Bachelor of Science in Business Administration Program
MGMT 5101: Business Capstone Project

Stephen Gall

Walden University

Professor John Craddock Ph.D., Instructor

February 21, 2007

Lessons Learned from the Program and the BSG Simulation

On Entering the Program

I entered the program specifically to address the problem of not having a degree in a profession where academic qualifications are considered one important criterion for gaining access to the types of jobs I am otherwise qualified for and which I perform on a daily basis. As a consultant in the technology industry, a basic four-year degree is considered a standard benchmark for beginning one’s career. Even though I was 55 years old, a time when some people consider retiring, I recognize that it was essential for me to finally obtain my degree, especially if I expected to keep working in my field. Preceding my entry to the program, I had been divorced five years earlier, and having relinquished all of my assets, I found myself still struggling to regain a solid financial foothold. I realized that I was not going to be retiring anytime soon. Fortunately, I have very good health, feel great and have a lot of enthusiasm for my ability to continue to contribute in the job market. Consequently, I began the program.

My performance and self-evaluation

I approached the learning process by realizing that I would need to conserve my energy for the long-run; stay organized, don’t get behind, stay on a strict schedule, and constantly monitor my ability to apply time and energy to the various tasks that encompass my lifestyle. On entering the program, I recognized that striving to learn everything possible that was available would not be practical; and perhaps trying for straight-A’s was beyond what I should try to achieve. Indeed, I did not endeavor to pursue the type of learning experience that someone younger and dedicated to a full-time university experience would be able to enjoy. I had many responsibilities including full-time work, raising a daughter, and managing other family and social responsibilities and many things I enjoyed would have to be relegated to ‘second’ place, including exercise, social activities, and relationships. I had to reprioritize much of my life in order to achieve academic success.

On Leaving the Program

I will be leaving the program with the degree that has long eluded me. Will it make a difference in my career? A degree will be a doorway to being able to obtain other professional certifications. Education rarely makes all the difference, but it can be an important difference.

My experience at Walden did not significantly affect my personal growth however. For me, the Walden experience was a reaffirmation of what I already know and believe. With a life-time of experiences already behind me, my personal growth has a much different focus than for those still in their youth and consumed with worldview that comes with youth.

The BSG Simulation

Our ‘team’ consisted of me and one other person. We worked collaboratively by talking on the phone almost every night. I feel the online environment is not really conducive for collaborative work, especially for the type of collaboration needed to be successful at establishing strategy and business decisions; but in a few years it might.

Areas where the SIM was weak as a learning tool:

• Our virtual companies could not have real strengths and weaknesses
• There were no unique marketing opportunities
• There were a limited number of strategies to pursue
• There was no customer focus

One theme that ran consistently through the various courses at Walden was that students should learn how to run large multinational corporations, and this idea was reinforced by the simulation. However, this idealized fantasy, that of acting in the role of a big-time corporate executive, does not really prepare students for the realities of the workplace in the twenty-first century, and it may actually do the student a disservice, in my opinion.

My challenges for the future

As a society, we face some big challenges in our immediate future. Some of these challenges are the consequences of the following conditions:

• A post-peak oil economy,
• A growing cultural divide, due to divergent worldviews, in the U.S. and globally,
• The consequences of global warming,
• The consequences of unbridled globalization, and the shrinking middle-class.

Americans generally tend to ignore problems until they become a crisis; and because we are a culture of people who view the world with unbridled optimism, no matter what the facts are, it doesn’t look like we are going to be addressing our real issues until they become real crisis. Unfortunately, we have become a people that rely on faith instead of critical thinking and science.

My challenges for the future are not much different than the challenges we all face: staying healthy and affording health care, having enough income to maintain a modest lifestyle, and meeting family responsibilities. My challenges in business include establishing my independence as a consultant, creating a network of clients and referrals, and enhancing my reputation in the industry.

Conclusion

As I’ve gotten older, I am no longer interested in many of the pursuits and goals that my youthful counterparts find so compelling. Of course, we all seek a happy ending to the story, and want to experience a sense of achievement and fulfillment. But the way those needs are met seem to change over time.

I have come to believe that everybody can do at least one thing well, usually a few things pretty-good, and most things bad; same for companies. The key is to recognize one’s limitations, and either work to overcome those limitations, or stick to doing what one does well. But that means giving-up opportunities that seem within reach when in reality, those opportunities may be meant for someone else.

I didn’t actually discover what I was good at until I was 52 years old and was given the opportunity to help model a complex business process. I discovered that I was actually gifted at that endeavor. Consequently, I decided to build a professional career around designing business processes. I decided that, if I was ever going to be successful I would need to specialize in my single core competency; and that meant giving-up other promising opportunities. One interesting aspect of adopting this line of reasoning is that I don’t feel that I have to compete anymore; I just have to execute, in order to be successful. The outcome is that the market tends to recognize my core competency, and because my competency resolves a compelling customer need, I’m able to pay the mortgage.

I have also come to believe that for every person who claims to have used a carefully crafted strategy to find their way to success, there is a person who would admit that luck was as much or more a factor in their success. Actually I have nothing whatsoever against planning as strategizing; I spend more time doing it that almost anyone, but as Bruce Lee once said, “no amount of land swimming prepares you for the water.” Learning to execute effectively is perhaps even more important than having the perfectly defined strategy, I believe.

One can certainly plan the big things like getting a college degree for example, and then work to achieve that goal. But the seemingly mundane decisions we make every day can also have a tremendous impact on our lives. I believe it’s those daily decisions and their execution that over the long-haul makes us successful.

Business decisions are harder. How does one for see the outcome of taking business risks? At some point in everyone’s career or life, we get opportunities to risk our time and money on a business venture. Using the techniques we have learned throughout the Walden program, we can choose to be prepared to plan our way to success. But we shouldn’t forget to also plan for failure, because statistics aren’t on our side.

I think it’s a very good idea to have a grand strategy to one’s life, and the younger you are at figuring out what that is, the better. I didn’t get started until I was in my 50’s so I have some regrets in that regard. What is my grand strategy you may ask? It is to stay as healthy as possible for as long as possible so I can take advantage of life-extension therapies if and when they become available. For me, I don’t care how mundane any given day is, I love life so much I can’t imagine facing the inevitable. With that as my grand strategy, every move I make is made to increase the probability of succeeding at it. Therefore, my strategy is based on thinking long-term and then planning and executing accordingly. Good strategy should be a roadmap to day-to-day decisions, which add-up to long term success. Each of us, to be successful, has got to find that something that motivates us to look toward our grand strategy, and get up and get going each morning!

Thank you for the experiences at Walden.

Regards,
Steve Gall

//