Toyota recently released a commercial in response to the recalls, which you can view here.

I haven't been following the story, but I personally thought this was a great response - they admitted their mistake (haven't been living up to standards), explained what they are doing to fix the situation, and focused on their history of safety and quality.

However, I later learned that Toyota has been blasted in the media for failing to respond for two weeks after this crisis began.

In my elective class, which is a follow up to Professional Development for Leaders, we had a guest speaker who specializes in crisis communications. It seems that upfront communication is one of the most critical aspects of dealing with such a crisis. A good comparison is the difference in how David Letterman and Tiger Woods handled their extramarital affairs. Most people have forgotten about Letterman's but Tiger's is still being covered in the media.

I just found out today that her real name is Carleton.

"My grandmother told me there are two ways of living: You can either survive or you can really make a life. There is eating and there is dining. She would always give that extra little effort, and I still believe that is important - to make things more beautiful makes all the difference."

-Kris Van Assche

I watched this on my flight to Boston. Fascinating!

A year of ups and downs, a year of many changes. A lot to be thankful for.

I searched for a picture to capture the Thanksgiving sentiment and decided on this one:



On this day, most of us reflect on what Thanksgiving means to us. And while some say we shouldn't only reflect on what we're thankful for once a year, at least we set aside this one day to look beyond our daily lives. To me, this simple comic captures the idea of friends and family, and furthermore, the 'happy' in 'Happy Thanksgiving'.

I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday. Happy Thanksgiving!

It's a great feeling to feel the stream of a hot shower on your back when you're feeling cold. Sometimes, though, I just can't seem to warm up no matter how hot the water is. I realize that the cold feeling isn't on the surface, but inside. It takes more than hot water to fix this.

Earlier this week I went to see Quiksilver CEO Bob McKnight speak at the Galen Center. Below are some excerpts that stood out to me.

Interesting story on starting up:
Bob McKnight partnered with surfer Jeff Hakman to convince Quiksilver founders, Australian surfers Alan Green and John Law, to grant them rights to Quiksilver in the US. They were finally able to convince them after a dinner of heavy drinking, contingent on one condition - Jeff had to eat the paper doily underneath his plate. Jeff crumpled it up, ate it, and Quiksilver, USA was started.

Reasons for going public:
The main reason Bob decided to take Quiksilver public was to get away from the responsibilities of having financial partners. He clearly warned the audience of potential issues in having such partners, and to avoid the situation if possible.

Acquisitions:
Nike offered to buy Quiksilver, which Bob rejected. Nike then went on to acquire Hurley.

Final nuggets of advice:
Be wary of partners
Stay the course, remain focused on your core products (boardshorts for Quicksilver)
Find a balance between work and family

I joined an organization here called Marshall Youth Outreach, where we help tutor high school students in subjects such as math and science. We had a couple of weeks off, and given the pace of school so far I didn't mind. We picked up again this week and to be honest I was somewhat dreading the commitment. When I arrived, the place was locked but instead of just leaving I decided to wait a bit.

I'm glad that I did. This week was geared more towards high school seniors working on their college entrance essays and personal statements. The first essay I helped with described a young boy's life of poverty. Single-parent family, ten children, homeless at one point, and even caught in the middle of a drive-by shooting. He told a story of how he was robbed of $5 he had planned to spend on a basketball tournament. He decided to say something and convinced the gang member that had robbed him to return the money, an experience that drove him to utilize the power of speech through the debate team. Powerful story.

The second essay I helped with described a young girl's realization that others looked up to her after helping out an appreciative nephew with homework. This influenced her new perspective of helping others and not just looking out for herself.

I think back to the hope and ambition to achieve great things that I felt when I was working on my own college essays. To see these same characteristics in the students today was refreshing. To be a part of that process and hopefully help them achieve their goals was a moving experience.

A couple weeks ago we discussed the topic of motivation in my Behavior and Organizations class. I find these studies interesting and the concept of self-serving evaluations particularly stood out to me. The idea of self-serving evaluations is that people tend to see themselves in a positive light and have a bias in their self perception i.e. in driving skills, personal health.

There was a study done where participants completed tests of humor, grammar, and logic and then rated their perceived performance, with most people grossly overestimating their performance (Kruger & Dunning, 1999). In particular, the people that did the worst had the most significant gap in their perceived ability, suggesting that incompetent people general believe they are MUCH more capable than they really are (a few names come to mind).

This surprised me because I've always thought that the way people think can significantly influence their performance or behavior. In support of this is the Pygmalion Theory where a random sampling of students were told that they were gifted and as a result, performed better than a control group. I asked my professor about this and she said that this holds true but only within a realistic range of expectations. So if we think we can accomplish a task far beyond our capability, we won't necessarily perform better than if we didn't have that self-confidence. But if our expectations are high but achievable, that mindset will help us perform better.

Interesting. In an effort to take advantage of this positive thinking I used to believe I could do anything. Looks like I may need to adjust my self-perceptions.

I just finished midterms for term 2 this morning. Corporate finance was rough.

Earlier this week I had a discussion with my roommate that helped me realize that I need to devote more time to studying. From my approach to school, I would expect that most people would underestimate my work ethic in a corporate environment. I filled out some recent surveys and other forms with my occupation as 'student', and I think I need to treat it more seriously - my job is to be a student.

These ideas, however, are processed in isolation. I'll need to balance this expectation with other goals and activities. In reference to my previous post on opportunity cost, we can't do it all so we need to find a balance in determining what is important to us.

"He woke up from dreaming and put on his shoes
Started making his way past
Two in the morning
He hasn't been sober for days

Leaning now into the breeze
Remembering Sunday, he falls to his knees
They had breakfast together
But two eggs don't last
Like the feeling of what he needs"

ATL

I read  a book called Blue Ocean Strategy a few years ago and the concept behind it came up in my Marketing Management class. The idea is that companies can succeed by differentiating their product or service so that they no longer compete with "sharks" in "red oceans" and instead create their own market without competitors (the "blue ocean") through this differentiation or innovation.

Having read this book, I was able to contribute something to the class. Other than just for the general knowledge, reading this book paid off.

Today I attended two workshops, one on using Access and one on using Excel for financial functions. These weren't directly related to my classes (although the Excel one could be helpful for corporate finance) and even though the amount of work on my plate is rather ridiculous, I still took the time to attend.

I didn't feel that stressed after I left, and I think it's because I learned something new. In all the madness that is b school it's easy to forget that we are here to learn.

It's generally a good day when we can say we've learned something new and improved ourselves from the days before.

Another goal for 2009 accomplished.

Last year, I ran a 5k with a goal of finishing the 3.1 miles in under 30 minutes. This year, I set a goal of finishing a 5k in under 25 minutes. This "morning" (midnight run) I successfully reached this goal with a time of 24:17.

Although a 5k is only 3.1 miles, I attempted to train for the race since I generally don't run distances of any great length. This consisted of running on a treadmill, successively increasing the distance of running without slowing to a walk by half mile increments. Because I moved my workouts to mornings, I frequently ran out of time to keep this up as I didn't want to be late for school. I made it up to 1.5 miles without stopping.

I was hoping to either pick up Nike+ gear or a watch to track my time during the race since chip technology would not be used (an ingenious approach to driving runners to purchase Nike+ technology). I wasn't able to make this happen and figured I would just track the time when I finally crossed the start line and subtract it from the time when I crossed the finish line. I started to worry when a timer wasn't shown at the start. Also, because there were so many people running, I spent the first minute or so jogging at a slower pace because I physically could not run any faster with all the bodies around me. After a while, I started weaving between the crowd, not quite confident that I'd be able to meet my target time.

A few times, I saws lights ahead of me that I thought came from the finish line. This inspired me to pick up my pace until I realized it was simply another turn. It took a lot of effort to keep running after this happened. I was thrilled when I saw the actual finish line and sprinted through to the end, relieved to see the timer flash 24:17 as I crossed.

My legs are still sore, but overall another great experience.

This is the first of my 5 minute thoughts.

Earlier this week someone told me that I was not "lean" and that I had a "soft midsection". In all seriousness. Can't say there isn't some truth to this, but it was significantly different from my own perceptions. So even though I have been making it to the gym, I am now going to take it to another level - improved diet, reduced alcohol consumption, and more workouts.

In an effort to post more frequently, I will be giving myself a rough deadline of 5 minutes to write an entry. I generally take a while to think through my ideas even though the length of my posts may not necessarily reflect this. The amount of time this process takes tends to discourage me from starting in the first place. Hence, this new experiment. Stay tuned!

I recently completed Term 1 of my MBA program, having taken finals two weeks ago. The time definitely flew by, and I had intended to share more of my experiences than I actually have. Tying back to my last entry, I've chosen to do other things rather than make time to post.

Now that Term 1 is over, I'd say the most important thing I've learned is that business school students need to understand what they value and focus their efforts accordingly. There isn't enough time to do it all.

For my part, I think that the 'soft skill' classes such as Professional Development for Leaders and Behavior and Organizations are where I stand to gain the most value. Not to discount the quantitative courses, but I expect that many skills are specific to certain roles and can be learned on the job whereas soft skills, which are equally if not more important, take much more time to develop and polish.

I don't have the answers, and honestly there are fleeting moments where I wonder if business school was the right choice for me. But I can say that I am learning, growing, and enjoying the experience. I am definitely far from the comfortable routine that I was in just a few months ago, and I feel that this journey will be worthwhile.

I've been trying to post more. Really, I have. More frequently, I think of ideas for my next posts but can't seem to find the time to put them in print. This got me thinking about the tradeoffs that we make because the truth is there's always time. It's what we choose to do with it that makes the difference.

These days I find myself most often choosing between sleeping, studying, working out, and going out. Each decision then creates its own line of consequences and subsequent choices. For example, if I sleep now, I'll have less time to study later. The same idea applies to the approach I've taken towards the MBA program. There has been such a focus on academics that my efforts on internship and career search have really suffered.

These opportunity costs exist in all aspects of our lives. While some of us can multitask, there are only a limited number of things we can do at one time. It's interesting to think that what we choose to do at each moment constantly affects the course of our lives - almost like an ongoing 'choose-your-own-adventure' book.

Dave Grohl - Best of You