Lemons or Lemonade

It was Saturday afternoon when I hopped in my car to run errands.  The thermostat in the car told me the temperature was a cool 93 degrees, but the sensation of walking into a sauna told me that the humidity in Atlanta was much higher.  As I put my basket of dry cleaning in the car I heard a little girl’s voice call out, “Lemonade!  Lemonade for sale!”  I looked over my shoulder and at the entrance of the next block were two sisters with a table, a pitcher, and a few plastic cups.  The younger of the two girls was clearly in charge of advertising, as she hopped up and down, yelling at passing cars to let them know the sale was on.

I grabbed my wallet and walked over to get a cup of lemonade for the road.  “Good afternoon ladies, I would like a glass.  How much is it?”  I remember how much my lemonade stand used to be, but with inflation, I had already located a $1.00 bill to hand to the little girls.

The oldest sister went directly into her sales pitch, “Our lemonade is fresh squeezed and is 25 cents.  We are also donating 25% to the local Humane Society.”

I have to say at that point I was actually shocked.  Here were two girls, who the oldest could not have been more than 7 years old, offering me a product of value.  The cost of the lemons and sugar that their parents purchased could not have been covered by the meager 25 cents per glass and yet on top of this, these little girls were donating 25% to a charity.

I smiled at the little girl and said, “Oh that’s wonderful.  I don’t have any change so I’m going to give you a whole dollar and you can keep the extra money.”

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MBA in the time of Economic Cholera

While the economic travesty of our generation persists and the methods and policies to restore sanity in the system falters – a diverse group of odd students would take it on itself to find hope in what future holds. The CLASS OF DUKE CCMBA 2012!!!

Everyone with his own philosophy, his own reason – to meet his/her (or parents’) expectation of accomplishment, to find an alternative to current career path, to make more money or in case of a few, to create a plank to launch a venture of his/her own. And all these reasons are backed by the fundamental belief in a bright outlook for the future.

As a self-taught student of economics, I have watched Keynesian economics panned and trickle-down economics fail. And in fact I often wonder if trickle-down economics is just an alias for trickle-down politics. While the scope of an MBA extends far beyond learning basic tenets of economics, it can’t be overlooked that every personal, financial and professional decision of an individual just as a corporation is largely a function of P/L. Essentially, when all is said and done, an MBA may yet just be a study of perfecting the art to maximize that P and minimize that L – against all adversities, market conditions, competition, evolving tactics, disruptive technologies, regional politics, negative public perception etc..

OR it may just be an opportunity to specialize in the area of leadership with specific focus on client partnering, models of emb

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