Individual Assignment 5

My favorite guest lecture was Cassandra Pan who was our last guest speaker of the semester. Cassandra Pan is currently a Business Consultant in the Pittsburgh area. She attended Mount Holyoke College in 1977-1981 where she received a Bachelor’s Degree in International Relations and Affairs. In 2003, she received an MBA from Washington University in St. Louis – Olin Business School. Starting in 2009, Ms. Pan was the President of Fenner Dunlop Americas, where she was responsible for leading the operation and expansion of the Fenner Dunlop’s Engineered Conveyors Solutions business in North and South America. Since her early retirement in 2015, Cassandra has volunteered as a Board Member for WQED Multimedia and is a Mentor at AlphaLab Gear. She was born in Taiwan, speaks 3 different languages including Chinese Mandarin, Chinese Cantonese, and English and had worked in Shanghai and Hong Kong before relocating to Pittsburgh. https://www.linkedin.com/in/cassandra-pan-075613107/
            I found that Cassandra Pan wasn’t like the other guest lectures we have had in class. She talked with a lot more motivation and what I interpreted as enjoyment and the knowledge that she was/is successful. I found this very intriguing especially given her great deal of success working for Fenner Dunlop. She started off by asking the class who wanted to be a CEO and even had the courage to say that not everyone has what it takes to be one. She also briefly touched on the topic of management and how running a business isn’t just a 9-5 job, instead you CEO’s and presidents of companies work 70 hour weeks if not more.
This lecture didn’t exactly relate to the material from our book because it was based more around personal experiences and life lessons learned along the way. However, it related to what I’ve seen ad experienced in the professional world. One thing I’ve found most successful people have in common is a sense a bravery just like Cassandra Pan said multiple times. Another common trait is a willingness to take chances even if you might fail. I’ve sat at tables and had conversations with high ranking officials within the VA as, Harvard graduate lawyers, Former Presidents of the United States, and various other politicians and something that almost everyone tells me is that you have to be willing to take chances if you ever want to be a great success. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Individual Assignment #03

Company Me Personal Business Plan              The mission statement for Company Me is to provide our customers with the best possible service, while maintaining a safe and fun work environment for our employees.  Business Environment                          Company Me is competing in the food service industry. We are a restaurant that specializes in New Mexican cuisine. The food service industry in the global environment is not very stable. It is affected by many variables such as the cost of food, the cost of labor, the type of cuisine being cooked and the location of the restaurant. The economic forces that influence supply and demand of the food service industry is again the cost of food, the cost of labor, etc.  The average server in Pennsylvania makes around $26,000 a year or $2.83 an hour plus tips.  Entrepreneurship and Strategy             As the CEO of a New Mexican restaurant in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania I expect one of the biggest challenges I’ll
Read more

Individual Assignment 4

For the individual assignment 4, I went to one of the events which was a part of Pittsburgh’s Inclusive Innovation week 2018. ON Wednesday April 4, 2018 I along with my fellow classmate Abdullah, attended the Saving with Zero Waste event. This event was from 6:00pm – 7:30pm, at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh East Liberty. Since it has almost been a month I don’t exactly remember the names of each speaker but I do know that it was 4 women and 1 man. It was definitely a different type of event and wasn’t what I expected it to be.              The event really focused on how to reduce ones carbon footprint and the amount of waste we produce. This included at the individual level as well as the company level. I would argue that this event somewhat tied into the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility. This is because one of the speakers talked about how companies and individuals need to be responsible for the amount of waste they produce, and how they can take steps to fix this p
Read more