I earned my MBA in Marketing and Information Systems (Dual Degree) at Fordham University’s Graduate School of Business School (Class of 1999), which in located in the business capital of the world, New York City. I focused my studies on Marketing and Information & Communications Systems for the simple reason that successful marketing strategy will begin and end with the ability to interperate vast amounts of data and information. Mastering how information systems work, and how information can be used to find that untapped market, will help formulate marketing strategy and help define successful brands. Some of the attributes of Fordham Business School that appealed to me were its location in New York City, its small size, the access to the faculty, the flexibility to customize my program to my interests, and the International focus of the overall program and curriculum.
While at Fordham, I was also active in the student community. I was the President of the Marketing Society student group, and was an active member of the Information Systems Club as well. As President of the Marketing Society, I managed all aspects of the group’s operations including organizing educational group events, managing group meetings and promoting events. A successful event that I managed was a group “field trip” to Reckett Benckiser (formerly Reckett & Coleman) where the group was taken on a full “day in the life of a brand marketing manager” tour of the company. In addition to such events, I actively promoted the group and while President, I doubled the group’s membership and affiliated the group with the American Marketing Association.
One of the unique elements of the Fordham program was the opportunity to get involved in unique “in the field” classes, case studies and internships. During my time at Fordham, I was involved in two interesting such projects. Click on the link below to read more about them:
- Polo Ralph Lauren – Business Process Redesign of International Licensing Division
- New York Yankees – Online Marketing Strategy
I took several unique and influential classes taught by some very skilled professors. Highlighted below are a few of those classes and some of the assignments that I worked on as part of the curriculum:
Advanced Methods for Marketing Analysis
Professor Richard Colombo – This course exposed me to a variety of marketing models, tools and techniques that could be utilized in order to make marketing decisions, including segmentation, positioning, new product decisions, promotion planning, etc. The course focused on the development and use of data models, such as Logit Models, Conjoint Analyisis, and others, to help guide in the marketing decision making process. The course also focused providing the students with the ability to understand the strengths and limitations of certain data analysis techniques. The textbooks for this course were Marketing Engineering, written by Gary L. Lilen and Arvind Rangaswamy of Penn State University. The textbooks included several case studies and associated market analysis models that we utilized as part of the class assignments.
Electronic Commerce
Professor R.P. Raghupathi – The Fordham Information & Communications Systems curriculum offered an interesting course focused on Electronic Commerce, which at the time, was a rapidly emerging method of conducting business that has since grown to be a common sales channel for most retailers as well as consumers. The class focused on the development and management of electronic commerce systems as well as the many new and innovative business models that were enabled and invented as a result of the popularity of the Internet. One assignment that was of particular interest to me was a paper I wrote on dynamic pricing models and how that is enabled via e-commerce platforms.
Business Strategy (Capstone Course)
Professor Falguni Sen – Business Strategy was the capstone course of the Fordham MBA program. The class brought together all the different coursework and diciplines learned over the scope of the school’s MBA program into a comprehensive class focusing on business strategy. Professor Sen was, and is, extremely effective in breaking down a business situation or case study. Each class session, we discussed and analyzed a specific case studies, from the challenges that Apple Computer faced by not licencing their computing platform, to how Komatsu effectively addressed market needs and overtook Caterpillar in the heavy machinery industry. I learned a great deal about business in this class and it was very effective in shaping how I approach business situations. As part of the class, we were asked to analyize and disect the business strategy for a major corporation. The team that I was a part of focused on project on Cisco Systems.
If you are interested in reading any of the final documents related to my MBA program, please send me an email and I will send a copy to you.
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