MBA Journal Begins

I've been asked to keep a daily journal of thoughts and introspection on my journey through my MBA program that I'm pursuing through George Fox University, Boise extension. My first class, Mission and Vision, started Wednesday night and this is my first post. Each post must have, for maximum points, a significant level of introspection, insight, thoughtfulness, and will likely result in a significant level of behavior modification. As I will not be satisfied with anything less than outstanding for this and other courses in this program, I intend on doing my best to exceed that goal.

So far we've read half of a book called "The Path" by Laurie Beth Jones and wrote a paper summarizing my introspection of some exercises done from the text. I'm not going to comment much on that here, except to say that I believe, as with any book, one must "chew the fruit and spit out the seeds". Overall I did enjoy the book and the exercises that Jones prescribed in assisting the reader come up with a personal mission and vision statement were very good. I've gone through this process before, but this was a good refresher and Laurie's style was very free flowing and easy to use.

Tonight's reading and study was on the APA format (a little dry, but helpful), as well as a series of handouts referring to Mission, Vision, and listings of habits, rules, and/or virtues from famous men. One item that stood out for me personally was the "11 Simple Rules" of Dave Packard, fo-founder of Hewlett-Packard. I worked at HP for about 10 years and was able to first hand see these rules in action, though it has been very many years since the companies founding and the publishing of Dave's rules. In particular, Dave's first rule "Think first of the other fellow" is an excellent foundation to lay for all the other rules. Not only does this strike a cord in me of Christ's exhortation for us to love other's first, it also brings to mind the power of a simple statement with profound implications.

As I've been digging back into my own personal mission and vision, the concepts of love, service, and other mindedness are there. Because the Lord has done so much for me, I feel an obligation of love to those around me to think of them first. I don't always do that of course, but that's my goal and what I strive for. Thinking first of others keeps us humble, keeps us flexible and accepting of others, keeps us focused on listening and understanding before being important and being heard. From a business perspective it also keeps us focused on the customer, both internal and external. Time and again, and especially more recently, businesses who truly focus on customers and their loyalty, are business who see success. The law of reciprocity applies, when we focus on others' needs, we tend to be rewarded in return.

Regarding my behavior modification, this is yet another reminder that God's principles apply universally to all people, and that I must not only believe in thinking about other's first, I must also remiain vigiliant in doing it - and not for the sake of having said I did, but because its' the right thing to do, for them.