MGMT 363 EXAM TWO

What is the cultural iceberg?

• The idea that there are two types of visible culture: objective and subjective

  • Objective is what is outwardly shown

  • Subjective: Customs, Values, languages, how a culture operates from the outside

What are some misconceptions from the cultural business quiz?

• In general Latin America, personal relationships are more important than corporate ones

• The ‘Ok’ symbol is seen as vugular in Brazil, most notably in Latin America

• In Germany, punctuality is taken quite seriously

• Must understand the sports analogies and the ones they play

• Thumbs is rude is Greece

Discuss Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions

• Six cultural dimensions that give glimpse of their culture

• Power Distance: the way people in a society relate to each other

  • Low (Israel)

    • Power needs justification

    • Employees disargee with managers

    • Communication is informal and open door

  • High (Malaysia)

    • Hierarchal Order is natural and expected

    • Employees deter to authority

    • Communication is formal and title matter

• Collectivism v. Individualism: how the society views the degree of independence within society

  • Collectivist (we, Panama)

    • Loyalty to in-group

    • Group Harmony and shared responsibility

    • Hiring/promotion may consider in-group loyalty and relationships

    • Team-based bonus structure

  • Individualistic (I, Netherlands)

    • Look after self and immediate family

    • Personal Achievement and autonomy

    • Hiring/Promotion based on merit and skills

• Motivation towards achievement and sucess: what motivates people

  • Liking what you do (Swedan, Scanavidan countries)

    • Work it live

    • Resolve conflicts through compromise

    • Flexible work and parental leave

    • Consensus and cooperation are valued

    • More vacation days

  • Being the Best (Japan)

    • Live to work

    • Resolve conflicts through competition

    • Long hours= dedication

    • Performance is King

Why should gain a global perspective

• Understand and accept other cultures

• Think with complexity

• Be open to new ideas, issues, and solutions

• Learn from others

• Gain comfort with ambiguity

• Improve foreign language skills

Summarize Jacob Robinson’s speech and key takeaways

• Dare to Dream

  • As you get older, you dreams die and become more realsitic

  • Dreams turn into what-if

  • Concede dreams

  • Dream crazy dreams

• Operation out of imangination, not memory

  • How do you build a theme park

    • Raise money, 246 no’s before a yes

    • Disaster Grand Opening

    • Shark Thank

• Walk with Elephants

  • Surrond yourself with bigger people

  • Network: just ask to meet with them, everyone wants to meet students

  • Elephants allow you to dream big

Discuss the fireside chat and key takeaways

a.       Eliot Kerlin: Broad wing capital

                                                              i.      BBA Finance, Pre-Med, Student Senate, Reformed Univest Ory Fellowship

                                                            ii.      Interned at a HMO and saw that many people weren’t doctors, but working in business fields

                                                          iii.      Saw many opportunities at May’s, and was happy for the connections there

                                                          iv.      Worked at Merrill Lynch Investment Banking for two years, moved to private equity for 3 with Jupiter Partners

                                                            v.      Got an MBA from Harvard Business School

                                                          vi.      After, joined new Private Equity firm in Southlake (Insight Equity) in 2005

                                                        vii.      Founded Broad wing Capital in 2022: “Enhancing companies, cultures, and communities”

1.      Invested and raised $465M with 26 investments

                                                      viii.      Gives back through a prison entrance program

                                                          ix.      Key takeaway: People are an asset and worth investing in

b.      Laurie Shults: Owner of LS strategy

                                                              i.      MIS major, said she built her campaign for student body president with one conversation after another

                                                            ii.      Started at Enron in 2001 with executive communications

1.      She learned crisis management by having to deal with the Enron fallout, but was eventually terminated due to layoffs

2.      During her time at A&M, she kept a business card from a peer who happened to be the CEO  of pappas retreatants and became the VP of marketing

a.       Credited this experience as an opportunity to learn from the best

3.      Moved to Fuel (B2B oil/gas marketing firm) and then joined with a small oil/gas organization (Jones industrial Holdings)

                                                          iii.      Key takeaway: creating balance in your life

c.       Dan Clarke (CEO distinct Capital Group)

                                                              i.      From Washington D,C and went to Texas A&M

1.      States that his faith, family, and career started at Texas A&M

a.       BBA Finance and MIS

2.      During his time at A&M started career in management at Bain and Company (Investment Banking Management)

3.      Moved to Private Equity (Carlye Group, Venture Capitalist, 7 years), which was quite intense with travel and hours. Clarke said even with the hours, it was worth it

a.       Most notable case was in 2008 when he had the opportunity to turn around Blue Bird School Bus in three years and save them from bankruptcy

4.      In 2013, he wanted to start a Private Equity firm with purpose, Distinct Capital

a.       Servant- minded (partner companies, not acquired companies)

b.      Created value by serving

c.       Being close geographical increases relational capital

d.      No debt to reduce business owner risk, and often takes minority positions

e.       Prides themselves on flexible partnerships

d.      Questions and Key points

                                                              i.      Shoot for more than you think and harder than what you think you can do

                                                            ii.      Sweat Equity is important, especially in the beginning of your career

                                                          iii.      Your first two jobs define your career

                                                          iv.      Think what you value

                                                            v.      Businesses help societies

                                                          vi.      Give up on job security and embrace change

                                                        vii.      Work-Life Harmony

1.      You cannot have it on, but having goals, attacking everyday aggressively, setting priorities, and having discipline means you can create balance

2.      Find your north star and stick to it

3.      There is no such thing as balance, you must have your priorities and work tirelessly to achieve them

                                                      viii.      Working at Enron

1.      It felt like going down with a sinking ship, affected the Houston economy in so many ways

                                                          ix.      How do you get internships?  

1.      An internship is more than just experience, but a relationship and opportunity to have a mentor

2.      ALWAYS be expanding your network, and it is usually larger than you realize, especially as a student.

                                                            x.      When have you done ‘enough’

1.      If materialistic: never, which is why you must have a north star

2.      Relationships are always more fulfilling than money

                                                          xi.      How do you stand out to employers

1.      You cannot to traditional software, but you need to understand what they are looking for and use it.

2.      Also untie your network and allow your relationships time to compound

Discuss Blake Willenborg’s HEB speech and key takeaways

I.                    Blake Willenborg

a.       HEB culture is similar to Aggies (From the Outside looking in, you can’t understand it)

b.      Being privately held has it’s competitive advantages

c.       H-E-B does not have any ‘target demographics’ and competes against all retails

                                                              i.      Meaning they have to excel on all fronts and serve ALL segments

d.      Howard E. Butt: “At H-E-B, we’re a little, big company”

e.       Manufacturing, Warehouse, Transportation

                                                              i.      14 Manufacturing Plants

                                                            ii.      19 Distribution centers ($1.2 Billion in Inventory)

1.      New Temple Facility is the largest facility in North America

f.        Working in digital because wants to be a great digital retailer before tech companies figure out groceries

g.      Timeline of H-E-B

                                                              i.      1905: Florence Butt starts the first HEB store

                                                            ii.      1926: 2^nd Store in Del Rio, Texas (first after five failed attempts)

                                                          iii.      1936: Started using the Harlingen Cannery

                                                          iv.      1949: 1^st Food/Drug Store in corpus Chrisi

                                                            v.      1971: Charles Butt named President of HEB, valued at $221Million

                                                          vi.      1980: After 75 years, HEB achieved $1B in sales

                                                        vii.      1995: The creation of the Own Brand Product Line

                                                      viii.      2011: HEB established Read3, a program working to increase literacy

                                                          ix.      2013: Operation Appreciation, where partners-built homes for Veterans

                                                            x.      2015: The partner stock plan was launched

                                                          xi.      2016: The expansion of Curbside and the acquisition of favor in 2019

                                                        xii.      2021: Howard Butts III was named the new CEO

                                                      xiii.      2026: Roxanne Orsak was named President after Craig Boyan retired

h.      HEB is in the people business, they just happen to sell groceries

                                                              i.      People first mentality

                                                            ii.      HEB thinks what is right for the customer and the partner, and knows that it will be good for the business

                                                          iii.      Disaster Relief, Excellence in Education, Statewide Hunger Relief

                                                          iv.      Quest for Texas Best: lifting people up and showcasing great products

i.        Our Texas, Our future: conservation program

                                                              i.      We live here, we love here, and we’re committed to protecting here

1.      Diversion

2.      Product

3.      Energy

4.      Community

What is strategic decision making

• The most important aspect of business

Discuss the aspects of strategic managment

• Strategic Management: Comprehensive and ongoing management process aimed at formulating and implementing effective strategies

  • A way of approaching business opportunities and challenges

  • You must understand the internal and external environment

• Effective Strategies: Promote a superior alignment between the organization and its environment and the achievement of strategic goals

  • Strategic thinkers know alot and ask alot of questions, often needing a team to help truly understand all aspects of management

What are the components of stategy-

• Distinctive competence: first thing that should be thought about when thinking about strategy. An organizational strength possessed by only a small number of firms

  • What do I do that creates value that others cannot do well

  • How do I create value

  • You must differentiate yourself

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What are the levels of strategy?

• Business-level: set of strategic alternatives from which a organization chooses as it conducts business in a particular industry or market

• Corporate-Level: Set of strategic alternatives from which an organization chooses as it manages its operations simultaneously across several industries and several markets

How do you formulate and implement strategy?

• Formulation: the set of process involved in creating or determining the strategies of the organization

• Implementation: The methods by which strategies are operationizaed or executed within the organization

  • Focuses on the process through strategies are achieved

    • Hard put and not alot of theory, just have to do it

    • Think of the plans that you do not work at

• Deliberate strategy: A plan of action that an organization chooses and implements to support specific goals

• Emergent Strategy: A pattern of action that develops over time in an organization in the absence of mission and goals or despite mission and goals

  • How do you react with the world, most common

  • Involves allocating resources even through an organization has not explicitly choosen its strategies

Discuss SWOT and the fallacies of the program

• Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, Threats

• People think they have to cram all messiness into four clean buckets

• People tend to misuse SWOT by not understand their capabilities, resources, distinctive competence, and why

How do you evaluate an organization’s weakness

• Competitive Disadvantage: A situation in which an organization is not implementing valuable strategies that are being implemented by competing organizations

  • Organizations with competitive disadvantage can expect to attain below-average levels of performance

• Competitive Parity: creating same amount of value as my competition

  • Majority of business are in this space

• Competitive Advantage: Creating a superior value into the market, having a greater level of performance

How to implement your strategy

• Differentiation Strategy:

  • Marketing and sales must emphasize the high-quality, high-value, image of the organization’s products or services

  • Accounting and finance: control the flow of funds without discouraging the creativity needed to constantly develop new products and services to meet customer

  • Manufacturing: Emphasize quality and meeting specific customer needs, rather than simply reducing costs

  • Culture of the firm: Emphasize creativity, innovation, and response to customer needs

• Overall cost leadership strategy

  • Marketing and Sales: Focus on simple product attribute and how they meet customer needs in a cost-effective way

  • Accounting and finance: Success depends on having costs lower than competitors, management should reduce costs whenever possible

  • Manufacturing: Emphasizes increased volume of production to reduce the per-unit costs of manufacturing

  • Culture: Focus on improving efficiency of manufacturing, sales, and other business functions.

How do you formulate corporate-level strategies

• Diversification: number of different business that an organization is engaged in and the extent to which these businesses are related to one another

  • Single Product Strategy: a strategy in which an organization manufacturers just one product or service and sells it in a single

    • Advantage: A firm is likely to be very successful in manufacturing and marketing the product

    • Disadvantage: If the product is not accepted by the market or is replaced by a new one, the firm will suffer

  • Related diversification: a strategy is which an organization operates in several business that are in some way linked with one another

    • Advantages: introduces economic risk, reduces the overhead costs associated with managing any businesses, allows an organization to exploit its strengths and capabilities in more than just one business

  • Unrelated Diversification: A strategy is which an organization operates multiple businesses that are not logically associated with one another

    • Advantages: Business should be able achieve relatively stable performance over time, resource allocation

    • Disadvantage: Corporate-level managers do not know enough about the unrelated businesses to provide helpful strategic guidance or to allocate capital appropriately, organizations may be at a competitive disadvantage compared to those that use related diversification

How do you become a diversified dirm

• Mergers and Acquisitions

  • Merger: The purchase of one firm by another firm of approx. the same size

  • Acquisition: The purchase of a firm by a firm that is considerably larger

What is strategic alternatives for international business

• Home Replication Strategy: international strategy in which a company uses the core competency or firm-specific advantage it developed at home as it main competitive weapon in the foreign market that it enters

• Multidomestic Strategy: international strategy in which a company manages itself a collection of relatively independent operating subsidiaries, each of which focuses on a specific domestic market

• Global Strategy: International strategy in which a company views the world as a single marketplace and has as its primary goal the creation of standardized goods and services that will address the needs of customers worldwide

• Transnational Strategy: international strategy in which a company tries to combine the benefits of global scale efficiencies with the benefits and advantages of local responsiveness

What are some important facts to think about the guest speakers

• Jeff Schiffbond

  • Resistance, police sent email to not support, hospitalized due to stress, offical corn resource, off broadway fairy, saferway and wholefoods, ice cream company: Howdy Homemade

• Laurie S

  • Enron, 2nd SBP

• Dan/Elliot: Houston Boy Choir

• Jacob Robinson:

  • Janitorial while wife working at big four

• Katy Lane: CIBS, Culture is like an iceberg

Decision Making

• The act of choosing one alternative among a set of alternatives

• Don’t let them get your goat

• Welch: “This must be your mother”

What are the decision making style

• Directive:

  • Focuses on tasks and technical problems

  • Considers facts, rules, and procedures

  • Acquires information through hunches and by using short reports and limited data

  • Evaluates information by using institution, experience and rules

  • Has a low tolerance for ambiguity

  • Major criticism: Handles situations, not emotional, rigid, impersonal, simplistic, autocratic

• Analytical:

  • Focuses on tasks and technical problems taking logistical choice

  • Considers every aspect of a given problem

  • Evaluates information through abstract thinking, avoid incomplete data

  • Has a high tolerance for ambiguity

• Conceptual:

  • Focuses on people and broad aspects of problem

  • Considers many options and possibilities

  • Acquires information by using intuition and discussion with others

  • Evaluates information by integrating diverse data and applying judgetment

  • Has a high tolerance for ambiguity takes risks, and is very creative

  • Major criticism: Dilettantish, too idealistic, slow, indecisive, difficult to control

• Behavioral:

  • Focuses on people and social aspects of the work situation

  • Considers the well being of others

  • Evaluates information by using feelings and instincts

  • Has a tolerance for ambiguity

  • Concerns: Too concerned about others, wishy-washy, can’t make hard decisions, can’t say no

What are some key takeaways from Geoff Kolander’s speech?

• Decision-making is a muscle that needs to be strengthened

• Was Chief Legal Counsel for 5 years, and then forced into CEO position for Citizens Inc.

• After the founder died, there was a fight for control as well as a failed audit (old 1986 tax bill) and SEC investigation, and illegally selling in Brazil

  • How do you navigate that and move forward?

• The story of Ernest Shackleton

• Today is the father of tomorrow

• Step into the Arena