Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Tradeoff

I have a tough decision to make. The simlest tradeoff between stable position of brand manager with local operational challenges and a very challenging position of strategy consultant, which gives a lot food for brains but also requires a lot personal resources (time, attention).

Yes, after MBA I feel tired. But I had 4 months of my family period and recovered a lot. And passive way of leisure is not a best way for me. Consulting offers a constant thinking process - I love it, the same to challenge. Branding offers me a stable work in a field I know, lower cost comparable to consulting (region location, less requirements to lifestyle).

The only question that is crucial is if I'm ready for stable family life now. Not a professional one, not a financial one.

Phuf...

Mauricio again

Well, my bad influence went to its peak - my coachie finally became an official blogger and wrote his first couple of posts in his blog. In his very first post he kindly made a piece of PR for me:

Marina’s role in all this was pivotal. She was the first avid blogger I had ever met in depth that can actually claim to have a significant level of daily readership of her online conversations. Most impressive was her discipline in terms of keeping her content constant and fresh, despite the heavy academic workload demanded by our program. After watching her do this for some time, it became evident that the main driver behind this discipline was the relationship she had forged with her readers who looked to her for advice on obtaining scholarships in Russia for academic programs abroad, as well as everyday girl-talk (Marina is also a contributor to the Russian COSMO blog). All in all, a very special cyber-relationship indeed! One that peaked my interest and drew me into the sport of blogging.


From my point of view I can add the followng. Blogging is a process that corresponds to my nature - I can easily and quickly write all the posts and find interestng information to be posted. I love sharing - sharing thoughts, knowledge, things that make me smile. I love receiving feedback; of course, I prefer a good one to a bad one. And having a loyal audience, it is easier to get a good comment. And the last but not the least is that my blog becomes a good tool for network and relationship creation, it makes the process of people knowing me better faster. and I appreciate that very much.

Good luck, Coachie, and thank you for PR:)

Sunday, April 27, 2008

My Netvibes

What are you reading now? What do you read on regular basis?

My answer to the last question is my gmail and blogs.
I can't share my private email, but I certainly can do this with blogs. Netvibes, to be exact.

Here is my universe. Here I posted two pages of blogs I usually read - English and Russian ones. Thanx God, now the public profile is available to everyone.

Monday, April 21, 2008

twitter2

What is more important to have: a love to a product you manage or a match to people you will work with.

meeting time

I entered labor market for active job search a bit less than a month ago. It´s really a time when my ambitions meet market requirements, supply meets demand.

Sometimes it hurts. E.g. when demanding part doesn´t understand that it asks a bit different things the supplying one can offer (I'm speaking about overqualified personnel who is offered lower position just because (s)he can do this) and demanding part starts pressing. Sometimes you have a perfect fit but too low-start position. Sometimes it is a total dismatch.

The thing I use to forget about labor market is that information is not perfect here. If you don't want to loose time for interview, you'd better clarify positions and interests. Just to save time.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

books

I'm preparing to my first consulting interview now and happy to start reading recommended books for the company. One of them is "Say it with Charts
The Executive's Guide to Visual Communication" by Gene Zelazny (I'm reading the book in Russian). I realy enjoyed it, wishing I had a chance to look at some tips before or at least during my MBA.

Even if I had internal feeling about diagrams to use, I've got a great sence of complex charts. And the most useful tip, propaly, in this chart is about headlnes of the slide/shart. We got used to put simple general names instead of showing the concrete idea of the chart.

And now I need to make a small analytical presentation. I almost hate it - it is mechanical job. But the only one nice thing about it is the fact I can train my new skills of creating charts. We'll see.

Friday, April 11, 2008

wants vs stopper

I have just read Wad's wonderful sketch (in Russian) about wants and their limitations. He formulated a simple process of getting from wants to consumption.

1. Space-hold.
2. External irritant activates The Want part, showing assosications with pleasant emotions.
3. The Want starts working, but the rational part knows that pleasant emotions should be paid, the Stopper activates.
4. To get the Want to win over the Stopper, the irritant needs to show the idea of acessibility.
5. There's no reason to retrain the consumption.

Therefore, if the irritant (the producer or distributor) wants to increase demand, he needs to show the consumer, that it is possible to acquire the good or service. And vice-versa - if you want to resist the temptation of consuming something, just create the idea of full impossibility to get.

Nice thoughts.