[Career Explorer]Suggested line of work?

美國商周商學院論壇上,
有人詢問25歲若未來要念MBA名校
應該選擇哪種生涯路線
這位詢問者有相當不錯的諮詢顧問潛能
但其中有幾項生涯選擇不合邏輯
請見小弟分析如下

http://forums.businessweek.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?tsn=1&nav=messages&webtag=bw-bschools&tid=75186


From: davidlee0222
Date: 2008-04-12T00:25:50
Very typical example of MBA career management. It's a global business that not limited to Chinese.
· From: dionusos
·
· Total Posts: 64
· Posted: Apr-10
I'm 25 years old, and I have been an administrative assistant for the past 2.5 years. Last 1.5 years at a health care company. I need to look for a new job that will put me in a better position to get into MBA school in a few years. What positions should I look for?
1) "Analyst" ?
2) IT support (I hope it's not hard to pick up and learn...)
3) Fill in the blank.
I just have no clue!

BTW my target industry for post-MBA work... I am very open to anything, but my top choices are Marketing and Finance.
(cont'd.)
I'm not sure how much more specific I can get than saying I want to be the director of a department at a company, a department that makes decisions concerning Brand Management, advancing and protecting the brand image of the company. Do I have to cite a specific company and product? Okay, well, I want to be the director of the Entertainment Department at Sony and decide how to market the next Playstation console.For example, this console generation had a controversial move that Sony was heavily criticized for--inclusion of the Blu-Ray drive (and the requirement that all game developers use the Blu-Ray disc). This raised the price on the PS3 and caused many to say that the xBox 360 would beat out the PS3. Sony, being much more experienced with hardware than the software giant of Microsoft, would surely take a big hit in their brand image in the console industry if this happened. The Sony Playstation became legendary with its second incarnation, but the name Sony was still not as resilient in console gaming as Nintendo, and Sony couldn't afford to lose out in this battle after so much investment.The decision to include Blu-Ray was risky and overlapped into the high-def media war with HD DVD, but winning over Warner Brothers through exclusive deals secured the victory, and now the PS3 is seen as a bargain way to have a gaming console and a high-def media player all in one.The overlapping of media players and console gaming was done before when Sony decided that that the PS2 would feature the software to play DVD movies. The buggy state of the PS2 DVD player led the masses to speculate that Sony would leave console gaming and movie players as separate markets. But Sony surprised everyone with the PS3.I want to be the guy who makes the decisions on how to market Son'y shoe entertainment products. I want to be one who takes Sony's reputation from "Oh yeah they're generally good, but not the best deal caused they are overpriced" to "Oh yeah, Sony!! They make great hardware like gaming consoles and HDTVs!!! Sure it's a little pricey but well worth it. Better to spend $500 on something you love than spend $350 on something that feels cheap and will break on you."I'll add another example if that helps.Pepsi Cola and Coca Cola have very different approaches to marketing their products. Pepsi Cola embraced non-carbonated beverages (Gatorade, Sobe) earlier, and expanded globally much faster than Coca Cola. Coca Cola was a little stubborn with developing non-carboated beverages, and wanted to concentrate on the market in America . Pepsi Cola's advertisement reacnhed out to the younger crowd, known to drink more soft drinks than their older counterparts. Coca Cola, looking back, realized how conservative their advertisement campaign was, and how it did not appeal to the younger generation. Coca Cola also ran into trouble with some of their bottling businesses, some of which were family-run and could not afford the low margin of profit. Coca Cola was losing the battle so bad, that to eliminate debt, Coca Cola brought back a retired ex-president, who came up with the highly regarded "51% solution" of keeping 51% of Coca Cola's stocks, while taking the other 49% and forming the Coke Company (correct me if I am wrong on the exact names). This eliminated millions in debt by taking advantage of a loophole in the law.So to give you an idea of what I want to do, I DON'T want to be the guy who is charged with coming up with the next brilliant 51% solution, but I DO want to be the guy who helps change Coca Cola's strategy of what types of drinks to develop (do we pool our resources into making new kinds of Powerade, or do we make more carbonated drinks?), and where to market the drinks (concentrate on the United States, or spread it out to Europe? Or the whole world?). In general, I'd like to be the guy who made everyone stop saying "Oh yeah, Coke, my dad drinks that" and instead, start saying "Why would I drink that Pepsi when there's perfectly good Coke right here? Save the Pepsi for your little sister."Again, thanks to everyone who has contributed so far. If there is anyone else out there that can make suggestions despite my vaguery, please do so!

Answer:
From: davidlee0222
Total Posts: 30
Posted: 8:09 PM
To: dionusos
:: Unread ::
18 of 18 75386.18
Reply to 75386.9
Hi Dionusos,
I believe you might be facing several blind spots in your career logic now. First is the reverse logic that you're choosing your career paths based on "pursuing a decent MBA." All due respect but the logic is error by nature. Your MBA should be something supplemental that can significantly accelerate your solid career objectives, not a "goal" by itself. Nobody knows what will exactly happen in future, but at least you need a direction or narrowed options as focused as possible, then you can figure out why you need an MBA and what part of it you'll need. So far these career choices are still all random. You need to find out by your career logic.
It's quite obviously that you have some analytical potential, but that may be misleading since the points you analyzed were the "afterward outcomes" that already reflected by the market, and these were only the surface of the operations and business strategies that either PS3 v.s. 360 or Coke v.s. Pepsi you need to go much deep down at least 4 to 5 levels to see internally the short-term and long-term business strategies, market-orientation, consumer perception and demand, brand strategy, product positioning relates to product portfolio, financial structures, supply chain networks, outsourcing practices, competitive landscapes, operation value chain, channel structures and profit splits, and then "forecast" the market for either profitabilities and stock influencials, so as to execute brand promotion, product selling campaigns, and pricing tactics.
But all of these are not your career pathing considerations. Career drivers are 3 major elements: Passion, Characteristics, and Professional Capabilities. Now although you had such a brillent analysis on market, it still cannot confirm whether the consulting-related jobs will be your career yet, since you need some concrete evidence on your real-world career. You need to prove to yourself that consulting or something else can be your life-long career, even though you might need "a decent MBA" first to get into certain industries like consulting, you have to prove your potential first by solid evidence, whatever it can be, to "knock the door" on these professions.
Another key may be your age and experience that 2.5 years are still too unpredictable to try to "settle down" your career. It'll be a huge risk based on very limited evidence and career track. Some of those evidences may be temporary or even false. You need at least a coule of years to observe and examine your best fit from 3 career drivers. Then see if you need a MBA and how significant it can play a role in your life. We can talk in private to find out your career progress and find out those career drivers.
David
MBA Career Manager
davidlee0222big1@gmail.com

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