absolutgcs.org

so this past week was pretty hectic for me. my architecture class was wrapping up and a lot of work needed to be completed before the final deadlines. my team was stuck chasing a moving target for a while because our advisor was not clear and consistent on his expectations for some of our deliverables. normally this isn’t a big problem in the real world, but when it comes to school, this shouldn’t happen. as much as our program attempts to simulate real world projects, there’s a standing contradiction where we strive for ideal project development environments but are stuck with continually changing expectations.

regardless, we were able to complete our deliverables to what i believe to be a high level of quality. i’m pretty happy with how this course went overall and it was a good experience for me as the team leader. this was my first experience leading a team of this size (6 total) with explicit team leadership expectations and i have to say i liked it. ten years ago, when i was just entering high school, i don’t think i would have thought of myself as a “leader” type. definitely an independent thinker though. anyway, over the years i’m seeing myself move in that direction. the leadership development program that i’m doing at work is a part of that movement.

this brings me full circle to the title of this post. i’m considering business school as a means to enter leadership positions that mix technology and business development. i went to borders in sunnyvale to look at a few books about the gmat and the business school application process. i found a couple that were interesting and considered buying them online at amazon to save some money. i decided to just buy them on the spot so i could have the books sooner than later, figuring that at most, amazon might save me $5-10 on my $50 tab for two books. i came home to test my hypothesis and was shocked to see one book i purchased that retailed for $30 at border was available through amazon for $11. a $19 difference that i could hardly overlook. the other book was $5 cheaper, more in line with my expectations. in spite of the difference, i could not afford the time to sit around and wait for amazon’s supersaver shipping to get the books to me in 5-9 days.

this is where i think amazon is good and could be better. their prices for most books are phenominal and their selection is tough to match. their ability to compete and dominate in breadth and depth serves as a testament to their supply chain management capabilities, which are well known and well respected by etailers across the world. a key area for improvement