Cie Reflection Paper

CIE Reflection Paper

As I started my MBA and with this class, being an engineer and having my

own patents, I thought I was an innovator but I knew I lacked in creativity. The first surprise for me was the fact that both of these notions are not innate qualities but is actually something that can be worked on and improved and maybe instilled.

The most important learning out of this class has been the notion of observation and unarticulated needs. I am part of customer support and we always have had surveys, customer Q & A but we never had the notion of observation as a tool yet. My management coincidentally asked me to become a customer of my own tool and it was a complete eye opener for me as well. The notion of what a customer wants is fundamentally different from what a company/service provides and bridging the gap is what makes a successful product.

There are number of interesting notions that I am going to take back in addition to what I have observed above – (Just to name a few here)

• You need to mix structured and unstructured thinking together to have something new and creative. (Vertical and lateral thinking)

• Reserve judgment as far as possible and don’t be overcritical.

• Don’t think feasibility when being creative. Allow for free open discussion

• Encourage brain-storming and think prototypes since a prototype can easily filter out the non feasible prototypes.

• Majority and consensus etc should not be metrics when deciding on a course of action. It depends on passion, market potential and creativity.

• Cross pollination is a key to success. Without cross-pollination and experimentation you cannot potentially succeed.

Now, lets put this class in overall perspective to my career goals. I have 7 years of industry engineering experience and my goal out of the MBA is not to make a career change but build on my existing experience and become an entrepreneur but this course is already changing the way I observe, analyze and react...