Outcome 1 - Possess breadth and depth of understanding of key business concepts and theories.

My artifacts demonstrating mastery of this outcome (What?)
http://www.geocities.com/stephannie.delong/DeLong_AccountingOutcome1.doc
http://www.geocities.com/stephannie.delong/DeLong_FinancialAnalysisOutcome1.doc
http://www.geocities.com/stephannie.delong/DeLong_FinancialAnalysisOutcome1.xls
http://www.geocities.com/stephannie.delong/DeLong_MarketingOutcome1.doc
http://www.geocities.com/stephannie.delong/DeLong_Org.ChangeOutcome1.doc

My reflection on meeting this outcome (So What?)
The Accounting Outcome document allowed me to demonstrate not only that I understand the role of accountants and accounting in business, but it also enabled me to see my role as the accounting administrator within my current profession. My understanding of accounting has allowed me to better shape the budget, communicate with board members and to adjust our financial goals as needed. Understanding and applying the principles in this portion of my MBA career has enabled me to be more successful in my job. In fact, it proved extremely useful when my organization needed to adjust the 2008 budget in mid-year. By demonstrating my understanding of the budget, accounting practices and our organization's needs I was able to prepare and present a mid-year corrected budget which was unanimously approved.

The financial analysis documents demonstrate my ability to understand the financial tools available to business leaders and when it is applicable to utilize each of them within my own career. While I work in non-profit and have found limited use for some tools such as debt ratings and the net advantage to leasing, this document allows me to refer back to such tools as they become necessary within my career. Understanding cash budgeting and opportunity costs are applicable within my current profession. We utilize them frequently in the Chamber and have had to make adjustments to our budget based on our cash forecasting and changing opportunity costs.

The marketing document serves as an example of an overall marketing plan for any potential business. Marketing products and services to potential customers is an essential business function. Successful marketing involves understanding the customer, the market and the competition. The marketing plan not only serves as a tool for planning the year's activities, but it also helps determine the budget. This tool is an essential business function which we refer to monthly within my current job.

The organizational change document serves as an example of implementing a new customer relations program which results from a customer complaint. This document further serves to demonstrate a situation in which I am the leader who must make a change that will affect not only my customers but my staff as well. After working through this assignment I recently had a similar situation occur within my organization. A recent customer (member) complaint resulted in my need to change the way we handle new member orientations. Not only did the change affect our staff, but it affected the way our board members and committee members interact with new members. I believe that working through this scenario helped provide the framework for my solution to this issue.


My future learning goals related to this outcome (Now What?)
My immediate future goals in relation to this outcome are to take on more of a leadership role within my organization. I am attempting to re-structure the staff make-up of the Chamber and assume the role of the President/CEO, while maintaining some of my current duties. I am utilizing my skills with accounting, organizational behavior, marketing and financial analysis to demonstrate not only my ability to serve as a leader, but the need for the re-structuring of our current staff. This is an ongoing aspect of my current job and a goal that I feel has been made attainable by my work within the MBA program.