In part 1 of Core Class Success we covered Finance, Econ, Marketing and Accounting, in this section we will cover Operations, Organizational Behavior and Stats.
How does this operate?
Operations class will be one of the most interesting classes you take at business school, but you will find it difficult to apply most of what you learned in the real world. You will find it hard to apply because you will not often have the data required to make a proper calculation. If you want to get a jump start on what you will learn read the book The Goal by Eliyahu Goldratt. As far as business books go this one is mildly entertaining and will provide a great foundation for understanding most of the concepts covered in class. For a sneak peek at what you learn in this class, the next time you are waiting in a line start to think about which parts of the process you are waiting to go through could be changed to improve the total time and which ones, even if improved, would have no impact on total time. And of course why that is. If that does not interest you, try to figure out how many seats you would sell, on average, for a flight on a plane with 200 seats. If you knew that on average 4 people failed to show up would that change your answer? At what point would you start to discount the price?
What’s the probability I pass?
Stats class is a tricky class for most MBA students for a couple of reasons. First of all it falls under the umbrella of math or quantitative methods and thus most business school students, who are very capable and confident in math, feel like they should do well. What most people like about math however is not true in Stats. Math appeals to my brain and most MBA seekers because there is an answer and for the most part you can find it. You don’t have to put a range on it, or talk about it, or generalize; you do the work and find the answer. You either got it right or you got it wrong, black and white. Stats involves putting confidence intervals around approximations, rejecting null hypotheses, adjusting your Type I and Type II error rates and similar grayish results. For a sneak peek at stats, try to figure out the following odds (with a standard deck of cards). If you draw three cards from a deck of cards, what are the odds of pulling AT LEAST one ace.
Now I need to organize my behavior?
Organization behavior will be viewed by most of your classmates as best case an easy class and worst case a joke class. This is true in most respects, but most non-current alumni will say that looking back it is the class that they need to reference the most in their day to day tasks. They say this because they have advanced to the point where they manage people and managing people becomes an increasingly frustrating and time consuming portion of their day. The class itself covers human behavior in the work place, negotiations and conflict resolution. For an amusing sneak peek at the class try the following experiment. In a group with more than a handful of people offer to sell a $20 bill to the highest bidder with the condition that the second highest bidder also has to pay what they bid. So, if person A bids $5 and then person B bids $6 and there are no more bids then person A gives you $5 and receives nothing and person B gives you $6 and gets your $20. The final two bidders in my class were $121 and $120 for the $20. It doesn’t make a lot of sense, but then you will find out nor do most human heuristics.
What is my strategy for passing this class?
In an attempt to tie it all together your Strategy or Policy class will be either your most valuable or most hated class. If you are going into consulting, pay attention in this class. You will most likely be challenged with a lot of case studies and looking for that “ah-ha’ moment when the analysis shines a bright light on the answer and you know your recommendation. You will cover entering markets, switching costs, Porter’s five forces, SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) and be called on to use many of the tools you have previously learned. For a sneak peek at strategy, try to determine why cancellation fees on your cell phone bill and airline mileage accounts are the same type of business concept.
If you put in your time and understand that these concepts are new to a majority of your fellow classmates you will be just fine and proceed onto the elective classes. If you are struggling please ask for help from your professors and your study group. It is normal that most people who make it to graduate school have been high achievers their whole academic life, do not let pride stand in the way of passing a class and getting your MBA. Half an MBA is not worth a whole lot.
Read other articles in this series:
