MGT

Only want my way
In order to get it we
Must work together

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Must work together
Groups will give the best results
Time will be saved, yes

Lego my Legos

This was one of the last times that we could get extra credit. And oh boy did I want it. A whole 5 points on the final, which was already going to be easier than expected, meant a nice boost to my grade. As soon as I heard that the activity will be based around LEGOS, I was excited and worried at the same time. I loved LEGOS when I was younger and did hundreds of constructions with them. Our team started thinking of ways to get the points. We thought that we could each draw out as much of the construction as we could and memorize it. Then we decided to each focus on one area of the figure so that we can combine it all together.

Once we got the blocks, another member of my team went out for the first inspection. The rest of us were just sitting there waiting for him to come back. About 5 minutes later another member and I came closer to the door to wait for the inspector to come out and tell us what it looks like. The 2nd person went in and a few minutes later she came back and told me what to focus on. I had the responsibility of figuring out the back side of the figure. I went in and drew out the back side. At first I didn't notice that some of the colors were split into small 2 dot blocks, but fortunately i saw that in time. After coming out, I realized that I missed some aspects so I had to go back 2 times to look at the figure again. We were the 4th of 5th group to get our LEGOS. We immediately started working on out parts and a minute later we were done. Our drawings weren't very good because sometimes we couldn't figure out what was going on.

We were stuck at the very end. I knew that there had to be a space between the green and white blocks at the 2nd to the bottom level, but we couldn't figure out how to make it work. After several groups failed, we were anxious to finish. Out of nowhere I saw there were two green squares and if we took one out, it would work. So I took a square off and put the figure together and wallah! 5 POINTS!

Farewell and Goodluck

Who knew that blogging can be educational? Professor Kurpis did. I found the blog requirement to be helpful to the overall experience of the class. I learned more than I would have just by going to class because I was actively involved in thinking and analyzing different concepts and ideas. I liked that we had a bit more contact with others than we did in class. I haven’t decided yet if it was good that we didn’t know the people we were commenting on, but I’m leaning towards it being a incomplete idea. I think it would have been nice to be able to develop some kind of professional relationship with other people in the class via out blogs. Perhaps if we were given assignments to talk about more personal things, it would have brought out more of ourselves and others could see the info.
I like that 20% of out grade is based on our blogs. I agree that if we manage the blogs properly, we have less to worry about if we didn’t get a 100 on our tests. I didn’t really realize that the blogs were worth 20%, I just knew that they were important. Nevertheless, I posted my blogs almost always on time and responded to others within the dates given.
It is possible that I will continue on with this blog. I doubt that it will be strictly about management, but will incorporate all kinds of things. I have wanted to have a blog long before I started this class and this is good opportunity for me to explore the world of blogging. So thank you Professor Kurpis.

Special Order

What do fast food service workers hate the most? People who have unusual orders. Unfortunately for us, that was the exact assignment that we needed to complete to get the extra credit points. I went to the expensive McDonald’s on Broadway in the financial district because that was near my apartment. I didn’t care too much about paying extra as long as I got the extra credit points. So I walked in to the restaurant and waited a minute or so to be called up to the register. As I was preparing to order, I was thinking about the possible reactions that the worker would have to my order. I asked for a small hamburger with four pickles and a small order of fries without salt. The attendant slightly rolled his eyes when I said four pickles exactly. After I completed saying what I wanted, he asked me again about the fries; “no salt?” I repeated no salt. While I was paying for my meal, another worker attempted to get my fries ready. However the fries in the hopper were all with salt. Luckily the cashier saw it and told the other worker that I wanted fries without salt. The other worker asked 2 times about the salt. The cashier went to the back and the other guy told me to wait for my own made to order fries.
For at least two minutes I was just standing to the side of the cashier against the wall waiting for my burger with four pickles and no salt fries. Meanwhile, the cashier was doing his job and taking other orders. The fry attendant (helper guy) put the uncooked fries into the fryer and was shaking the oil off when he asked the cashier what size I wanted. The fry guy got my fries ready and put them in the small baggy and handed them to the cashier. The burger was already done and the cashier put both items into the togo bag and handed it to me. At that time I asked him to change the receipt because it did not specify that I ordered fries without salt. He tried explaining to me that he couldn’t do that in the machine; the fry guy also came over and said that it couldn’t be done in the machine. Since apparently he didn’t know how to make the receipt so it said no salt, he decided to write it in by hand. Hopefully this will count as a complete order. I thanked him after he returned my receipt and walked out of the store. On my way home I opened the bag and unwrapped the burger and was surprised that it actually had four pickles.
Thinking about the process, I am slightly surprised that the employees didn’t show too much attitude. It may be because they work in the financial district and there must be all kinds of weird orders taken all the time. I know that at least three people got involved in the process; the cashier, the fry guy, and someone in the back who assembled the burger. I was not able to see the burger station, so I don’t know if there was an assembly line or just a single person in the back. The whole process took the employees approximately six minutes. I’m sure that it would have been longer and unpleasant if there were more people in the restaurant. The workers would have been more difficult and unwilling to do minute things like fixing the receipt.
The staffs manufacturing was done pretty well. The fry guy confirmed the size and the fact that there was no salt, with the cashier several times. He did not seem to mind doing the work as he did not seem to act in any particular manner other than normal. The cashier went to the back for a bit to tell the burger station that I wanted four pickles and they did that correctly. I had to communicate to the cashier my exact order at the beginning and to fix the receipt at the end. Aside from hearing the unusual order, I don’t think that the cashier was shocked or lost. Everyone involved did was they were supposed to do in a timely manner and were mostly professional (at whatever level McD employees can be professional). If I was able to consult the company, I would make several different versions of their layout and see which provided the fastest responses to the customer’s order. The customer should be able to view the whole process and intervene to fix or alter the method at any time. This would be helpful for special orders where specifics are important and also make general customers happier because they won’t have to send back any order to get it fixed. In the future, a camera should be pointed at all items in the customers order and follow them as they are assembled. This would provide the customer with ultimate and immediate control over their order.

D.I.S.C. analysis

What could choosing words possibly mean? Well apparently it defines who we are. This activity told me that I am a conscientious person. I mostly agree with the results. One of the tendencies listed was being diplomatic with people. I have found that to be true for the past few years. Needing clear guidelines is very important to me; I often find it hard to get a task done without knowing what exactly I have to do. In order to be a better person I need to be more assertive and push what I believe in.

I don’t think that I could change to become a total D, but I could get some of D’s and I’s characteristics in the future. I believe that the more situations a person can adapt to, and know how to behave for the best outcome, the better. Knowing other people’s management type can be helpful in dealing with them. By knowing their strengths you will have a better idea of how to either work with them or beat them.

Please Sir, May We Have Some More?

To get an A is the ultimate goal of every student. However not all of us act on it. Some pretend that all we want is to pass, and some eagerly do anything and everything to get that A. I fall in the middle, I want to do as well as I can, but not kill myself to perform it. Once we received out tests and saw what kind of grades out efforts produced, we all wanted better grades, and fortunately the professor created the opportunity to do so.

My role in the process was to support the whole class. I followed the collaborative method because there were several areas of the class that became groups and came up with some ideas. Then a few people stood up and decided to lead the class. I believe that they incorporated collaboration to get what they believed was the best way. Although I had a different approach to the situation, I agreed with what was proposed. I feel that my agreeing to give the class a 14 point bonus, the professor was nice. He could have just done the curve and not the extra credit assignment.

By the end of our time, the most important thing was to come up with one solution. Some people accommodated themselves to what was best for the class. For some reason, one person decided to say that he didn’t agree with the almost passed solution. I have no idea why he didn’t like it, but he was willing to sacrifice everyone’s happiness and points because he didn’t like or understand something about the solution.

scrambled eggs

We started the activity by thinking about what we had to do. Our goal was to construct a structure with limited resources that would protect a raw egg from cracking when dropped. The concept was simple, but how could be do it with 8 straws and 2 feet of masking tape? To do this task, we used all of our minds together. There were 3 members who lead the group and another 2 who contributed and agreed or disagreed with the ideas that were presented. The biggest thing that held us back was a more traditional approach to the task. We all thought that the only way to prevent the egg from cracking was to wrap it in the straws and tape. We used rules to guide us. Through each step of out brainstorming process, we considered if it would violate one of the rules and if yes, tried to come up with some way around it. We spent some time on how we would attach the straws to the egg. Some ways we thought of simply taping over, making a ball of tape and taping over, twisting the tape around the straw and then onto the egg. We wanted to create a sort of cushion between the egg and the floor with some tape and then the straw. We also had several ways of using the straws. We wanted to create a web with the straw so that it would be stronger.

When we got the egg, we saw how small it was. Apparently we could have handled the egg while planning. But we didn’t so we realized that we would have to adapt out plan slightly to make it work. While we were doing everything, time was running quickly, so we wound up doing a botched job or creating a cage around the egg. We didn’t even use all of our straws as we had 2 left over. This was due to the time constraint and the rules. We felt that if we used all of the straws, more than 50% of the egg would be covered in tape and thus disqualifying us before we even went up to drop the egg. Of course our egg cracked when we dropped it, but as I saw, it wasn’t a big crack and perhaps the additional straws would have been a successful buffer.

When everything was said and done, I saw that there was a very simple way of approaching the task and that one group came close but didn’t think it through all the way. If we were to rip up the tape thinly enough, we could create a string from the egg. So when we held it up, the egg would only be a few centimeters from the ground. That would have provided out group with the needed 5 extra test points.

Crucial Problem

The life of a college student is hard. There are so many things that we can do and so many that we have to do. But how do we figure out what we have the time to do?

This weekend I have to manage my schedule and events. There is a party that I want to go to, friends that I want to hang out with, a stupidly important online quiz, a social event, a birthday party, a religious event, a textbook to buy, several textbooks to open, a grandmother and uncle to educate in computers, fix my own computers, and the list goes on... But to figure out what I can actually do, I simply plan to do everything. Of course I will not be able to do absolutely everything, but somehow many things get done.

I go my friend's party and hang out. I go to the birthday party and social event. I manage to do all of my school responsibilities. In fact I manage to do practically everything, but how much do I get out of it. In all honesty, very little. Every thing is just a thing; it is an experience that I undergo. But I do not feel that there is something more to it. I don’t feel that it was managed in the right way. I don’t feel anything significant.

My managerial challenge this semester is to understand how to manage my life so that I get something out of it. Without some guidelines, there is something significant missing.

About Me

Hello everyone, my name is Eugene Markov-Tolpygin and I am a junior in Baruch. I am a finance major but that is subject to change. I was born in Ukraine and moved to the states when I was two years old. I have lived in NYC ever since.

I am excited to learn about management because I have problems with organizing my life. There is always something that I miss or forget to do. Hopefully this (and Google calender) will help me get organized.

I have never blogged before but did have a site temporarily in high school.