Matthew Dent » Uncategorized

What I am about!

Matthew Dent — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 04:43:00 +0000

Welcome to my blog! I started this blog in August 2009 as a platform for posting my assignments for my University of Nevada, Reno MBA course. The course is over and now I am pursing my personal brand and more importantly the value I have to have offer.

This blog will now be transformed into a platform to help capture my thoughts while conveying my opinions to anyone willing to follow. Don’t get me wrong, I understanding getting traffic to my site will be difficult and I look forward to the challenge. I want my theme to be about leadership, communication, and risk management. You probably are asking your self, okay what do you have to offer? I am not claiming to be an expert. My knowledge on these topics is limited, however, I am willing learn and will be documenting my encounters along the way. If you are interested in risk management, can contribute, or want to challenge anything I post please do! My friends and family describe me with words such as: Genuine, Dynamic, Ambitious, Trustworthy, Traditional, and Sarcastic.

I am relatively new in my career, graduating in 2007 from California State University, Chico with a B.S. in Construction Management I currently work as a project engineer in heavy civil construction. Although my fulltime experience is limited, I have been working at least part-time in the industry since 2004 and enjoy the challenge each day brings. Prior to construction, I worked on the front lines of the service industry, primary in restaurants and hotels.

I look forward to being held accountable for staying on message and engaging in conversation. So, please feel free to comment, critique, and challenge my thoughts and I look forward to hearing from you!

CRUX: Just loving life, enjoying my friends, and will never stop learning!

The Layoff

Matthew Dent — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:36:49 +0000

Having to go the layoff route is a very difficult decision for any company. A great leader should surround themselves with individuals that will bring a different perspective to the table and offer to avoid groupthink. This article displays the fact that Robin has surrounded himself with a skilled group of empowered individuals. The opinions of his followers are different this own but we find out this could be due to a instilled thought process passed on from his father. Robin is focused on layoffs as the fix for this problem while the supporting members each have there own ideas which lead to a different outcome. Robin and his staff need to sit down and figure out a way to resolve this issue in a manner they can all agree upon.

Lt. Withers – WSJ

Matthew Dent — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:21:10 +0000

Lt. John Withers was a great commander who displayed the skills of a seasoned leader. When presented with a difficult situation of following orders and sending these individuals back to the extermination camp, Lt. Withers chose an alternate route. During any war emotions are running high and logic sometimes becomes distorted. Lt. Withers diplayed a great leadership skill in going against the norm and cutting his own path. By taking Salamon and Peewee he was leading by example and displaying absolute hospitality. he not only changed formed these boys into men but brought them back from the brink of death and offered them a new life. He taught them how to read, speak, and dream. Only if more people were like Lt. Withers, willing to put it all on the line and steping up to lead.

Gary Loveman & Harrah’s Entertainment

Matthew Dent — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:34:58 +0000

This article shows how thinking outside of the box and building relationship ultimately leads to a loyal customer. This article walks us through the path paved by Gary Loveman when he went against conventional casino marketing and tried an approach that was outside of the box. While the casino industry was mostly focused on bringing in customers; Gary was looking to build a relationship and retain the customer. Instead of using the “theme” approach of attracting customers; Gary was focused on the middle class customer and using evidence to keep them coming back.

Some of the major reasons for success is the cleaning house approach and also changing they way the data is collected. The information the casino was collecting was being collected at each location. This made it really difficult to see the whole picture so Gary got ride of the individual tracking system and made it so all information was collected at one location.

The management was evaluated and many individuals were replaced. When you have individuals operating in a system that needs to be changed, sometime its much easier to replace them and train new employees to operate your way. This approach reminds of me of a similar situation I experienced. My senior year of high school we were experiencing a coaching change on the baseball team. The coach wanted to play ball his way and wanted his own players. We were groomed under the previous coach and although our talent was above a beyond the alternative he decided to go with the younger classman. They were more willing to operate in his system and eventually 8 seniors ended up quitting the team. Gary’s success was much better than my high school coaches in that the change he implemented actually worked. He brought in individuals that weren’t the ordinary gaming employees and plugged them into his system. He wasn’t a different perspective to go along with his hybrid approach.

Thinking outside the box and using evidence to set a marketing strategy was the key to success. Gary’s approach has not only transformed Harrah’s but the entire gaming community and financial sector for that matter.

Diamonds in the Data Mines

Matthew Dent — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:31:12 +0000

This article touches a bit on the same thing we have been learning about over the last few weeks. Last week we read an article “Good to Great” which focused on data mining that is article seemed to drive the point home. Using evidence to help decided a strategy is what was focused on in this article. This article proves that every company requires a slightly different system to make it function on all cylinders.

The data mining process went to an in-depth analysis of gaming customers. Although they were unaware, each and every move that could be tracked by the gaming cards was actually being analyzed in a way to see the habits of the customer. By tracking and analyzing the customers you can begin develop a pattern and start catering to their needs. In doing this you are building a relationship that will last. The rewards cards allow the loyal customers benefits and rewards for continued loyalty. This process encourages them to continue spending money but also rewarding them for there efforts.

This system is setup to benefit the casino however it ultimately give the casino a bit of an insight into how you function.

The Dean’s Disease

Matthew Dent — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:30:19 +0000

The “Dean’s Disease” is very true not only in academia but also in the “real world.” Too often people are given control and power they lose track of reality. This is article where we have a situation that deals with the Dean and how he becomes out of touch with what is really going on and the individuals around them. This article also touches on how individuals control subordinates by coercive or reward power. In simpler terms they control by either belittling them or controlling compensation. You may have good intentions when you were originally promoted, however, over time these fade and you fall into the trap of your predecessor.

We see this all the time someone with years of experience get moved up and put into a situation based simply on the fact, they have the experience. In the real world or academia if you don’t surround yourself with individuals that have different perspectives and are able to give you there honest perspective you will ultimately fail. This article touches on how the Dean will do whatever it takes to make sure the college stays happy. It is much easier to agree and pretend like everything is just perfect than to pave a new route. Too often Dean’s will have power over the faculty by one of two things. They will either control them on an incentive base, controlling how much they make or simply by belittling them in a coercive manner. When there is this much control the individuals you have surrounded yourself with are no longer looking out for what is good for everyone. This becomes a cut-throat environment where they are just trying to survive and keep a position. They won’t speak up against in fear of being shot down or possibly exiled from the circle. The power that is exerted and the separation has left the Dean in a sense of distorted reality. The control factor has left the Dean in an awkward situation surrounded by a punch of people that aren’t threatening and aren’t helping the college.

In the “real world” or in academia power hungry individuals can greatly hurt a company or college.