Managerial Negotiations - Fisher College of Business MBA blog - Joseph Fahrendorf

As I mentioned in an earlier blog entry, I am taking an elective called Managerial Negotiations. First year MBA students who have a GPA above 3.25 are allowed to take one elective during their second quarter. I figured Managerial Negotiations was a great choice because it is not only applicable to business, but also to everyday life.

The class is designed to allow us to practice different negotiation tactics each class in small groups. This safe environment allows us to get out of our comfort zone and really test different theories and strategies. Today’s class involved a negotiation between two individuals: one interested in selling a manufacturing plant and the other interested in buying a manufacturing plant. The buyer and seller each knew several common facts such as the appraisal value of the plant and the selling price of a slightly newer manufacturing plant in the same area. Although this common knowledge allowed us to get the conversation started, there were other areas that we had to consider such as: the building’s depreciation, falling land value, synergies between the companies manufacturing set-up, and the time it would take to build a new plant if an agreement couldn’t be reached. Somewhere in the middle we needed to come to an agreement.

I left my negotiation very happy with the deal we struck. I bought the plant in the lower part of my target range which I developed before entering the discussion. As it turned out, my deal was right in the middle of the class’ purchasing prices: five groups bought the plant for less, six groups sold the plant for more, and two groups were unable to reach a deal.

Joe





This post was republished by Joseph Fahrendorf's MBA blog.)

Football is over... time for school

It has recently become very evident that I will have little free time this quarter. Between working on my core classes and my recently invigorated summer internship search, this might be my busiest quarter of the year. I guess for the benefit of my MBA degree, the Bengals lost in the playoffs yesterday to the NY Jets. There is no doubt that with my team out of the playoffs, I will now have significantly more time available each week. Gone are the days of spending endless hours on espn.com to get the most up-to-date information on my team, gone are the Sundays of spending four hours watching the game and then several additional hours either too happy or depressed to do any work.

I was actually at the Bengals game this Sunday with my dad and brothers. The 1 degree wind chill was not nearly as bad as losing. I’m still upset about the loss, but eventually I will adapt to life without football. Hopefully I do this sooner rather than later, especially since I have an important phone interview with a recruiter from Cardinal Health on Tuesday. I will be speaking with her about their summer marketing internship and hopefully I can make a positive impression.

-Joseph

This post was republished from Joseph Fahrendorf's Fisher Grad blog.

Columbus winter warning

There is no doubt about it: the Columbus winter is harsh. For the past seven years I have taken great pride in my ability to survive the winters of New Haven, CT and New York City. When I decided to move back to Ohio, I never thought twice about the Ohio winter. I clearly underestimated its potential.

Since the beginning of the month it has snowed pretty much every day. Although the accumulation has not been too heavy, it has been an obnoxious amount capable of covering my car, which inevitably delays my departure for class by 15 minutes every morning. Not only is it constantly snowing, it is absolutely freezing outside. It is so cold, that I succumbed to driving to the gym a few days ago. Although this might not sound bad, you should know that the gym is about 300 meters from my place and is clearly visible from my apartment. Where is global warming when I need it?

Joseph Fahrendorf

This was reposted from Joseph Fahrendorf's Fisher Grad Life Blog.

Q2 - Joseph Fahrendorf

Tomorrow is the first day of the second quarter. Christmas break was great, but I’m glad that it is over. Three weeks is a long time off and towards the end I started to feel restless.

This quarter I am taking five classes. Four are mandatory: Cost Accounting, Finance, Operations Management and Marketing. The elective that I’ll be taking is Negotiations. Even before taking a single class, I think I can say that I’ll prefer the second quarter over the first quarter classes. Marketing and Operations are two areas that I am considering as majors.

I wish I had better news to report. I am writing this blog as I watch my beloved Cincinnati Bengals get crushed by the NY Jets. Fortunately the Bengals are in the playoffs and it just so happens that they’ll be playing the Jets in Cincinnati next weekend in the first round of the playoffs. I’ll need to make sure to get all my reading done during the week so that I can return home this weekend to attend the game.

Christmas Break

It has been a great break. I haven’t had 3+ weeks completely off in a long time. Even during my undergrad years I was never fully off. As a rower on the lightweight crew team, every free moment was spent training for the racing season. It was no surprise that I was a little unsure how to spend my winter break. To make it easier, I broke up the break into three blocks.

The first block of time off I spent doing nothing… and it was great. I stayed in Columbus and slowly unwound from the hectic life I lived during finals. Each day I read the paper, went to the gym, checked on grades, watched movies, attended ugly sweater parties, etc.

For the second block of winter break, I returned to Cincinnati to spend time with my family. Of course it was great to be home and see everyone, not to mention all the excellent food I ate. Plus I was able to go to the Bengals v. Chiefs game in which the Bengals clinched the AFC North title. Hopefully they can make a good run in the playoffs.

Block three officially began when I returned to Columbus a few days ago. I am currently trying to adjust back to a more realistic life – one with priorities, deadlines, and homework. I’ve already bought most of my books and now I need to start reading course syllabi and preparing for another quarter at Fisher College.

- Joseph Fahrendorf

(This was reposted from Joseph Fahrendorf's blog for Fisher College of Business)

Winter Break = Freedom

Classes are over, finals are finished, papers are complete… and I’m finally on winter break! For the next three and a half weeks I am off. This will give me plenty of time to reflect on the Q1 and make the necessary adjustments to be more successful in Q2.

Favorite class: Managerial Economics with Professor Campbell.

Least favorite class: Data Analysis.

Overall, this quarter was amazing. I met a lot of great individuals and I really stretched myself by taking subjects in which I had no prior knowledge. Accounting was tough, but I survived. I hear Cost Accounting next quarter is even harder, so that should be fun. My professional speaking class really improved my public speaking skills and I feel much more comfortable speaking in front of large audiences.

I'll reflect more on Q1 a little later. Now it is time to relax. I should also have plenty of time to blog over the next three weeks... although I won't have anything to blog about. Stay tuned, I'm sure something will come to mind.

-Joseph

This post was republished from Joseph Fahrendorf's Fisher College of Business blog.

Projects and Finals

Once again everyone is busy at Fisher College of Business. This is the last week of class so everything is wrapping up. As a result, I had to give a presentation on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.

Monday – (Enhancing Professional Interchange) I gave a speech with three other individuals about the Thanksgiving holiday. We were supposed to talk for 16 minutes and we hit 15:59.3 without any help from the professor. Hopefully we get a few extra points for nailing the time exactly.

Tuesday – (Economics) My team gave a presentation on the compensation difference between the CEO of Aetna and the CEO of UnitedHealth. We discussed CEO pay packages and their financial incentives.

Wednesday – (Organizational Behavior) My team gave a presentation on a leadership model that we developed based on OSU President Gordon Gee. (I might have worn a bow tie for this presentation.)

As you can imagine, I’m definitely glad to have these projects behind me. Now I can start studying for finals. It all begins next Monday with Managerial Econ. Tuesday is the Data Analysis final and Wednesday is the Accounting final. It should be a fun three days.

I can’t wait until Wednesday afternoon…

-Joseph Fahrendorf

(This was reposted from Joseph Fahrendorf's blog for the Max M. Fisher College of Business.)