The Power of Vision

1. My first serious visional goal that i hope to achieve in the future is successfully taking over the family business and developing it, by applying both technology skills and operational management skills that i have learned in school. When i graduate, i plan on working extensively on using computer information technology by adapting inventory and bar code programs to upgrade our retail stores. Also, i would like to help develop and manage my family-owned real estate in the bronx. Using technology to improve efficiency is one of my main goals. When i achieve that goal i know that it will be much easier and practical to expand our retail stores from the bronx to other areas in the ny metropolitan region.
2.Another one of my goals is to develop my ebay business to the next level. I currently sell sneakers, shoes, and boots on ebay using the connections i have through our retail stores. I just started this business, however, it seems to be growing at a constant pace. Hopefully, when i graduate i will have enough time to allocate in favor of growth in sales and listing effeciency. I am also very hopeful that ebay will take off the listing limit as time passes, so that i can use this unlimited listing capability to sell a whole range of clothing, footwear, and accessories to a broad market all over the globe.
3. One of my long-term goals is to use the profits i earned from the retail, real estate, and ebay, to invest in creating and developing a brand name company that produces sneakers, boots and shoes. We will hopefully produce in China where manufacturing is least expensive. I already have a salesman in mind that agreed to work for us at a fixed salary. He knows of all the factories in which we can produce our products. He also has a great relationship with retail store chains throughout the east coast which will be our target market to begin with. This is not an easy task, however i believe that with great effort and hard work it is possible to succeed in such a business using my familys long history and experience in the shoe business.
4. One day in the near future, when i can comfortably afford to raise a family, i hope to find the right women for me. I havent thought too much about this vision, but god willing i will have the power, strength, and money to raise a healthy family

The Plan That Should Have Worked

My group planning process was pretty efficient. From the start we knew the direction we wanted to take. We were well aware that our time to think of a successful plan was limited (25 min.) Two feet of tape and 8 straws were very difficult supplies to make a strong outer protected layer without covering 50% of the egg. As a group, we believed the best approach was to make a cubic outer layer with a reinforced inner layer with the egg in the absolute middle. The tough part was figuring out how to get a hold of the only scissors in the class. One of us came up with the idea to send someone out of the classroom to look for a pair of scissors. This saved us a significant amount of time and effort. One negative part of our planning that we had was that we did not account for the weakness in the tape. This made the process much harder to formulate. We cut pieces of paper to visualize the straws. We also, used those straw length pieces of paper as a guide to see how we would build the protected cube. One of our biggest dilemmas was the lack of time. We knew that we only had 10 minutes to build the object once we received the supplies, however, it was quit a procedure to handle the speed of the development. Each person in our team had a different job. Two people were making the straws into cube-like figures. One person was in charge of the egg and keeping it stable so that it would not break. Another person was in charge of the scissors, so that no one steals it. During the building process, we realized the tape that we were using was not strong, so it caused us to use up more time to reinforce the structure with extra tape. I believe that our planning was done pretty well, however, our group did not account for physics. When an object falls the most dense area will hit the bottom first especially when thrown from 10 feet high. Because, we did not have time to tape a straw cushion both on top of the egg and under the egg we decided to spend the rest of our time supporting the area under the egg. When the time was up, the area under the egg was well cushioned, but the area that was more dense was not protected. When our team member dropped the figure, even though she dropped the figure with the unprotected side facing up, the more densed area hit the ground first and broke the egg. Therefore, it is safe to say that if we had another minute or two to secure the top part of the object we would be successful in fully protecting the egg from breaking.

Culture Shock

Last semester i studied abroad in Florence, Italy. Italian culture is very different from American culture in many ways. Different parts of Italy have different cultures. Italy is separated into many different regions. Florence is located in the Tuscany region. Italians have many specialties that they are known for, such as: style, food, soccer, and wine. One thing for sure is that Italians know how to dress. Even their pajamas have to be in fashion. Italians value their food very highly. Especially, in Tuscany where they are known for their simple but exquisite foods such as extra virgin olive oil or bruschetta di Tuscana. Unlike in the U.S, soccer is like a religion in Italy. The Florence soccer team made it to the champions league in Europe while i was there, so the experience was a one of a kind, when Florentina defeated Liverpool in the champions league match. The Italians cherish Italian wine so much that they sell wine everywhere. Tuscan wine such as Chianti classico(red) or san gamigniano (white) are popular all over the world. An interesting cultural characteristic in Europe especially in Italy is that personal space is not respected like it is in America. It is part of their culture to speak to someone they have not even met very close to their face. At first it made me feel very uncomfortable but eventually i got used to it.