I’m finally returning to the details of what has become my everyday life now that my temporary work project and final exams are over. I have never been so exhausted in my life. While I was worn down from going to zero to sixty, and still kind of amped after going from sixty to zero, I am glad that I had the opportunity to go through this valuable roller coaster ride. In retrospect, I’ve learned the following from the last few weeks:

1. Having things in order in advance of craziness:   I have a consulting professor (or had, now that the semester is officially over for me) who told a story during orientation about things going haywire while he was completing his MBA degree. Since I went to the emergency room the evening before I first heard this story, I can tell you it was on my mind for the past couple of years. Even though I was thinking about it, I failed to heed this sage wisdom.
2. Committing to staying on top of a couple of essential details:   Anyone who knows me well or has been avidly following this blog, knows that I firmly believe that details are the Devil. I guess that this is due in part to my love of abstract high ideals and such. That’s why I started getting into creating systems and record keeping to help me not forget things I can’t allow myself to forget during the busy times. The most important of these things are my current financial status and my weight. I went through my savings a lot quicker than expected and added another ten pounds to my weight. I guess that my loss of concentration will be leading to some serious belt tightening in the next few days (in more ways than one).
3. Keeping a slightly faster pace at all times:  Working a forty-hour work week, even when I’m not getting paid from what I’m working on, is a really good idea. That’s five days on with a couple of days of relaxation each week. This will help me to be ready when I get the last-minute call to do something that I really want to do.
4. Specific skills:  There were so many resume-type of things that I picked up over the last couple of weeks. First and foremost, I got to work on a real-life market research project. That’s especially important, since I’m working to sell myself as a marketing guru. Additionally, this was a marketing project in a previously unfamiliar industry, thus proving that I can still pick up new types of information quickly. I also got valuable experience in cold calling. While people dread cold-calling for some reason, having the opportunity to explore the techniques associated with neuro-linguistic programming helped to make industry leaders and corporate giants more comfortable talking to me about sensitive issues. Furthermore, I used cold calling as an opportunity to understand the rules for winning the sales and research game and using this knowledge of the rules to my advantage. All this newfound knowledge was in addition to the old standbys of bettering my personal time management skills, developing the motivation needed to do the hard stuff, and improving my report writing skills. All this, while difficult and not always perfectly executed, will make me even more successful on my next project.

I think that my biggest takeaway from this experience, though, is the confidence to know that I can do bigger and better things with my career. So, while I previously thought that I could never go out on my own because I couldn’t work hard enough to sustain that type of effort (even for something I loved doing), I was pleasantly surprised to prove myself wrong. Starting my own consulting firm or whatever I chose to do from now on should be a cinch.

I finally reached a milestone that I had been waiting for since I read the New Testament, one that I thought I would never reach — my 33rd birthday. I was too tired for the party — so tired that I was drunk before the first beer. It’s good I had someone to drive me, especially after the third beer. Too bad she couldn’t tell me that I was wearing a University of North Carolina jersey to a bar in downtown Raleigh (home of my very own North Carolina State University). At least I didn’t forget my very special party hat.

Planning the party was easy. I just showed up at a meeting that was already going on and said “Hey everybody, it’s my birthday!” Genius. And I knew no one would be so upset by this act that they would get up and leave in the middle of dinner. The meeting that I crashed was the Wake County Libertarian Party meeting. There was no where else I wanted to be on my very special 33rd. Everyone was great, as usual.

More photos from tonight’s get-together can be found at my new Picasa photo album.

Tonight’s cases for strategic management concentrated on issues in “the drug industry.” Due to the high level of hypocrisy associated with the business of drugs, I tend to display a great deal of animosity in this regard. I took a lot of detailed notes during tonight’s presentation, since I was expecting to vote on which group I would choose to hire and why. For whatever reason, we didn’t have this type of discussion after the presentations. While each group was strong, I definitely would have hired the group that had three members that were in my group for another class. I forget if they were using the same team name, Team Kismet, but they were definitely one of the winning groups in my book. And here’s why:

First, this group most adequately communicated the importance of the regulatory and legal environment in the pharmaceutical industry. In order to win, you’ve got to know the rules of the game, and let’s face it — America has the best politicians that money can buy. More government interference in the process leads to longer development times and nonsensical requirements for drug manufacturers. While those politicians who like to claim to be guardians of the people cite that less regulation of this industry could lead to deaths, similar claims have been made that certain drugs not being on the market kills 100,000 people every year.

In addition to the abundance of regulations, Kismet also showed completeness in their analysis by emphasizing the existence of a trend toward alternative medicine. A lot of pharmaceutical companies are probably shying away from these areas because they don’t think they can make money off of it. I haven’t taken a close look at GNC’s revenues, but anecdotally I have seen people spend money hand-over-fist there. In fact, I have spent money hand-over-fist there. Mainly, I’m buying vitamins and milk thistle supplements to, in effect, subsidize my own poor personal lifestyle choices (such as eating a less nutritious diet and consuming large amounts of alcohol). This is similar to what the pharmaceutical industry already does, since they don’t make money if they actually cure you of a disease or medical condition.

But the gorilla in the room is marijuana. Marijuana is a substance that is intoxicating just like alcohol or tobacco cigarettes, except that marijuana has actual medical uses. And by changing the status of marijuana, the door would be kicked wide open for even more scientific studies to confirm such claims. One of my favorite slides in Kismet’s presentation was a 2×2 matrix comparing growth and revenue for different pharmaceuticals. Seriously, if Merck, Pfizer, or any other major pharma company (or tobacco or alcohol company for that matter) introduced marijuana in their “drug” lineups, would you think that marijuana would be that company’s worst product (the dog) or their best product (the star)? I guarantee that the very first day on the market, more weed would be sold than all the Viagra, Lipitor, and Prozac that has ever been sold.

Overall, Team Kismet’s strategy and recommendations were clearer and more concrete. They weren’t perfect, though. Of note, was the concept of people choosing to buy a brand name over a generic. In keeping with the marijuana train of thought, people might buy weed from a guy named Tim, but as long as it’s really weed, nobody’s going to care if the guy’s name was really Mark. Besides generics are a lot cheaper.

The other problem was discrimination associated with off-loading HIV and AIDS drugs to Africa. There’s an idea that African nations don’t have money to pay. In a sense, Africa has an unlimited supply of money that can be printed and borrowed from the developed world. But as former President Clinton said, it’s gobbled up by warlords before it gets to the people. That, and of course, failed policies of governments and people’s inability to accept modernity in order to stop the spread of AIDS through common sense procedures. If there is one thing I’ve learned from my strategic management class this semester, it is this:  American culture is so powerful that it can easily overwhelm native cultures around the world and destroy them, but American innovation can never be utilized by people within those native cultures. Or I think that’s what the professor was getting at…

Anyway, congrats to Team Kismet, for doing a bang up job on their presentation and handling a lame subject in a professional way.