Michael D. Schmidt's
MBA Webpages
This site is dedicated
to my MBA program that I completed through
Rushmore University.
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students and potential students. This
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Week Ending March 7, 2004
I received notification from Mr. McManus
that I was given a grade of ‘A’ on my Capstone Paper and official notification
of receiving my MBA on March 1, 2004.
This is a great accomplishment for me for which I am proud of. I completed my MBA in just less than 2 years
and now have a portfolio of my written papers documentation of the work I
completed for validation of my degree.
Week Ending February 29, 2004
I finished my Capstone paper and sent it to
the editor.
Week Ending February 22, 2004
I sent my 2002 paper to the editor on Monday
and she sent it back to me the next day.
As usual, there were some changes that she suggested but they were
minimal compared to some papers that I did early in my MBA studies. I sent my edited paper to Professor Hargrave
for grading and included the Excel spreadsheet for the financial data of my
business plan. Prof. Hargrave
acknowledged receiving my paper and would be out of town until next week. I started drafting my Capstone Paper.
Week Ending February 15, 2004
I spent 20 hours this week working on
my 2002 course paper. Most of this week
was devoted to creating the financial information for SDES. I started with the resource information that
included personnel, facilities and capital equipment. The basic assumptions for SDES were
established, including the financing needed - $50,000 from the owner and the
remainder from a bank loan payable in two years. The financing will also cover payroll until
accounts receivables are received. The
operating statement was the first statement created and was done on a monthly
basic for each of the 3 years of the plan – this was necessary to plan for the
timing of manpower and additional hardware and software needed as manpower is
added. The balance sheet and funds flow
statements were next, according to the interactions between the 3
statements. As Mr. Hargrave related,
this was a laborious task that required many iterations and analyzing the
viability of the projections. The end
result is a reasonable plan for SDES that accomplished the objectives I set
forth at the beginning of this paper.
Additional study will be needed to gain a better working knowledge of
the many different items on the balance sheet.
I am comfortable with the operating statement and cash flow
statements. The first-year net income
loss is common in startup companies, as with SDES, and the subsequent two years
show positive growth in revenue, gross income, net income and the ability for
SDES to pay its debt obligations. The
final review and tweaking of my paper was done and will be finalized and sent
to the editor tomorrow. I am very
satisfied with what I learned in this course.
Week Ending February 8, 2004
I spent 15 hours this week working on
my 2002 course paper. Developing the
strengths and weaknesses for the competition and SDES was a little difficult to
do because of the assumptions that were necessary. In a real situation, more in-depth knowledge
of the competition would be needed and Mr. Hargrave emphasizes that it is
vitally important for companies to keep a on-going file for all major
competitors. The principal of linkages
is an excellent tool that can be used to organize the process of identifying
strengths and weaknesses, strategies and goals.
I took time to recreate Mr. Hargrave’s flowchart for the principal of
linkages, flow of the strategic plan, and the interactions between the
operations statement and balance sheet.
These will be valuable to me in future work as will the other
information in my paper and Mr. Hargrave’s book (the bible on strategic
business plans). I began putting
together the resources element of the plan for SDES and decided to look at a
3-year plan for my new, startup company.
Week
Ending February 1, 2004
I spent 12 hours this
week working on my 2002 course paper. I
finished my evaluation of the served market and created that element of the
strategic business plan. The market will
be focused on the greater
Week
Ending January 25, 2004
I spent 8 hours this week working on
my 2002 course paper. I continued to
study Mr. Hargrave’s book and began to formulate the outline of my paper. I drafted the mission and will take Mr. Hargrave’s
suggestion to draft the elements of SDES as each element is studied. I researched current information about the
aerospace industry to gain knowledge about recent issuance of contracts for
customers in the Indianapolis market.
There are two target customers that I am most familiar with – Rolls-Royce
and Raytheon. These companies, like most
companies in this market, outsource design and engineering work. I am also familiar with BAE and the other
potential customers in the Indiana market, as well as GE Aircraft Engines in
Cincinnati, Ohio. I used available
financial information from the customers’ annual reports in creating market
information, and supplemented this data with my own educated ‘guess’ about the
amount of work these companies outsource each year.
Week Ending January 18, 2004
I spent 19 hours this week working on
my 2002 course paper. I will also use
James K. Hinkel’s book, The Cost-Effective Organization, as a reference
for this course. I purchased this book
several months ago and had intended to use this book for another course, but it
contains subject matter that pertains to 2002.
I researched the Internet for other reference material and found many
articles written about business plans and strategic planning that I will
consider using: http://www.soyouwanna.com/site/syws/bizplan/bizplan2.html,
http://www.businessconfidant.com/Resources.htm,
http://www.planware.org/busplan.htm,
http://www.acoa.ca/e/business/business_plan/index.shtml,
http://www.mapnp.org/library/plan_dec/str_plan/str_plan.htm#anchor4293653109,
http://ohioline.osu.edu/cd-fact/1101.html, http://www.nonprofits.org/npofaq/03/22.html, and http://www.bizbasicsonline.com/bus_outline.htm. I continued
reading Plan For Profitability and taking notes. He suggests that the reader – who wants to
write a business plan – create material for each of the eleven steps of the
plan after each is presented in the book.
I will take that approach as I create my plan elements for a fictitious
service company, Schmidt Design and Engineering Services. As stated last week, I will use this as an
example of what I learned, including the financial information. I will create an Excel worksheet that will
incorporate all of the information developed, and it will establish the
interaction between the income statement, balance sheet and cash flow
statement. I plan on using this in
future work where I can tailor it to meet specific company situations. With a
lot personal time available right now, my goal is to devote as much time as
possible to this paper for completing it as soon as possible, but without
sacrificing quality of learning.
Week Ending January 11, 2004
I submitted the form requesting an advisor
for my next, and last, course to Rushmore.
I will do 2002 Hargrave on Strategic Planning and sent Professor
Hargrave an email asking him to be my advisor for this course. He responded and agreed to be my advisor – he
indicated that this course typically took 100 hours to do properly for
including the financials for a business plan.
I emailed him and explained that I would do the financials and the hours
necessary for doing a complete paper regardless of getting full credit for all
of the hours it will require. I had
purchased his book, Plan for Profitability, over a year ago because I
knew that this was one of the courses I would definitely do for my MBA. I started reading this book and doing
research on the Internet on the subject of business plans. I went to the library and looked at the books
available on this subject and chose two books to use as references – Anatomy
of a Business Plan by Linda Pinson, and The Business Planning Guide
by David H. Bangs, Jr. I spent 17
hours this week on my 2002 course.
Week Ending January 4, 2004
I submitted my paper to the editor on
12/29/03. I received an email from the
editor saying that my paper exceeded the 5000-word limit for a research
paper. I spent 2 hours changing
it to reduce the word count to approximately 4860. Received my edited paper on 12/30/03 and made
the necessary changes before sending to my advisor, Professor Mark Spence. I received an email from Prof. Spence that
said he was very busy and that it would be at least a week before he could
review my paper and send me a response.
Week Ending December 28, 2003
I spent 18 hours this week writing my
paper. I continued to fine tune the
order of material that would make the most sense to the reader and be in a
logical order. I included 3 ideas from
Michalko – the 3 B’s, Scamper and Brainstorming. I could have presented more of his tools and
ideas, but the paper will be very long without adding more information. This has been such an interesting subject and
it would have been easy to continue writing and giving the reader more specific
detail. I finished the draft of my
paper, printed it, proofread it and made necessary corrections. I updated my journal and curriculum summary
that is required to send to Rushmore. I
am sure that Laurel Barley will find some things in my paper that will need to
be corrected – I am still not the best writer in the world but I have improved,
in my opinion, since first starting my MBA at Rushmore. I will submit my paper to the editor on
12/29/03 and then spend some time deciding on what course to do next, which
should be my last course except for the capstone paper.
Week Ending December 21, 2003
I spent 14 hours this week writing my
paper. I decided on the example of
modern day innovation that will be used, which will be Fuel Cell Technology in
Automotive Applications. I will also
include a personal example of creativity that involved a proactive idea for
improving customer satisfaction and cost savings. I am familiar with fuel cell developments in
the automotive industry and believe that this will drastically change cars as
we know them today and will provide many benefits for the U.S. economy. These include environmental benefits of
harmful emissions reduction and reduced reliance on foreign oil. Information
about fuel cell technology is abundantly available on the Internet, even though
most people are unaware of this concept and the advances that are being
made. Some of the references on fuel
cells that were found and will be considered are http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/fuelcell.shtml,
http://www.visionengineer.com/env/fuelcells.shtml, http://www.fuelcelltoday.com/, http://fuelcells.sae.org/, http://www.fuelcell-info.com/, http://www.fuelcellpartnership.org/,
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/fuel-cell2.htm,
and http://www.fuelcell-eur.nl/index.html.
Week Ending December 14, 2003
I spent 10 hours this week finishing
my reading and doing additional Internet research for detail information as I
write the draft of my paper. Some
additional references found to consider using in my paper are http://www.accenture.com/xd/xd.asp?it=enweb&xd=ideas%5Coutlook%5C1.2002%5Cart.xml,
http://www.accenture.com/xd/xd.asp?it=enweb&xd=ideas\outlook\pov\pov_247.xml,
http://www.css.edu/users/dswenson/web/INNOVAT.HTM,
http://www.strategyletter.com/CD1002/featured_article.html,
http://www.bcentral.com/articles/wuorio/138.asp,
http://www.britannica.com/magazine/article?query=innovation&id=7&smode=2 , and http://www.accenture.com/xd/xd.asp?it=enweb&xd=industries%5Cproducts%5Cautomotive%5Cauto_innovation.xml.
Week Ending November 23, 2003
I spent 8 hours this week reading and
writing the draft of my paper. I took a
week off because of other commitments. I
found another book that I will use as a reference, Imagine Engineering
by Paul Birch and Brian Clegg. Browsing
this book lead me to appreciate their presentation regarding the 12 Blockers to
Creativity – this material is very good which I will incorporate into my paper. The outline of my paper has changed from what
I first put together in that the difference between creativity and innovation
is becoming more clear and the material I have chosen to use has some overlap
because of these two terms. Integrating
corporate creativity with more general creativity information has caused some
changes as well. It has been interesting
to read about the inventions of the past and how others improved upon original
ideas, particularly the fact that many years can pass from the time of initial
invention to product availability.
Edison and his group performed hundreds of experiments before finding
the right filament material for the light bulb that would burn for 40
hours. This was not the end of his work,
however, because the means and infrastructure for delivering electricity to the
mass public did not exist. This led
Edison to create what now is General Electric.
Week Ending November 9, 2003
I spent 11 hours this week on reading
and Internet research. Professor Spence
sent me an email saying that he would be my advisor for this course. I finished Michalko’s book and received and
started reading Robinson and Stern’s Corporate Creativity. I think I will approach this paper by looking
at creativity and innovation separately and focus on business, rather than
making it so broad to include information or referring to innovations in art,
medical, IT, architecture, etc. I will
use a few of Milchalk’s examples that I found useful. Other examples in his book were interesting
but did not appeal to me. I began
researching examples that I can use in my paper of great inventors and
inventions that were clearly profound innovations that have changed the way we
live, that have taken man to the moon, that have saved lives through advances
in medicine and have made the entire world smaller with advancements in flight
and communications. Internet research
found additional references that may be used in my paper which are http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/index.cfm?fa=viewArticle&ID=870,
http://www.visionpathgroup.com/articlesofinterest.html?sid=5502,
http://www.ideafinder.com/home.htm , http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventors/ford.htm,
http://www.ideafinder.com/features/smallstep/computing.htm,
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blearlyflight.htm, http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blxerox.htm,
and http://www.thomasedison.com/brockton.htm.
Week Ending November 2, 2003
I spent 6 hours this week reading
Michalko’s Thinkertoys and set up the Word document for my paper. I began some research on the Internet on the
subject of innovation and creativity. I
ordered another book for this course, Corporate Creativity by Robinson
and Stern. This book will augment
Michalko’s and focus more on corporate creativity rather than the many
varieties of tools that are presented by Michalko. Internet references found that have potential
for use are http://www.innovation.cc/columns/guru3.htm,
www.innovationguru.com, http://www.bcentral.com/articles/wuorio/138.asp
, http://www.mindbloom.net/corporate.html,
http://graphicdesign.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jpb.com%2Fcreative%2Fcreative.html,
and http://graphicdesign.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ozemail.com.au%2F%7Ecaveman%2FCreative%2FTechniques%2Fbrainstorm.htm.
Week Ending October 26, 2003
I spent 12 hours this week finishing
my paper and updating my journal for submitting to the editor. This was completed and submitted on October
22, 2003. There are over 5000 words in
my paper and I’m hoping that it will be acceptable. I would not want to take out any of the
content. I feel good about what I
accomplished in taking this course. I
learned what I set out to learn and feel confident in my understanding of the
subject matter. I received my edited
paper, made corrections and sent it to my advisor. I received an email from Prof. Livingstone
saying that I had done an excellent job on it and he awarded me an A grade and
5 credit hours – that was welcome news.
I spent 3 hours starting my next paper – 2035 Michalko on
Innovation. I will continue down this
path until I hear who my advisor will be for this course. I updated my website
which took about 2 hours because I had fallen a little behind while working on
my paper.
Week Ending October 19, 2003
I spent 13 hours this week writing my
2053 Finance paper. I spent part of this
time determining what example problem I would use for the Siegel example that I
chose – cash outflows exceed cash inflows. I decided on using DT Industries, Inc. as the
company in this example. I know of this
company, which is headquartered in Dayton, Ohio, and the industry in which they
serve. They have had financial
difficulties because of the economy and its effects on the automotive and
consumer products industries. DTI is a
publicly traded company under the ticker symbol DTII.
Week Ending October 12, 2003
I spent 10 hours this week writing my
2053 Finance paper. I continued researching company’s annual reports to
determine what company I would use as an example. This has taken some time but it has been very
interesting and a good learning experience. Some Internet information found
are: http://www.bizjournals.com/dayton/stories/2002/08/05/daily22.html,
http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=dtii&d=v2,
http://cbs.marketwatch.com/, http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor,
and http://www.dtindustries.com/newsroom.html.
Week Ending October 5, 2003
I spent 12 hours this week writing my
2053 Finance paper and doing on-going Internet research. I began researching company annual reports on
the Internet and will determine which company to use as an example in the last
section of my paper. Each annual report
has the company’s financial information and management discussion that explains
various details about the numbers. I
finished the section on ratios and glad to have that behind me. I found that some reference material gave different
formulas for calculating some ratios – Return on Assets is one example. I began writing the next section of my paper
– financial trouble-shooting – that introduces the concepts from Mr. Goddard’s
book. Some Internet information found
are: http://cpaclass.com/fsa/ratio-01a.htm,
http://www.onlinewbc.gov/docs/finance/cash.html,
http://www.moneychimp.com/articles/financials/fundamentals.htm,
http://www.ameritrade.com/education/html/encyclopedia/tutorial2/t2_s5.html,
http://beginnersinvest.about.com/library/lessons/bl-lesson3n.htm,
http://www.va-interactive.com/inbusiness/editorial/finance/intemp/balance.html,
and http://www.usc.edu/schools/sppd/research/COPC/sba/requiredDocuments.html.
Week Ending September 28, 2003
I spent 9 hours this week writing my
paper. I decided that introducing the
concepts of ROAM and Corporate Treadmill Test from Corporate
Intensive Care by Larry Goddard would come
before the section on Financial Analysis that will use material from The
Financial Troubleshooter by Joel G. Siegel.
This will make more sense because it
will show some tools that can be used to determine if a company is in
trouble. I don’t think I will use as
much material from Goddard’s book as I originally intended to because I have
more material than room in my paper.
Week Ending September 21, 2003
I spent 6 hours this week writing my
paper and doing on-going Internet research for understanding some
terminology. This was a bad week – the
company I work for came in and told us they are restructuring our office and all
but one person was let go. So, I am
looking for a job again. That is why I
did not spend more time on my paper this week.
Week Ending September 14, 2003
I spent 12 hours this week reading
and taking notes as I expand my outline.
I started reading Corporate Intensive Care by Larry
Goddard and finished reading the part of
The Portable MBA by John Leslie Livingstone that will be used for my paper. Managing
by the Numbers by David H. Bangs, Jr. was
interesting but I will not be using any direct citing from that book. I found Understanding Balance
Sheets by Franklin J. Plewa at the library
and will use it as a reference for the balance sheet portion of my paper. Some of the
Internet articles or information found are:
http://ir.cokecce.com/marketguide.cfm,
http://ccbn27.mobular.net/ccbn/7/273/284/,
http://www.onlinewbc.gov/DOCS/finance/cashflwks.html,
http://www.hsbc.com.hk/hk/business/cash/cashflow/cm50100p.htm , the SBA site at http://www.va-interactive.com/inbusiness/editorial/finance/ibt/cash_flow.html , http://technologyexecutivesclub.com/artgrowthcashflow.htm,
and http://www.bcentral.com/articles/anthony/109.asp.
Week Ending September 7, 2003
I spent 12 hours this week reviewing
where I had left with my notes and continued reading How to Read a
Financial Report by John A Tracy, Managing by the Numbers by David
H. Bangs, Jr., and The Portable MBA by John Leslie Livingstone. I have
concentrated on the financial statements – income statement, balance sheet and
cash flow statement – which will be the first part of my paper. By explaining the elements of each statement
I will gain a better understanding about how all three are tied together. I have found a lot of material on the
Internet as well as the books that I am using.
There are some slight differences in terminology from reference to
reference but the concepts are the same.
I decided not to do an in-depth analysis of Conseco as I had originally
thought. Prof. Livingstone had mentioned
that my outline indicated that my paper could be very lengthy. I spent some time studying the Conseco story
because it is local to Indianapolis, where I live. Conseco has filed bankruptcy to start over
without the debt they owe. Some of
Conseco’s top management borrowed large sums of money from the company and that
will probably result in some litigation to try and get the money back.
Week Ending August 31, 2003 - ON VACATION
Week Ending August 24, 2003 - ON VACATION
Week Ending August 17, 2003
I spent 14 hours this week reading
and doing research for my 2053 Finance course.
My research included using the Rushmore Internet Library and
conventional Internet searching. I
searched primarily for financial statement and cash flow information and
articles. My thought is not to do a paper
that merely explains the content of what makes up a balance sheet, income
statement and cash flow statement. I
want to go beyond that and look at a case study of a company that has
experienced cash flow problems using Seigel’s book The Financial Troubleshooter
as a basis for analysis. Some of the
internet articles found are: http://www.quickmba.com/accounting/fin/statements/,
http://www.onlinewbc.gov/docs/finance/cashflowex.html,
http://www.moneychimp.com/articles/financials/fundamentals.htm,
http://www.onlinewbc.gov/docs/finance/cash.html,
and Rushmore internet library articles: Lear pushes to cut debt by Terry
Kosdrosky, Automotive News; 2/10/2003, Vol. 77 Issue 6024, p52B; Follow the
money by Al Rosen, Canadian Business; 2/17/2003, Vol. 76 Issue 3, p25; Is That
Revenue for Real? by Andrew T. Gillies, Forbes; 4/14/2003,
Vol. 171 Issue 8, p161; El Paso's Long Battle Isn't Over by Brian Hindo,
Business Week Online; 6/20/2003.
Week Ending August 10, 2003
I submitted my request for an advisor for
2053 Finance and officially started my course on August 6, 2003. I received the books I ordered through Amazon
and will use The Financial Troubleshooter: Spotting and Solving
Financial Problems in Your Company by Joel G. Siegel, Jae K. Shim
(Contributor), David Minars (Contributor) as
the basis for my course, but I have chosen other books to use in addition to
this one. My plan is to look at basic
financial statements and then concentrate on cash flow - how companies can get
into trouble. I will also use How
to Read a Financial Report by John A Tracy, Managing by the Numbers
by David H. Bangs, Jr., The Portable MBA by John Leslie Livingstone, Thinking
Finance by Joel G. Siegel and Jae K. Shim, and Corporate Intensive Care by
Larry Goddard. Corporate Intensive
Care is a book that I bought two years ago
when I was researching the job market for companies that specialize in
turnaround of under performing companies.
Larry Goddard is CEO of The Parkland Group based in Cleveland,
Ohio. I spent 6 hours
this week starting my next course.
Week Ending August 3, 2003
I spent most of this week reviewing my
curriculum to determine what course to do next.
The problem that I ran into was the apparent overlap between the 2053 Finance,
2064 Budgeting and 2002 Strategic Planning courses. I want to study the area of finance to learn
more about balance sheets, income statement and cash flow. These come into play when setting a budget
and are part of Hargrave’s book on strategic planning so I wanted to make sure
that I narrowed the scope of what I would do for my 2053 Finance course. I received an email from Prof. Spence
indicating that he was pleased with my paper and how I responded to the issues
he raised with it and he recommended a grade of A-. This was confirmed by an email from Rushmore.
Week Ending July 27, 2003
I reviewed the books I had used for my
statistics paper and none mentioned heteroscedasticity. I researched this on the internet to learn
what this term meant, which pertains to the error term in the regression
equation not being a constant variance (homoscedastic). I found that there are tests for determining
if this condition exists, but these tests were not easy to understand based on
the information I was able to find on the internet. I sent Dr. Spence an email on 7/23 indicating
that applying heteroscedasticity to my paper is beyond my capability at this
time. I acknowledged that the dependent
and independent variable terms are reversed based on causal relationship, but
explained why I had chosen the variables in that manner. My approach was from a forecast or budget
basis that would require a specific number of hires – then, what are the
necessary job orders that sales needs to generate to meet that forecast. Dr. Spence sent me an email 7/25 stating that
he was glad I acknowledged the need for changing the variables. He also wrote that I should not worry about
heteroscedasticity because it is an advanced topic. I revised my paper and sent it back to Dr. Spence
for final review and grading. I spent 8
hours this week on research and revising my statistics paper.
Week Ending July 20, 2003
I received an email from Dr. Spence 7/14
indicating that he would not be able to review my statistics paper until the
weekend. I received an email from him on
7/20 after he reviewed my paper and Dr. Spence had some constructive comments
about: “I assume a job order precedes a hire? Temporal precedence is a
preconditon for determining cause-effect relationships. If so, hires
are the dependent variable; they depend on the number of job orders, which is
the independent variable. If I am correct, the graphs and equations must
be reversed, thereby yielding, "for every one job order, there will be
some fraction of a job hire." By implication, you can determine the
number of job orders to yield a "whole unit" of new hire.” And, he wrote asking,” Any chance you could make comments concerning
heteroscedasticity, i.e., the possibility of increasing error terms as the
independent variable increases? I will
check this out because I have not heard of this term. I spent several hours this week deciding on
which course to take next. It wasn’t
just a matter of looking at my completed and planned course schedule and
proceeding because I may have some overlapping subject matter in two of the
courses I had scheduled. I will choose
what to do – either 2064 Hickel on Budgeting or 3020 Financial Statement
Analysis. These are both financial
topics that I am interested in learning more about.
Week Ending July 13, 2003
I spent 11 hours this week finishing
my 3065 Business Statistics paper. This
also included time to prepare my journal for this course for submittal. All of the calculations were finished in MS-Word
using equation editor and the explanation and presentation format for these
were finalized. Most of this paper
consists of equations and numbers and less written words compared to previous
ones. I enjoy math and found this course
to be fun (once the plan was clear for the data I was considering) – the
equation editor and Analysis ToolPak in Excel were both useful and fun (my
engineering background mentality). I
submitted my paper to the editor July 12, 2003.
I received my paper back from the editor July 13, 2003 and made the few corrections
that were suggested. I emailed the final
corrected paper to Dr. Mark Spence that same day. I will be deciding on my next course and wait
for my grade for 3065 Business Statistics.
Week Ending July 6, 2003
I was able to spend 10 hours this week
on my 3065 Business Statistics paper. I
spent most of this time doing manual calculations for the various aspects of
regression analysis. The approach and
steps in the analysis are fairly clear from the books I am using for this
course. Each book presents the subject
of regression in a different way with some differences in symbols and
terminology. I have taken the approach
closest to the one in Statistics For Business and Economics by Anderson,
Sweeney and Williams. It took some time
to understand the concept of testing for significance that involves the t-test
and F-test. I decided not to present
anything regarding residuals in my paper, as it would not add any value.
Week Ending June 29, 2003
I spent 12 hours this week studying
regression analysis, developing my approach for applying regression to my data,
searching the internet for information on tools that I can use and started
putting the formulas to be used into MS-Word.
I was introduced to equation editor that is part of MS-Word. This is a great tool for putting the
mathematical symbols and formulas into the paper and it will give it a very
professional look. I was also able to
load the Analysis ToolPak into MS-Excel and began looking at how regression is
done with this add-in to Excel. I found
a good paper on the internet that was written on regression using MS-Excel as a
reference - http://www.geocities.com/naoyakaneko/regression/index.html.
Week Ending June 22, 2003
I received an ‘A-‘ grade for my 2148
Negotiations course this week – finally.
I updated my website to add the grades and papers for the 1111 Web
Development and 2148 Negotiations courses.
I looked at two additional books for my 3065 Business Statistics course:
Statistics for Business and Economics by McClave, Benson and Sincich and
Introductory Statistics by John W. McGhee. I spent 17 hours this week
determining what statistical method I would apply to my data. The performance of our staffing office is
based on hiring people – hires drive revenue.
Other performance metrics are tracked also, but hires are the ultimate
goal. I determined that these other
metrics do not correlate because of the inconsistency in data with time –
submittals to orders and interviews do not take place in the same week as the
orders are received and hires are made.
Using proportions and the central limit theorem revealed that the data
did not have correlation and predictions were not possible. Therefore, my approach will be regression
analysis for job orders vs. hires.
Week Ending June 15, 2003
I still have not received a grade for my
2148 Negotiations paper, which is a little frustrating. I think that Prof. Robinson must still have
computer problems. I received an ‘A’
grade for my 1111 Web Development course.
I decided to do my next paper on Business Statistics with an application
of statistical methods for forecasting performance in the staffing industry. This will be directly related to my present
job. I submitted the form for requesting
an advisor for my 3065 Business Statistics course and received an email from
Professor Mark Spence agreeing to be my advisor for this course. I spent 13 hours gathering
information related to work that I would consider using as my ‘data’ for
statistical applications. My goal is to
determine how I can use statistics to predict levels of hires based on varying
levels of job orders. However, my
approach may have to change based on how well the data fits the statistical
methods. I began inspectional reading of
Statistics For Business and Economics by Anderson, Sweeney and Williams
and Basic Statistics a Real World Approach by Cangelosi, Taylor and
Rice.
Week Ending June 8, 2003
I received my edited paper for 1111 Web
Development and there were only some minor changes, which made me feel
good. I sent my edited paper for 1111
Web Development for grading June 2, 2003.
I have not heard any word from Rushmore or Prof. Robinson regarding my
grade for 2148 Negotiations. I spent 6
hours this week updating my website, working on a website for church, and
reviewing the Rushmore documents on Practical and Research courses. I spent 4 hours this week updating my
curriculum and putting the information on the new form. I changed some courses in my curriculum based
on my current interests and because of the change in credit hours per course to
two (2) from three (3) credits when I began my studies. I will have to take more courses than
expected because of this change.
Week Ending June 1, 2003
I called Dr. Robinson on May 27, 2003 and
spoke to him about my 2148 Negotiations paper.
He said that he had sent an email the previous week to Rushmore, and me
however he had been having some computer virus problems that may have affected
the emails sent. I sent Dr. Robinson a
follow-up email later in the week because I did not receive an email after
talking with him. I sent an email to
Rushmore asking them if they received my grade notification from Dr. Robinson –
they replied saying that they had received the email from him but had not
opened it because of the virus problem.
I will wait for this problem to get resolved. I spent 12 hours this week reading,
doing some research and writing my 1111 Web Development paper. I updated my journal and emailed my 1111 Web
Development paper and journal to Rushmore for editing.
Week Ending May 25, 2003
I received my 2148 Negotiations paper from
the Editor May 19, 2003, made the necessary corrections and emailed the edited paper
to Dr. Patrick Robinson for grading. I
had not heard any reply from Dr. Robinson by the end of this week as to my
grade for 2148 Negotiations. I spent 2
hours correcting my paper, updating my journal and updating my
website. I continued to work on my 1111
Web Development course. I spent 10
hours reading Dr. Ken Evoy’s Make Your Site Sell 2002 and doing some research on the
Internet.
Week Ending May 18, 2003
I spent 9 hours writing my BUS2148
paper and getting it prepared for submitting to the editor, which was done on
May 18, 2003. I will continue to write my paper for the core course on
developing my website. My 2148 Negotiations course took much longer than
expected, but problems with my computer during that time contributed to most of
the lost time. I spent some time this
week deciding on which course to do next, and also spent 2 hours reading
Dr. Ken Evoy’s Make Your
Site Sell 2002 for my 1111 Website Development course. My website is working fine now using the new
host, LunarPages.
Week Ending May 11, 2003
I spent 8 hours writing my BUS2148
Negotiations paper over a period of three days that I had available this
week. My paper is nearly completed and I
am pleased with the changes I have made to it.
My goal is to finish it next week and get it sent to the editor. I am also working on a core class for credit
on the work I have done on my website, both initially and recently. I spent 3 hours updating my website
and journal this week.
Week Ending May 4, 2003
I spent 7 hours writing and some
additional research for my BUS2148 Negotiations paper. I found a few articles that I read and may
use for my paper or I may just use them for knowledge and reference. http://www.negotiationskills.com/qa.html
explains the basics of negotiation, including
an explanation of BATNA; http://www.welcomebiz.com/articlesDisplay.asp?articleID=53&deptID=4
is 5 Steps to Better Negotiating by Eric
Adams; and, http://www.munncrs.com/COMMON_GROUND/September1999.html is from Conflict Resolution News and addresses BATNA
– Why do we need one? I applied for the
1111 Web Development course. I had spent
over 20 hours last year learning how to put my website together and get it onto
the Internet and want to get credit for my learning experience.
Week Ending April 27, 2003
I spent 8 hours writing and doing
additional research for my BUS2148 Negotiations paper. I have more material than what I need for the
length of my paper and will have to condense it and evaluate what parts of the
outline I can eliminate. I found an excellent
article written by Dr. Edwin Lee Makamson of Hampton University. His article introduced the concept of distributive
and integrative solutions, which are new terms for ‘win-lose’ and
‘win-win’ negotiation situations - http://www.mgmtguru.com/mgt301/301_Lecture5Page2.htm. The
article also included BATNA and another new term, called bargaining zone, which
is the overlapping area, or ‘middle ground,’ between one side’s maximum
expectation and the other side’s minimum acceptable objective. Another site, http://www.lapiana.org/resources/tips/negotiations/11_1998.html also addresses
the distributive and integrative solutions concept.
Week Ending April 20, 2003
I spent 5 hours writing my BUS2148
Negotiations paper. Many hours were
spent on my website this week. Because I
could not get a response from Feature Price, I searched the internet and found
a large number of reviews, postings and websites related to the status of that
company. Many people have written about
their experience with Feature Price, their poor support and possible litigation
against them. I no longer had access to
my website after the expiration date and my email address, mdschmidt@mdschmidt.net, was no
longer functional. I spent many hours
researching new web hosting companies – I searched the internet for reviews and
any other available information about the companies being considered. I wanted to know what their current customers
were saying about them, how long they have been in business, how many customers
they had, and were they expanding their servers. My other problem dealt with my domain name,
mdschmidt.net. How could I keep my
domain name if I cannot make contact with anyone at Featureprice? I researched the internet to learn more about
domain names – who owns them, who controls them, and how do you transfer a
domain name to another registrar. I
contacted dotregister.com asking them how I can keep and use my mdschmidt.net
domain name. After several emails back
and forth with dotregister.com it was apparent that in order to have control
and access to my domain name I must transfer the domain name to a new account
at DotRegistrar. In order to do this I have to be the admin contact for that
domain name, and in order to do this needed to go back to Featureprice, which
proved to be impossible. So, I purchased
a new domain name from my new web host, Lunarpages. My new domain name is michaeldschmidt.com. What a learning experience!
Week Ending April 13, 2003
I spent 8 hours writing my BUS2148
Negotiations paper and doing additional research. I have called and emailed the host of my
website to renew my services and domain name for an additional year. No one answers the phone and no returned
emails have been received from FuturePrice.
Week Ending April 6, 2003
MY computer is now functional again and all
software has been reloaded. My internet
connection has been restored and backup files searched – a majority of BUS2148
paper will have to be re-written. Some
research material had been printed and can be used while other research
material was lost. I downloaded my
website documents back into my folder on my hard drive. All of my past email messages were lost,
except for some that were on my alternate email address mdschmidt2002@hotmail.com. These lost email messages included those from
Rushmore and the advisors of completed courses and from Professor Robinson for
my BUS2148 Negotiations course. I will
try to remember my activity for the 2 weeks between my last journal entry and
now. I spent 12 hours this week
re-writing my BUS2148 Negotiations paper and doing research.
Week Ending March 30, 2003 - My computer is being rebuilt and reloaded.
Week Ending March 23, 2003 - My computer died this week from a serious virus,
and I am not sure what data will be lost.
Week Ending March 16, 2003
I continued to write the draft of my BUS2148
Negotiations paper and do additional research on the internet for other
articles to possibly use. Additional
articles include: The science of interviewing stresses six axioms by Pechter,
Kerry, Electronic Engineering Times, 1/20/97 Issue 937, p107, The
Fundamentals of Contract Negotiations by Thomas R. Miller, Healthcare
Financial Management, Jun96, Vol. 50 Issue 6, p20, Six Habits Of Merely
Effective Negotiators by James K. Sebenius, Harvard Business Review,
Apr2001, Vol. 79 Issue 4, p87, http://www.batna.com,
and http://www.qgm.qld.gov.au/bpguides/negoti/batna.html
Negotiations Guide, and http://www.co.pinellas.fl.us/persnl/pboard/pdf/0203-msn.pdf. I spent 7
hours writing the draft of my paper and doing research.
Week Ending March 9, 2003
Prof. Patrick Robinson and I exchanged email
messages and he agreed to be my advisor for my BUS2148 Negotiations
course. I continued to write the draft
of my paper and do additional research on the internet and Rushmore
library. I found additional articles
that will be considered for use in my paper: http://www.bbraham.com/html/negotiation.html
, http://www.chennaionline.com/education/hrthoughts/nego.asp
7 Tips for successful negotiation, http://www.pertinent.com/articles/negotiation/stevecohen.asp Focusing on Interests Rather Than Conflict Resolution
Key, and Managing the sales Negotiation Process, http://www.adrr.com/adr1/essayb.htm
Negotiation Styles in Mediation, http://www.ils.unc.edu/daniel/131/131notes/1024-winwin.html
Win-Win Basics, http://freelancewrite.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3a%2f%2fwww.writingformoney.com%2farchives%2tactics032098.html
The Negotiation Game, and Getting ready to Negotiate by D. Ertel and F.
Sanchez. I spent 9 hours writing and doing research this week.
Week Ending March 2, 2003
I had not heard from Rushmore about my
BUS2157 course so on 2/25/03 I forwarded the email I received from Prof. Spence,
along with an outline for the 2148 Cohen on Negotiation course. I received a reply on 2/27/03 stating that
there are is a new web-based form that is to be used for requesting a course
and advisor. I completed the form and
submitted it. On 2/28/03 I received and
email suggesting that I do a research paper for 2148, rather than a book review
approach. I agreed and responded
accordingly. The response to my email
left me a little confused about what was said regarding the difference between
a practical approach and the 1201 course that was mentioned. Some of the courses have changed since I
first began my studies and there are new MS-Word templates to be used for
course papers and journals. I researched
the Rushmore Internet Library and found additional articles that will be
considered for my 2148 paper: Negotiating the Spirit of the Deal, by Ron Fortgang,
David Lax, and James Sebenius, Harvard Business Review, Feb2003, Vol. 81 Issue
2, p66; Success in
Negotiation by Jacob J.Hanselman, Business Credit, Sep2001, Vol. 103 Issue 8, p60; UAW
Bargains for the Bureaucrats by Shannon Jones, http://www.socialequality.com/public_html/prioriss/iwb9-9/uaw.htm. I spent 8
hours this week reading and doing Internet research.
Week Ending February 23, 2003
I received some of the books
that I ordered and began to read You Can Negotiate Anything by Herb
Cohen. This will be the basis for my
next course 2148 Cohen on Negotiation.
My initial research on the Rushmore Internet Library resulted in two
possible articles that can be used for my paper: The Right
Attitude, by Joe Auer, Computerworld, 3/25/2002, Vol. 36 Issue 13,
p27; Ready, Set, Bargain, by Matt Hicks, eWeek, 3/18/2002, Vol. 19 Issue
11, p41. I spent 6 hours this week reading and doing Internet research.
Week Ending February 16, 2003
I received an email from Prof. Spence on
February 12, 2003 stating that he read my BUS2157 paper and he was recommending
an A-grade. This was good news, and
Prof. Spence had some nice comments and some suggestions that I can keep in
mind for writing future papers. I went
to the library and researched the availability of books that I have identified
as using for future courses. I
discovered that our library, in the city we moved to, has a limited amount of
MBA-related books compared to the library I used in Ohio. I will have to check into other libraries
that are in this area that may have a better selection of books. I spent time reviewing my curriculum,
checking www.amazon.com for prices and availability of books, and decided to
order You Can Negotiate Anything by Herb Cohen, The Cost Effective
Organization by James Hickel, Thinkertoys (A Handbook of Business
Creativity) by Michael Michalko, Raise the Bar by Mike Vance, and Corporate
Creativity by Alan Robinson. Getting
To Yes by Roger Fisher and The Complete Negotiator by Gerard
Nierenberg were both found at the library.
I will begin to do research through the Rushmore Internet Library this
week.
Week Ending February 9, 2003
I emailed my BUS2157 paper and journal to
the Rushmore editor February 3, 2003. I
received the edited version of my paper February 8, 2003, made the changes, updated
my journal and submitted the final version to my advisor, Dr. Mark Spence. I spent 2 hours revising my paper and
updating my website.
Week Ending February 2, 2003
I finished writing the draft of my paper and
proofread it and made changes. I spent
time putting my journal into the new Rushmore format - the journal will lack a
lot of content because of the hectic time during this course from moving and
starting a new job. It will be
gratifying to send my paper to the editors, get it back, make revisions and
send it to my advisor. Although there
were gaps in the time I spent on this paper, I am pleased with the content and
accomplished my goal of learning more about the human resource aspect of
project management. I spent 11 hours this
week writing and editing my paper.
Week Ending January 26, 2003
I continued to write the draft of my paper
but managed to spend only 5 hours. The budget and business plan for 2003 is
finalized at work. Our business review
for the 4th quarter is Monday, January 27, and much time was spent
this week preparing for that with the staff.
Week Ending January 19, 2003
I spent approximately 4 hours
this week writing my paper. A business
trip and continuing work required for the 2003 budget took most of my
time. Some last minute changes to the
business plan were needed because of software formatting changes that required
more detailed sales and marketing information.
Week Ending January 12, 2003
I spent 6 hours writing the
draft of my paper this week, and that includes continued re-reading of the
material because of the minimal amount of time I have been able to devote to my
MBA. Moving and my new job have taken
their toll on this course, but the end is in sight and my life is slowly getting
back to normal. It seems that urgent
tasks requiring extra time at home during the week and weekend continue to
arise at work. The budget and business
plan processes have taken a lot of time and created a lot of stress.
Week Ending January 5, 2003
I spent 6 hours writing the
draft of my paper and researching the Internet for information on functional,
matrix, and projectized organizational structures. I found a good visual from www.bestdegree.com that shows the line of
authority for each structure and I will use that in my paper. The charts and visuals that I have used in my
paper were not available electronically, so I had to create all of them myself
using MS Excel and inserting them as objects into my paper.
Week Ending December 29, 2002
Christmas, work and unpacking took all of my
time this week. The computer was finally
set up and is operational, however, my DSL Internet connection won't be
activated until 1/2/03, according to Ameritech.
Week Ending December 22, 2002
This was moving week - packing, loading and
delivering our furniture. With moving,
work, and no computer I didn’t spend any time on my MBA paper this week. We will be unpacking for several days to find
everything and get the computer back in operation.
Week Ending December 15, 2002
I managed to spend 3 hours
this week writing the draft of my BUS 2157 paper. It was pretty unproductive and not worth
recording - work and the upcoming move have taken all of my time. Commuting during the week and living with
family has not been conducive to writing during the week. I did a lot of packing on the weekend and I
turned the computer off and packed it for the move next week.
Week Ending December 8, 2002
I spent 10 hours this week
writing the draft of my BUS 2157 paper.
This was a good week for writing, but it still feels like I have been
working on this paper for a lifetime. I
did some additional research on the internet on cultural ambiance and found
some information relevant to my paper from PMI and will use a chart from this
site.
Week Ending December 1, 2002
I spent 9 hours this week
writing the draft of my BUS 2157 paper.
This was my first week on my new job, which was only three days because
of Thanksgiving. I am staying with
family until our household goods are moved, so it was difficult to spend any
time on my paper while there, but I was able to spend time on it over the
weekend.
Week Ending November 24, 2002
I spent 6 hours this
week on reading and writing the draft of my BUS 2157 paper. Two trips were made
to Indy this week for house inspections and to meet people at the new company
for which I will be working.
Week Ending November 17, 2002
I spent 5 hours this
week on reading and writing the draft of my BUS 2157 paper. Most of my time this week was spent on trips
to Indy, mover's quotations, Dayton house inspections, and other details
related to our upcoming move. It is
difficult to think about my paper with so many details for the move to
address. I have to re-read much of the
books as I write because of the minimal time I am able to put into my
paper. Prof. Spence replied to the
course outline and approach that I sent him and had a few suggestions about the
introductory part. I will change
it.
Week Ending November 10, 2002
I spent 10 hours
this week on reading and writing the draft of my BUS 2157 paper. I was offered a position with a company this
week and negotiated an acceptable package that included moving expenses for
moving from our home in Dayton to Indianapolis, IN. The start date will be some time in
mid-to-late November, so there will be a time of commuting while we sell our
house and purchase one in Indy. This
move will be such a quick one that time to devote to my paper will be
minimized. I received an email from
Hella on 11/4/02 telling me that I did a good job on my curriculum, and I put
it on my website. I replied to her about
who I would like as my advisor for BUS2157 Project Management. Professor Spence agreed to be my advisor
11/10/02.
Week Ending November 3, 2002
This week was productive and time was spent on MBA
studies and personal job searching. I
continued to read and draft notes for my BUS 2157 paper on project
management. Verma's approach to project
management from a human resources perspective is what I was looking for, rather
than the traditional approach of what tools are used in the PM (project
management) process. I researched PM on
the Rushmore Internet library and found several articles that I will consider
using: Managing the Chaos of Change, by Ted
Leemann, Journal of Business Strategy, Sep/Oct2002, Vol. 23 Issue 5; Project
Management, by Damon Birchfield, New Zealand Management, Sep2002, Vol. 49
Issue 8, p21; Back to Basics, by Julia King, ComputerWorld, 4/22/2002,
Vol. 36 Issue 17, p36; How to fail in project
management (without really trying), by Pinto, Jeffrey
K.; Kharbanda, Om P., Business Horizons, Jul/Aug96, Vol. 39 Issue 4, p45; Lessons
for an accidental profession, by
Pinto, Jeffrey K.; Kharbanda, Om P., Business Horizons, Mar/Apr95, Vol.
38 Issue 2, p41. I also did research on
the Internet and looked at the Project Management Institute web site at
www.pmi.org.
I
have not heard back from Hella regarding my curriculum, but I have continued to
move forward with my next course and can make any adjustments in the curriculum
as I progress. I spent 14 hours
this week reading, writing and doing research.
Week Ending October 27, 2002
I received
my BUS 1003 paper from the Editor 10/21/02 and spent 1-hour making the
necessary corrections and submitted it back on 10/22/02. I received an email from Hella 10/24/02
indicating that I need to develop the draft for my curriculum. I spent 6 hours over two days
reviewing the course list and thinking about what courses would help me the
most at the present time. I decided that
Project Management would be my next course because it will increase my
knowledge on the subject. I have done
project management for several years without any formal training, and my goal
for this course is to add understanding to my experience for increasing my
short-term job search potential. I spent
8 hours reviewing book titles from the Rushmore level-two course list, Amazon.com, and our local library. I found several of the books at our local
library, checked them out, and started an inspectional reading of them. I started the draft of my curriculum and
spent 6 hours reviewing courses, reviewing the list of Rushmore advisors
and developing the format I will use. I
emailed the draft of my curriculum 10/26/02.
I explained in the email to Hella that I want to pursue the 2157 Project
Management course - I will wait for a response, but will continue to read
Verma's book, Organizing Projects for Success, and Total Project
Management by Stallworthy and Kharbanda.
Week Ending October 20, 2002
I forwarded my BUS 1003 paper to Hella on
October 15 after spending 6 hours doing the final review and last minute
corrections. I am pleased with what I
submitted, and I have accomplished my goal of learning about venture capital
and the IPO process. Hella said that she
passed my paper on to Prof. Kermit Zieg for review. Surprisingly, Prof. Zieg responded by email
on October 16th indicating that he had reviewed and graded my
paper. He had several comments about the
content of my paper, which I understand.
By trying to address specific questions about both venture capital and
IPOs, the paper did not flow properly and follow one contiguous path. As Prof. Zieg wrote, " The paper's
Introduction set expectations the focus of the paper would be a detailed discussion
of the entire venture capital funding process including IPO procedures and
practices. Unfortunately, the paper veered from an unbiased treatment of
these financial subjects to making value judgments on certain aspects of the
investment process." I will use
this as 'lessons learned' for my next research paper. I received an A- grade and will accept that
and go on to the next course. Hella sent
an email asking that I send my BUS 1003 paper to the Editors, which I sent on
10/18/02. I also spent an hour writing
my bio and sent it to Hella on 10/20/02 for publishing on the Student section
of the Rushmore website. The remainder of the week was spent updating
my website and reviewing the course list to draft a curriculum and planning my
next course.
Week Ending October 13, 2002
I am at least two weeks past my goal for
finishing my BUS 1003 paper. During my
writing and continued research it became clear that the questions I will answer
in my literature review was changing direction.
It was actually for the better - my understanding of the subject matter
has increased and I feel that the paper will accomplish more closely to what
the literature review is intended to be. I can understand, now, what the
company I was working for was trying to do in going public. I realize what going public would have meant
to the owners and the equity group that bought a majority of the company. For us, the employees, it would have had some
benefits, also, but the big payoff was going into the hands of the investors
and owners. I spent 18 hours this
week writing and doing follow-up research.
Some personal commitments kept me from getting the paper submitted by
Sunday.
Week Ending October 6, 2002
I received Livingstone's book The
Portable MBA in Finance and Accounting that I ordered for future curriculum
work, and because it was a book that I wanted to have in my library. It has a chapter on going public, which will
be useful in the paper I am writing. I
downloaded some information on the MLA style for citations for understanding
how to cite Internet sources. The
material I downloaded appears to have detailed rules and examples I will need
to do the citings in my paper. I
continue to wrestle with all of the available information available on the
Internet on Venture Capital and IPOs. It
has taken more time than I expected to sort through the articles I chose from
the Internet Library and other Internet websites. I have taken the time to compare multiple
articles covering the same point and determine which author to cite in each
case. I found several excellent sites
that have daily reports on the current status of VC and IPOs. I continue to receive daily and weekly
electronic reports from sites such as CBS MarketWatcher, alert-IPO, and
VentureWire Alert. I spent 20 hours
on writing and research this week.
Week Ending September 29, 2002
I spent at least 12 hours this week
writing and researching - the writing is slow in the small time chunks I am
able to do, but hopefully this next week will be productive. I want to finish the first submittal of my
BUS1003 paper by the end of this week.
Work is busy but still a struggle - working on budget forecasting for
the remainder of this year has been emotional and trying. I'm not sure what decisions might be made by
top management, particularly as they meet with the banks and other investors to
review each business unit.
Week Ending September 22, 2002
This week was kind of a blur - so much to
catch up on at work, with my MBA paper, and church finance issues. I did manage time for writing the draft for
my paper, and I also continued to do research on the Internet as I write. The paper is a little struggle right now with
putting all the pieces together from so many references from my research. I add to the numbers of material each day,
and wonder if I might be over-researching.
It is very different doing this paper because of researching and
choosing a topic as opposed to choosing a book written on a certain topic. I've learned so much about Venture Capital
and IPOs - how they work and what is happening in those markets today. I've also gained insight into what happened
with the company I worked for when the owners sold out to an equity group as
the means to do acquisitions, and ultimately an IPO. My goal to finish my paper this week was not
achieved and I think it will take at least two more weeks to get it to an
acceptable point to submit. I spent about 13 hours this week writing and
researching.
Week Ending September 15, 2002
We returned from vacation 9/12 and I went in
to work 9/13, which was very busy catching up on email and doing a preliminary
budget forecast for the remainder of 2002.
Next week will involve more budget work for 2003. Our business unit obtained some new work that
will provide a much-needed backlog, but cash flow is still tight, overall, with
our company. I began the draft of my
paper, and continued research on the Internet.
The dynamics of venture capital and IPOs will make it difficult to
narrow down information but this will be resolved as I write. While in Portland, I visited Powell's Bookstore, which is a large
bookstore and good resource for new and used books. It has expanded to an entire city block since
its small beginning in the early 70's. I
spent 8 hours on research, writing, and updating my website this
week.
Week Ending September 8, 2002
I emailed Hella telling her that I will be
on vacation starting 9/4 and returning 9/12.
Our trip was to Oregon, where my wife and I were born and raised, and
where our immediate families still live.
We get out there every two years.
I received an email from Hella just before I left saying that my outline
and Internet sources were excellent and to proceed with my BUS1003 paper. I didn't have time to work on my paper while
on vacation.
Week Ending September 1, 2002
I completed my research, decided on my
topic, and wrote the outline for my paper, including the Internet articles and
sources found. I emailed this to Hella
8/28 for her approval to proceed. I
continued to read and research Internet sources for articles, spending
approximately 12 hours this week.
Week Ending August 25, 2002
I spent 16 hours was spent this week
on reading Business Research Methods and Internet research. I am closer to deciding on a topic for my
BUS1003 paper and leaning towards venture capital backed IPOs and not Fuel Cell
technology. I want to gain an
understanding of how this process works and how they have been affected by the
downturn in the economy. This will be a
good introduction into the Finance part of my MBA studies. Internet research has gone well, and I have
found many sites that contain free articles that can be used for my paper. I am choosing articles in which the author is
named so an evaluation can be made of their credibility. There are numerous financial publications
available to choose from, so obtaining enough material for my paper should not
be a problem.
Week Ending August 18, 2002
Much time was spent researching the Internet
and thinking about the topic to choose for my BUS1003 paper. I want it to be interesting and pertinent to
my overall MBA studies. Choosing a topic
is not an easy task, as I began to discover as the week progressed. Also, the problem to solve or question to be
answered of the topic I choose will be equally as difficult to establish. I am sure that this process will get easier
with more experience as I progress through my MBA curriculum. I continued reading The Craft of Research and
Find It Fast, and spent 8 hours searching the Internet for
possible topics and sites that were suggested in Hella's email. Some sites are fee-based and have little
previewing allowed for determining their value to me. Other sites seem good, at first look, and
should prove to be good resources for articles needed for my paper. The book I ordered, Business Research
Methods, arrived 8/16 in good condition, looks to be nearly new and the CD
was included. I need to spend some time
putting my BUS1002 paper on my web site now that it has been graded.
Week Ending August 11, 2002
After making the basic corrections to my
paper, I spent an additional 6-7 hours re-writing some areas of it
before submitting it 8/7/02. I received
an email from Hella on 8/9/02 in which she expressed that I had done an
excellent job on the final version of my paper, and that I would receive an
A-grade. That was very good and welcomed
news. Her email also explained my next
assignment: BUS1003 - a Research Paper.
I searched the Internet to find the best deal on Business Research
Methods by Cooper and Schindler.
Because of the high cost of the book, I considered checking it out at
the local library or at one of the two local universities. None of these sources had this book
cataloged, so I ordered the book through Amazon 8/11/02, and it should arrive
by 8/15 or 8/16. I began reading the
information on literature reviews, The Craft of Research, and Find It
Fast.
Week Ending August 4, 2002
I received my book review from the editor in
an email from Hella. She explained how
the editor highlights certain changes, how comments are used, and how to make
the changes. She said that I did a good
job on the book review, but had some constructive comments about the internal structure
of the paper. Some basic things, such as
commas and semi-colons, were changed throughout the paper. She said that the research done, the format
of the paper and content were excellent.
There was a lot to change and some re-writing to do in addressing some
of the comments, and I was not be able to devote much time to it this
week. I was in Detroit Monday night and
Tuesday, then went to New York for a meeting Wednesday. I returned Thursday afternoon and was able to
spend a few hours on the corrections.
Friday, we left for Lake Erie, where we go each year to spend a few days
at Kellys Island. It was perfect weather
and relaxing, as usual. We returned home
Sunday afternoon, and I was able to spend a few more hours on my book review
changes.
Week Ending July 28, 2002
I worked diligently this week to finish my
book review, and was able to submit it on 7-28-02. I feel that I could have put more time into
this paper than I did, but more than 60 hours were spent on it and a good
effort was made. We spent the weekend in
Indiana with our daughter, her husband, and our grandson. It was our grandson's 2nd birthday
- it is hard to believe that two years have gone by since he was born. I also had the opportunity to speak at their
church because their pastor was out of town.
I spoke on virtues and values, which incorporated a lot of Hyrum Smith's
thoughts on governing values, setting goals, and priorities. I spent about 12 hours this week on my
MBA work.
Week Ending July 21, 2002
I have a good start on the draft of my book
review paper, but it is taking me longer than I expected. My goal is to finish
the paper and submit it some time next week, and then to concentrate on my
curriculum. I want to get this done so I won't get bogged down while trying to
accomplish the next assignment, BUS1003. So far this week, I have spent
approximately 14 hours on my MBA work.
Week Ending July 14, 2002
I started writing my book review paper, and
have read and re-read the instructions that Hella sent on how to do the book
review. I reviewed Adler's 15 questions again to see how I could identify and
footnote them in my paper. This will probably slow down my writing, somewhat -
which disappoints me a little, because I am anxious to get this assignment done
so I can move forward into other MBA subjects that I am interested in studying.
I haven't taken as many notes as I should have, while reading, and that is
going to add some time to my writing, also. I am going to do the taking of
notes a little differently after this paper is completed to improve my studying
process. I spent 11 hours on my MBA work this week.
Week Ending July 7, 2002
My research on the Internet library
continues to take time, but I enjoy research so that is all right. I thought I
would accomplish more this week, but the July 4th holiday and business
activities took time away from my MBA work. I finished my reading and will
begin writing my paper next week. I spent 12 hours on my MBA work this
week, which includes time spent on research on the Internet.
Week Ending June 30, 2002
I continued to my reading of The Ten
Natural Laws and The Effective Executive. I started research on the
Internet library and gathering written examples of related topics for the book
review. I began to skim through First Things First too see how it
relates to what Hyrum Smith has written. I have found that Drucker's book may
not have been the best book to choose as the second book that is closely
related to the one used for the book review. Trying to balance all the
commitments I have right now is beginning to take its toll - staying up too
late at night has made me tired during the day, and a little irritable. I spent
9 hours this week on my MBA work.
Week Ending June 23, 2002
I finished reading How To Read a Book,
but I know that I will be referring to it continuously in writing my book
review on The 10 Natural Laws. The books I ordered arrived and I read
about half of Drucker's book, The Effective Executive. Hella sent me an
email that gave me login information to get into the Internet library to do the
supplemental research for my book review. The Internet library will be a good
source for information that will help in obtaining similar and opposite
opinions to those of the author. I am enjoying reading the books I have chosen,
and have started to really think about Hyrum Smith's point regarding governing
values - I have started to list my values and goals. I spent 10 hours on
my MBA program this week, which was good considering that our daughter, her
husband, and our grandson spent the weekend with us, which is always enjoyable.
Week Ending June 16, 2002
I spent 9 hours this week continuing
my reading of The Ten Natural Laws, and How To Read a Book - I
concentrated on chapters 5 and 11, which are most important for doing my book
review. I think the author is correct when he says, "not only is reading,
especially analytical reading, a very complex activity - much more complex than
skiing; it is also much more of a mental activity." It reminded me of how
I was able to come up out of the water and start water skiing on my first
attempt as a young boy. I was encouraged when reading how we should make
written notes, underlining, and other notations in a book because I have always
done that, almost naturally. I ordered The Effective Executive, by Peter
Drucker, which I will read to determine if I will use it as a second source for
my paper on The Ten Natural Laws. I also ordered The Absolutes of
Leadership, by Crosby, and Plan for Profitability, by Hargrave,
which are books that I will use in my MBA studies. Not knowing how well The
Effective Executive might relate to The Ten Natural Laws, I bought First
Things First, by Stephen R. Covey, who is co-chairman of the board with
Hyrum Smith at Franklin Covey. This book should be a good compliment to Smith's
book. I have not received any feedback, yet, on my BUS 1001 paper, but hope to
next week.
Week Ending June 9, 2002
This was a busy week at work with issues
dealing with a large project we are working on and several new business
opportunities. I started reading The 10 Natural Laws of Successful Time and
Life Management by Hyrum Smith, co-chairman of the board of Franklin Covey,
which I had purchased last fall but not read. I also bought a copy of How To
Read a Book by Mortimer Adler, which is required reading for BUS 1002. I
have never been a good, consistent reader and hope to learn things from Adler's
book that will help me improve my reading ability and techniques. I reviewed
the paper I wrote for BUS 1001 on The Ten Day MBA, and recognize that I
have the most interest in the chapters on Finance, Quantitative Analysis,
Accounting, Operations, and Strategy, and will develop my curriculum around
these areas. I sent Hella an email because I have not heard anything about my
BUS 1001 paper and wonder if it was received or if something is wrong with it.
I hope to decide on a book to review for BUS 1002 this next week and start
making progress again. I spent about 9 hours this week on reading, and
in organizing my notebook and computer filing system for my MBA work.
Week Ending June 2, 2002
It feels like I have been working on this
assignment for a long time, and my goal is to finish at the end of this week.
The chapter on strategy confirmed my original thought of wanting to learn more
about it and how to apply strategic techniques to my present and future work. I
have been doing some research on the Internet throughout this assignment on
some of the topics presented in the book. This has given me a taste of research
required for future papers, and has helped explain some questions I had during
my reading. I was curious, this week, about what this assignment actually was,
realizing that I did not know. I spent some time looking at other students' web
sites and the papers they have written, and it was still not clear. So, I sent
Hella an email asking her to clarify questions I have now that I am close to
finishing this paper. I spent 26 hours this week, which was very
productive. I reviewed the Rushmore web site and re-read How to Write a Paper
to format my paper, and Using Word 2000/97 to Format and Structure Your Papers
for adding the headers and footers, and the table of contents. I also learned
how to link the table of contents to the text of the paper, which I had not
done before. I finished my paper after hearing back from Hella about this being
the paper for BUS 1001, and I sent the paper on 6/1/2002. I learned a lot from
doing this paper and look forward to whatever is next.
Week Ending May 26, 2002
I finished writing on the finance and operations chapters of The Ten Day MBA, and started reading the last three chapters. I traveled most of this week, with business meetings in Detroit until Friday, and then immediately leaving for Indiana to visit our daughter, son-in-law, and grandson. The business meetings were successful, and the driving