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It’s been a long road
It really has been a long road. Last night, I finally delivered my Capstone project after a slight delay. It went extremely well and our hard work really showed.
I first started this MBA journey in September 2013, and since then, a lot of events have occurred personally in my life. I lost four of my family members including both my grandparents, my baby niece, and my mother. When I lost my mother in March of this year, it was such a profound moment in my life not only because she was no longer going to be here, but also because her death brought something out of me that I never knew existed: my voice.
My mother, a Colombian-born woman, was not the best speaker. She could definitely have a full conversation, but her limitations in English caused several hardships for her career as she wasn’t able to articulate her points across as well as compared to some of her counterparts. Unfortunately, this also meant that she was taken advantage of in several situations. I vowed that I would be the voice that she never got a chance to have and on the day of her funeral, I found my voice and delivered a beautiful speech in her honor.
Last night, I learned to use my voice again to deliver my Capstone presentation and it feels so great to say that it was a success. Of course, it involved several weeks of practice, but in the end and in front of a crowd of people, it really did come down to using my voice to deliver the message in my own words. So to me, finishing my MBA is not just about putting a title to my name, it really means learning how to speak for the first time.
My To-Do List Post-MBA
I thought that this past winter was harsh, but it’s been nothing compared to the last eight weeks of finishing my MBA program. I had maybe two full eight-hour nights of sleep, gained a few pounds, and experienced my first ocular migraine. But on the positive side, I’ve realized how much “time” I have now to get things done, starting with these five things.
#1 I’m determined to sew my first project: my daughter’s Halloween costume. Hopefully, she’ll keep it simple and sweet for her mother’s sake!
#2 On a professional note, taking an online course on graphic design is a big goal for me. I really want to get more familiar with using Photoshop and Illustrator not just to make a few tweaks to an already-made graphic, but also to start creating some on my own. Coursera, Lynda, Skillshare, here I come!
#3 Getting back into Zumba is also something I’ve been longing for. Pandora can only do so much for međ
#4 Having a fun date-night with my husband. He’s been amazingly patient throughout these last two years so I want us to do something unique, maybe do a starlight dinner cruise.
#5 Starting a new blog series…still thinking about it, but I just enjoy planning out my topics and designing blog graphics. Lots of great practice!
What would you do post-MBA?
In the Home Stretch
Here we are figuring out the presentation logistics
We are 10 days away from our final presentation and we’re all pretty frazzled. I have been on my computer or phone non-stop for the past two weeks, checking my email, continuing to fine-tune the marketing section, and incessantly breaking out my red pen (so to speak) to correct the small grammatical errors.
I’m not sure how I’m going to feel after this is all over. I’ve learned so much about myself, about my ability to take stress and put it to good use. But of course, I’ve had lots of late nights and I keep waking up at 4am for some reason. I very much think that I have developed some sort of spontaneous hyperactivity because I’m constantly finding something new to perfect.
So maybe I’ll feel relieved when this is all over, or maybe I’ll love the chaos too much (my husband won’t). I’ll just have to wait and see.
SO WHAT do we do with SWOT?
Good old SWOT…You sit down, brainstorm, and come up with all these thoughts, but then what?
That’s where we’re at now with our Capstone. We’re in the early stages of developing a detailed SWOT analysis of the Brockton Rox and the Shaw’s Center.
As with most small local businesses, it’s not very easy to find valid information on the internet. You have your local papers, customer reviews, and in our case other similar leagues to the Rox, but several aspects can only be understood by experiencing it firsthand. In other words, weâre going to the stadium for our next class.
Unfortunately, the season doesn’t start until June 4th, so we won’t catch a game, but it will be good to sit down with the staff and ask them key questions to better understand their business. Once we have that clear picture, we can start thinking about what to do with the information. How can we help the Rox continue growing? How can we increase awareness of the Shawâs Center? Our team has already started brainstorming crazy ideas for different events they can have. Thatâs always the easy part.
What wonât be so easy is evaluating how factors like the proposed casino will impact them or how to improve their margins without increasing ticket sales or reducing quality. We’ll have to really look beyond the information that we’ve gathered for our SWOT and ask so what?
“What can we do with this information to add value to the Rox brand?”
Andrea Lebron 