Why The MBA is a Kick in the Ass

For ten weeks, we have our standard assignments that include significant reading, an essay, and some lively discussion. After one gets into a groove, it’s a lot easier to manage the workload. It hasn’t ever been “easy”, but it is manageable. The last week of the term (this week) is going to be hell.

Not only do we have a 2,000-word essay due that describes the unique challenges of strategic resource management for a manufacturing company that has businesses in four countries (USA, Mexico, France, and Turkey) where we have to address human capital, information capital, organizational capital, strategy alignment, and enterprise continuity management, but we also have an online final exam.

Next, we have a case study due that is a group project! All of this is due at the end of the week. The workload has tripled. I guess the motto my school has (Expect Challenge) is no joke.

MBA Books

I now hold in my grubby little hands the books that I will use for my first term at Norwich University. I got them in the mail yesterday. There are three of them.

The smallest of the three is Essentials of Organizational Behavior by Stephen Robbins and Timothy Judge. This book looks very interesting, and I can’t wait to jump in. By the price that Amazon.com is asking for it, you would think it was printed in 18k gold. But I’m not that lucky.

This masterfully crafted introduction provides balanced coverage of all the key elements comprising the discipline of OB, in a style that readers will find both informative and interesting. This includes not only traditional topics such as personality, motivation, and leadership; but also cutting-edge issues such as emotions, trust, work-life balance, workplace spirituality, and knowledge management. Source: Amazon.com]

The next book is Strategy Maps by Robert Kaplan and David Norton. For a thick book, it is pretty light. This book appears to be big on business processes. This is another subject I tend to enjoy.

More than a decade ago, Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton introduced the Balanced Scorecard, a revolutionary performance measurement system that allowed organizations to quantify intangible assets such as people, information, and customer relationships. Then, in The Strategy-Focused Organization, Kaplan and Norton showed how organizations achieved breakthrough performance with a management system that put the Balanced Scorecard into action. [Source: Amazon.com]

The final book we’re using is Management Information Systems: Managing the Digital Firm.

These authoritative authors continue to define the MIS course by integrating coverage of essential new technologies, their applications, and their impact on managerial decisions. [Source: Amazon.com]

Accepted!

I was notified this morning that I was accepted into the MBA program at Norwich University.