This is “scrutanda 2.0” = expanding the focus of posts to include current MBA coursework, the myriad case studies, texts, and lectures, as well as extracurricular readings, random related cultural events, and observations—as they might pertain to and benefit scholarly publishing and the pursuit of new business opportunities.
I will share insights from case studies in other industries and share some of the experience of diving into the multidisciplinary coursework of a highly ranked MBA program (managerial accounting, corporate finance, operations, and marketing management) equipped with extensive communications experience and a diverse humanities background in literary and cultural analysis, including but not limited to a working knowledge of Wittgenstein, Chaucer, and Sallust.
Scrutanda was started to share notes from workshops and panel sessions at the AAUP annual meeting. It was mainly for colleagues who were unable to participate in person or who wanted additional perspective/s. Sharing new learning and discussions of best practices seemed a natural extension of the professional development activity of attending a national conference.
MBA coursework is the largest professional development activity I’ve ever engaged in. It is a privilege to be able to pursue advanced studies in corporate strategy and management at such an august and innovative business school, as it is a privilege to be schooled in the ins and outs of scholarly publishing from colleagues at my institution and across the AAUP. So, I thought, likewise, that I’d share what I learn as I go, for any who might be interested.
Just a couple semesters in, I have had many eye-opening and unexpected discoveries; the Harvard Business School case study, Vans: Skating on Air, yielded fascinating insights into brand, and I believe it could be important reading for everyone interested in the brand of the u-press system.
Given the rate of change in the industry and the potential wealth of upheaval and new opportunities that change can bring, I will do my best to share what I see as potentially relevant in as timely and as candid a manner as possible. I will focus extra attention on key topics (e.g., brand, new products and services, entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship, change management) and to admit of a bias early on: I may beat a drum on the polyvalent strategic benefits of a unified AAUP customer-facing online product, from time to time.
Scholarly pub will find unprecedented profitability and stability in new technology. That is inevitable. The real trick will be safeguarding what’s important through this period, so that the most can be made of that profitability once it’s achieved.
Specifically, the u-press system is a valuable intellectual national asset. Protecting the diversity of all that constitutes it (positions and institutions) may well be complexly important, for it to compete most effectively in the new era; therefore, one would need to take care that the nature of change itself isn’t dictating the selection for survival of constituent elements alone; survival of the fittest in the short term upheaval could leave the system less fit for survival (profits) in the long run, when things settle down.
That is what’s drawn me to MBA coursework; a desire to leverage the latest skills and best practices to bring added value to future projects. I.e., the standard definition of professional development; shared herewith in the same spirit.
