Faceoff : ABP vs Marketing

As an LBS student, there are many courses of interest but balancing understanding of concept with residual knowledge about a business issue is not a walk in the park. Most times, answers to questions or extracting objectives from the noise in a business case scenario require some level of objectivity and unbiased approach to issues. It’s easier to jump to recommendation because of technical knowledge of underlying issues, further leading to possible wrong business decisions.

 A bite for everyone, cake for all implies an issue could be solved or approached from different perspectives while arriving at same recommendation. Solution will be a wrong word because business is broad, recommendations are based on case study provided. Other times, there are similarities and temptation to rely on residual knowledge to arrive at recommendation. A construction engineer may be tilted to recommend answers to a case study on engineering works outside the context of the case itself. A medical Doctor or pharmacist may be bias to recommend when reviewing or analyzing a case study on patient responses to poison and in that order.

There are courses that spell similar doom if one is not thorough in approach to problem solving  in case studies under review  by students of MEMBA program . They are similar but different. Analysis of Business Problem (ABP) and Marketing fall into this for me.

It’s a faceoff between uniqueness and similarities, qualitative metrics and quantitative, but in the end, the objective and recommendation always compliment to achieve organizational goals and drive business strategy.

A recent class on Marketing got some of us mused up on suggested root of business issues and underlying problems in  Apple Incorporation. After running through an 18 page case study, some of us if not all, were confident we have mastered issues and concepts around Price , Promotion, Product and Place that embodies the any Company’s business distribution and branding and marketing. We were wrong.

As the legendary Novelist Chinua Achebe wrote in one of the all time novel: “Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold…” this is the perfect description of the first class on Marketing with Memba12, it appeared every nail was approached with a saw, every tree was to be cut with a sledge hammer.  We were offtrack.

Much of the approach to defining underlying problems with Apple is from our heavy weight experience on Analysis of Business Problem . While low Operating cash flow was mentioned, another student would mention lack of succession plan, and another saying, efficiency challenge, and some saying lack of product differentiation and poor market penetration as one of the underlying issues. The zest could have come from ABP classes but who cares? everyone needed to say something after 18 page review of chronicles of Apple business.

ABP has shaped our thought processes and approach to business issues using both the quantitative and qualitative metrics to arrive at objective to a case study and underlying problems but marketing focuses on the non quantitative factors essentials for business. Our profit margin mention and cash flow, contribution and other quantitative factors though very relevant in Apple business and every business, it should be for ABP classes  not Marketing.

Lesson learned and we move.