Month: July 2006

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ふぁみこんたいそう

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“Famicon taisou, famicon taisou”

I found myself doing these great exercises after a 50 minute written quiz on Globalization and Corporate Reponsibility yesterday. Its been nearly 10 years since I have had to take a written-quiz, blue book style, in any class. Since freshman year of my undergraduate degree at Syracuse University, most of my professional and personal work has been done with the help of electronic devices. It’s amazing how one can nearly loose their ability to write with an actual environment-altering device.

But fear not those also in hand pain, a little famicon taisou (Nintendo Exercises) later, and you too will be up and ready for more writing. Though, I doubt one will ever beat Takahashi Meijin’s (Hudson Soft exec) 16 taps/second button pressing skills, at least not without the Nintendo Max!

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Program Blogs

Updated: January 13th, 2007

While going through my list of links tonight, I realized we have quite a group of writers within the program that muse on various topics such as hiking, stressing out, and kyūdō. A quick list of those folks with blogs that currently attend this program appears below.

  • Scott – Portuguese Track Class of 2008
  • Anand – Spanish Track Class of 2008
  • David – Global Tracel Class of 2008
  • Alex – Japanese Track Class of 2009
  • Adrian – Chinese Track Class of 2009 (photos)
  • Nanda – French Track Class of 2008
  • Senate Street – Samantha, Kavita, Angus, Dan, Tonisha and Alex
  • Kate – Spanish Track Class of 2008
  • Sara – French Track Class of 2008
  • Josh and Kristen – Frenck Track Class of 2008
  • Tara – Spanish Track Class of 2008
  • Christopher – Japanese Track Class of 2008

If you know of others, please write them below and I’ll add them.

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Nintendo’s Really Cookin’

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Besides having a really great quarter, Ninendo is cooking, quite literally, with voice activation! One of the reasons why I have entered business school is to explore working in marketing in an industry that will make me crave going to work every day. Certainly, having been produced in the late 70s and the majority of my adolescence ocurring during the hey day of Nintendo in America, I’m very interested in this industry.

I have to admire the way that Nintendo has been able to break through the age barriers in the video game market and really bring the experience to many more people. If the success with the versatility of the DS is any indicator, Nintendo’s Wii console should push those ideals even further. Just take a look at the age groups of the people in the header of the Nintendo’s Wii product page.

Either way, I’ll be there to take it all in. And with that, I’m hungry! おなかがすいたよ！

Update: 2006-07-28 BusinessWeek article

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The Importance of Language

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It doesn’t always have to be so serious….

Today, in our global strategic management class, our instructor lightened the mood in an otherwise very intense and thoughtful class regarding strategic management and strategy development for multi-national corporations in a global environment. To ensure that we did not lose sight of one of the primary reasons most of us are in this program, the video above was shown.

Funny, but also very important in the realization that cross-cultural communication is so very important and without it, we may lose some very valuable insight. Enjoy!

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Japan Trip – Day 7 – Finding Kobe

Day 7 Picture 1 Day 7 Picture 2
From Friday, November 18th: A bit different this week. Posting an audio podcast episode instead of a video one like the last few.

Immerse yourself in the sounds of Japan, well at least just the first 10 minutes of train sounds, and just cruise around on the JR line with us, getting lost in Osaka on our way to visit Terrance in Kobe. Works best with headphones. ^_^

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Small Updates

I wish I had the fortitude to write more at this point. It is truly difficult to stay on top of writing. I am hoping in the long run it will become second nature.

In the meantime, I did update the site a little bit. I’ve received a few emails asking what the site is about, who the heck am I, general “I don’t get it” type emails. I can’t say that I blame them listening to my blather. But if you now look to your right on the homepage you will see two new pages. I’ve attempted to describe my personal reasons for pursing an internationa MBA degree where I’m somewhat at in my life right now.

I’ve got some great topics and some more video lined up for this week though. Until then, its studying Trilemmas from Shell….

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My Life as Pole Position

Pole Position

Perhaps one of the best commercials ever. I hadn’t even waited for the download to finish before posting this.

Hey … you look like a real jerk!

Well I AM a corporate executive.

Words cannot describe the amazingness of this commercial. Our marketing tactics today are seriously lacking in the type of straightforward, “give ’em what they want”, marketing of the late 70s and early 80s.

And is it me or is that a segueway at the end of the commercial?

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Drinking from the Fire Hose

Information, information, information, and yet more information.

Being in business school is being in a wash of information. Processing and reading this information is somewhat like being a contestant on Stanley Spadowski’s variety show on UHF. Case readings, regular readings, book readings … where does one find that time for the ever important personal readings or research needed to develop our specific interests and business knowledge?

What follows are a few tips that I’ve used over the past two years that have really helped manage the way I process news and information, and presently keeps me from being overwhelmed by the torrents of water directed at my head.

Continue reading “Drinking from the Fire Hose”

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2 days, 7 languages, 41 countries

Its Friday morning, and while I sit here catching up on the latest in enterprise architecture methodologies while waiting for deliveries, I wanted to reflect for a moment on my first two days at business school.

The sheer diversity, both in heritage, ethnicity, and experience is staggering. A Japanese track classmate has already lived in Japan for three years as part of the JET program. One student has traveled to over 41 countries and the closest runner-up, 40. There is a Belgian gentleman in our cohort that has learned 7 languages, while yet another has spent a year and a half teaching english in South America. Still many more come from such diverse backgrounds as Peace Corps volunteers looking to excel in micro-finance and, presumably, take those still back to such countries for good use. Another, a Blackhawk pilot, putting his focus on the middle east.

Most MBA programs may give you a global curriculum geared to bringing you up to speed on varying accounting methods or global dynamics and responsibility, and this program has all of that. But I have yet to see any other MBA program with the type of diversity in the student body that I can see here …and that is what I am truly excited about.

So as I lay flat on my back in the pool unwinding from my first day of orientation and career management planning (yes, we start this before we even begin classes), the majority language being spoken in this aquatic environment was not English, but German. I was the American/English minority, here in South Carolina.

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Japan Trip – Day 6 – Osaka Aquarium

Japan Trip Day 6

From Thursday, November 17th: Day six of my Japan trip was spent wandering around the underground malls of Osaka. When we finally popped our heads up for air, we realized we were fairly close the Osaka Aquarium. Let’s head on over.

I present to you, “Today’s Zen Moment” with a dozen or so photos of the critters inside the aquarium, and not always just the fish. More photos here.

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