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Raj Kotecha and the Business of Marketing

On Sunday, November 29, 2015 Raj Kotecha delivered a guest lecture — “Content is the New Oil” — at American University in the Emirates (AUE). Notably, I met Raj the same night I met Robert Scoble here in Dubai. This was the first in a planned series of “Business of Marketing” guest lectures from the Department of Marketing, Logistics, and Supply Chain Management in the College of Business Administration (COBA). Raj is the founder of Creative Content Agency (CCA) where he has designed and implemented marketing campaigns from events to social media for industry leading brands such as The Fragrance Shop,…

Learning Lessons from a Major Malfunction

“Roger, go at throttle up.” — Commander Dick Scobee, STS-51-L. Today I showed a The New York Times documentary from June 2014 titled “Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster: Major Malfunction” in my MGT 205, Organizational Behavior class at the American University in the Emirates. The documentary is about the Space Shuttle Challenger and Space Shuttle Columbia disasters; it explores how poor decision-making resulted in the death of the astronauts in both ill-fated flights. Notably, the documentary is complimented by an article about the same subject matter from January 28, 2016 titled, “The Challenger Space Shuttle Disaster, 30 Years Later.” I shared this article with my…

5 Ways to Improve Your Business Writing

Writing well can influence your success and position you for professional achievement — in spite of (or perhaps because of) everyone embracing emojis and txt speak. If you are not convinced, consider the results of a Grammarly study of 100 LinkedIn profiles as explained in a Harvard Business Review article, “Professionals with fewer grammar errors in their profiles achieved higher positions. Fewer grammar errors correlate with more promotions. Fewer grammar errors associate with frequent job changes.” If you’re looking to improve your written communication skills please read the following “5 Ways to 5 Ways to Improve Your Business Writing” and start “writing gooder!” 1. Cut…

Simply Expressing the Obvious, Obviously?

Sometimes you get lost at the worst possible time. A few years ago, I was asked to edit an Excel document as part of a skills test. It was an intricate exercise that involved copying formatting from one Excel workbook and the content of another into an entirely new file with three worksheets. To accomplish this task, I spent several hours focused on the details. My process included making sure all of the columns and rows were the same width and height, that the fonts and cell alignments were identical, that there were no spelling errors, and that there were…

Connecting Management Theory to Reality with Anthony Quartararo

Guest speakers offer a wonderful way to bring textbooks to life and show your students how they can connect theory with reality. I’ve had many exceptional individuals share their insights and experiences with my students. So I was thrilled when, on Saturday, November 14, 2015, Anthony Quartararo stopped by my MGT 100, Principles of Management class at American University in the Emirates (AUE). Mr. Quartararo is the President and CEO of St. Petersburg, Florida based Spatial Networks, Inc. Spatial Networks is the developer behind Fulcrum, a mobile data collection platform that you can use to build, deploy, and collect data with customized…