What Greg Learned 27

The transcript means nothing! It’s total anarchy this week on What Greg Learned, as I treat my carefully-written script as a rough set of guidelines and fling preparation to the wind… well, ok, I guess I do that every week. The transcript (for what it’s worth) is after the break….

Heya! We’re back, and it’s time once again to find out What Greg Learned. I’m Greg, and this continues to be my digitized journal of what it’s been like to go through continuing education in managing technology.

We’re coming up to crunch time in the term, with two classes left. The final class session will have two presentations/papers due and an actual final. Plus an additional presentation for the Japan trip. And I know others in my cohort taking other classes have other things due the same time. So it’s gonna be a heck of a time. Both of my projects involve coming up with venture/invention sorts of ideas.

Anyway, the usual format of this blog is to iterate my way through the classes, but I’m not going to this week. It was another good weekend – this has easily been the best term of the program for me – but not really in any specific new ways. Both my wireless class and robotics featured guest speakers (and both classes plan to continue doing so) so we’re getting other perspectives on the technology, and in this we’re getting a much better perspective on how the tech classes in this program were designed to work. Real industry perspectives, feedback from people who’ve been involved at the forefront of the technologies. The shame and the pity is how this peek at how the program should work is happening now at the two-thirds-done point, but I suppose it can’t be helped.

Supply chain continues to be a class that makes me realize how much I enjoy operations. There’s something very satisfying about looking at all the pieces of how you order raw materials and move product to distribution centers and retailers, forecast demand, and to realizing just how powerful these really basic infrastructure parts of running a business really are. We explored an interesting angle this week about sustainability in the supply chain, with a particular focus on Wal-mart. Quietly, Wal-mart’s been pushing the green aspect of their operations to reduce energy usage and do other ecologically sound practices, and really they’re doing it for primarily business reasons – maybe the best proof you can come up with that the false dichotomy between ecology and economy is just a red herring… those who believe the two are mutually exclusive are hurting whatever their cause is, be it making money or fighting climate change.

The Japan trip’s shaping up. I’ve bought some suits and a business card holder… and really I’m trying not to think about just how much this trip is going to cost, all told, but it’s all worth it. Starting next class session we’ll have a lot of extra meetings, and justifiably so… we’re down to about a month! I’m still next to myself with excitement. All somebody has to do is mention, say, Shinjuku Station and I grin like a madman.

Well, that’s really about all I have this week. Funny how there’s less to talk about in a good term. But maybe there’ll be more next time around on What Greg Learned! See ya!