Future Risk

I first began to think about my future when I took an online survey to see what major best suited me while still in high school. That major turned out to be engineering which also turned out to be one of the only majors I was interested in or even knew about at the time. I looked more into the major and discovered that it had been and still is, one of the more financially secure majors out there. I did a few more research on other majors but nothing really interested me at the time. My other options were becoming a homicide detective, a chef, or a professional poker player. The choice I ended up making seemed to be the wiser and more secure choice. I had been pretty set on attending UIUC since middle school since being exposed to it by my math teacher as well as being attracted to the big sports teams and school spirit. While researching schools I also found out that UIUC conveniently had a top 5 engineering program in the nation and also ended up narrowing down my major more specifically to Mechanical Engineering. That decision was based on the idea that once graduated, that major would have a wide variety of companies to work for since it is pretty general in the things you can do with it. There weren't many limitations like an aerospace, industrial, or electrical engineer would face. That was my thought process.

I ended up getting accepted to the program in high school and had that same thought process since being accepted. That being that ME would offer the most stable financial future. So there I was coasting along taking all the general education courses required which presented slight challenges but were still completely doable. It was not until junior year first semester that I started to come across courses actually related to what I'd really be doing as a mechanical engineer. At that point I started to realize that what I was doing was not really what I wanted to do but it was just something that I thought would present minimal risk in my job seeking opportunities. That along with my head not really being fully committed to these new tougher courses such as thermodynamics, fluid dynamics, heat transfer, and materials is what ended up causing me to reevaluate my future and major.

My brother did not end up going to college and decided to join the construction work force. He worked for many years  gaining experience and not until a few years ago he decided he had had enough working for someone else and decided to become his own boss. He ended up creating his own company and is the primary worker/brains of the operation. Whenever I have breaks I help him and have been learning more of his craft (ceramics) as well as business management. Although it started off really risky, he managed to get through it and has even seen his company make decent profits in his first year. Seeing him take that risk is of creating his own business from relatively no experience with business is what caused me to change my major and ultimately pursue an MBA with an economics degree. I now hope to one day start my own business or to help small businesses, like my brother's, to become more efficient and productive to increase their profits.

Although it seems a bit counterintuitive as to what my plan initially was, my head is now more invested and dedicated in order to soon achieve that goal. It seems like a good choice to me and it is what I'm rolling with now.

Connecting The Dots

Looking back at old posts one starts to realize that these posts go hand-in-hand with one another. They all fall under the common theme that makes an organization run more effectively and productive. Wether it is through a bad example or a good one, one is able to realize what contributing factors allows for an organization to succeed. For example, my opportunism post ties to my management posts because bad management can be the cause of a person being opportunistic which can lead to increased transaction costs and in effect be the result of poor team success. A reader can learn from my team success post and apply it to their management in their individual organization if they believe it will help them achieve success in it. They may be also be able to see a decrease in opportunism if they read the team success post and understand that with trust and a common goal in mind, higher success will come if they work as a team while getting rid of some opportunism along the way. Transfer pricing can be related to transaction costs in such a way that makes efficiency of funds increase or decrease. Students that pay for popular classes with illinibucks will more likely pass that class the first time and not have to pay again to repeat it, leading to a decrease in transaction costs. If illinibucks were to start a black market, we would see how transfer pricing would cause an increase of opportunism amongst students.

I see now how these posts are all related to the course themes and more specifically the Economics of Organization. At the time of writing these posts I did not really think of relating them to one another but now it is clear how they are all related and allow for better understanding of how and why different organizations work better or worse by exploring these related themes. Applying these connections and understanding how they affect one another can allow a reader to see what works more efficiently in his/her organization and what he/she should avoid.

Writing these posts is slowly starting to become more natural. I am beginning to be able to apply the concepts to past experiences or new ideas more easily now. Most importantly, I am starting to see how these posts are all related to one another which is what this posts was intended to do. From this point forward, I will be able to relate future posts more to older ones and elaborate why something may or may not work with examples from older posts. Understanding this will allow me to see how the post I am writing, along with older ones, paint a bigger picture and will lead to overall understanding of the course.

In terms of writing the prompt, I would like to see more prompts that have a cause and effect as well as a takeaway message. More specifically, I would like to see prompts asking for further explanation of an obstacle that was encountered and the solutions that were done to overcome that obstacle. This way we can look at differing ways different people were able to cope with hardship and be able to take that and apply it to future obstacles in future organizations if they arise.

Transfer Pricing

If the University began to implement some sort of currency in order for students to skip the line or wait, I believe the most popular option would be registering for classes. More specifically, registering for classes with a preferred time slot (after 10am and before 3pm) or registering for classes with a popular/sought-after professor. The price would be set according to previous popularity of the class as well as demand. 

Say the price is set high for a popular class/required and not as high for other non-required classes, then students would have to prioritize which class to spend most of their illinibucks on. This would add value to the required classes since they are so sought-after and cause grades in that class to increase. This would happen because those students would not want to repeat the course since the price to get the class initially was so high. Also, they would have less classes to take that semester due to the currency allocation if they register for a popular/required class. On the other side, free electives/general courses would not see much change since their demand is not as high. One possible outcome would be that courses with low popularity might see a slight decrease in grades for the same reason as stated before and lack of value of the class. Another effect that would happen is that we would see that decrease in overloading classes to find the best suited ones as talked about earlier in the semester. This would be due to limited currency available. Students that would be in actual need of a class would find those classes more accessible than before due to this new policy. 

If a price for a popular class is set too low then we would see similar things happening that are currently happening. Students would overload their classes and there would be a shortage of that class for students that are in actual need of it. There would be excess classes taken by some students and it would be hard for them to prioritize their time with many classes leading to an overall decrease in grades and GPA. 

Another possible outcome that would rise if the price is set too low for a popular class is the emergence of a black market. Students would exploit the system and register for classes they know are popular and don't actually need in exchange for a high bidder of illinibucks. The price being set too low would make a few lucky fast people take advantage of the situation which would lead to a big increase in opportunism. Laws like price gouging would have to go into effect and a whole new set of policies would have to come into effect in order to prevent this from happening. To prevent this, the school would have to act as the market in order to correct the price. Simple economics would allow for this to happen. Paying attention to supply and demand would cause the most accurate prediction of the price needed for any class and would eliminate the black market almost completely. 

Overall the system that is currently in play is one that is mostly adopted throughout the entire U.S education system and has worked fine although it is not perfect. So if it is not broken, don't fix it. 

Team Success

When it comes to being part of a team that was successful, my varsity soccer team was a perfect example of that during my junior year. The main reason for this, which became most evident the following year, was the boss or the coach in this case. The following year the coach had to leave because he was moving to a different job in Colorado. Because of this, the team saw an immediate impact in performance due to the change in management. Although the team was not horrible after the new coach, things were never the same after that.

The team structure and hierarchy is what made the team very successful. What made the success of the team unmatchable the following years to come was the level of respect that we all had towards the coach and the clear head figure of the team. Following him, was the assistant coach responsible for being there for the players when the main coach was not there or had to focus on half of the team at a time. After that we had our team captains that were responsible for lifting the team morale in time of need, communicating to referees when we disagreed with them, leading some drills, and making sure the team was warmed up before the game began. Following them, were the players that had been part of the varsity team in the previous year. These players had previous years of experience and new varsity players, like me, looked towards them for any advice that would help us fit in and make the team perform well overall. These different mixes of expertise agree with Bolman and Deal and add to high perfomance in a team.

This clear sense of hierarchy is what made the team so successful. The team as a whole was able to communicate with one another if we had disagreements and it allowed us to overcome any problem that was thrown at us. We all respected one another and had a specific goal in mind; to win as many games as we could while giving it everything we had. This also agrees with what Bolman and Deal believe makes a team perform well. "High performing teams translate common purpose into specific, measurable perfomance goals."

The head coach was so well respected because he presented himself as an authoritative, assertive figure but he also gave everyone the respect that they deserved. He was genuine and had no favorites. In his eyes, we were all equal which allowed the players to get that sense of not only a team, but something much more. We all picked that up from him and because of that, we did not want to let him down or disappoint him in any way. That sense of respect is crucial and a big motivator when being part of a team. Whenever he had a problem with someone, he pulled them over to the side and worked out whatever needed to be worked out instead of exposing that player's business to everyone on the team.

Overall, what made this team so successful was the sense of communication and respect that we all had towards one another. We were able to overcome disagreements and help each other work towards a common goal which was winning. Everyone felt welcomed and understood that they were crucial for the team's success. Unfortunately, the following year the new coach did not present this sense of making someone feel welcomed and ultimately caused the team's success to drop drastically.