Capstone - The Beginning of the End

I took this photo over Spring Break while hiking in Pacific Palisades.  At 512 steps, this staircase is supposedly the longest set in all of Los Angeles.  That meant, of course, that I had to climb them.  But why someone spray-painted "Tech" onto them, I'll never know. Or, perhaps, I really do.

I've mentioned earlier that I dove into all things digital a few years back because I wanted to stay on the cutting edge of where business is going. This inherent drive to stay ahead of the curve eventually landed me at St. Eds' dMBA program. My foray into both technology & this program has, at times, been an up hill climb. Nevertheless, these experiences have prepared me well for "Capstone".

"Capstone" is the final 7 week term of our program. During this time teams are assigned to companies to help them research, develop & execute a plan of action to solve a problem or launch a project. Its not an internship - its richer than that - we are knee deep in problems... & solutions.

We are a week into this new term... 1 unlike any other.  In addition to our Capstone (I have the best freakin' team ever in Kevin Kettler & Gabe Maldonado) I've picked up 2 clients of my own & am consulting with an international nonprofit org and start-up company.  I love the mix of these various organizations - they are all in very different industries & each has different levels of comfort with digital/social marketing & community building.  As such, I've been required to adjust my approach & presentation to not only each client, but to various members of my clients' teams.  For the eager & prepared, I'm jumping right into strategy & execution.  But for the more skeptical, like a dutiful business student, I'm presenting metrics to justify the ROI, generating buy-in from cynics & following up with designing & delivering training for employees.

Is it weird that I've used several pics of Travolta to illustrate my points on this blog?  No? I didn't think so.

This experience is a 360 view of digital/social media in practice. My clients, those who are in position of authority in their orgs, range from Gen X'ers to Baby Boomers.  From them its becoming clearer & clearer that we've spent the last 2 years in a bubble.  Now, its been a great bubble - but a bubble nonetheless.  Most of my cohort are Millennials so we've been in a bubble in which it is obvious that digital/social media are valuable tools.  But to some of my clients, these tools are strange & foreign. Capstone is about translating what we've been learning into practical business application. Said another way, we've been studying the individual pieces of the puzzle for 2 years - now is the time to put those pieces together.

View from LA's Giant Steps in Rustic Canyon

Capstone means I've traded in my jeans (classroom attire) for my Ann Taylor pencil skirts & suits (to meet with clients). And its awesome. I love returning to the "real" world and its incredibly rewarding to put these dMBA puzzle pieces together for clients... the view from the top of this climb is spectacular!

For more photos from my travels, follow me on Pinterest!

Congratulations Suzanne and Rob!!!

Rob and Suzanne pitching their award winning business plan to Jackson Nat'l Life Insurance Co.

... it was less than 15 years ago that the Internet began to assume the role it now has in companies... the way they served customers, transacted business, worked with partners and managed employees.  Social technology is about to do the same thing: transform the way people work together and do business.  The only question is, how fast will you get there?

 ~ Groundswell: Winning in a World 

Transformed by Social Technologies

Looking around and looking ahead at the disruption of traditional business models, Jackson National Life Insurance Company recently reached out to college students across the U.S. looking for ways to integrate social media into their business operations.  Thus was born the Jackson Social Media Business Plan Challenge.  Well, guess who won the challenge... along with a cool 15K?  None other than Suzanne Bonifaz and Rob Flores, fellow classmates in St. Ed's dMBA program!

What is particularly exciting about their Grand Prize win is that the plan was developed for a traditional insurance company.  Often, when people hear about our MBA program focusing on Digital Media Management, they typically assume its solely focused on the music, film, tech and media industries.  While many of my classmates will work in these industries upon graduation, Rob and Suzanne's win demonstrates that the principles we've been studying apply across the business world.  While perhaps media is the most "glamorous" industry, its ultimately about all industries staying competitive and thriving in our ever-evolving new business environment.

Exemplifying the program's infusion of 'Digital Media Management' into a traditional MBA,  Suzanne and Rob applied the principles recommended by Forrester Research in Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technology (required reading for our Digital Consumer class).  For example, remembering that social media is ultimately about relationships and creating tight ties with the customer (rather than simply the technology), Rob and Suzanne didn't settle for the obvious answer of simply suggesting a Facebook or Twitter account.  Instead, they took into account the technographics of Jackson's customers to create a plan that would fit the overall objectives and strategies that would make sense for Jackson's unique needs.  Further, because Jackson is a financial services company, subject to strict oversight and regulation, they employed the "issue spotting" skills developed in our law classes. 

As our cohort nears the end our dMBA journey, (graduation is just over 3 months away!) it is inspiring to see our classmates succeed in applying to the real world what we've been studying.  Not only does this encourage us that businesses are clamoring for our skills... shoot... thanks for just making the rest of us look good!  

Congratulations Rob and Suzanne!

What?!?! 

You're not following them on Twitter?

Well, you should be!

@sbonifaz 

@RobdFlowers

The Digital Bridge: Parker Westbrook

Meet my friend, Parker Westbrook.  Parker's a bad-ass... but don't take my word for it, she's just been named Krav Maga Instructor of the Year at Fit & Fearless. 

Yet, despite Parker's physical and mental toughness, there is 1 thing that leaves her a little queasy: technology.  Parker isn't alone, though. For those of us not born into the Net Generation, aka Digital Natives... the online and digital landscape can be daunting.

Now, I'm not a "Digital Native" either, and I'm certainly not a natural-born "techie" so I completely understand the feelings of overwhelm with technology for those of us who haven't grown up on the Internet.  But understanding that digital tools and platforms are critical to the new realities of our world, I've gone out of my way to embrace them.  This has left me in an exciting role of being a bridge between the 2 worldviews (that of Millenials and Non-Millenials) and I absolutely love it!  In being a "digital bridge" I relish being the calm voice, teaching and encouraging non-Digital Natives to harness social media for their own purposes.

Back to Parker.  She's got the training side of things down cold, but she's more than just about teaching people to kick and punch. Parker is driven to empower people to take responsibility for their own personal safety and well-being. Moved by her mission, and since she can't teach 24 hours a day, I began pestering her to broaden her digital footprint to reach a wider audience.

To that end, for the last several months I've worked with Parker to develop her online presence.  Together, we've developed an overarching strategy to communicate her message and I've trained her in using various online tools.  For me, the most compelling tool she's using is podcasting.  This idea was born out of Parker's unrelenting quest for knowledge exhibited by her habit of interviewing "people on the front lines of what’s happening in the world of combat sports, self-defense, and psychology".  When I learned about these interviews, drawing on my background in documentary filmmaking, it was a no-brainer to suggest she begin recording these interviews to share with her audience so they could hear first-hand lessons from assault survivors as well as leading experts in their field.  The results are inspiring podcasts published on her website.  As a part of her digital repertoire, the podcasts not only set her apart, but serve to educate a wider audience.

Working with a tee-tiny budget, Parker's digital footprint is all DIY.  Because of Parker's initial resistance to technology, one of the most rewarding parts of working with her has been encouraging and supporting her to embrace the tools to create and sustain her digital footprint.  When we first started working together she was skeptical about creating and maintaining her own website, etc, but its been fun for me to increase her digital confidence and prove to her that she can do it!

In addition to working with Parker on the digital platforms themselves, its has also been exciting to apply the business principles that we've been learning in the dMBA program - especially the areas of Marketing & Branding.  In fact, working with Parker has been a rewarding opportunity to put the Digital in Digital MBA! 

Thank you to Joni McClain of Love and Light Images for the use of Parker's photo.

It Takes a Team to Build an MBA

Yay! Fall semester... DONE! In a near consensus, this has been the most challenging term yet in terms of workload and complexity of the content.

But despite the demands of it all, this has actually turned out to be the most rewarding term. Last year was spent laying the foundation of a solid business education and this year has been all about putting that foundation into action.

Besides the content however, the how of getting things done is quite different this year. Laying that foundation last year required a lot of independent reading, writing papers and doing homework ensuring that we individually understand the core business principles. This year though, working in teams to get our projects done wasn't just assigned, it was critical to our success. From my fabulous teammates in New Venture Creation, to my awesome partner Tish in Digital Law and my tireless collaborators in Branding and Promotion, I've loved working in groups this term as the dynamic simulates what its like to be out in the working world again... working with different personalities & experience levels, negotiating compromises, balancing strengths and encouraging each other when things get tough... There were a lot of moving parts to manage but doing so made all the difference to our success.
Aside from our assigned teams however, studying for Law... sheesh - I don't know how I would have digested all that content if it wasn't for my study buddies. To give you an idea of all the cases we had to master in a short seven weeks, here they are, shown w/ Basia's head for scale.

Anyhoo - its time for a break over the holidays before we come back in the Spring to wrap this thing up.

Until then, dMBA'ers congrats on a tough but valuable semester.
Go ahead and strut... we've earned it.

I Got My MBA Today...

OK - not really. We've got one more semester to do this spring... then we'll officially have our MBAs... but today... we earned our stripes today!

New Venture Creation has been one of my favorite classes in the program. In this course we've taken just about everything we've been learning for the last year and a half... Marketing, Finance, Branding, Accounting, Law... seriously, ALL of it, and in a mere 6 weeks have applied it by creating a business from scratch... then today we pitched that plan to a panel of judges and potential investors for feedback.

Holy $#$%^. We've done A LOT of presentations and public speaking throughout this program, but this assignment was like fighting for your life. These panelists didn't hold back in their critiques so we had to come prepared to NAIL it. Throughout the course of this class we've had other professionals and entrepreneurs provide us with feedback as we've developed our pitches. From this it seems that 1/2 the lesson has been to stay open and flexible to this professional feedback and make adjustments as needed; the business plan my team and I pitched today was very different from that first pitch we did in the beginning - you know... back when we simply had a "good idea". In the interim, my hardworking teammates, Britni McCotter and Gabe Maldonado and I reshaped this mere good idea into a viable business plan with high earning potential.

Congrats to my dMBA cohort - it was a blast celebrating w/ you this evening on a job well done!

Digital Law... Its Like Angry Birds!

Digitial Law. Its like playing Angry Birds. Specifically, its like one of the levels where everything is made of concrete and you just keep throwing yourself at it hoping to break through.

For our Digital Law class we are each assigned a case to analyze with a partner which we then present to our classmates. Tomorrow my partner, Tish and I are presenting the U.S. Court of Appeals case of Comcast v FCC concerning issues of net neutrality and regulation. Important issues to be sure... but if you're not getting an MBA in this stuff, read the Wiki version instead - it'll spare you a headache.

OK, as much as I gripe about reading for Law, the truth is, my classmate, Crystal and I were just chatting today about how reading page after page of these court documents is re-shaping how we think about everything we now see. Not just in terms of the law, that's a given... and the promise of becoming issue spotters is already coming to fruition. But, also, really, its strengthening our mental toughness. To break down this FCC case, Tish and I have had to meticulously comb through this case (beginning over Thanksgiving Break... yay!!!) to tease out the issues buried in legal jargon and evaluate the dense assessment of the Appellate Court. To get through it I just pictured myself as a little Angry Bird just busting through the concrete and annihilating monkeys!...sheesh... I am really becoming a Digital Dork!

But, as Crystal and I were discussing today, this understanding of the law is already paying off as a recent digital/copyright case has hit the local news. Botticelli's, a small but popular Austin restaurant, has suddenly become embroiled in a lawsuit with corporate giant, BMI (shout out to my friend Vicky Garza for some awesome reporting!). What strikes me the most about this story, is that the business owner apparently ignored repeated requests from BMI to cease the copyright infringement. If this is true, it seems the Botticellis didn't understand the gravity of copyright infringment and perhaps thought they were too small for BMI to trifle with. But as we're learning in Digital Law, size doesn't always matter (I'm being nice, this is the Wiki version) ... so as painful as it can be at times, it makes me glad I'm learning this stuff... you know, so I can annihilate the monkeys! Yep... Digital Dork.

On the Eve of Year Two...

With the start of classes tomorrow, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on what an amazing journey this last year has been!

Early on in the dMBA program I began researching Participant Media for a marketing class. I had long been a fan of their films (Food Inc., Charlie Wilson's War, North Country, etc.), but during my 1st year of the program I kept coming back to them again and again, fascinated by their business model. Their mission,"entertainment that inspires and compels social change" resonated deeply with me and my mission became to intern with them this summer.

To my great joy I was accepted as an intern in the Social Action department where I teamed with the staff and other interns to research, develop and execute social engagement campaigns (both online and offline) for PM's upcoming narratives and documentaries (see below). I had hoped to blog about my experience more, however, much of what I did each day was confidential so there really wasn't a way to share what I was doing and learning. Suffice it to say it was a rich and rewarding experience to not only work on these campaigns, but to also learn about the company as a whole. Laurie Luh, PM's Senior HR Director, organized weekly Brown Bag lunches where we had the opportunity to learn from representatives of different parts of the organization including Narrative & Documentary Development, TakePart, Legal and Finance & Business Operations.

After such a rich experience with my internship and so thoroughly enjoying the city itself, it wasn't easy to leave LA! But all I can think now, if the results of Year One have been so rewarding, I can't wait to see what's next!

Creativity... MBA... Ice Hockey... What???

With the start of this new term, I've been feeling like something of a Renaissance Woman lately. After all, this "Digital Media" MBA is no regular MBA.

Perhaps two of the strongest examples of what makes this degree "digital" comes from our latest round of classes:

1st, in my Finance class we've been studying all the traditional financial ratios and formulas, then applying financial analysis to current companies and market trends. For example, for one of our projects, my teammate Crystal and I are analyzing Disney. Specifically, we are conducting a financial analysis of Disney's 2006 acquisition of Pixar as well as their risky decision to produce Wall-E (after all, it starred a robot and a cockroach for heaven's sakes!). The objective of the project is to examine how to effectively balance creative and financial risks and rewards.

The 2nd example of what makes this MBA "digital" comes from my Interactive Technology and E-Commerce class. This class picks up where Information Systems left off last term. The 1st few weeks are devoted to understanding the framework and organization of technology, with the remaining weeks dedicated to hands on experience with Adobe's Creative Suite 5 and other creative digital tools. What I love about this class is that, while we're being trained in the business of digital media and not to be the "experts" in the actual creative software (otherwise I'd go get an MFA or an art degree instead of a business degree), this program expects us to be well versed enough in the standard digital tools that my peers and I will be effective collaborators in creative teams.

So its this intersection of business, technology and creativity that leaves me feeling like a Renaissance Woman lately - but better yet, as discussed in Daniel Pink's, A Whole New Mind, that I find myself being trained to understand traditional business principles as needed for our digital media world.

With that, I leave you with yet another sports metaphor (thanks to my friend Mary who reminded me of this awesome quote!):

I skate to where the puck is going to be,

not where it has been.

- Wayne Gretzky

Coen Brothers, look out!

Meet Brandon and Jonathan, the next generation of filmmaking brothers.

I recently volunteered with Mobile Film School, a non-profit bringing media arts education to under-served communities. The students of Eastside Memorial Green Tech High spent two days shooting on the topic of "stereotypes" and I had the privilege of mentoring them as they learned how to edit with Final Cut Pro (FCP).

These kids are smart as whips and though new to FCP, they picked it up quickly. It was incredibly rewarding to help them build their fluency with digital technology so they can give voice their own stories. And I learned a ton from them!

It was great spending the day taking a break from schoolwork - getting away from the business side of things - and diving back into the creative side again. But the best part of the day? Jonathan giving me a big ole' hug at the end and telling me how glad he was I came and how much he enjoyed working with me. ***Sniff***

Teamwork

As we approach the end of the first quarter, work on final projects is in full swing. For both Information Systems (IS) and Managing the Organization this means collaborating with a team of 3 others to conduct research, write and give a presentation.

For the IS project I volunteered to put together the Power Point presentation. As our team continues to collaborate to fine tune it I am reminded of how critical effective communication is - particularly late at night when we aren't face to face. That can be tricky, but because we've built a solid team foundation its actually going quite smoothly.

As the one putting together the presentation, I find I'm utilizing skills associated with media production. Specifically, like video editing, I'm taking the various pieces from my colleagues and synthesizing them into one coherent and compelling whole. I'm having fun now - but I'm really looking forward to putting these enhanced skills to use on a production!

Building a Computer From the Ground Up

Look Ma'! That's ME building a computer!

Actually, it was a team effort so we all get credit for it coming together. There were a few misses, but we were finally successful! (Note-to-self: if its hard to screw in the screws, then maybe the screws don't really go there in the first place!)

I have to confess, I've never considered myself much of a techie. I know! I'm in an MBA program with a focus on digital technology! So this is one of those classes that is really challenging my beliefs on what I think I can do. But I guess that's why I'm here after all - to stretch and push out those boundaries of my current abilities.

For more pics from "Build a Computer Day" see the sidebar for a slideshow of all the mayhem, er, I mean, fun!