Happy Hour

Now that our big Stats and Econ tests are over, we have a reason to celebrate!

Really, we just use Thursday night as an excuse to stop working and enjoy our 2 years in grad school. Since the first week of school, we have chosen different places each Thursday night to go for Happy Hour. So far we’ve hit Raleigh Times, Cameron Village Bar & Grill, Natty Greens, Hibernian, Tobacco Road & East Village.

Tonight is the Village Draft House!

We typically meet around 6ish and have a couple drinks to relax and unwind from the week, and tonight should be our biggest turnout! Everyone has been studying around the clock for our two tests today, so it will be a great way for us to socialize about things other then school.

Our class is very social, and I think its a great way for us to get to know each other. Other then happy hours, we have standing Tuesday Trivia nights, and various other activities through the semester.

One of the first pieces of advice the 2nd years gave us during Orientation was get along with your classmates. Our class is off to a great start in the first 6 weeks!

BSG Simulation

Our very first class was MBA 508, the Global Simulation Class. The Simulation has been done at NCSU for 47 semesters, and it changes every time. Basically, we were given the task of running an athletic shoe company with wholesale, internet and private label markets. All 10 teams started in year 10 with all the same stats and market share. Our group had to come up with a strategy that we thought would enhance our market share which producing a quality shoe.

My team (iDominate), decided to make a few big moves the first year:

• Building an additional production plant in Latin America
• Taking out a hefty loan
• increasing the quality of shoe in our Asia Pacific plant.

It paid off fairly well for us, but when we realized we had only built a 1 million dollar plant in LA and a competitor had built a 4 million dollar plant, we took drastic measures. We added another million to our AP plant and completely took ourselves out of the private label market. This put us in 2^nd to last place, strongly competing with two of the top companies in the class so it forced us to change our strategy once again.

We started making small changes to break away from our competitors and gain a competitive advantage. After 4 years, we were back up in 4^th place, and after 5 years our stock price had more than quadrupled. It was only a game, but I definitely learned a lot about business decisions especially financially.

This class was a great start to the semester! It eased us into the frameworks of everyday business decisions, and we had to deal with real problems and issues that come up in business every day. We also had to make a group presentation on our marketing strategies, regional differences, financial decisions, and what we may have done differently. This was our first (of many) presentations, so it gave us a good feel of how we presented and what we need to work on for future presentations in the MBA program!

I-Cubed

For our MBA 530 project, we are required to work with a company to help them fix a problem they are currently facing. We were encouraged to reach out to companies and see if they would be interested in working with us for the semester. Through various contact and LinkedIn, Brian found out about a company on Centennial Campus...I-Cubed. Grant Williard, a NCSU Alum, started the software company in 1984. He developed the technology that led to the created of I-Cubed while working on his senior design project sponsored by IBM. Since then, I-Cubed has grown to 75 employees and expects to reach about 125 within 5 years.

We met with their HR Manager, Erica and CEO, Donald to find out the areas they were looking to improve. Their main concern with the rapidly growing company is the communication. Hierarchy structures have been put in place, and effective communication between departments and managers haven’t come as easily as they would like.

Our job is to come up with a strategy to break down the communication barriers and have more effective communication within the company.  It’s a semester long project, so we will have meetings with I-Cubed fairly often. We’re excited and up for the challenge!

http://www.i-cubed.com/

Groups

During orientation we were separated into small groups of 4-5 people that we would be working with for the entire year. That made me a little nervous.

All these questions were going through my head: would we all get along? Would we hang out outside of class? Would there be one person who slacks off? Would we have a person that wouldn’t get anyone else get a word in? Would we work well together for two entire semesters??

Wednesday right before lunch we were handed a sheet of paper assigning our teams. I was placed on Team 9 along with Donavon Boykin, Mark Frazier, Brian Kubis and Peter Landis. My first reaction was, well I’ve only talked to Mark, and that was Monday morning for about 10 minutes so I know nothing about any of these 4 boys. Within 5 minutes I realized I was stuck with 2 TarHeels, a Pirate and thank goodness another NCSU Alum (who is unfortunately graduating at the end of the year).

Throughout that day at the ropes course, we started to get to know each other better and realized we all had completely different backgrounds. We each had so much to bring to the table and we are willing to work hard, but also wanted to have fun. 

And so “Team Dominate” was formed.

Well 3 weeks into school, I couldn’t be happier about my group. We laugh, have fun and joke around...but more importantly we support each other and push each other to the limits in order to reach our full potential. We each play to our own strengths, and help each other in our weak areas. These groups are designed for not only class projects, but also for studying and keeping up with class materials. I’m excited that we all get along so well and are able to joke around while still getting our work done.

Meet Team Dominate 

Brian, Donavon, me, Mark & Peter