Business Communication II – BUS 9553 S1AA Summer

My group decided that we would base our group proposal on the charity Dress for Success. Dress for Success focuses on providing the necessary tools for disadvantage women to obtain jobs.  Some of the things they provide are professional attire, career development tools and a network of support.  The people that benefit the most from this charity are underprivileged women from underdeveloped neighborhoods that were never given a chance and now have a chance to succeed in life. This charity is important because it helps the vast minority. It is important to others because it helps them help themselves.

Our plan to obtain funding from Echoing Green revolves around the ideas and goals of this charity.  The plan is to setup a place in South Bronx. It will be near a subway station for easy accessibility. The primary target of this location is the people surrounding the area. The funding will be used to setup this location. Eventually, this location will be self-sustaining through donations from successful clients.

Overall, this charity seeks to solve a social need.

Communication Blog # 5

My advice would be to rehearse all presentations several times before presenting to your target audience. If presenting with a group, smooth transitions are essential to a good presentation. Poor transitions distract the audience from the group’s overall message.

For those with issues with written communication, I would recommend seeking professional help. Enrolling in college courses or continuing education courses are two examples of professional help courses.

Communication Blog # 4

The group has discussed the assignment in detail. We have allocated the workload equally across all group members. Each member volunteered to work on a specific section. After assigning sections, the group discussed the flow of the presentation and content expectations.

New employee advice on written and oral communication

1. I would suggest taking two courses at Baruch with Professor Green: Business Communications I and II.
2. I would recommend reading ‘Munter, M (2012) Guide to managerial communication’.
3. I would also recommend reading ‘Mai, R & Akerson, A (2002). The leader as a communicator’.

This will also be discussed in greater detail in our upcoming class discussion.

Group Proposal Presentation Preparation

Each member of our group brings essential experience and knowledge from their respective industries; Marketing; Finance and Philanthropy, each of which will be a major asset in preparing for our group presentation for our social entrepreneur project. This will be demonstrated in greater detail in our upcoming class discussion.

Social Entrepreneur Project

Our social entrepreneur group project will focus on creating a preliminary proposal for the setup of a non-profit organization named ‘South Bronx – You can do it’ (SBYCDI). The goal of this organization is to help reduce financial illiteracy in one of New York’s poorest communities, South Bronx.

SBYCDI will provide free financial advice and coaching on managing personal banking, maximizing personal taxation returns, reducing personal debt and working on a limited budget. The project will focus on the community’s residents with incomes on or below the poverty line. Currently this segment represents over 38% of South Bronx’s total population, a significant portion when compared to the nation’s average of 22%.

By targeting local banks, credit unions and community outreach programs to form advertising and sponsorship relationships, SBYCDI aims to become independently sustainable by the end of year two.

Before this happens, we need to raise $200,000 to get the project from the proposal stage to a fully functional service. We hope to achieve our goal by convincing funders that:

• Our project will help people to help them-selves.
• Our efforts can help thousands of people in a short period of time.
• Our services on helping people to overcome the burden of financial strain allowing them to focus building their future.
• The results of our services will have a positive effect on not just adults but also children and the community as whole.

We will use real life examples of financially illiterate residents of the South Bronx to demonstrate the problem and show how our service can have a positive effect on enriching these people’s lives and the lives of people around them.

I have had the issue of training my employees and coaching them on oral and written communication.  I specifically work with engineers and some foreign employees for whom English is their second language.  The first piece of advice I give is to understand the audience.  There are different levels of formality that need to be used in business, and you should always error on the side of more formal.  Second, piece of advice I have given would be when in doubt ask.  It is important for new employees to be aware that they have the support of senior level members of the team, and that they do not have to reinvent the wheel.

Lastly, I have provided them with copies of Munter.  This book provides many of the basics in communication that are simple to understand and implement.  I have found it very useful and given it out to several employees.  I would be glad to discuss my experience with this further in class.

Our team has designated the roles of defining the problem and root cause analysis to one team member, development of the solution and innovation to another and finally the budget to the third member.  Each member of the group will write an executive summary for the overall report, and we will compare and contrast.  The best executive summary or a culmination will be used in the final report.  I welcome the opportunity to discuss this structure with you further outside of class.  Thank you

I would describe myself as a leader from behind.  I am not always great leading people in the classic sense, I am better at giving be direction on the best strategy or way to  accomplishing goals.   I have a strong ability to bring groups of people together to work on a project and I am good at delegating out tasks to people.    If I could compare myself to a football coach, I would say that I am more of a Bill Belichick type leader that focus on silent strategy and tactics.

In business and business school, students are often asked to work in teams. What are some of the challenges that you have faced on team projects? What role does communication play with teams? How important is digital communication with teams?

When it comes to teams during my MBA I have had difficulty dealing with students who dont add value to the team.  I do not like to baby sit other MBA students and have to explain basic business concepts to them.   I like being on teams that have students that know whats going on and take things at a profesional level.  Some times I tool the leadership role and directed the team in every way, and sometimes I took a backseat and let someone else lead the group, as a good leader also knows when to follow.

During my time at Baruch I tried my best not to meet too often with teams and do as much as possible using google docs and other enabling technologies.  A lot of the students waste time with group meetings.  I like to use my time effectively and only meet if it is absolutely necessary.

BUS 9553

Communication Blog # 3

            The group is looking to pursue an anti-smoking campaign to discourage consumers from adopting a smoking habit and encourage those who already smoke to quit.  The social entrepreneur project will attempt to improve overall public health. Research has shown that smoking causes harm to every organ in the body. Furthermore, quitting smoking immediately improves short term and long term health. We believe that the current anti-smoking campaigns do not understand what motivates consumers to smoke.  We believe that it is more effective to discourage consumers from smoking using a more tangible approach, by making smokers pay more for cigarettes.

Prior studies have been performed on the price elasticity of cigarettes. However, none of these studies have been able to significantly change the price of cigarettes. Our pitch to investors will be simple. We believe that by increasing the current price of cigarettes slightly, many consumers will decrease smoking and even more will be reluctant to begin. We will need funding to conduct the necessary research to conduct a survey to validate the results of prior research. We also will need funding to lobby lawmakers to increase the taxes incurred upon purchasing a normal pack of cigarettes.

We can help our nation have a better future.