Brief Comments from Strategy

Dr. Norman’s strategy course is known as one of the more time and work intensive courses in the program here at Baylor. Not only does she assign a fair amount of reading for a business class, she forces students to learn to think about these articles in a very particular way, seamlessly integrating a host thoughts, concepts, and ideas together. Thus far we’ve read some of the great minds in business strategy and my classmates and I have continued to learn to weave these concepts together. Despite all the great reading we’ve done, one comment has stuck out the most to me thus far.  The comment wasn’t from Porter or Sull. Instead, it was from Dr. Norman herself. In working through an analysis of Best Buy she noted that a common complaint amongst employers is that, “MBAs are great at analysis. They’re awful at recommendations.”

This comment got me thinking. The men and women who seem to have had the most success were not necessarily the best analyzers of a situation. Instead, they tended to be the ones who can analyze but also, and more importantly, specifically respond to the findings of that analysis. Doing a financial analysis and finding the cash conversion cycle is too long and there’s a whole mess of dud inventory sitting on the shelves and in the warehouses means nothing if all you’re going to say about it is that the firm should reduce its inventory and collect its accounts receivables in a more timely manner. That recommendation is a bit like eating unsalted potato chips – bland, tasteless, unsatisfying.

This realization got me thinking even further on how it is that MBAs and business people in general should develop a solution or response for specific situations. It would seem that most of humanity is plagued by an inability to respond specifically and directly to problems that arise in every arena of life not just in the business world. In order to develop a strong ability to provide and generate recommendations for how to solve problems that aren’t unsalted potato chips, the individual must begin to thinking critically about how they respond to each and every situation they find themselves in. The full breadth of human existence is a suitable and appropriate time to respond intentionally and thoughtfully. If individuals can learn to converse with their unfortunately poor conversationalist of a neighbor, or thinking critically on how to bake a cake with no eggs, or how to reward their children for good behavior, or how to spend as little time at the grocery store as possible, or how to navigate traffic, generating solutions to complex business problems becomes a natural next step. In short, a life well experienced creates thinkers who know no limits in solving problems.