Last Minute Lauren: The Finale

Procrastination has a firm grip on me. My team didn't finish our strategic analysis report until two hours before it was due last week. I believe that was my first "all nighter" in college. I finished my part by 3am and had to wake up at 6am to make sure my teammates were finishing their sections as well.  Honestly, I don't know what grade to expect on it. We worked our asses off on the first report before spring break and only got an 83%, so since we weren't as organized with this one I don't have high expectations.  I'll gladly take a 66%

Today my team had a 12 minute presentation to highlight our strategic recommendation listed in our report. We met at school at 8am, made our power point slides (which was pretty easy because it was just information we covered in the report), we practiced three times, and then I ran to the library to print our slides at 9:15am. Class and presentations started at 9:30am. Thankfully, we were the last team to go, so we were able to step out of class and practice one more time.  The presentation went surprisingly well. I was a little nervous because our CEO (our online professor) said that if the financial analysis section doesn't fully support the recommendation, the highest grade my in-class professor is allowed to give is a C. Since I was responsible for the financial analysis section I felt a lot of pressure to give my team any chance at a decent grade on the presentation.   After the presentation, my professor asked about five follow up questions to clarify certain aspects in our presentation and he didn't ask one question about the financial analysis section. I'm hoping that means I fully supported our recommendation with my financial analysis. The questions he did ask were answered with confidence by my teammates. I think we effectively bull shitted with outstanding confidence.

Now, I'm waiting for my professor to announce which team is going to The Great Capstone Competition. If my team gets selected, I don't have to take the final exam. However, if my team is not selected, then I'll have to take the final exam. I am three lectures behind on the video lectures and I'm four chapters behind in the book. I also have not watched any of the 5 "off the books" videos that will be covered on the exam. Obviously, I'm hoping to get invited to the competition so that I don't have to play catch to study for the final exam.

By the way, I'm impatiently waiting to get the grades on my team's strategic analysis report and presentation so that I'll know how bad I can do on the final, if I have to take it, in order to get at least a B in the class. 

Not Sure How, But I'm Surviving

My social life has been non-existent all year; however, I've met more new people in the first two months of 2015 than I did throughout 2014. In a way, I am making one friend at a time. When I was shadowing Mo at work and practically sold his customer a second car by myself, I let Mo take the sale and count it toward his cars sold amount. He was shocked I just gave it to him, but the way I looked at it was that I was shadowing him to learn the sales process, not to steal a sale from him. I just didn't feel right counting the sale toward my cars sold amount. That decision earned Mo's trust and respect and now I know he'll have my back on the sales floor and he will be willing to help me out in the future. A co-worker's car broke down this week and we were both at HR all week for sales training. Even though it was out of my way, I offered her a ride while her car was in service. She took me up on it and bought me lunch to thank me. She was grateful and I think we'll be great team players on the sales floor.

Work is getting intense. I have learned so much that my brain might be on the verge of exploding. I don't think it will be too much longer until I'm actually on the sales floor selling cars. I'm a little nervous because I know I'm inexperienced, but I'm hopeful customers will be patient with me as I learn and do everything I can to help them. I can't wait to help my first customer and I really can't wait to sell my first car!  I'm currently suffering from new car fever. During sales training, I met the COO and CMO of Holler-Classic Automotive Group, which was really neat because they took the time out of their important duties to welcome us to the company and share some of their experience in the auto industry. Their ideas for the future of the company are impressive and inspiring!

School is going full speed ahead. I had my very first team meeting outside of class today and it went amazingly well. We had a great discussion on the retail grocery industry. Is it an attractive industry? That is the mystery our 15 page report will be solving. Before the meeting I felt overwhelmed and uncertain on how we will complete everything on time, but after the meeting I felt more confident in my part and our team's ability to kick ass on this report. So far, I'm getting great feedback on my team for being a well organized team leader. =) I manage all of our discussion threads on webcourses and make weekly announcements on our goals for the week.  I also communicate with our lab instructor to keep him updated on our team's progress.  I'm glad my teammates recognize my effort in keeping us all on the same page.

P.S. Still waiting to get a grade back on my first big report of the semester... =/

My Final Chapter at UCF

I'm only taking one class this semester, Strategic Management, also known as, Capstone. The lecture part of the course is live streaming, which means I could attend class live or I could watch it online because it's recorded. I watch the hour and fifteen minute lecture every week online. The midterm and final exams are based on material covered in lecture, mostly from the book and other sources of material. The exams will be taken in the testing lab. The lab part of the course is a face to face class. The lab is where I'll be quizzed every week about what was covered in the lecture. The lab instructor will go over strategic case studies and my five member team will take turns with other teams solving different strategic dilemmas. The lab meets once a week for an hour and twenty minutes.

The class is setup like a corporation. The guy giving the lecture calls himself the CEO of Applied Strategy Incorporated. Class is called training meetings. My lab instructor is my SBU (Strategic Business Unit) manager. My fellow classmates and myself are the employees. We get paid in the form of grades, "grade income". Quizzes are called Interviews, etc...

Throughout the semester there will be 3 big projects on top of the exams and quizzes: 10-K Integration Project, Industry Analysis, and a Strategic Analysis. The theme this semester is the retail grocery industry. The 10-K Integration project is an individual project. Each member of my team had to select a different one of eight retail grocery companies that were approved by our CEO. I'll be doing my 10-K report on Sprouts Farmers Market, Inc. A 10-K is an annual report publicly traded companies file with the Security Exchange and Commission (SEC). I will be digging into the business analysis section of the 10-K, and then apply what I discover there to the industry analysis and strategic analysis frameworks developed in the training meetings(class). My 10-K project will be a 15 page analysis.   It's due February 3rd.

The Industry Analysis project is a team project, where each team represents a consulting firm. My team will use our 5 different 10-K projects on different companies in the retail grocery industry to write a 15-20 page industry analysis and give a 12 minute presentation about the industry. The goal is to conduct a competitive analysis of the retail grocery industry.

The Strategic Analysis project is also a team project. My consulting team will prepare a strategic analysis on Winn Dixie. This will also be both a 15-20 page paper and a 12 minute presentation. All teams will examine the same firm, and will address the same general strategic issue. The goal is to provide a strategic recommendation for the firm.

There are about 25 different lab sections for the course and each lab instructor gets to select one team from their lab to enter The Great Capstone Case Competition, which is the culminating event for this class and for my experience at the UCF College of Business. After hearing each team in the SBU labs present their strategic analysis, each SBU manager will choose one team from his/her SBU lab to advance to the semi-finals of The Great Capstone Case Competition. The SBU managers will be looking for teams that can think strategically and also work well together as a consulting team, and deliver a rigorous, competent presentation of those ideas. The selected teams from across Capstone SBU labs will be seeded  into several semi-final groups, and each team in each group will deliver their presentation to a panel of judges, comprised of experts, including members of the UCF Executive MBA program, UCF Business faculty, and/or executives from Winn Dixie. The judges will pick a winner from each semifinalist group to advance to the finals. Teams that advance to the finals will receive awards for their efforts. The finals will be judged by a panel comprised of faculty experts, industry experts representing the Dean's Advisory Council, members of the UCF College of Business Hall of Fame, The Wall Street Journal, and/or Winn Dixie.

My team is in it to win The Great Capstone Case Competition. I'm excited to work hard with my team throughout the semester in hopes of making it to the semi-finals and moving on to win in the final round. This class isn't like anything I've ever taken before. It's intense and complicated and I love it! Hoping for a successful semester!

PS: I was nominated by my team to be our team leader!  These days when I look in the mirror, I see someone that has grown so much confidence since the first semester at Valencia back in 2009.