when there's a will, there's a way

i sat in at an ITM 124 class today. the course is about business strategy and ICT. the class is led by raul and ed rodriguez. brothers in arms with different expertise but of similar depth in experience and common sense.

i don't care if SOM prohibited MIS students from entering the class. if pipboy wants it, pipboy gets it. it might have been a simple introductory class but the promise of things to come from the two professors have already excited me. when either of them talks, logic magically appears where there was none. it's been a while since i've last brushed shoulders with the big boys. today is a happy day because i got to see great people in action.

we had two cases today and several pointers on case analysis. there'll be more in the coming weeks. from sir raul, we'll be tackling corporate cases. from sir ed, there'll be public sector cases. the course, btw, is designed to veer away from too many IT terms. the focus is on the management aspect of doing business. this would have been a great supplement to our staple MIS courses. although i wouldn't recommend the class just to anyone. there are a lot of readings and a lot of on the spot analysis. that goes without saying if you have an MBA professor with 17 years of experience under the belt and another one with 22 years of corporate experience.

in those two cases, we looked at how and why dot-coms flourished or failed. quick bits to end this blog:

• Focus on the business part of the phrase e-business. the fundamentals of doing business haven't changed
• Pace the speed of your business. you don't have to jump right away at every twist and turn of technology's progress
• E-business cannot replace everything. There are still benefits in traditional modes of doing business. However, the lifestyles of people are changing which should prompt us to adopt properly
• We need strong top-to-bottom management for business to be competitive
• Businesses are not entirely logical. They are also behavioral. For instance, we can't expect all customers to make logical decisions. We have to factor in their values when creating a product.
  

While most of these are common sense for some, the way they were applied in examples particular to the current situation of the Philippines is not. Despite the dismal outlook of doing business in the Philippines, the two professors are able to come up with business ideas that are applicable and profitable. If there's something i want to pick up in this class, it would be the ability to pick up a niche in any business environment and figure out how to work on it as they have shown quickly and easily this morning.