Module 3 begins!!

We are in Sao Paulo and Buenos aires for Module 3- a week in each city.

I arrived in Brazil after traveling for a combined 17 hours.  The temperature is pleasant. Not too hot, nor smug, just sorta perfect 75 with little humidity. I was prepared for the worse-sweat drenched clothes exiting the plane like in Tanzania. But instead-just a little overcasted 75 degrees.

I took a taxi with my classmate and pal Phil. The biggest observation I have about Sao Paulo is the graffiti everywhere. I kept thinking to myself how did they reach that spot or that one? Phil commented that it reminded him of New York in the 80's. The overall architecture is mostly cement buildings-indicative of any hot climate location. I didn't see a lot of trash. The city seems mostly clean. The stories about the traffic congestion is true. It's bad. The people seem very friendly from my limited interactions and overall I like this city. Tomorrow our group will go on a tour of the city. I will take some photos and post later.

The classes:
This module I will be taking:
Global Operations and Supply Chains
Marketing for the Global Executives
Structuring and Managing the Global Firms
The integrated course will be Designing the Global Firm

Well I am going to go back to studying. Have a great night!

Xo
L

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October 2012 Update

In between the modules life is pretty much finishing finals and reading for the next module and of course working.  Now because life is life, there are still about a million other things that happen as well.

I will try to recap them here:

First- This happened:  

I have worked at VLST for over 7 years. I am grateful for the experience that the company has provided me with and also for all the great people I have worked with over the years. I walked in as a lab manager and research associate focusing on molecular biology and leaving as the Sr. Operations Manager. My favorite projects would have to be moving the company, space planning and overall creating operations. With a small company I have loved being able to wear so many hats over the years and being exposed to the different aspects of a company. My company, when appropriate, has tried to be very transparent and candid. I know everyone who has worked here and everyone has given their best. As small biotechs go, they don't get much more fun than VLST. I am excited to see what happens next for VLST and their clinical projects. I truly do believe in what the company does and I believe that their therapeutics can have real benefit for patients. However, due to their limited resources and refocusing, I will no longer be working there past February. So as they saying goes, one door closes and another one opens.. and it seems that over the month of October I have had some great conversations about some potential possibilities, with other small biotechs, some international firms outside of science field, some random odd stuff, and even some ideas about my own projects. All in all, I feel overall positive of my next steps-whatever they will be. :)

Second:

School-so besides just the readings for the next module, we have started our thesis paper (not due till July) and a small group consulting project with a firm in India for our Module 4. My thesis mentor is a fascinating man with the same passion (I think) for interdisciplinary approaches as well as for disrupting the status quo. Needless to say, I think I will very much enjoy his insights! I also have found some of my own mentors in the community around Seattle. It is hard for me not to constantly work on my project.
My team consulting project is also really neat. I have a great group of four other classmates, each bringing a tremendous value to the table. Our topic is to look at innovation and technology solutions for the poor for InfoSys. One of my favorite aspects of this project is just how you have global meetings. First you had to pick a time that would work for everyone's time zone. So for me, it is 9am on Sundays, which is noon on the east coast, and about 4pm in Europe and one of our members travels a lot, so sometimes he is in Peru, sometimes in Madrid, so for him, who knows. ;) One of our team members is an IT guru-her name is Amy and she set us up with a great google group site, and one of our members Clive had a global conference program we could utilize. I find the logistics in the actual meetings so fascinating. How do we move forward on projects with out seeing each other eye to eye. (We do have video chat-but on a sunday at 9am-I usually try to spare my teammates).
Ohh and how can I forget this news: our GEMBA program got ranked as 19th in the world for EMBA programs by the Financial Times. This was the first time the program got ranked-so next year I think we will be #1.

Third:
Heavy on my heart and my mind is this: Washington State is voting on Marriage Equality this November. Our state congress passed marriage equality at the beginning of the year, and our Governor even signed it into law. I even made the front page of the paper with Shena. See us here. However, a small group of people got together, got some signatures and used our governing process to put it up for a vote in the November election. "Now the thing about rights is that you are not suppose to vote on them." Rachel Maddow. However, in WA we do. So this October I volunteered with the pro-marriage equality people-Washington United for Marriage Equality by doing a phone bank one night and by donating money as well. (Not a lot of money-but what I could.) It was eye opening to say the least to talk to the undecided voters on the phone.  There is a lot of misinformation being spread by the opposition that people haven't bothered to check the facts.  The school curriculum won't change, and if you sell a service or a product to the public and you discriminate- you can be sued today for that. This law doesn't change anything with regards to that. And all religious folks get to keep their rights and their own customs, etc etc. The hardest claim to hear is that people just were not comfortable with it. They were married. But were uncomfortable with marriage for all. What?! They just have arguments that are just not logical-based in a fear of the unknown or something else that I can't grasp.  Any Washington voter undecided please check the facts, talk to me, and vote for equality this November. I have heard all the arguments against, and I think this pastor sums it up best.
And a fun insight too, is that most Seattle companies from Starbucks, Amazon, Microsoft, REI, Boeing, Alaska Airlines, Expedia etc etc all support Marriage equality.
Check out this great video from Expedia.
It is really neat to see how these global companies support their employees and support diversity and love. I wonder what impact it had to their global business for standing up for human rights. Of course I can imagine how it helped tremendously in goodwill and in overall respect. Shoot-Expedia is the only company that I buy my tickets through from now on.
Also our capitol hill musicians also showed their support by creating this song, and played on Ellen today: watch the video here.
The fact that we are debating marriage equality is crazy. The world is in so many time zones all at once, from dark ages to enlightenment to the 21st century.  I guess I am just use to living in a progressive, innovative city that I forget that it is not the norm. Hopefully, this November we will be the first state to vote in marriage equality and we can be an example for the rest of the country and to the world.
I won't be around though for this historic day, as I will be in Brazil for module 3, so please celebrate for me!!

Well there it is, a quick recap. Oh and also, I turned 31 in October. I had a great dinner with the family and another small quick dinner with some friends. My best bud Krystal even flew in from Montana. Pretty Special.
Oh and one more thing: Pygmy Survival Alliance is starting to ask for donations for 2013. We have accomplished so much from literacy program, secondary education, deworming, health insurance, creating sustainable businesses, launching a CD of the music, to food security, to social community empowerment, to a youth soccer team. Just incredible. A true testament to the holistic micro-development approach.  For updates check out www.facebook.com/pygmysurvival or www.pymgysurvival.org and www.coffeerwanda.com

Okay now I am done.
XO,
L

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Module 2 Classes Complete!

I just finished with classes for Module 2 of my Global Executive MBA program.  I am currently in my hotel in Madrid and getting ready for dinner. We will be dinning tonight at the Palacio de Linares

Even though this module was just 2 weeks, I feel like we have been gone for over a month. Each day is crammed full of learning, speakers, dinners/cultural events, studying and projects that each day magically turns into 100 hours. And for sleeping, well that is for things like lunch breaks. I was so exhausted one day, that i just pulled over a chair, put my feet up and was knocked out within seconds. This program is not for the faint at heart, as I am learning. But I guess, neither is life, well at least my life.

What can I digest so far over these two weeks?

-Leadership-Success-it means a million things to a million people.
-Staying focused and congruent is darn important to reach a goal, and to continue to reach goals. This is important individually and for corporations.
-Financial analysis and forecasting can be divided into two camps, short term gains and long term profitability. I prefer, when given the chance, to think and focus on long term. (Even if todays market is so uncertain that it doesn't make sense, it feels more comfortable to me. I may need to evaluate this again in the future).
-People really don't have a good model that will guarantee a successful company. There are ways to improve your odds however, such as corporate strategy, management, company structure, knowledge management, etc.  Even if you do all the stuff you are suppose to do in all the MBA books.. you will only have secured a 50% of the success game. there is still an unknown 50% of what makes something work. Yes, magic does exist, and it exists in stuff that economists have never studied before or even know how to quantify.
-And saying I don't know.. is still really hard for some people to say, and even hard for some entire fields of study to say. think about all the stuff in the world we don't know.. I mean even in science, there is a bigillions of stuff not know even about the human body. Our not knowing fuels our curiosity. It allows for our curiosity. And with curiosity comes innovation. Innovation comes from the stance of not knowing. Not from the knowing. it comes from admitting I have NO IDEA! 
-I like working with many different cultures. I love seeing how my classmates approach problems and projects. My classmates come from all industries and are at all levels, so the experience that comes to each table is vast. My last project, the CEO of the group was a very quiet force. He listened to everyone, repeated all the ideas back, the team would discuss the ideas; the good idea would emerge, and the silly ideas would be dismissed. The team was very easy and well managed. The mood between us all was just easy and relaxed. I was on I think two other teams (maybe three other teams?) and each one just shows different approaches, different level of perfectionism, and different levels of discussing the path forward. As school is the best playground for experimentation, I think I will continue to explore different styles for my remainder modules. I am sure each group you work with will automatically have some innate behaviors but knowing the characteristics that smooth groups over is very helpful. My classmates have so much to teach me, that I am excited for more projects.
-I really appreciate the founders of this program. Pedro and Paul are amazing human beings that deeply care about education. I like being able to tell that they care and they are deeply committed to us, to the program.
-Merges, acquisitions and partnerships was a lot of fun to learn about. We heard from one of the top members from Mars candy about their M&A and that was truly insightful. Insightful might be a great word for this entire module.  INSIGHTFUL.



ohh and the biggest thing I am learning:

 -The differences in life is what makes connecting and making commerce with people, fun.


Anyway going to get ready now for dinner.
Love you,
L

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Crash Creative: my masters thesis + my dream

I wanted to share something with you, a speech I gave in September of 2008 to the City of Seattle Council members:

"We live in a world of evermore complicated problems that are integrated over all disciples over all human behavior.  We can no longer afford to create structures that are one sided/meet only one function. We can no longer keep ourselves looking for a solution in one area.  we need to create an infrastructure that blends all lines, to force a mix of ideas.  We need to create a CERN [Particle Accelerator] type of structure a type of city. Where instead of colliding particles we collide people in order to elucidate the ideas from them, to most importantly inspire new ideas.
We can do this by acknowledging that art examines the raw form of the problems in society as well as providing inspiration for ideas and solutions to those problems.

I want to live in a city where when I walk down the street I see the creative class working in all disciplines together. I want to see buildings that are adaptable- allowing multifunctions to cohabitate. I would love to see a building where on one floor is designated to restaurants, one floor could be dance rehearsal and one floor could be lab space/hospital patient care.
We do amazing things in Seattle.. we fight diseases that don't even effect us, we create art that is shown thousand miles away. We don't do stuff on the small scale here. We create global companies, global citizens to solve the global problems.  Let us inspire each other in new ways~ where we force each other to collide with each other in the same space.
The creation out of seattle out of capitol hill is destined to make ripples globally and create a world where we will all want to live in.
A city that is adaptable and welcomed to all."

I was asked to speak on behalf of the Cultural Overlay District Advisory Committee (CODAC),http://www.seattle.gov/council/codac/default.htm. (which  no longer exists due to funding).  They were about how to preserve the arts in cap hill and why Art is important to a community to a city.

I went to the CODAC meeting the summer of 2008, and as you may know, I can't help but to talk during those things, and the committee had a meeting planned with the City Council Members at Seattle City Hall. The City wanted to hear from the public.  And the committee was so impressed with my thoughts and vision for Capitol Hill, they asked me to speak at the "public section" on their behalf.  It was a 2 minute talk.  One of the committee members wrote me an email afterwards and said I was "an articulate speaker and an exciting thinker".

Since then I have played with this idea of creative space and the idea of crashing together all disciples from Science, Engineering, IT, Non Profits, Global Health, and Art in order to collaborate, cross pollinate and discover true solutions for our complex global problems. No longer should we fund superfluous companies, when we have social entrepreneurs ready to tackle the difficult problems in our world. Let's give the social entrepreneurs a place to crash together and create innovation just like the Higgs boson was discovered in CERNE, who knows what is capable from our Crash. 

My experience in science incubators, space management, move management, occupancy management, providing Operations Services and turn key facilities to multiple small start up companies gives me the beginning know how to make my dream of Crash Creative Incubator Facilities into a reality. Therefore, I will start by devoting my Master's thesis to this project by developing a sound business plan and by building partnerships. Let me know if you are interested in my thesis as I would love to chat and gather feedback and information.

Elizabeth Scallon

Elizabeth.scallon@gmail.com

Sent from my iPad

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Module Two-Spain!

Yesterday, I started Module Two of my Global Educational Adventure.

We are currently in Barcelona and then next week will be in Madrid. (Tough life-huh?!)

The courses in Module Two are:
-Corporate Strategy,
-Corporate Financial,
-Industry Economics
-Integrated Course: Competing Globalizing Industries

So far, so GOOD! I am following along much better in Corporate Finance then last quarter's accounting class. My professor Gloria Batllori is an incredibly smart professor that can lasso complex ideas into a practical, simple approach that the students can all understand. She put a graphic on the board today where you saw all three financial statements connected and I could almost hear my brain click with "Aha". Not to say that I didn't understand the interdependence last quarter, but sometimes, being shown in a new way, with a new graphic, drives the concepts to a deeper understanding.  Mix that with the bigger picture of forecasting and I feel like I am starting to really understand the financial field, and where each process fits in to the picture of examining a firms value. We have a project due at the end of the week, where the class is divided into six teams and we all discuss a different firm and evaluate it based on the financial history as well provide an overall evaluation for the future. My team will be analyzing Amazon. (Out of the 6 companies, I think two or three were from Seattle, and as the unofficial, self appointed ambassador for Seattle, you can imagine the delight I feel.)  I tried in Seattle this summer to get in contact with a senior finance person at Amazon to discuss the financial statements and forecasting projections; however, it was to no avail. I may try to pursue again after I return-so if you know anyone, please let me know.  :)

For my Corporate Strategy class, I just turned in my first paper of the module.  It was on the corporate strategy of Harley Davidson. Kinda fun to examine the company's history, it's values, and how it leveraged it's competencies to be a leader in the heavy weight motorcycles. For instance, did you know that it was founded in 1903 (pretty old company), it doesn't have a corporate hierarchy structure (they believe in circle method based on functional groups), and they have an easy customization ability, by having few options in the core components and have multiple variations in the aesthetic options. I must admit, reading about motorcycles and being in Spain where everyone drives scooters, makes me really really want a scooter. If someone could just make Seattle less rainy, I would totally trade my 4 wheels for 2 wheels.  

Okay, back to studying for me.

L

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