A Haiku about Management

Here is a haiku I wrote about management:

Planning and control
That is what you need to know
About management

Communication via Blog

The use of blog in this class is interesting. It lets me see how and what other my classmates are thinking about a particular subject. It also let people voice their opinion when they don't get the chance in class. It lets them release rather than have them bottle it up inside.
After doing a in-class activity, writing on this blog gets me thinking and analyzing what we did in class and try to relate it to the real world. I think the blog is a good way to help students study and remember specific topics by having them write about it.
I actually enjoyed writing blog entries for this class. It is better than receiving boring homework assignments. I believe the blog should remain a component. What I think should be improved on is let the students get a chance to write what they want. It can be anything from a rant to a political viewpoint. I might continue to post my thoughts and ideas on my blog.

Ordering Something Irregular at McDonalds

As I approached the counter, a young lady said “yes?” I asked her if I could get one small hamburger with exactly four pickles, and one small well done fries with no salt. The lady looked at me weirdly and looked at a cashier next to her. She scoffed at me and repeated the order that sounded like a question. I nodded my head and I told her that what I said must be exactly on the receipt. After waiting a couple of seconds for her to type the order on the screen, she printed out the receipt and turned around and yelled four pickles. The lady turned 90 degrees to the left and told her co-worker “no salt”. One man in the back took a hamburger out of somewhere. The rack where employees put the foods on was blocking my view. I saw the man in the back violently putting pickles on the hamburger. I looked over the cashier’s shoulder and a woman scoop up a bunch of fries and pour it on to a small bag. The man slide the hamburger down the rake and the woman place the fries next to it. It took three people to complete the order. It would have been four people if the manager was involved to add “well done” on the receipt. She turned back around and handed me the receipt. I glanced at it and notice that it was missing “well done” on it. I asked the lady nicely if she could change and add “well done” to the receipt. She told me she was unable to do that with a condescending tone. I asked her if the manager is able to do that and she said “yes”. I asked her if I could see the manager and she replied “no, he’s not here. I asked where the manager is and she told me he was in the restroom. I turned around and I noticed that I was holding up the line. The people on the line didn’t look too happy. I didn’t want to hold up the line anymore so I took the receipt and left. The process took approximately eight minutes. I was not treated nicely during the order process. The cashier gave me an attitude when I asked if I could see the manager. Maybe she thought I was going to complain about her. The order was not completed correctly. When I got home, I was expecting four pickles but instead I got six pickles. I was afraid to eat the hamburger because it might have been added with some special sauce.
If I were to rate the ordering process, I would give four out of five. Everything went perfectly and quickly except for the lady’s attitude and her incapability to add “well done” to the receipt. The cashiers at McDonalds should know or learn how to place irregular orders into a receipt. The manager should not be the only person who knows how to add irregular orders in the receipt. I would rate the communication and coordination five out of five. The cashier only need to say the order once and the people in the back were able to process the order without any problem. The cashier knows who to tell to carry out the order. The coordination was perfect also. The cashier told the two people what the order was. The man in the back made the hamburger and put it on the rake. The woman scoped up the fries and poured it in to a small white bag and placed it on the rake. The cashier took the two items and placed it into a paper bag. There was no mistake. The customer service was just awful. I would rate it three out of five. The lady didn’t seem helpful and didn’t seem like she wanted to help at all. If I was a consultant at McDonald’s, I would recommend the cashiers to take a people relations class. They should not express their discontent on to the customer. Everything was handled perfectly expect for the worker’s attitude. There was no problem on how they handled the order that is not prelisted. The problem was how they treat their customers. The cashier needs to learn to respect their customers no matter how weird they are. Also, I would advise the McDonalds’ employees to take basic math class because apparently the guy in the back doesn’t know what four is.

Personal Profile System

Click the picture to enlarge it...

After doing the D.I.S.C assessment, I am Conscientiousness and high Dominance. I believe the assessment is right. The description describes me very well. I actually don't wish to be any other type. I am quite satisfied with being conscientiousness. Beside, there is no way I can be dominance since I don't like making quick decisions or like accepting challenges. I can't be influence because I can't make favorable impressions nor can I generate enthusiasm. I also can't be steadiness because I am not predictable and I am not really a good listener. Knowing people's management type will not really help understand people. Not everyone will fully fit the description of each management type. For example, they might have some characteristics from dominance and some from steadiness.

If there was a plane crash in the wilderness in the winter and a bunch of people including me survived, I would want everyone to be steadiness. Steadiness are people who are good listeners and have the desire to help others. I don't want people to act rashly and I sure don't want people who can only persuade people and not think at all.

Life is Meaningless with Vision

The 5 goals that I want to accomplish in my life are:

1. Start a business (Any business will do)

Starting a business is my primary goal. I like the feeling of owning something that can give me a source of income. I especially want to start a supermarket business.

2. Travel around the world (To every single country)

I want to see new new sights and get to know new people. Staying in one place bores me. Traveling is one of my many hobbies.

3. Successfully grow a watermelon (Seriously, my plant keeps dying)

I can't seem to grow a watermelon. I have been using fertilizers and watering them everyday. The plant keeps turning pale yellow. Maybe I should change the soil.

4. Pass the CPA exam and join a partnership (Maybe a limited liability partnership)

Since I am an accounting major, I need to pass the CPA in order to take advantage of being an accountant. Well, assuming that I will graduate.

5. Make lots of money (Well, I need something to travel the world with)

There was once a proverb that said:

With money you can buy a house but not a home.
With money you can buy a clock but not time.
With money you can buy a bed but not sleep.
With money you can buy a book, but not knowledge.
With money you can buy a doctor, but not good health.
With money you can buy a position but not respect.
With money you can buy blood but not life.
With money you can buy sex but not love.

But I disagree. Money is everything. It can buy you everything except time. Without money, can we really live a life that we want?

Alfred A. Montapert once said "To accomplish great things we must first dream, then visualize, then plan, then believe, then act!" Just having a vision does not accomplish anything. Vision by itself is just merely a daydream. The action I will take after graduating from Baruch College is to find some people to partner up with to start a business. Manage the business well and in a few years, I should have enough funds to complete my other 3 goals in life.

Eh, Whatever

During the decision making class, I personally used accommodation to deal with the conflict. I chose this method because I was simply satisfied with my grade and didn't care what the outcome of the deal was. I also knew that the people in the class would choose extra credit and the curve so that also lead me to do nothing at all. In the end, I liked the result of the deal.

After knowing the pattern of communications, and the reactions of my classmates, I think I would have chose collaborating.
Since everyone in the class were aggressive during decision making class, the only way to make them listen is to bargin and negotating with them. In the end the class did negotate with one another and agreed to one great deal.

The Egg Drop

I think our team went through every steps in the planning process except for the last step which is implement the plan and evaluate the performance. Our team knew what we were supposed to do. One member kept track of the time and another member drew up the ideas. The reason why we did not go through the last step was because we were short on time. The other reason was that we spent time on finding someone with small hands and less time on actually implementing the plan. The end result was we didn't finish executing the plan that we had.
We could have been more effective if we actually took the extra time we had during the 25 minute planning phase to assign the roles to each of the group members.

A Management Problem

Currently I have difficulty finding time to study for my Finance class. The class is about 3 hours long on Friday so I must read 1 chapter a week. The problem is that I have class from 9:00am to 9:00pm on Mondays and Wednesdays. I also work on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Even if I have time after work, it is used to do the homework I am given on Monday. On Thursday, I usually get to read about 30 pages. Usually a chapter in the Finance book is about 50 - 60 pages.

About me

Hey guys, my name is William Tsang. I am majoring in accounting at Baruch College. I am currently a Junior. I was supposed to be a senior but I lost a year of credits because I transfered from St. John's University. Baruch College did not accept my other class credits. The reason I transfered to Baruch College was mainly because it was cheaper. If I didn't transfer, St. John's University would charge me $8,000 per semester. That's a lot compared to the amount Baruch College charged me ($0).