International Business Environments

I had the most refreshing lecture yesterday evening. Normally I dread late night classes. The students don't want to be there, the professor complains about being there. Everybody just wants to leave early. So much for getting your moneys worth of education. Yesterday though was a totally different class due to the methods the proffessor, Dr. Keillor used.

Dr. Keillor has a reputation for being an obnoxious, thick skinned, know-it-all professor. But boy does he know his stuff! You can read more about what students think of him here. Yesterday's class had all the right ingredients. I was kept awake by his explanation of each minor point he had on his slides, his many and interesting examples of companies and how they operate to reflect each point he made and he kept us on our toes by throwing questions and making us think. He injested rude but funny jokes and I could tell that some people were not amused but huh, I guess you gotta be a little bit open to the way he teaches to learn about things.

The other part I loved about the class is the actual topic itself. It's about the global environment. It's about how businesses in the US that went into the many international markets around the world. It was about how they brought back knowledge that they learnt from the overseas market. How refreshing it was not to learn about how stuff are done in the US. Dr. Keillor lived in the U.K. for a long time and all his stories about the norm in the U.K. too brought a smile to my face as I knew what he was talking about. Who else would know about crisps?

Some of the more interesting anecdotes from last night's class were:
These are the views of the professor and by no mean actual fact. I didn't do my own research yet but take the following with a grain of salt.

1. Frito-Lay learned about seasonal flavors and brand flavors from the consumer market in the U.K. They brought the "salt n vinegar" flavor to the U.S. and now it is one of the top selling flavors in the US market. Lesson: you can be a better company by taking the knowledge you learnt by expanding overseas back to your home country.
   
2. The first brand that comes to the average British mind is "Google". Who knew a brand that you don't physically purchase could be top of the list? McDonalds came in second but no where close to the number 1 spot. Lesson: You need to recognize that what you think the value of your brand is may be different from what your customer thinks it's worth.
   
3. McDonald's core values are: quality, value, service. Quality is measured by the temperature of the food when they are served. Value is measured by the price of the food. Service is measured by the speed of the service and whether you get the correct order. Lesson: It's that simple. Just give the customers what they want. You don't have to give them more than what they ask for.
   

These are only some of the examples that I heard in the class. Overall I enjoyed the class tremendously coz I felt that I learnt so much. I've been thinking about taking a second masters degree in MBA. And this class is making me feel stronger about applying to the program. We'll see how things go.