MBET Blog
Advocacy Ads
OK, so this has nothing to do with school or business. Everyone with a blog is apparently an political armchair quarterback and I've really tried to avoid doing that myself. It's so damn self-indulgent. Who really cares what you think of the PM or the Democratic candidates? It's as if your vote counts for more if you write a long explanation of your opinion. Democracy - it's one person, one vote. You'd think that would be sufficient disincentive to this kind of thing. As the saying goes - opinions are like assholes. Everyone has one. And I don't want to see any of them.
Anyway, in direct violation of that tenant here's my latest socio-political observation. CBS has refused to run
Bush in 60 Seconds' ad. As a long-time sometimes-reader of
Adbusters I've seen them try and tray again to get their
Buy Nothing Day ads run on the major networks around the world. But the networks always refuse, saying that running a "Buy Nothing" ad would be contrary to other advertisers' interests. Or that they don't run advocacy ads.
Now of course, they do run advocacy programming... I mean,
7th Heaven is pretty clearly pro-Christian. Oprah offers no shortage of opinions about how to live your life. But I guess these are popular opinions so no one cares that they're blatantly editorial. Is Buy Nothing Day any worse than an average episode of
Dr.Phil?
And, of course, networks regularly run ads that are contrary to other advertiser's interests... I mean, would CBS run ads for Coke but not Pepsi? Heavens, no. We need to be fair. But if I wanted to pay to run an ad that suggests that you skip buying pop altogether - well, no, that wouldn't fly. I could create the absolute worst product on the face of the earth and advertise it, but I apparently can't suggest that people simply go without something. Hm.
Anyway, there's precious little point in discussing or debating this point - people are already one of two camps - the angry disaffected who keep a well-thumbed copy of
No Logo on their bedside table and those who really don't care and really just want to see more good sitcoms like
Friends. I doubt there's much migration between the two points of view.
My solution - no cable. We rent TV shows on DVD when we want to see something good (by we I mean myself and my spouse). That mostly amounts to
Sex and the City but also includes some classic stuff like
Sherlock Holmes. I wish we could get a TiVo in Canada without having to spend bajillions of dollars on a high-end DirectVu box or a Roger's digital cable box. Then at least I could time-shift Sesame Street for the little ones.
This is where the conculsion would go in a coherently written essay. Here, on the other hand, you get no pat summary or recomendation. TV networks - are they good?
Or are they whack? Decide for yourself.
Wired 12.02: The New Face of the Silicon Age
This article is goddamned brilliant. It's absolutely, 100% the best summary of the Indian outsourcing phenomenon I've ever read. Innovation and invention are the source of wealth in the future. Americans - and everyone else in the so-called "west" - need to realize that their historic advantage, infrastructure and capital - can be replicated more and more easily. Smart people are the new capital and we have yet to discover a way to get a monopoly on that.
Snow Day
School's closed. Maybe I should spend all day updating my blog. Or getting a cool RSS reader to I can monitor all my fave blogs auto-magically. Or, maybe... maybe I'll do some actual work and get caught up for a change. Yeah. How about that.
ALS
Prem, my classmate that's sponsoring the practicum project I'm working on, won a
business plan competition put on by the LES - the Licensing Executive Society. Excellent work Prem! And we all (the team, not the class...) get to go to San Francisco for a few days in February. Excellent.
Strategy Test Tomorrow
Well, it's 12:20 AM, so maybe today. There's a "severe weather warning" out for all of southern Ontario so I (and others) are hoping for a snow day tomorrow to get out of writing the strategy test that I didn't study for this past weekend.
The questions, for those who care:
- How should a corporation scan the external environment for new technological developments? Who should be responsible?
- What is technology research and how does it differ from market research?
- What is the importance of product and process R&D to competitive strategy?
- In terms of strategic management, how does a new venture’s situation differ form that of an ongoing small company?
- How should a small entrepreneurial company engage in environmental scanning? To what aspects of the environment should management pay most attention?
- What are the characteristics of an attractive industry from an entrepreneur’s point of view? What role does innovation play?
Yes, both vague AND hard. Lovely. We do 5 of those 6 plus one extra surprise question. Such is the nebulous nature of strategy.
Comments are back and probably never really left... must have been a HaloScan hiccup.
Comments have evaporated. Odd. Stay tuned!
Wi-Fi Networking News: New License Fee May Face Operators
Interesting article on patenting something that's both trivial and widespread... another
analysis doesn't seem to worried about the patent, but it's definitiely an interesting case.
VC Blogs
Via
Buzzmachine, a
bunch of
VC weblogs.
We had Marc Gingras from Innovatech talk in class yesterday.
Innovatech is a Quebec-based VC fund backed by the Quebec provincial government. Good talk, he reiterated many comments we've heard about dealing with VCs before and talked a bit more about how VCs run the numbers. Good examples. This program is really amazing for bringing in great speakers.
Product Manager Forums -> The Blogging Iceberg
An interesting article on how most blogs are abandoned... not surprising I think. The average age was a big surprising though - a mere 4 months. And as a blogger in my 30's I'm creakingly ancient by blog standards. I think my 3 year-old is statistically more likely to be a blogger than I am.
Term 2
I have been remiss in updating my blog. Welcome everyone to the second term of the MBET class of ’04. For those who are applying, thinking of applying or for those lucky people who may have been accepted I’ll go over the schedule for the winter term.
Before I get to it, however, let me mention a few things for the benefit of any foreign students who may be applying. Foreign students from Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland and northern Russia can skip to the next paragraph. Students from the southern regions of China, India and other tropical locales should pay attention. Vancouverites are included in the latter grouping. Waterloo will seem very pleasant when you get here. A little rainy perhaps. Even December will be cold, but not the stuff that legendary Canadian winters are made of. This, however, is a trick. This winter has been pretty damn cold, even by Canadian standards. Lots of snow too. Buy a good pair of boots. Buy some
long underwear. One poor guy from India apparently wore two pairs of pants to class one day. A good solution but perhaps not optimal. You have been warned.
On to the schedule. We have the same 10 courses and the same 10 profs as last term. That’s the way the program is structured. The updates, in numerical class order…
Marketing: another assignment that expands on our previous market assessment assignment – developing a full marketing plan. Big Work.
Strategy: More readings, an exam apparently… the most theory-oriented course of the bunch. Prof. Fader will be on sabbatical next term so the next class will have someone else teaching it.
Management of Technology: 603 continues apace, with more reading on technology development as well as case studies.
Operations: Same profs as 603, so it’s hard to tell them apart at times. Lots of readings and case studies. I have to do a group presentation for the first case which is set in 1970 and concerns the company the built the first consumer tape deck that incorporated
Dolby Noise Reduction! One of my group partners said “I didn’t know they had Dolby Digital then…” We’re talking Dolby Analog here. Still an interesting case and I suppose it emphasizes the fact that the technology elements of many business have little bearing on whether they ultimately succeed or fail.
Accounting: We got about 10 hours of accounting work the first week which was a bit of a shock. This term is focussed on managerial accounting as opposed to the public accounting we studied last term. Also, a project using Quickbooks.
Finance: Finance hasn’t started yet but we get more finance classes this term than last. This also means less accounting. Whew!
Law: Only one or two law classes this term.
Tax: First, I want to mention I got perfect on the tax final last term. The first and last time I get this mark.
E-Business & Entrepreneurial Applications of IT: Again these two have the same two profs and blend together so much so that I’m not sure what the difference between them is. But we’ll be back at it starting in February.
As for the modules, we have a lot less module work this term. We have business skills covering hiring, teamwork, more negotiations and some other stuff… I can’t find my copy of the term outline. We have another big team project this term, the “Integrated Simulation”. Run via
Capstone, the simulation is a competition where we run a portfolio company that makes electronic sensors. We have to do resource allocation, track market data, do sales forecasts, lots of good stuff. Right now all the bells and whistles are turned on, which could take 10+ hours a week. Even if some of the features get pared off (do we really need to do the TQM module?) it’s still a big project. Overall, it looks like fun for me, but then again, it reminds me of computer games I used to play. It’s not far off the mark from RTS games like Age of Empires and such, minus the fancy graphics.
Then, of course, is the practicum. This proposes to be a lot of work. My group has a lot of market research to do before we can really get going. It should be exciting.
Beyond all that is the job search… no point in waiting until August to start looking for a job. It’s daunting though. Looking for a job is always an assault on your very essence as a human being. Imagine going on a date and having a prospective mate assault you verbally for a couple of hours. Well, maybe you don’t have to imagine. At least most people have the decency to spread the interrogation over several dates. But I need a job, so my pride has to take a back seat for a little while at least.
So, stay tuned for updates on our progress this term.
