Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!
You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.
You’re on your own.And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go.
– Dr.Seuss’s Oh, the Places You’ll Go!
Who is he?
He was armed with a quirky-looking brown briefcase and had a cup of piping hot coffee in his hands. Next, he swished out his Apple laptop and open the iTunes programme.
In the lecture hall
Click, click and click. Within seconds, the whole lecture hall was filled with pop-rock music blasting from his stylish white gadget. He throbbed his head from side to side with every beat of the music, enjoying every bit of the song. With the strumming of the electric guitar as the background music and chic lecture slides with a black backdrop (rather similar to Steve Job’s style of presentation slides where bullet points are omitted), I knew that I was sitting in one of the “coolest” lectures ever.
Let’s make some money today
What came out as even more astonishing was when Prof David came up front and said that we should put everything away from our desks.No taking down of notes, he said. For a moment, I think every student in his lecture felt naked and insecure without their Pilot pens and foolscap papers at their desks. After clearing our desks, he clasped both of his hands and said, ” Some of you will have the opportunity to make some money today.”
Bidding for a $10 Bill
To earn some cash, we were supposed to bid for a $10 bill which he had auctioned off. And of course, the highest bidder would walk away with the $10 bill. Needless to say, if you had bid for an amount more than the value of $10, you would be making a loss instead of a profit.
World Vs Money
I reckoned that the bidding process would stop when the bid has reached $10. But I was wrong. Several students began to raise their hands to place for higher bids. The winning bid was $30. That student must have had a lot of cash in his pocket. I thought it was just a “game” for the lecturer to illustrate a point. But it was real – as real as the money-motivated world out there. Does money make the world goes round?
The Lecture
For the next couple of hours, he shared with us about several misconceptions about human decision-making process. But wait a minute, isn’t this module suppose to be about Management and Organisation in the business world? The contents of the lecture seems to be revolving around sociological and psychological-based theories.
Questions marks have been sprouting out in my head every ten to fifteen minutes during the lecture. It did not get any better when the lecturer was pacing back and forth continuously and my eyes had to trace left and right, straining my ciliary muscles and causing my head to pound.
My Tiny Narrow Brain
The accumulated questions mark in my head and had driven me to seek
The truth is that business does not just revolve around finance, stock markets and money-making strategies. But it also comprises the study of human relations, behavioural and thought processes in organizational settings. I soon found out that several management theories were based upon psychological theories.
Essentially, how can one dive straight into the society or career world without knowing and understanding how humans behave in an organization?
Welcome to the real corporate world.
I’m off to a great place.
