Today, the dream team and I are delivering a presentation on the House of Marley in our Customer Experience Design class, which is quite a phenomenal class. In a nutshell, take everything you know about marketing and turn it on its head because they’re no longer the most effective ways of reaching your consumers. It’s hard to say whether the concepts and frameworks being taught work flawlessly in practice but the value is in challenging/stretching your thinking rather than giving you a set linear formula to follow. And of course, convincing others of this new way of thinking is a challenge in itself – you’d have to a) know it really well so that b) you can articulate it really well so that c) you can sell it really well. I wish I could share all the lectures. Professor Markus Giesler teaches this course and boy does it help to have someone as passionate and energetic as him to deliver such spectacular content. The combined power of stellar delivery and engaging content is unbeatable.
I’m also really looking forward to our kick-off meeting with our site on Friday for our capstone course project, the 7-month Strategic Field Study (“601”). Our team is made of rockstars and that’s always half the battle. Funny enough, all my MBA teams thus far (no matter self selected or randomly selected) have been made of rockstars and have brought very pleasant and successful experiences. So great an experience that there is always bittersweet sadness when it’s time to adjourn. This is quite contrary to the undergraduate days where you almost always had at least one free rider in every team project who made you want to rip your hair out. Reading week officially starts next week as well. Can’t wait.
Some days I’m completely good and other days, I want to book another small trip before the year ends to hold me over. I’m flip flopping all the time. Below is Pier 39 in Fisherman’s Wharf, San Francisco.
