Download Kaplan University Graduate School of Management SELF

Kaplan University Graduate School of Management
SELF DIRECTED LEARNING PLAN
The Self Directed Learning Plan (SDLP) is a process and document to chronicle your accomplishments and learning steps through the MBA
program and beyond as they relate to your professional goals. The SDLP will help you to identify and target the array of competencies you need to
reach your professional objectives and to help you organize your Kaplan MBA learning experience to suit your career objectives. The SDLP will
be a section of your Career Portfolio, so take some quality introspective time to consider strengths and areas of development relevant to your
career objectives. We encourage you to contact Career Services for feedback on relevant competencies for your career goal, as well as other
insights. By knowing your strengths and areas to develop, you can begin a plan to find out what you need to do to achieve your career goals.
We encourage you to continue to reflect on the identified areas throughout the MBA program. If you feel strength or development area is no longer
relevant, you may add another to take its place. At any time, you may also add additional areas.
Your Name: Joel Westfield
Date:
3/6/11; 3/23; 4/2/11; 4/11/11
Course Title: GB 530: Marketing Management
Professional Goal (3-5 years) from now:
In 3-5 years I want to be managing the Human Resources department of a mid-sized company. The HR department of such a company will
include 10-15 generalists and assistants. Some of my work will be in the area of conflict resolution. This may include working with rank and file
employees to iron out differences with management to provide for a more harmonious workplace. I will also work to improve employee satisfaction
and retention rates. As a manager of a Human Resources department, I want to be a part of upper management and to be part of the decisionmaking processes they engage in.
Strengths to Leverage
Step 1: The most effective and satisfied people align their work with their natural strong points. Identify 3-5 of your key strengths (see Column 1
below); these could be a competency, skill, ability, knowledge area or personal characteristic. Think about how you can leverage those strengths
to be effective in your work, achieve your professional goals, and become a leader in your profession.
Step 2: At the beginning of each course in your MBA program, answer the following question either using this template or a narrative format.
What do you expect to learn in this course that will help you leverage your strengths? (see Column 2 below). Be as specific as you can, e.g.,
assume that a strength is your analytical ability. You might expect to understand more about macro economics so that you can analyze how the
housing crisis affects other segments of the economy, such as interest rates or unemployment. At the beginning of the course you are not
expected to be an expert in all facets of the course learning; however, you can glean valuable insights from the course description or purpose,
course and unit learning objectives, and from unit themes.
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Step 3:
At the end of each course (Unit 6) answer the following questions either using this template or a narrative format. Did you learn what
you expected to learn? (see Column 3 below). Was there information or insights that helped you that you didn’t expect to learn at the outset of
the course? For example, not only did you learn about macro economics, but you learned some software tools that help in conducting an
economic analysis. What changes or additions, if any, will you make to your SDLP based on learning in this course?
Step 1: Strengths to
Leverage
Strength 1
Research skills
Strength 2
Strong sense of
responsibility
Step 2: Course Learning Goals
Step 3: Course Outcomes & Assessment
I have very good researching skills. This
class will help me to leverage this skill a
great deal. The Theory into Practice
Discussions, Marketing Current Events,
and developing a marketing plan will all
require significant research.
Determining market attractiveness,
forecasting demand, making branding
decisions, and using the marketing
research process will all be valuable to
me in leveraging this skill.
This class has provided many opportunities for researching.
The discussions, current events and brand extension marketing
plan have all required a great deal of research. The marketing
research process and forecasting demand were great opportunities to work on my research skills. I also found it very
rewarding to conduct research on the target market, especially
potential competitors during my work on the brand extension
marketing plan.
I am a very responsible person. In my
present and future careers, I am and
will be a role model for others. I want
others to see in me someone who does
not blame others or bad luck, but takes
responsibility. By taking responsibility, I
am then in a position to demand it of
those I oversee.
This class will help to further develop
this strength in me. It will be my
responsibility to turn my assignments in
on time and to put forth my best effort at
submitting quality work. If I make
mistakes, it will be important for me to
learn from them and move on.
It will be my responsibility to take the
time necessary to learn the concepts
and skills this class will offer to
effectively put them into use later on. I
expect this class to offer very
challenging work that will require
significant study time and thought.
Learning how to effectively market will
The personal marketing plan gave me a taste of the research
that will be required in preparing to market and actually
marketing Me, Inc.
As a marketer, it is important to be responsible. This class
included studies on ethics in marketing. It has been very helpful
in strengthening my sense of responsibility by studying the
AMA code of ethics as well as the ethical implications of
marketing intelligence. I learned that receiving some
information is best dealt with by turning it over to the company
lawyers. Learning that marketers must be careful about whom
they are targeting with ads and the message they are sending
was enlightening not just in teaching me about responsible
marketing, but about being responsible in life. What I do and
say can have an influence on others, both for good and for bad.
Throughout the course, I have had many opportunities to
exercise my responsibility to submit the best work I possibly
could. I took responsibility for posting work in the discussion
threads that took a great deal of thought and that would ensure
that my readers would learn something.
Reading Newsweek articles in preparation for the current
events assignments provided examples of responsible and
irresponsible behavior, both directly related to marketing and
indirectly. This has reinforced my strong sense of responsibility.
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include learning to do so responsibly.
Strength 3
Sets high standards
Strength 4
Great attention to detail
Setting and maintaining high
standards are very important to me. In
this class, I will have many opportunities
to maintain high standards. It will be
important to demonstrate high
standards in discussion posts. Doing so
will encourage classmates to have high
standards.
I also have high ethical standards.
This class will provide many
opportunities to study ethics in
marketing and making choices that
involve effectiveness versus ethics.
It is very important to me that I maintain high standards. When I do things,
they must be done right. I like high
qualitative standards. I also expect
others working for me to hold to high
standards as well. As the leader of a
Human Resources dept., I am the role
model. If I am satisfied with shoddy
work, mistakes, etc., then my direct
reports are going to lower their
standards too. I desire for my department to set the standard for the
company.
I expect to learn much about high
standards from the instructor in this
class.
Many aspects of my job require great
attention to detail. This is mostly the
case in writing policies, procedures, and
development plans. I wish to leverage
this strength further.
This class will help me to further
develop this strength by requiring close
attention to detail. I expect to be
required to adhere closely to APA style
in my writing. I also expect that the
This class has offered me many opportunities to practice high
standards. I have especially taken advantage of the opportunity
to set high standards for work quality and study. I have done
what I can to set high standards in the discussion posts and
current events assignments. In other classes, many of the
discussion posts have been unenlightening and rather dull. I
have been committed to setting a high quality standard that my
classmates can recognize and aspire to. The posts in this class
have been of much higher quality, and therefore rewarding to
submit high quality work.
The textbook for this class featured numerous examples of
companies that have thrived in business due to maintaining
high standards. That has strengthened my resolve to continue
to work to leverage this strength.
The study of branding has been important with regard to setting
high standards. Building brand equity requires high standards.
Building equity in brand, ‘me’, is equally important. This was
highlighted in the personal marketing plan. I learned from that,
mostly through the self-reflection that the assignment required,
just how important high standards are to the brand.
Marketing, I have learned, makes great use of detail. To
effectively market, one has to pay attention to details that can
help to properly differentiate products. Much like Hasbro
differentiates its products depending upon the retailer who will
be selling their products, I may one day need to do similarly. I
may have to pay close attention to the details to differentiate
my product as I market myself.
Although the brand extension marketing plan did not adhere to
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marketing current events, Theory into
Practice discussions, and brand
extension marketing plan will require
great detail.
strict APA style, some of it was still used, for example in the
references. These were details that I watched for. I also
needed to watch the details to submit theory into practice
discussions that featured proper grammar and spelling. This
practice will always serve me well in preparing for the real
business world.
Areas to Develop
Step 1: We all have strengths, but we also have areas on which we need to improve. As related to your career goal, identify 3-5 areas to
develop (see Column 1 below); these could be a competency, skill, ability, knowledge area or personal characteristic. Think about how you can
improve in these areas so that you can achieve your professional goals and become a leader in your profession.
Step 2: At the beginning of each course answer the following question either using this template or a narrative format. What do you expect to
learn in this course that will help you to develop in the identified area? (see Column 2 below).
Step 3:
At the end of each course (Unit 6) answer the following questions either using this template or a narrative format. Did you learn what
you expected to learn? (see Column 3 below). Was there information or insights that helped you that you didn’t expect to learn at the outset of
the course? What changes or additions, if any, will you make to your SDLP based on learning in this course?
Step 1: Areas to develop
Step 2: Course Learning Goals
Step 3: Course Outcomes & Assessment
Area 1
Less effective at work
involving imaginative future
orientation
Successful businesses make good use
of forecasting, projections, and planning
ahead. Using these strategies to
develop proactive strategies or to give
the business a competitive advantage is
the primary objective. A businessperson
who can predict consumers’
preferences ahead of time has an
advantage.
A number of outcomes in this class will
help me to develop skills in this area.
Newsweek video segments will include
thinking in the future. Forecasting
demand is also an outcome in this
class. I expect the study of product life
cycles to involve a future orientation.
Finally, developing a marketing plan will
likely include predictions of what will
work and what strategies will not.
This class has been of great benefit in helping me to develop
in this area. Launching a new brand or a brand extension
requires thinking into the future. Projecting sales, demand,
consumer behavior, and preparing for future contingencies all
served to help me to think in a future orientation.
Studying product life cycles has been very interesting and
offered much benefit in this area. California Pizza Kitchen was
a very important case study in showing how important thinking
in future terms is. Taking their product to the ballpark and
introducing salads to their product offerings showed
imaginative future thinking.
Thinking in the future tense is an important part of developing
a good marketing mix. Future thinking can help one to develop
the right product and where to place it to gain maximum profit.
As a future business leader, this is critical for me to learn. This
class has helped a great deal in this area.
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Area 2
Ability to see the big
picture
Area 3
Organization and time
management
As an aspiring business leader, I have
to be able to see the big picture. I need
to be able to see how all segments of
my company are integrated and interconnected and have to work in concert
to make the company successful. I have
the tendency to be highly effective in
specialist areas of work, but may
sometimes not see the big picture.
I believe this class will be very important
in helping me to develop in this area.
I expect I will learn how marketing
involves all of a company’s departments
and employees. Developing a
marketing plan is going to show me a
lot about the big picture of a company.
This class will teach me that hiring the
right employees, attracting the right
consumers, keeping the company’s
beds full, and retaining good employees
are all going to involve marketing.
Some would say that organization and
time management is a strength to
leverage rather than an area to
develop. I prefer to look at this area as
one to develop. I don’t think I can ever
be good enough at this.
This class will help me in these areas
by presenting many challenges in
planning my study times to prepare high
quality assignments in the time allowed
to complete them. This class will involve
a certain amount of juggling because of
the variety of assignments due for a
given week.
This class promises to be very
challenging because of the concepts to
be introduced. I have very little
experience with marketing. I will have to
organize my time well to keep up with
the work and balance it with a career.
One of the topics in this class is marketing in an overall
business strategy. In other words, marketing is a piece of the
bigger picture. Wally Amos was a good case study in seeing
the big picture. The way he combined a quality product, quality
relationships with stakeholders, and charity together into a big
whole showed how important the ability to see the big picture
is. That was a very valuable lesson for me.
Pfizer was another important case study that involved the big
picture. Giving away incredible amounts of drugs to
developing countries while still having the capital to fund
research and development took much creative, big-picture
thinking on their part. Determining who was going to pay for
that was not easy. That company’s leaders had to consider big
picture in coming up with a plan to accomplish it all. A very
valuable lesson for me, indeed.
This class has taught me that effective marketing won’t make
a company profitable if the product is inferior, or the customers
aren’t treated right. Lots of little pieces go into creating the big
picture, all working in concert to make the company great.
Apple, Southwest Airlines, Gap, Inc., American Express, and a
host of other companies are lessons on that.
Timing is critical. Whether determining when to launch a
product, when to begin an ad campaign, or when to call a
client for follow up all require expert time management.
Figuring out the break-even point for a new product takes a lot
of time management. This has been very helpful to me in
learning many different aspects of time management.
The course work in the class was very demanding with regard
to time. To juggle a full time job with successfully completing
this class took a great deal of organization and time
management. Add to that the timeliness with which
assignments had to be submitted and it was a very good
practice. In the real business world, various aspects of a
marketing plan will be time sensitive, as will other aspects of
the business.
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Given the fact that this class will
require numerous different
assignments, in light of having a full
time job, I expect to learn much about
organizing my time.
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