Blog

When I began this blog, I had some clear ideas on what I wanted to do.  I had seen other blogs, and some seemed to repeat each other in their content.  While this can be positive, I wanted to present different content that I didn’t often see.  I was interested in articles about branding, and product pricing.  For that reason, I started this blog.  In the blog, I hope to present ideas and opinions about the power of a brand, and the power of proper product price management.

I didn’t start out working in brand management and pricing.  In a way, I still don’t work in these fields.  I started out in a totally different field like many others have, and migrated over time to something new.  I have always had a fascination with all things mechanical and electrical.  As a child, I built simple circuits and mechanical devices with the help of my father.  Most of my early work could be referred to as “destructive evaluation”.  This means that I would take things apart and not put them back together again.  Often, no one would ever be able to put it back together again.  Hence, the “destructive” part of the evaluation.  As I continued down this road, and my late teen years approached, I needed to find an occupation.

As a junior and senior in high school, I had a younger serious girlfriend who I wanted to be near while attending college.  I decided to go to some two-year technical college and study electronics.  That way, I could study and have weekends to come back to visit.  Besides, it didn’t seem like a four-year university was for me.  When I was in third grade, I remember telling my mom that I didn’t want to go to school, any more, and that she didn’t need to sign me up again.  My father told me that in kindergarten, I also expressed my disinterest in education by telling him not to sign me up again.  As I contemplated my move to tech school, my serious girlfriend broke up with me.  Off to tech school I went.

I studied at Iowa Western Community College in Council Bluffs, Iowa and gained an associates degree in Electronic Technology.  The teachers and staff were great there, and I gained a lot of experience in the troubleshooting of electronics.  I once fixed a hair dryer belonging to my mother while home on a school break.  Then, like now, a hair dryer is barely worth fixing, and probably should have been trashed.  As I neared completion of my associate degree, I felt like I should probably continue my education further.  After all, I was getting excellent grades in all of my courses at the community college, and it wasn’t very difficult for me.  I had sufficient high school math training, although I would soon find that it probably wasn’t up to snuff. 

I was accepted at Iowa State University as a pre-engineering student in the fall of 1988.  I had missed the first year of rioting that later led to the end of a spring celebration called VEISHEA.  VEISHEA (“VEE-shah”) is an acronym that represented the first letter of all of the colleges at the university, and had been running for 65 years.  Each spring, there would be a parade and several days off of school to celebrate and see exhibits.  In 1988, there were riots that led to street closures, vandalism, and all-around drunkenness.  In some subsequent years, there were drunken brawls and even a murder, despite university and city restrictions.  By 2014, VEISHEA was canceled for good.   

My first semester at Iowa State was pretty brutal.  I hadn’t had such math intensive courses before.  I was barely staying above water.  By mid-semester, I called my father and told him how difficult the courses were, and that I was probably getting a “D-Slip”.  This is what we called the deficiency slips that would come out at midterm to let the student know that they were at risk of failing the course.  Thankfully, a D-slip listed all of the courses that the student was at risk of failing, saving me the humiliation of receiving a mailbox full of D-slips.  I hoped my father would let me quit ISU, and come home.  He told me to work harder, which I didn’t really want to hear at the time.  After some adjustment, I finally got used to the pace of the classes, and found other students to work with on my homework, giving me at least a fighting chance.  The D-slips were, unfortunately, not a thing of the past.  I would receive many D-slips through my years at ISU.  Often, I repeated courses only to get a mediocre grade the second time around as well.  I was thankful that I took some calculus courses while at tech school.  I never had calculus in high school, it wasn’t offered at the time.  

Because of my grades, I began to worry about being able to find a job upon graduation.  I applied for internships with companies like AT&T, Black and Veatch, and Rockwell Collins.  Most of these companies required such a high GPA, I had no prayer of getting an interview, lest a job.  However, another route was to take a different kind of engineering internship, referred to as a co-op.  In a co-op, the engineering-student takes a semester and a summer off of school, and works at a company full-time.  The co-op that I accepted lasted for two semester-summer periods, followed by a summer period.  Between the first two semester-summer periods, I had one semester of school.  I worked for a power company in Omaha, Nebraska called Omaha Public Power District (OPPD).  Since I was struggling with my courses, I thought that getting into the power industry might be easier for me after college.  It was lower tech at the time, and if I did well, there would be lots of power companies that I could work for. 

I learned a lot working for the power company as a co-op.  I learned that for me, the power industry was not very interesting.  So much for a career in the power industry.  Also, the company that I worked for had a hiring freeze when I graduated, so it wasn’t possible to get a job there.  Fortunately, I was able to get an interview with a telecommunications company located in Omaha, NE.  The company, Metropolitan Fiber Systems (MFS), had deep pockets, and was taking advantage of the telecommunications boom.  My job offer letter arrived about a month prior to my graduation.  MFS hired me to be a Systems Engineer in their organization.  I couldn’t have been happier.  This was the spring of 1994 which was a really bad time to graduate from college as an engineer.  Many of my friends continued schooling to get master’s degrees in hopes that the job market would turn around. 

I worked as a Systems Engineer for MFS, Siemens, McLeodUSA, and Rockwell Collins.  A run of about 22 years.  That’s a long time to do one thing.  I was beginning to get antsy, so I decided I would like to get into something different.  While at Rockwell Collins, I began taking company courses to improve my ability to apply for jobs and move up within the company.  After all, there were lots of positions there that would allow growth.  I also started working on a Master’s of Business Administration at my rival school, the University of Iowa.  Rockwell Collins helped to pay for the courses.  I had been at Rockwell Collins for about six years at the time.     I told managers that I would like to move forward and gain experience so that I would be eligible for promotions.  I applied for job positions in the company, but was not accepted because I didn’t have the necessary experience.  I continued to request assignments that would provide the necessary experience, but to no avail.  After ten years, I left Rockwell Collins. 

I completed my Masters of Business Administration Degree in the winter of 2017.  Wow, taking courses one at a time makes a degree take a long time to accomplish.  I enjoyed the courses that I took, and for the most part, I greatly enjoyed the teachers and the great experiences and knowledge that they shared as part of their teaching.  The University of Iowa also offers certificates as a part of a degree.  I took the courses necessary to earn a Certificate of Marketing as well.  Another piece of paper to hang on the wall, and perhaps lead to new professional opportunities. 

So here I am.  I still work a full-time job, but it’s not in the private sector.   My current job is in System Engineering, but I have the chance to serve my country as a civilian.  There is often lots of bureaucracy to deal with in the government.   I see that although there is bureaucracy to overcome, there is a job to do.  Like thousands of other enlisted men and women and civilians, my job is to help make sure that the warfighter has what it needs in order to accomplish its mission.  While my role in this mission is rather small, I am proud of it.  The job is not glamorous, and not overly exciting.  It is important nonetheless. 

Now that I have new weapons in my arsenal in the form of practical business education, I would like to put the education to work.  I want to collaborate with others to provide positive enhancements to their businesses.  I hope that my blog will provide some positive insight into brands, marketing, and providing value to stakeholders.