Evan Smith

MBA 660 EET 01

Personal Reflection Essay for Blog

Affect

                The material and information I learned from the Project Management course made me feel stressed, unorganized, awakened, and focused. It was stressful because of the constant barrage of assignments and obligations which, in conjunction with my other very difficult class this block, created a storm of uncertainty and anxiety every week. I felt unorganized because I was never felt fully confident that I knew what deliverables were due or which group I needed to meet with for the next week’s presentation. I felt awakened because I have never been exposed to Project Management and I have never known anyone who was a project manager. After having taken the course, I realize that there are elements of project managing in most day-to-day projects whether they are inside or outside of work. I felt focused because of the amount of attention required for this class. Managing many different groups, readings, blogs, submissions on Canvas, and write-ups made me feel extremely focused throughout the block.

Behavior

                The most significant example of a new or changed behavior I developed in this course would be the use of Prezi.com to create presentations that are different and refreshing from the typical PowerPoint presentation. Another tool that I had set up 8 years ago, but hadn’t used since then, was my personal blog. I originally created the blog as a place where I could write about cars and the automotive industry. This project was a good motivator to find my login and start using the blog again. A new behavior that I also started using this course was a calendar. After the first week of class, I realized that an online calendar would be invaluable during this course. It helped alleviate much of my anxiety about what deliverables were due and when.

Cognition

                My most influential cognitive growth through this course came through reading and presenting the book The Wisdom of Oz. This book forced me to actually put into action things that I had learned or things in life I was going to try to change. I actually used lessons from the book to help me get started on working on my physical health by going jogging and going to a gym. Specifically, I used the portion of the book that instructs readers to act like making a change like your life depends on it. This is one tangible example of using the information in the book to make a change that has actually taken place.

Personal Intro

I, Evan William Smith, was born on March 21, 1983, in Salt Lake City, Utah at St. Mark’s Hospital to Homer and Patricia Smith. I am the middle of 3 boys and a dog named Zoe. My dad has been an Anesthesiologist at St. Mark’s Hospital for 33 years and is nearing his retirement. My mom, Patricia, is a homemaker with many valuable talents and attributes that are rare to find. Both of my brothers currently work in education. My older brother, Colin, works at a Jr. High while getting a Master’s Degree from the University of Utah. My younger brother, Peter, also works at a school despite struggling with a physical handicap that affects his walking.
I began my educational experience at the University of Utah in the Fall of 2001. I initially wanted to become an architect, but after some complicated math and physics courses, I decided it wasn’t for me. My next foray was into Mechanical Engineering, but that didn’t pan out either. I decided to take a few semesters enrolled in only one class while I did some deep soul searching. At the time, one of my best friends was enrolled in the Communications Program at the U of U, and I decided it was time for me to get out of school as soon as possible, so I joined him. I graduated in Spring 2008 with a BS in Mass Comm and a Minor in Business.
My past educational experiences have shown me that when I am on the right path, I am a very dedicated student. When I can see the benefit and the light at the end of the tunnel, I am motivated and focused. When I’m not on a path, I just spin my wheels and don’t get anywhere. I am currently on a path and can see the light, so I am dedicated and motivated to learn.
After graduation, I got my Utah Real Estate License through my Business Minor. For several years, I practiced real estate as a sales agent, but never fully treated it like a career. It ended up becoming more and more of a drag on my psyche. For about a year and a half, I started applying to new jobs but quickly learned that my resume was not very strong and that Real Estate was not a great thing to have on my work experience. After muddling through the job board websites for eternity, I finally stumbled upon a company called Lendio. I interviewed and soon thereafter started working there in Nov 2015. This company has been a godsend for me. In the six months I have been here, I have grown so much and learned so much about myself and the business world. I love my coworkers, I love the work I do, and I love the coaching that is available if you want to improve. This job is like a psychiatry session every single day. People will push you when you need, it. They will reassure you when you need it. And they will poke fun of you when you need it. It is perfect for me.
Something unique about me is that I am absolutely obsessed with cars and the automotive industry. I am usually thinking about cars in the background of anything else I am doing. I can get into very heated conversations about cars with other car nuts. I am also a very passionate dog lover. I have a Wire Fox Terrier who I am obsessed with. Finally, I am a very loyal and dedicated sports fan (Jazz, Utah, Lions, Tigers). I absolutely cannot stand soccer. I have been on a bowling league for 12 years.
My strengths are using technology and other tools to get jobs done the fastest. I usually know an app or website that can make work or projects much simpler and easier. I am also a critical thinker, something that Lendio is instilling in me. I am also very good at using maps and directions to make physical projects more time-effective.
In this class, I expect to learn how to juggle many different projects and timelines at the same time while continuing to grow as a group coworker and leader. I expect to be pushed and I expect to be uncomfortable, especially because my other class this semester is going to be rigorous. I expect to be graded fairly and to enjoy going to class.
I am committed to coming to class every week on time and completing the assignments before the due date. I am committing to making my group happy they chose me to be on their team. I am committed to doing as much of the reading as my time affords me. I am committed to making the class an enjoyable place to be.

Cadillac Escalade

Cadillac has hit the nail on the head with the styling of the 2015 Cadillac Escalade. It's exactly what a big Cadillac SUV should be: BOLD. Nobody will ever confuse the Escalade for something else. The daytime running LEDs that stretch from the projector headlamps down to the lower front fascia will make you distinguishable from very far away. And if you're spending $80,000 on a car, it should be distinguishable from very far away. The competition to the Escalade's styling all look tired and mundane in comparison. Too bad Cadillac hasn't been as sharp with the CTS and ATS' styling.

2015 Mazda MX-5 Miata. Nobody Brings The Ugly Quite Like Mazda

The 2015 Mazda MX-5 Miata is here. Just call it a Miata. Nobody will ever ask you, "Hey, is that the new MX5?". I'm sure it drives great. I'm sure it has near 50/50 weight distribution. So what do we think about it? Let me decide for you. The thing looks like a Japanese Jaguar F-Type. Is that a bad thing? No. Is it a good thing? No. I don't know who the Miata will appeal to. I never see Miata's on the road today. And if I do, it's usually the '90s models. The Miata has always appealed to women, and the new one will probably continue that trend.

Change: Obama's New Ride

When President Elect Barack Obama moves into The White House in early 2009, he will find that it has enough entertainment and amenities to rival the finest mansions anywhere in the world. It has 132 rooms, 35 bathrooms, 3 elevators, 5 full-time chefs, a tennis-court, a bowling alley, a movie theater, a jogging track, a swimming pool, and a putting green. But what kind of car will he find in the garage? The most powerful man in the world rides in a brand new 2009 Cadillac DTS (with some options you can’t order from the factory). Nothing says supremacy like 8-inch safety glass, every anti-attack feature imaginable, and 35 military support vehicles tagging along. To all those CEO’s who think that their Bimmer 750i or Mercedes S500 is the ultimate power-mobile, pull over when you see Obama’s Caddy (dubbed, “Caddy One, as in Air Force One”) in your rear-view mirror.


If I were running Cadillac, I would’ve used the transfer of presidential power to make a change in Cadillac models to transport the president in. The next generation Cadillac DTS (Codenamed DT7) has been put on hold due to the bad economy and possible negative CAFÉ (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) implications. Why not make the next president’s new Cadillac the CTS, instead of the lame-duck DTS? This move would give great exposure to GM’s fantastic new CTS both here and abroad, and also demonstrate that the president is in tune with the current automotive trend toward downsize to more fuel efficient cars.

Patriot Games

There might be no better way to demonstrate the muscle of marketing than to look at how the auto industry creates and eliminates perceptions about products and brands. Marketers have perhaps the most important job in business operations: to create wants where they don’t exist, and to blur the line between wants and needs. The other business operations, accounting, finance, and economics, don’t mean anything if a company doesn’t create a product that is wanted and thus, returns a profit.

Many people believe that they need a car, and view it as a necessary and unavoidable expense. How then, did people happily survive for thousands of years before automobiles? Commercials and advertising have manufactured a want for automobiles, and once the consumer succumbs, they are exposed to even deeper tactics designed to create classes of cars that reflect the desired status of the driver. Most people would argue that a BMW is a “better” car than a Hyundai. Both of these cars will achieve the basic purpose of transportation (and much more). Both of these cars can achieve the legal speed limit. Both have seating for passengers and both can carry groceries home from the store. The perceptions between the two in people’s minds have been created by marketers.

To me, the most frustrating perception that advertising construes and contorts is a vehicles’ country of origin. Most people in this country have a foggy idea at best of which car companies are from what countries. Automakers from foreign countries benefit from a strong sense of national pride in their home markets. Italians are inclined to buy clothes made in Italy, by Italians, and sold in Italian stores because it will benefit their country. The same is true for cars. That Italian is more inclined to buy an Alfa Romeo than a Volkswagen because they feel patriotic when buying their country’s goods.

This sense of national pride when buying and driving an automobile exists in the U.S. among the aging generation that saw World War II come and go. This is a main reason why Lincoln and Cadillac are viewed as an old-person’s car. It is easy to understand why a veteran of WWII would be fiercely loyal to American automakers. They saw firsthand, Japanese and German pilots shooting at Americans with Mitsubishi and BMW built fighter planes, and watched German generals riding around in Mercedes-Benzes. When they returned home from war, they were justifiably more inclined to buy Chrysler, GM, or Ford products because those companies provided vehicles and planes to the victorious Allies.

The history of World War II is also linked to today’s hierarchy of automakers because of post-war rebuilding in the Axis countries. In an effort to help those countries recover from post-war recessions and turmoil, The U.S. implemented the Marshall Plan, which used American taxpayer money to rebuild the factories of German and Japanese manufacturing, including their auto factories. In the 1950s, Germans and Japanese auto companies were basking from the benefits of (at that time) state-of-the-art factories, while domestic companies were left to use factories built at the turn of the 18th century. Although recent studies have shown that American car companies have caught their foreign rivals in terms of quality, today’s buyers have an ingrained sense that foreign products are superior.

People of subsequent generations have lost that pride when buying a domestic vehicle. Today’s young professionals will largely only consider purchasing a German or Japanese luxury brand to demonstrate their new-found affluence. Some of this preference for imported brands is the fault of the American automakers by not offering competitive products for much of the last 20 years. But those foreign companies will always have a loyal and patriotic home market, something that we young Americans refuse to endow on our domestic makers.

Recently, some companies have begun to capitalize on America’s allegiance to anything not made in Detroit. Mini owners can have their Coopers emblazoned with England’s Union Jack on the roof of their cars. Volkswagen, with its new slogan, “German engineering,” is catering to this desire for import image. Let’s hope buyers of the Routan minivan don’t find out that, apart from the body panels and a few interior pieces, it’s a Chrysler Town and Country.
American cars would flourish in a fictional world where facts and performance numbers are rewarded with sales and regard. Unfortunately, with all the millions of dollars automakers throw at their marketers, I don’t see an end to the current perceptions of young automobile buyers.

The Roast of Bob Lutz

General Motor's Vice Chairman Bob Lutz recently appeared on the Colbert Report on Comedy Central (check it out on youtube). Lutz has been on a media blitz lately to promote the 2011 Chevy Volt, which is doing a fine job of promoting all by itself. Let me first state one thing: I've always liked Bob Lutz because of the products that he made possible since becoming Vice-Chairman. He truly has my dream job. However, I don't know whose idea it was for Lutz to appear on the Colbert Report, but it was an awful decision. I've been watching Colbert long enough to know that his interview segments, while painfully funny, are usually a trap for the guests. It was a no-win situation for Lutz. Someone at GM should have let him know the premise of the show. Colbert is deceptively smart, lightening quick, and will usually take any chance to make the interviewee feel uncomfortable. He had Lutz stumbling through the entire interview. During the segment, it became obvious that Lutz is not the right person to have in public view to usher in a new era of GM products. The Colbert appearance would've been a great opportunity for GM to change the way Gen Y thinks about it (more PC than Mac). Bob Lutz is at least 35 years too old to be the public face of the company that desperately needs to change its image. They need a spokesman who is sharp, witty, and talented enough to exchange verbal jabs with someone like Colbert, instead of being knocked out cold on TV. This interview will be parked in the garage of bad decisions by the General, right next to the Pontiac Aztek and T.I./Dale Earnhardt Jr. commercials. Memo to General Motors: the Volt needs every advantage it can get to be a success. Keep Lutz behind the scenes where he does his best work, and get a spokesman who reflects the direction GM wants to go.

If any good news came from the interview, it's that Lutz hinted about an exciting option for the Volt. Apparently, a photovoltaic roof, which will charge the battery using the sun's energy, can be checked on the options list. I believe this will alone will establish the Volt's position as the most environmentally minded car available.