The year was 2003. The season was Fall. The class was a capstone course for my MBA called Entrepreneurial Strategy. We spent an entire semester creating a full blown business plan. And I don't mean that undergraduate bull-shit that passes for a business plan but is really just a glorified book report. I'm talking about identifying a new business concept, conducting research on the budgetary constraints and market forces surrounding that concept, developing a full blown Cash Flow Statement, Income Statement, and Balance Sheet on a five year projection for the proposed business, creating a marketing plan and sample materials for the business, calculating the potential financial yield for investors and then presenting our plan to a group of our peers and a panel of guest business professors.
This class was the Super Bowl of my MBA experience. It required countless hours of research and preparation, it caused knockd-down arguments between my project partner and me, and it required the courage of Hercules to know that your complete work would be on display to the entire MBA community. But it was by far and away... head and shoulders... unequivocally... the best experience in the program for me. I had the time of my life because we chose to do devise a business around the Collectible Card Game (CCG) industry.
The CCG industry is built on the backs of the millions of rabid sci-fi/fantasy geeks who knock down doors to purchase the latest incarnation of their favorite sci-fi/fantasy genres in game form, so that they can broaden and deepen their personal experience with said franchises. While other MBA hopefuls were presenting business plans about RFID technology, international banking, and venture capital markets, I was talking about a card game. Original content meets personal passion, my friends!
11 comments:
Unfortunately your professor thought your idea was complete ass and gave you an F+
This is...genius.
Cyber, the things that stimulate you compare to no other! I'm not sure I was ever that excited about an assignment!
Well, I will give you that having an MBA is pretty geeky.
I was expecting you to come up with a twist on the world's oldest profession, I even started hearing Bob Segar's "Old Time Rock And Roll," somewhere in the background but instead you came up with the ancestor of Yugi-Oh.
Clever.
Yeah, so what was your grade? And if you were a true geek you would have implemented it and be a millionaire by now, since there are so many geeks in the world.
Exsqueeze me Gyuss??? I have an MBA...I resent that statment!!!
My point has been made...
Q, emmmm.... You are a lying pole smoker and you know it.
susan, you should see my theories on quantum physics.
tera, how many times have I heard someone marvel at the bizarre things that stimulate me!
G, ummmm... you're missing the point.
papa, the world's oldest profession? What are you talking about? What does being a farmer have to do with this post? Wait... I... Ohhhhhh...
noreg, Dispite what Q would have you think, I got an A on the project. Only reason we didn't pursue it was beause we were both poor, hard-working stiffs who needed a steady paycheck and neither of us had the 3 million in start-up capital required to get it off the ground.
tera, you tell him!
G, You can take your point and go shove it up your...
and i repeat, oh boys...*sigh*
Oh, now ya get it.
Name: Cyber D
Industry: Human Fulfillment
Title: Pimp Extraordinaire
Post a Comment