First Day at ESADE Business School

Visit to ESADE Journal Entry #1 01/08/2018

In my personal opinion the first day was not only interested, but was also very productive learning experience. The first visit which was with Professor Ferran Blach was really educational and gave me a sense of how much I was missing out on the concept of what marketing really was. I learned that it was not just about pushing and promoting the product or getting the product to the consumers via different methods of sales. What it was really about is satisfying your clients, meaning giving them what they really want and not what the sellers wants to give them. The exercise with the ancient Chinese merchant was really useful and it mad the whole class think and provide collective ideas on how to potentially gain more sales and more of a market share. It the whole class did not realize that all of us were missing a point and we were making assumptions for buyers without even consulting them of their needs and wants which means that it would be a hit and miss. Professor Ferran also clearly indicated that in today’s fast paced business environment unlike 100 years ago there is not time for trial and error and hit or miss situation are not tolerated in today’s business environment. Precision marketing and calculations are very important when forming a marketing strategy and it is not just about doing, but more about first planning, getting to know the needs of your customer and then doing and ultimately satisfying your customer. By listening this lecture I also made different conclusions about my own business and how I often make decisions without regards for whether they are essential for my clients and whether my clients actually needs those services, or extra perks that I am trying to offer them in order to sway them from my competitors. This lecture was a definite success! I was also able to chat with the professor and make direct contact which I think can be great for the future.

The second meeting that we had with Javier Aguilar was also very inspiring, entertaining and informative. The great thing that I like about Javier is that he was really hands on experience and was not delivering just theory, but real life scenarios from his own experiences. The businesses that he was presenting were all tech online companies related to sales, marketing media and that really interested me because part of what I do for my businesses is online marketing and sales. I was particularly interested in the approach that Javier took in order to develop his successful businesses and how meticulous he was when growing them. I also realized that it is completely normal and acceptable that failures are going to happen and I also personally related to various online business that I have started and for the wrong decisions and poor decision making they have failed and opportunities have faded away. The lecture was very realistic and great hands on experience to learn about real life cases of real scenarios.

The other presentation that I really liked was by Jorge Fernandez from the Kernel group and it involved cognitive marketing and cognitive decision making in the process of marketing. I found the concept really interesting, but at the same time found the presentation to have some flaws. It failed to explain the whole concept and how their actual model worked. What I understood for myself was that facial muscles in each individual respond for different emotions and therefore when you are emotional a persona unconsciously moves their facial muscle and thereby reveals their true emotions and desires. The way I understood this in practical form is if a person is in the store purchasing a product, but in reality they want another product, their choice at the moment will reveal that they are not really interested in the product that they are buying or it is not their first preference if compared to another product that they have looked at. Therefore by having that information marketers can make decision and deduct whether perhaps it might be the price, or other issues why the customer did not purchase the true product of their choice. It kind of opens the door to the real scenario where it is possible to dig deeper and further understand the conscience decisions that a human being is making based on their rational and the real unconscienced choices that are made by his subconscious which the human real wants, but blocks them out based on his rational which could be the price or any other rationale. I also felt like their product was a little bit underdeveloped and was still in the early stage of research because they were not able to provide and show how it really works in real life and demonstrate it on a live human being. Either way what I liked about it is the concept and what kind of information marketers can now extract by using technology.

Our last visit to Creapolis was really great and what I have understood is how closely business world is not revolving around Engineering and science. I realized that for successful products to be launched they must be developed in an incubator where science world meets the business world simultaneously and not in a linear fashion. If in the prior years it took many years to launch a certain type of product like successful cookware for example or an electric toy, in today’s world an individual inventor could provide plans and engineer the product right at ESADE’S Creapolis, print it on the 3d printer and the business people / marketers can study and outline the feasibility of this product going out and being successful in the real world. At first it did not really seem as business to me because I always sort of relate business to sales, but thinking deeper at this unique place I realized that before any product could be launched on to the market it has to go through a rigorous market testing process, focus groups and last by not least it has to be created and the process has to be repeated. By having a place like Creapolis it allows for the process to be smooth and cuts the creation time enormously. Not to mention it gives possibility for young entrepreneurs to launch products that previously would have never been possible.

To summarize I think the first day was really productive, very informative and gave a great perspective on what ESADE is really about and what It has to offer not only to its students, but to the business world around the globe.