I will buy Apple Stock today:
Price today: 169.04
Let's check back in 1 month or so...
2008-01-16
2008-01-13
MBA in Review: 2007 Term 1: Applied Statistics
Statistics was the only course that I got an A in the first year, so naturally I wanted to take the follow-up course to keep my streak going...
The course covered a lot of advanced statistical methods, such as Cross Validation, LASSO, Splicing, Neural Network, and many others. It is about 50% lecture and 50% lab. Since many of the methods require complex modeling and calculation, we also learned to use a statistical package called R. The final project is about looking for interesting data sets and use the learned methods to look for trends and predictions. Overall it's a good course to learn to grasp trends through looking at data and identifying relevant variables. It's a good way to validate one's business intuition with numbers
The course covered a lot of advanced statistical methods, such as Cross Validation, LASSO, Splicing, Neural Network, and many others. It is about 50% lecture and 50% lab. Since many of the methods require complex modeling and calculation, we also learned to use a statistical package called R. The final project is about looking for interesting data sets and use the learned methods to look for trends and predictions. Overall it's a good course to learn to grasp trends through looking at data and identifying relevant variables. It's a good way to validate one's business intuition with numbers
MBA in Review: 2007 Term 1: Entrepreneurial Finance
Term 2 is starting soon... better finish up writing my review before I forgot all about it.
Entrepreneurial Finance is a class specifically about how to plan/deal with financial instruments/information in an entrepreneurial context. The class is mostly lecture-based with various guest speakers in entrepreneurship-related industries, such as Angel, VC, Entrepreneurial laws, Leverage Buyout, etc.
What was interesting about this class wasn't really about what the professor taught, but the time when it was taught. In late 2007, sub-prime crisis is just hitting the US market, and we got to discuss a lot about entrepreneur opportunities and issues in such a trying time.
Entrepreneurial Finance is a class specifically about how to plan/deal with financial instruments/information in an entrepreneurial context. The class is mostly lecture-based with various guest speakers in entrepreneurship-related industries, such as Angel, VC, Entrepreneurial laws, Leverage Buyout, etc.
What was interesting about this class wasn't really about what the professor taught, but the time when it was taught. In late 2007, sub-prime crisis is just hitting the US market, and we got to discuss a lot about entrepreneur opportunities and issues in such a trying time.
2007-12-23
MBA in Review: 2007 Term 1: Negotiation
Negotiation is probably the course that has the broadest application. Basically, you are negotiating everyday, with your families, friends, colleagues, clients, and more.
The class is mostly negotiation exercises, with a little bit of lecturing and videos. In the exercises, it's interesting to see how people with different characteristics and dynamics would work out of each scenario. Sometimes, though, it was hard to get into character and act out the scenarios.
What I will remember in 10 years from this class:
1. I am too compromising in negotiations
2. Need to have better postures and speaking tempo
3. I am a very objective person
The class is mostly negotiation exercises, with a little bit of lecturing and videos. In the exercises, it's interesting to see how people with different characteristics and dynamics would work out of each scenario. Sometimes, though, it was hard to get into character and act out the scenarios.
What I will remember in 10 years from this class:
1. I am too compromising in negotiations
2. Need to have better postures and speaking tempo
3. I am a very objective person
2007-12-20
MBA in Review: 2007 Term 1: Feasibility
I took 5 courses in the fall term. They are pretty much all over the map. I guess I will talk about the entrepreneurial class first: Cases in Feasibility
Entrepreneurial Study is a pretty good sell for USC; its entrepreneurial department is ranked 1st in several academic magazines this year (I still couldn't spell it right even if my life depends on it... god bless spell checking). My MBA application also had entrepreneurship as one of my long term goals. As I study more about business, though, I find that while I may have the skill and innovativeness to develop a new business, I just don't have the drive and commitment to be an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs are a special kind of people. They have to have the guts to do it their way when everyone else doesn't agree. I am just not that kind of person. Anyways, even if I am not fit to be an entrepreneur, I still find the mental framework and skills of an entrepreneur are an important asset when you are into business development or planning. That's why I took this course.
This particular course deals with feasibility studies. What is a feasibility study? In essence, it's what you need to do before you do a business plan. A businss plan is usually something you need to have to present to the investors. It has a lot of nitty gritties, like business model, marketing plan, operation, financial forecasts, etc. A feasibility study is what you should do before you do a business plan: research the market, research the business, find your customers, do a sales forecasts, etc. Basically, you are convincing others with a business plan, and you are convincing yourself with a feasibility study.
My feasibility project, if you read the last post, is about a online baseball simulation game. I won't go into many details about it, because I just wrote a 20-page report... but basically, during the course, the professor would take each of us from the initial concept to the full-blown analysis, with many guest speakers, some of whom were previous students of this particular course and actually went ahead with their feasibility studies. I think what I will remember 10 years from now from this course is that you need to talk to a lot of strangers to generate ideas and feedback about your business ideas or concepts, but ultimately, it is up to yourself to decide what and how you want to do it.
Entrepreneurial Study is a pretty good sell for USC; its entrepreneurial department is ranked 1st in several academic magazines this year (I still couldn't spell it right even if my life depends on it... god bless spell checking). My MBA application also had entrepreneurship as one of my long term goals. As I study more about business, though, I find that while I may have the skill and innovativeness to develop a new business, I just don't have the drive and commitment to be an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs are a special kind of people. They have to have the guts to do it their way when everyone else doesn't agree. I am just not that kind of person. Anyways, even if I am not fit to be an entrepreneur, I still find the mental framework and skills of an entrepreneur are an important asset when you are into business development or planning. That's why I took this course.
This particular course deals with feasibility studies. What is a feasibility study? In essence, it's what you need to do before you do a business plan. A businss plan is usually something you need to have to present to the investors. It has a lot of nitty gritties, like business model, marketing plan, operation, financial forecasts, etc. A feasibility study is what you should do before you do a business plan: research the market, research the business, find your customers, do a sales forecasts, etc. Basically, you are convincing others with a business plan, and you are convincing yourself with a feasibility study.
My feasibility project, if you read the last post, is about a online baseball simulation game. I won't go into many details about it, because I just wrote a 20-page report... but basically, during the course, the professor would take each of us from the initial concept to the full-blown analysis, with many guest speakers, some of whom were previous students of this particular course and actually went ahead with their feasibility studies. I think what I will remember 10 years from now from this course is that you need to talk to a lot of strangers to generate ideas and feedback about your business ideas or concepts, but ultimately, it is up to yourself to decide what and how you want to do it.
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