It's all up to us !

Overall, I believe our class activity on decision making went well, ultimately producing desirable results for most of the class. I personally used a few of the ideas from the slide labeled “Decision Making Debriefing.” One of my compromises was not raising my hand when we were asked if anyone was against leaving the format of the next exam for the discretion of the professor. I personally like the multiple choice style exams because I feel if you study sufficiently and read the material, you will be able to pick out the right answer when it is staring you in the face. Since it was clear that the class was not going to be able to come to a unanimous decision on the multiple choice idea, I felt it was my duty to conform with the majority as that would bring the most good to the class as a whole. I also used the collaboration technique as I was discussing the best possible options with nearby classmates; listening to their ideas while trying to sell them on some of my own. I think that ultimately our method of weaving out possible choices was much better than say breaking up into groups, for example. If we broke up into groups we would be much more decentralized and coming up with a unanimous decision would be close to impossible. I think we could have improved some on some of the options that were proposed. Some of them were ludicrous ideas that obviously could not have been implemented. I think if we spent our time thinking of more feasible options we could have came to a conclusion on what format to use for the next exam. Nevertheless, I think the class was pleased with the outcome and we now know to study extra hard for exam #2!

Eggs-cellent Planning

My group was very confident that we would be able to construct a safe housing for our egg out of the materials provided. We did a very good job of defining our goals and objectives as we knew exactly how we wanted our egg to fall and we understood what we needed to do to make a successful egg basket, or so we thought. We also did a good job of allocating our given resources and determining our status objectives as we generated a pretty thorough and detailed plan. We knew how we were going to apportion each straw and each piece of tape before we were even given any materials. One of our biggest setback's was our disregard of developing an alternative strategy; we were so confident in our initial strategy that we never even though of what to do if our egg did not look sheltered after construction. We were pretty meticulous in creating our tactical plan as we assigned roles to each group member (i.e scissor grabber, straw cutter, straw taper, dropper). Everyone in the group had a role and contributed to our final product. We did a good job of implementation in the sense of executing exactly what we planned to do. However, I believe our problem lied in the plan and strategy itself rather than the implementation, which ultimately lead to our demise. I think we should have, as a group, came up with a couple different alternatives rather than just "running" with our first option.

Welcome to America!

Ignorant to the culture, language and way of life my parents knew it would be difficult to assimilate to American society when they moved our family to New York in 1992. Though I was too young to notice, I can remember my parents voicing their hardships in trying to grasp the American dream. One of more notable differences between life in the USSR and USA is the struggle for economic prosperity. During the communist regime, there was no such thing as free enterprise as all the businesses were government owned and all the salaries were governmentally controlled. The innate human trait of self-betterment is not exploited as one cannot earn more money through hard work and dedication. Conversely, the principle of striving to better yourself is the driving force behind the American dream. In addition to work ethic, the difference in food among the two cultures is very evident. In the USSR most of the dishes were rich in mayonnaise and almost always served with a side of potatoes. To my surprise and delight, most of the food I ate when I came to New York was greasy and from a fast food chain, which ironically is analogous to New York's fast paced life style. To sum up, since I immigrated to America at such a young age I had no problems assimilating to its expansive culture.

Getting to Know Eddie Shpits !

Greetings from Eddie Shpits, 21 year old Junior studying Accounting at New York's prestigious Baruch College. I was born in Kiev, Ukraine in 1989. My parents decided to move our family to America when I was three years old to escape religious persecution and in hopes of creating a better life for me and my sister. I currently live in Staten Island, and like many of you, endure a long commute to Baruch everday. I am a Sales Coordinator for a Logistics company called ARI Shipping located in Inwood, NY (a couple blocks away from JFK). Some of my hobbies include Basketball, Poker, and listening to music. I transferred to Baruch from CSI last semester in hopes of obtaining the best possible education in my field. I aspire to receive my Masters of Business Administration from Baruch and go on to be a successful CPA.