Thoughts on Term 3, Weekend 1

Marketing 621: Taught by Prof. David Bell. This first marketing class of the core is an interesting, interactive .5 unit class whose purpose is to educate us on how to do marketing. The next class focuses on strategy. Bell has an interactive style that I really appreciate. We had two lectures in the first weekend: 1) Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning, and 2) Markets Analysis and LTVC (LifeTime Value of a Customer). Highlight of the class: Bell showed a funny video clip of Ali G and Donald Trump. It showed some of his pitches for ice cream gloves with some VCs. I think it's interesting how quite a few of our professors are starting to use video much more during their lectures, due to the availability of interesting clips and relevant content on the internet. It's an interesting trend in teaching that I personally like. It really drives home the point to be able to see what we are talking about in class.

Here’s a link to the Ali G / Trump video:

http://www.videovat.com/videos/1577/donald-trump-ali-g.aspx

Finance 601: This class is the core finance class for Wharton. We took a big picture, high-level view of the term and learned about Value Creation and Measures of Performance, using the Emerson Electric and Progressive Insurance case studies. Prof Percival is quite dramatic in his style, and he even slapped his own face twice in both sections to illustrate a point. (I was too slow to get a video clip…sorry) It was good to learn the intuition behind the DuPont model, and to learn the concepts behind MVA and EVA, two new acronyms to add to our MBA vocabulary. I was surprised to see some companies on the Top 5 and Bottom 5 lists in certain industries.

Quips and Quotes:

“And what is the problem wid ice cream? It drips.”

“All models are wrong but some are useful.”

“I think that Fortune has become the People magazine of business.”

“The time to be particularly worried is when you are doing well.”

“If I’m a lender, I like stable, predictable companies with fondle-able assets.”

Poker 601: There was a large poker game at the Le Meridian on Friday night in our study room that went until 4am. It was so crowded I couldn’t get a seat. But I hear Gagan hit QUAD Aces, and then Frank went “All in” on him….ouch! Bolaji has a picture of it that I’ll post when I get it…

-Chairman P