Executive Team Experience Reflections:
Marketing Director John Monroe:
My personal experience with the program was very positive. Entering this course, I had a few past experiences with working in professional business situations, including a Marketing internship the previous summer with the Connecticut Sports Management Group. Based off my experience, I knew my strengths and was comfortable with my ability in these specific areas such as presentations and personal sales. I had a good deal of familiarity with a multitude of aspects due to my past experiences, but an uncomfortable sense still existed in regards to areas such as financing and operating. However, it was not until this course where I was personally stretched in an encompassing manner that developed both my strengths and weaknesses.
This course prides itself on its commitment to experiential learning, which is the true reason that I attributemy personal development to. Providing large quantities of freedom, the structure of this course enables students to learn through experience first and textbooks second. Brilliantly assimilating marketing, financing, and operating into the small business assignments, this course provided a well rounded collection of challenges that forced me to develop in areas where personal improvement was necessary.
The real reason that the concept of experiential learning was so beneficial was that it forced me to encounter both successes and failures. A person can certainly learn much from reading about and discussing others successes and failures, but I can positively say that a person will learn much more if they are experiencing successes and failures themselves. It was in my experiences this semester on both ends of the spectrum where I extracted significant lessons.
Experiential learning also enabled me to constantly be immersed into professional business settings. Throughout the semester, operating the business allowed me to consistently experience challenging situations that required professionalism and maturity. My personal interactions with career mentors, potential business partners, and the
administration of Butler University all required respectful and recognizable professionalism. Presentations throughout the semester required me to be professional in both my appearance and speech as well.
Thus, I can confidently say that the area where I progressed in the most significant manner was in responsibility. Throughout the semester, I was consistently facing tough challenges that forced me to new depths of responsibility. I possessed personal responsibility in accomplishing my duties, as well as possessing responsibility in completing duties involving my business team, career mentor, and business partners.
In reflection, the most significant conclusion which I personally draw from the past months is that a business operates on responsibility. While both Reality Check and The
Entrepreneur’s Survival Guide instructed our class to believe that a business cannot operate successfully without capital, I dare to say that a business can also not operate successfully without responsibility. My parents have both only worked IBM in their professional careers and have offered me a lot of insight from their experiences over the years.
Ironically due to his employer; my Father has consistently reminded me that a business runs just as a machine does. The essence of his message being that a machine cannot operate optimally if certain parts do not run optimally. Nor can a machine operate at all, if certain parts fail to operate at all. Thus, if employees fail to meet their responsibilities in an optimal manner, the business will not operate optimally. And if employees fail to meet their responsibilities at all, then the business might fail to run at all as well.
I witnessed the truth of his lesson in many an example throughout the course of the Real Business Experience program. When the executive team of our company were personally and collectively responsible, our business team thrived. Contrastingly, when our executive team personally or collectively failed to satisfy necessary responsibilities, our business team encountered difficulty.
After completing the Real Business Experience program, I promise you that there is no substitute for the genuine experience. Marketing guru Tom Bodett once stated “The difference between school and life? In school, you’re taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you’re given a test that teaches you a lesson.” The Real Business Experience ironically epitomizes this quote by providing its students challenging experiential tests that teach lessons. It is the construction of this program in this particular ways that allowed me to experience this program more so as a business instead of a collegiate course.
Marketing Director Alison Harre:
When thinking about an ideal career, my dream job has always been to work for the marketing department of Proctor & Gamble or Apple. Through my experiences in Freshman Business Experiences, my marketing internship at Gared Sports, and Real Business Experience I have found that I would love a career in product development or social media….The fact that no other institution has a business program quite like Butler University’s, makes me realize how special this opportunity is and how it can better prepare me for my future. It is evident that the Freshman Business Experience and Real Business Experience programs have helped improved my development as a person, acquisition of helpful and factual knowledge, and growth in the interest of my future profession and career. These improvements have helped me become a well-rounded business professional and a marketing major.
Real Business Experience was truly an awesome experiential learning process. I felt more motivated to complete work for this class than any of my other classes because I was able to tangibly see the results of my hard work. In addition, part of the experiential learning process of this class involved the application of many business strategies and methods that I learned from reading Guy Kawasaki’s “Reality Check” and Mark Paul’s “The Entrepreneur’s Survival Guide”. Through this learning process and numerous presentations, my professional, speaking, and leadership skills were all improved and enhanced by this experience.
As far as situations relating specifically to the operation of Excessive Pride, my group followed advice from Kawasaki about not going beyond our means, but rather starting with small goals that would be easier to accomplish. For instance, when planning for the proof of concept for Excessive Pride, my group decided to be conservative and order a smaller amount of koozies. As a result, we were able to sell all of our koozies within a short amount of time and not have to worry about inventory for koozies we could not sell. Another lesson learned was the fact that trademarking and copyright are huge issues that must be dealt with carefully and researched well.
This RBE course will continue to help me throughout my professional career someday. Because we physically created a business and got to work with a team, I will have a better understanding as to how the business world will be once I graduate. The presentation and communication skills I learned in RBE will be helpful in my professional career someday as well. Little things such as preventing myself from rocking back and forth during a presentation will help me when making a presentation at work. Also, the skills I used while being financial advisor will be beneficial since I am majoring in accounting. Also, I know what target markets work best for certain businesses and which selling techniques are the most successful. At first, we thought our main target market would be college students, but then once we started selling our koozies, Butler Alumni bought a large portion of our products. After ordering our 210 koozies, we were inspired to sell every single one. We did not sell as many as we wanted through Starbucks so we came up with another selling technique which consisted of selling throughout Ross and Switzer. This is where we gained the most of our sales. We ended up selling every single koozie. After taking this class, I am more knowledgeable about how a business works. I will continue to follow Kawasaki’s pointers to avoid any hardships associated with the business world. Overall, RBE class has supplied me with wonderful knowledge that will stay with me for a lifetime.
Market Research Analyist: Elliott Kampen
After taking the course, Real Business Experience, I have taken away many valuable lessons that will last me throughout my journey of life, and particularly in the business world. Real Business Experience has taught me many things that will be very useful as I further my education in the college of business and ultimately find a job within the realm of business. A few of these lessons from the course include, the ability to work with people and cooperate with a team to achieve a common goal, learning how to communicate effectively with people through public speaking and personal interactions, the overall aspects and process of running a business, along with many other things.
One of the main things I gained from RBE was the experience of working with a team to achieve common goals. Working in a group of people with many different ideas and perspectives can be hard, but the more practice and experience you have in working with a team is helpful. RBE gave me the experience of working with a team and performing many tasks. Coming together as a team was hard at times, but the more we got used to each other and learned how to handle situations, we were able to achieve great things. Learning how to work with others and respecting the opinions and perspectives of others was one of the biggest takeaways I received from the class.
All in all, there were simply too many valuable lessons to fit into a short blog. RBE has taught me numerous invaluable lessons that I will take with me as I progress through the world of business. As I move forward to my future profession, I will always remember this hands-on experience and lessons I have learned.