Believe…

I’m now officially past the 1 year point in a top MBA program.  Overall, I’m really excited about the experience and learning much more than I thought I would.  I’m not sure what exactly I expected or what I thought the experience would be like, but it is by far much better than I thought it would be.  The balancing act between work, school, and juggling a personal life has been intense.  Many articles are written about how an MBA will benefit you in your career or provides excellent networking opportunities.   Here are the top three things you’ll takeaway that most articles don’t tell you about:

1)  Much better time management skills, the kind that will make you 500% more productive – and you’ll learn the notion of selective neglect
2)  A significantly better understanding of the way the world works (I know this sounds incredibly generic, but there’s no better way to explain it)
3)  Much better quantitative skills (and Microsoft Excel skills in general, you’ll learn how to make magic happen using Excel or at least be 10x better than you currently are)

If number 2 was the only thing you took away from an MBA program it would have provided you with an ROI.

Now imagine this, starting tomorrow you are 500% more productive – what would you give to clone yourself 4 times?  This is what an MBA program will do for you and it will happen by your second or third semester.

No matter what you do, the goal is to excel.  Not to be mediocre, but to stand apart from the crowd.  I was watching some random hip hop dancing videos on youtube, and this one stood-out.  Happy birthday to me – enjoy

[video nolink]

If you use Firefox like approximately 30% of the Internet user population then you can experience it to.  Check out www.lacoste.com.  The navigation is miserable, the site is clunky, and words get hidden behind images randomly.  It makes me wonder, did anyone cross browser check this site, probably not.  Whoever Lacoste contracted as the Interactive Agency to design this site  should be ashamed of this piece of work.  I speculate that it wasn’t the agency’s fault.  Instead, it must have been Lacoste’s direction to the Interactive Agency.  I know many a designer who sets out on the right mission only to be pushed into an uncomfortable box by a challenging client.   My gut tells me this site is a casualty of the Client vs. Designer battle, where the client always wins by getting their design – but always loses by not getting the Designer’s intended design.

Originally Posted By Bright Eyes, Reposted Here for Your Pleasure

The Difference Between Marketing PR Advertising and Branding

Recently I had an experience with Audi of Bernardsville in NJ, which frankly was sad.  Plain and simple, this dealership does not honor its commitments and I’m not the only customer who thinks this.  Here are a few others that also think Audi of Bernardsville doesn’t honor their commitments: http://www.dealerrater.com/dealer/Audi-of-Bernardsville-Mendham-review-997/ This review shows an average rating of 1.5 out of 5.  Additionally, in the minimal experiences I’ve had with this dealership I have now made up my mind to never visit this dealership again.  They promised a few things, and never delivered on any.  Thus, the title of this post “Honoring Commitments”.

My story begins last year, when my wife purchased her car in December 2008.   In making the sale, the saleswoman at that time stated we’d be able to get a loaner car for any Audi we serviced there in the future.  Even if the car was not purchased there.  Unfortunately, when I tried to take Bernardsville Audi up on this offer, they explained that they changed their policy and no longer provide loaner cars to anyone who had not purchased their car from there.  I thought wow, it’s fine that you changed your policy, but the salesperson told me that we would always be able to service any of our Audis there and obtain a loaner whether or not it was purchased there.  After some discussion back and forth, I gave up.  I could see that it was a waste of my time to argue this point.

This wouldn’t matter much if I bought a Yugo or a much less expensive car that doesn’t require such a high level of maintenance, but in this case we are talking about an Audi.  People purchase premium brands in order to receive a premium product.  That goes for everything related to that product, from the actual product to the servicing of the product.  When you have a premium product it is not okay to not honor your commitments.  I do not hold this against Audi, but I definitely do hold this against Audi of Bernardsville.   Once I did actually have my car serviced there, there were numerous other flaws in their process, which were downright pathetic.  However, I’m going to spare you those details as it would be two more pages of writing and I don’t want your blood to boil over the other atrocities.  Yes, these words are harsh, but trust me when I tell you the situation was harsh and that along the way the dealership had a dismissive attitude.

By posting this I just want to let Audi of Bernardsville know that it is 2009 and that in the age of the Internet – information travels quickly!  They may have just seen me as one inconsequential customer, and a customer that they already made money off of when my wife purchased her car – but I’m a customer with a voice, and I’m willing to use it.

I will now go back to getting my car serviced at Princeton Audi, a dealership which actually maintains Audi’s brand “promise”.  Ray at Princeton Audi knows good service.

I’ve owned several Hondas in my life, and they have by far been the best car experiences I’ve had. Low cost of ownership, fun, reliable, and all around well designed cars. A few years back I saw this amazing commercial that Honda did, and I just wanted to take a second to share it with any who haven’t seen it. It was a very creative and nice piece of advertising.

This video is for my fellow car enthusiasts. Some of you may have seen this at some point in time or another. I’d like to give special thanks to my friend Mike Topp for being the first person to introduce me to this video.

I work in IT supporting the Marketing side of the business.  On a daily basis I support various interactive campaigns, interpret web analytics, and help marketers understand disparate sources of data.  At the end of the day all of this is about listening to our customers and taking action to serve them better, or better yet being pro-active and serving their needs before they even realized they needed something.  It’s kind of like when your server at the restaurant brings you a new glass of water before you’ve completely finished the one you had.  It puts a smile on your face knowing that someone was paying attention to you and that they valued you.

Well, this is by no means a political column.  However, I find it pretty sad that John Corzine didn’t listen to his “customers”.  If you look at the citizens of NJ as customers and John Corzine as the server, he was definitely a server that ignored his customers.  The end result is he got fired.  In a state where citizens  typically lean democratic John Corzine was beaten by Republican Chris Christie.

Chris, I hope you listen to your customers.

As a new father my experiences change on a daily basis.  Almost daily my son makes me laugh with some of the things that he does or things that he learns to do.  The below video was taken by my wife while I was at work.  In it he has just loaded up his diaper, and is confused about what’s going on in there.  Haven discovering his diaper is awesome, but it’s my wife’s sweet dialog with him and their interaction that makes me laugh.

Enjoy!