Wrapping It Up!

Well, I wish I could say that I am sad that this is my last blog post (but I'd be lying). This last post should be centered around a reflection of the semester. A summary of what I directly learned in the classroom from textbooks, articles, videos, etc. as well as what I indirectly learned by using the simulation.

Where to start. I am not ashamed to admit that I knew absolutely NOTHING about marketing coming into this course. I had no expectations because I really couldn't even define marketing. I am now happy to say that although I'm no expert, I certainly could describe some major marketing concepts to someone. And that feels good!

What I liked the most about this class was that I went into it so open minded and almost blind. As I just mentioned, I had no expectations which made absorbing the concepts so much easier. I had no reasons to object Drucker's opinions or challenge any theories... I just accepted them.

While the simulation was frustrating most of the times and it was often difficult to find common meeting times for group consensus, I must say that it was extremely beneficial. It allowed us to take the concepts we were learning in class and test our ability to actually apply them through decision making. This is definitely not a typical teaching style in any other courses (at least not ones that I have taken). And it was truly helpful. I feel comfortable saying that I would not feel comfortable in actually applying these concepts had I not had to practice them in the simulation. The group dynamic was also very beneficial because it brings ideas and challenges to your ideas that you may not be aware of had you been the sole person responsible for the decision. And ultimately, this is a true reflection of the marketing world reality. It won't always be just one person calling all of the shots. Instead, its a collaboration of multiple individuals exchanging ideas to try and come up with the best strategy to satisfy customer needs enough to retain them as customers and grow to gain more customers.

I was very pleased with my team's last period in PharmaSim. We didn't necessarily do bad in previous periods, but we definitely did not as well as we could have. As always, there were a ton of factors playing into it. But by the last period, we really ended up figuring out one of the best strategies and our dramatic growth reflects that. This can be attributed to the fact that we made it a point to complete the situation analysis and strategic plan both in the beginning few periods as well as towards the end of our implementation. The strategic plan revision was also helpful since alot can change in a few periods and it is important to analyze strategies that worked vs. those that did not work.. but most importantly WHY. Because without the WHY, you can't reformulate the strategy into a better one.

Overall, this class has enlightened me to a whole side of business that I was truly oblivious to. I guess I always thought that profit was the big driving force to corporation success. But through this class, its easy to see that without seeking, keeping, and pleasing customers, there is no profit.

Thanks for your time reading my posts!

Jennie