Ethics 2: Stakeholder's Management

One thing I find every useful with some of the classes are the tools they provide and our Ethics class had those.  We learned about the 4 corners summary with the ends and means for doing something or not doing it in our first session.   For this second session, we learned about the Stakeholder's Mgmt circle or diagram with the primary and secondary stakeholder would affect your company/business.  It's a great way to analyze how your decisions would affect everybody.

Boxed Dinners: Grilled Steak served with red onion, feta & tomato salad. Vegetarian Box: Soba Noodle Salad with soy-ginger soba noodles, shitake mushrooms, zucchini, carrots, red onion & pickled ginger.  They listed the veggie box, so I copied it as well.  The meal was good, but since it was basically a salad, the steak was cold.  That would be my only complaint.  The veggie soba noodles looked good to, but I couldn't eat it.  I feel bad cuz I think a couple of vegetarians got screwed without this meal.  Not sure if there wasn't enough ordered or if non-vegetarians ate the meals as all the boxes were just laid out together.

No Moonshine?

What's up with this assigning reading or case, and not reviewing it in class?  Seriously, why assign it if we're not gonna talk about it?  Yeah, it was a good article and case, but I think we would have gotten more out of it if we had discussed it.  Oh well, I guess we had to fit all those interim capstone presentations in =\

Dinner: Thai buffet with Pad Thai, assorted curries and rice, fried rice, and vegetables.  My plate looks really messy cuz I tried to put everything on there.  The Thai meals are prolly one of the most popular meals with our class as it caters to everyone. In this buffet style, people can just grab what they want to eat.  The meal was good...rice, curries, pad thai....all around good. I did not hear any complaint.  As I said, one of the most popular meals, and I liked it as well.  All goods.

Ethics Class*! *[Optional]

That's right folks.  The Ethics class was optional for Class 9.  I think we may have not even gotten the option until it was brought up that our class did not have the class.  Not sure exactly how it started, but I thank the person or people who helped give our class the opportunity to take this class.  Scott was great.  I really enjoyed our first session of class.

Dinner: Pizza and salad.  Like I said before, pizza is always an easy food to get.  I usually don't mind, but I think this pizza was from Zeeks.  It wasn't that great.....actually, not really good either...haha   I like Pagliacci's better, but not sure if there's one close or if they're too expensive.  Maybe they don't deliver?  Papa John's would be better as well.  I order Papa John's at home....it's goot!

All Day Global Strategy!

We had class our Saturday class at the Seattle campus, and it was a full day of Global Strategy.  I didn't mind having the same class back to back as we've done it once before with our Marketing class.  The tough part was all the reading and case work in preparation for the 2 class sessions.  It was a lot of reading!  I started like a week before so I could make sure I had plenty of time to read everything. The actual day wasn't bad at all. Kevin did a good job keeping our attention, having the break out session early, and having the presentation later to keep the class moving forward.

Breakfast: assorted cereals, hard-boiled eggs, fruit, yogurt, toast.  I was a little disappointed with the breakfast here.  I know that I always seem to complain on Saturdays, but this Saturday was extra terrible.  I guess the "assorted cereals" was the additional or changing food item for this breakfast, which was kinda sad.  We usually get at least muffins, bagels, or donuts.....and hot foods like breakfast burritos are a treat.  Also, the assorted cereals were like 2 bins: corn flakes and raisin brand.  =\

Lunch: Boxed sandwiches, pasta salad, chips, fruit, cookie.  Sandwiches....what can I say? It's ho-hum.  I think it's become the most common Saturday lunch meal.  I enjoyed eating in the Mary Gates Hall as it's a beautiful building.  I think some people ate outside, but it was a little too windy and cold for me....yeah, I'm a wimp =P  The only brightside of this lunch was the brownie....wheeeee!!!

Cultural Artifacts!

We learned from Bigley that companies can use cultural artifacts like stories, monuments, logos, building structures, etc. to sustain or change the culture within the company.   I can see where this would work or apply with companies like Disney, Coke, and Nostrom's, but it seems more related to how strong the brand for the company is.  Well, I guess in a way they go hand in hand.  Strong company brand could provide or support the culture or vice versa.

Dinner - Stir fry: beef & veggies, sweet and sour chicken, or spicy black bean. Rice, green salad, fruit, and rolls.  The stir fry is pretty good.  I liked the beef better than the chicken since the chicken seemed a little dry.  It's prolly cuz it's white meat chicken.  The fruit is always nice. You don't see it on my plate, but I usually get the fruit later for dessert.  Overall, it was an average meal, maybe slightly above average cuz it had rice?  =)

Starting to get lighter longer...

It's great to see that the days are getting longer now.  The sun is out longer so it's not pitch black by the time class starts.  Sometimes we're even get lucky enough to see the sunshine around the EEC =)  It's been an extra long Winter, so it's nice to get these glimpses of the "Spring" and Summer to come.  It's also nice to know that we're getting that much closer to the end of the quarter and the program for class 9.

Dinner: Lasagna, caesar salad, side veggie, garlic bread.  The lasagna was good, can't really complain.  The other parts of the dinner like the salad, veggies, and garlic bread were all on par and average for our typically meals.  Nothing exciting, but nothing bad either.

Study Tour Presentation

This was the follow up to our International Study Tour where the group presented events from our trip and discussed highlights.  I was a little disappointed on the turn out from Class 10.  I believe only 3 students from Class 10 showed up.  That was the same number of alumni from previous classes that showed up to the presentation.  Not sure what choices Class 10 will have, but I'm sure they'll have a blast.

There was tons of food from cheese and meats to kabobs and empanadas, and it was all good.  There was wine as well, even Malbec!  I ate a ton. It was great!  HAHA

Globalization is good!

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We learned that globalization, free trade, outsourcing, or whatever you want to call it is good....for almost everybody.  Free trade allows countries to exploit their comparative advantage, which benefits the country and provides consumers with cheaper goods.  Globalization helps companies run more efficiently and increases profitability which makes shareholders happy. Everybody wins!...except for the losers like the people who lose their jobs and the companies/countries that don't have a comparative advantage, which is where protectionism comes in!

Breakfast: assorted muffins & breakfast breads, meats & cheeses, hard-boiled eggs, yogurt & granola, fruit. We had the typically breakfast with the exception of having coffee cake and assorted muffins.  They went all out on this one.  The coffee cake and the muffin ended up being too much for me as I didn't finish the muffin.  I know! How can that be!  I shoulda eatin 2 muffins!

Lunch: Dixie's BBQ with pork ribs, chicken, beef brisket, garden salad, potato salad, veggie baked beans, rolls, fruit.  One word: R I B S ! ! !  That's becoming one of my favorite 4 lettered words along with eggs and food  =)   The Dixie's BBQ chicken and beef brisket was good, but I enjoyed the pork ribs the most.  I can't remember how many ribs I ate, but I remember that I had the ITIS all afternoon. haha

People, Structure, Culture!

Those are the intangible resources that feed (my hands are coming together and making an upward motion) into and support the value related processes, which in turn provide organizational performance and results that we want.  At least, this is what Greg Bigley aka Ben Stiller tells us.  You laugh, but you know it's true.  He looks just like him!

Dinner: create your own gyros with pita, chicken, lamb, and beef, olive & artichoke salad with mache lettuce, crudités of cucumber & carrot with hummus, and spanakopita.  That's a really description menu to say gyros with toppings =).  I actually really liked this dinner, but I think this was the meal where I may have upset the caterer.  As you can see, I could only fit one gyro, so afterwards, I went back to get a second gyro.  The caterer made a comment to me about not having any more tomatoes from what was out there, so I told him that he shoulda brought more tomatoes. =\  Next thing I know, a sign was posted up which said something about not getting seconds on dinner as there may not be enough food.  That was the first time I had seen such a sign for dinner during the program.