My Dream Position

My Dream Position

Should I start my own business or have a dream position in an existing company? It is a million dollar question. Starting a new business is very not easy. There are a lot of responsibility and risk involved. You not only need to come up with the business idea, initial funding and set up the business but also need to be prepared  that most likely you will not be able to make any profit in a short time, plus you are on your own for retirement account, medical coverage and insurance. If I were in my early 20’s and fresh out of school, I might try it since I have nothing to lose. But I am not that young and reckless anymore. It took me years to get where I am in my career now and I am at a very good stage in life now, I just don’t want to drop everything for something that has so many uncertainties. I have gone through several career changes in my life and I really don’t want to start over again. Instead, what I would like to do is utilizing my experience and to enhance my career.

I have always wanted to work for venture capital firms. I would like to be an associate at a VC firm after getting my MBA degree. To start out,  I would work with general partners on generating clients from China and help them to invest in star-up, pharmaceutical companies and  real estate in the U.S. and help the firm to invest in different industries in China and generate good returns. I would do initial screening, contact with clients and put together reports for the firm. It is a start position in VC firms but I think I would enjoy it because it’s exciting to work on a project from scratch.  

In this economy, there are so many college graduates and even from top schools are having difficulty to find a job. You really need to have something stand out to compete with them. I need to do competitive analysis on myself to see if it’s possible to achieve my goal:

·         Strength: Globalization is how we conduct business today not matter you like it or not. I have work experience in both of China and the U.S. and I speak English, Chinese and some Japanese. More importantly I think I have a good understanding of how to conduct business in the East and West. While the U.S. economy is suffering from the recession, the economy is booming and growing really fast. My advantage is I understand how to do business in China and I have lots of contact there

·         Weakness: My weakness is I am not from top business school (even though CALMAT is on its way to become one of the best schools in the U.S.). I think this can be overcome by my working experience and business sense

·         Opportunity: China! China!! China!!! There are so many opportunities in China that it’s just unbelievable

·         Threats: The newly graduates from top business schools are my threats. But I don’t really worry about them. Some companies consider having MBA students from top business school without any working experience is a negative thing because those students are not in touch with the real business world and very often over confident because their academic background.

I don’t think I will be able to achieve my goal without a MBA degree. The courses and text books selected by CALMAT are really practical and useful for real time business conduct. The professors don’t just have great academic knowledge but also experience in the business practice. I think this is crucial to our future success as MBA graduates. CALMAT also invites guest speakers from different industries which gives us a rich perspective across the industry.  

My conclusion is education is a tool. How to use the tool is up to you and it’s really crucial to success. All the knowledge I am learning at my MBA class will definitely be helpful in my career.

MBAs in Financial Management

MBAs who choose to go into financial management perform two major functions:

·         Business Investment Decisions-What assets should the firm own? In what projects should the business invest? There are three basic decision categories:

a)      Accept or reject a single investment proposal

b)      Choose one competing investment over another

c)       Capital Rationing-with a limited investment pool, capital rationing tells which projects among many should be chosen

               The two major tools that MBAS use are:

1.       Payback= Number of years to recover initial investment

2.       NPV=Cash to be received(1+discount rate)

               The five basic ways of financing a company’s needs:

1.       Receive credit from suppliers

2.       Obtain lease financing

3.       Obtain bank loans

4.       Issue bonds

5.       Issue stock

·         Financing Decisions-How should those investments be paid for?

The theoretical basis for financial analysis is the risk/reward equation, in which higher risks are associated with higher returns. Returns are calculated by determining the amount and the timing of cash flows.

The guiding principle of financial management is to maximize the firms’ value by financing cash needs at the least cost possible, at a level of risk that management can live with.

MBA Office Procedures

Working as a senior executive assistant, I deal with office procedures on a daily basis. I have to say it is not an easy job. It takes a wide range of knowledge including people skill, common sense, business knowledge, customer service skill, a positive and upbeat attitude, honesty, integrity and of course patience and administrative skills to be a good executive assistant. In the past, I used my best judgment and sometimes even gut feeling to deal with different situations. Luckily I have been doing well on my own. But I have seen people with more experience than me failed miserably. I couldn’t help to think what they did wrong and what I could learn from their mistakes. After taking the MBA class, now I know office procedures can be systematized.

At this class, I have learned that MBAs are not always bosses. Most start out as lowly analysts, planners, and associates. Ironically, these are the positions that operations classes characterize as corporate fat, ripe for trimming. Even if MBAs find themselves in more senior managerial jobs, it’s a safe bet that they will have a boss to deal with. Management of the relationship upward is as important as managing your relationship below, if not more important. According to John Gabarro and John Kotter,

“ The first step to success on the job is to understand bosses and their context, including:

·         Their stated and unstated goals and objectives

·         The pressure on them

·         Their strengths, weaknesses, blind spots

·         Their preferred work styles

“The second step is to be introspective and assess yourself and your needs, including:

·         Your own strengths and weaknesses

·         Your personal style

·         Your predisposition toward dependence on or resistance to authority figures

“The third step is to incorporate the first two steps and develop and maintain a relationship that:

·         Fits both your needs and styles

·         Is characterized by mutual expectations

·         Keeps your boss informed-bosses hate surprises!

·         Is based on dependability and honesty

·         Selectively uses your boss’s time and resources

Simply by asking a few questions at the start of the relationship , you can avoid making major political blunders in the future.