progresses as I have identified areas already for me to improve in. I am excited for this challenge; I am excited to grow.

With Gratitude,
Elizabeth