Executive Management

It takes good management skills to run a company. Multinational or home business, without efficient organizational or managerial skills the company cannot be successful. Even when it comes to everyday life, we all need to know how to manage our time and work in order to get the best out of life so as to enjoy it to its fullest. Executive Management is all about planning today, for a better tomorrow. Learning is the first step towards success and as Executive Management majors we learned the techniques of planning, organizing, executing, coordinating, monitoring, forecasting, and exercising control in order to accomplish the desired goals.

All throughout these six-weeks we have worked on a number of projects, individually and collectively. Starting out with learning and researching successful entrepreneurs, we ourselves took the road of getting into a business with the writing of a business plan. To get a better understanding of the world of business and to learn how to climb the corporate ladder successfully, we read a number of books starting from The One Minute Manager and How to become a CEO, to Play like a Man, win like a Woman and Good to Great. Guest speakers came almost every other day, listening to their personal experiences was really enlightening. Talking about their careers, accomplishments, and the obstacles faced, they taught us numerous things about the economy, politics, meeting people and growing contacts, filling out applications correctly and without wasting much time, agricultural business, the music industry, and budget and planning. A visit to the dairy showed us a small, but important part of the market. A lesson in table etiquettes from Mrs. Suzie taught us the appropriate eating manners, and another explained the correct way of meeting new individuals and engaging them in conversation.

We learned how to play the game of stocks over a period of ten days. The stock market is a huge gambling arena. Shareholders actually own a portion of a corporation (sometimes they also own the corporation) and gain or lose money depending on the performance of the business. The buying and selling of the stocks takes place everyday and people can make money if they know how to play the game. After doing an extensive background check of the company and their performance, each group of four students purchased stocks worth $10,000. The goal was to make profit; and profit we made!

Working together in teams is one of the qualities that a business person needs to have. The Executive Management class worked along Technology and Design for the Brick Yard Race, which was held on July 10, 2004. Our job was to advertise the race in which the Technology majors and minor raced their solar powered cars on a track designed by the Design majors.

The open house was held on July 19, 2004. This is when we displayed our projects, researches, and finding to Governor’s Honors participants and faculty members. Project boards, posters, and slide shows talked about variety of topics such as agricultural business, compare of gas prices to other items, customer service, dressing for success, economy of India, entrepreneurs, Hispanic population in the United States and the effect on economy, inflation and investment, neonatology, top ten companies to work for, what makes a good boss, and women in workplace.

All of the sixteen Executive Management majors were proud to be a part of the 2004 Governor’s Honors Program. Living on a college campus, we knew it was a great opportunity to learn at a place where the top students from all over Georgia come. What we did not know was that by the end of these incredible six weeks we would have experienced so much together that we would have created an amazing bond between us. Working on projects together, listening to guest speakers, going on visits, laughing, teasing, and all the fun stories of Mrs. Suzie’s were not just a big part of the GHP experience, but they are, as a matter of fact, memories that we will cherish forever.

Geetali Sharma