Eric Maroun

It would be a safe bet to say that everyone who has at least a high school education has heard, at some point or another, the phrase "Dante's Inferno." Unfortunately, I'd venture to say that many people have no idea where the phrase comes from. Dante Alighieri was an Italian poet who lived from 1265-1321. He turned out to be one of the most influential writers in history.

Unquestionably, Dante's greatest work was La Divina Commedia, otherwise known as The Divine Comedy. This work was made up of three parts: Inferno, Purgatorio (Purgatory), and Paradiso (Paradise). By far, however, the most popular part was the Inferno.

In the Inferno, Dante wanders aimlessly through a forest feeling like a beaten man. Eventually, he comes across the ghost of the Roman poet Virgil; the two men then embark on a journey taking them through the nine circles of Hell. Never has Hell been so vividly captured in literature as it was by Dante. He detailed each circle in an attempt to distinguish each one from the other. As the men began to traverse deeper and deeper into the depths of Hell, the individuals which they encountered continued to get worse. A basic map of Dante's portrayal of Hell can be found here while the basic circles are outlined below:

First Circle: Limbo
Second Circle: Lust
Third Circle: Gluttonous
Fourth Circle: Avaricious and Prodigal
Fifth Circle: Wrathful and Sullen
Sixth Circle: Heretics
Seventh Circle: Violent Toward Others, Themselves, and God
Eighth Circle: Panderers, Seducers, Flatterers, Simoniacs, Diviners, Barrators, Hypocrites, Thieves, False Counselors, Scandal, and Falsifiers
Ninth Circle: Betrayers of Kin, Country, Guests, and Benefactors

After visiting Hell, Virgil and Dante return to Earth on Easter morning shortly before the sunrise. They had truly been through Hell and back.

When discussing this work, I can't help but think of the following excerpt from it:

“Through me the way is to the city dolent;
Through me the way is to eternal dole;
Through me the way among the people lost.
Justice incited my sublime Creator;
Created me divine Omnipotence,
The highest Wisdom and the primal Love.
Before me there were no created things,
Only eterne, and I eternal last.
All hope abandon, ye who enter in!”

There were a few times this semester when I truly wanted to abandon all hope of going through with CICS once I had entered it. However, through hard work, determination, and most of all, the support of my fellow colleagues, I am able to look back on the semester and be proud that I made it through unscathed. I just hope that there is a Paradise that eventually awaits me at the end of this like there was from Dante.

Posted by ejmaroun at 11:58 PM | Permalink

Mark Walton’s book Generating Buy-In serves as a fantastic outline for achieving goals in business. Walton does this by separating the book into three main parts regarding the language of buy-in: understanding it, speaking it, and putting it to use.

In the understanding the language chapter, Walton details the importance of strategic stories. Such stories which paint the picture of a positive future are key to generating buy-in. By capturing people’s attention, influencing their emotions, and programming their memories, stories can generate long reaching results for companies. A perfect example which Walton mentions is McDonald’s which, through the use of bright music, images, and Ronald McDonald, gave the impression of a positive future with the slogan “Your kind of place…a hap, hap happy place,” without even mentioning the food offered at the restaurant.

Next, in the speaking the language section, Walton provides a step by step guide to developing a strategic story. After determining the buy-in objective, individuals must establish a strategic storyline, develop the storyline to target the audience’s needs, wants, and future goals, and call the audience to action. In my opinion, the most critical of these steps is the development of the storyline to suit the audience’s agenda. After all, the audience is typically the people who have the authority to approve your idea, and they need to be shown how approval will benefit them as well as you. Being able to effectively show them this can greatly increase the chances of getting an idea approved.

Lastly, Walton discusses putting the language of buy-in to use. In this chapter, he provides real-life examples of executives who have employed the techniques mentioned above in order to accomplish a wide range of tasks. The best example, in my opinion, came from Cisco CEO John Chambers who was forced to lay off thousands of employees. Rather than just cutting them loose, he offered them one-third of their base salary plus benefits provided that they volunteer their skills at non-profit organizations for one year. The promise of a positive future resonated with the employees and allowed for Chambers to maintain good will with them. Overall, Generating Buy-In is a critical book to read for those who plan on going into the business world today.

Posted by ejmaroun at 02:37 PM | Permalink

The website Facebook has completely taken over our lives. I don't know of a single college student who has not, at one time or another, had a Facebook account. Its immersion into our culture has come at a rapid rate. What once started as a networking site solely for students at Harvard University has blossomed into a social networking force with over 130 million users worldwide according to Facebook's Statistics page. It is stunning how much Facebook has come to affect our lives.

I remember coming to Ball State in 2004 and signing up for my first social networking site: the now defunct partycampus.com. It allowed for the posting of a single profile picture, hometown, interests, and relationship status. Through this site, I met someone who noticed that I was from Cleveland, Ohio, and instant messaged me to say she used to live there as well. A few IMs later, and we discovered that we grew up in the same city approximately 15 minutes away from each other, and she had many friends in common with me. I was officially hooked on social networking.

In late September or early October, forgive me on the exact dates as it's been over four years, Facebook came to Ball State. As I recall, I was not immediately receptive to Facebook. I still preferred partycampus.com because of its familiarity. However, as more and more people started using Facebook, I realized that this was the wave of the future. Little did I know how much of an impact this site would have.

Facebook has allowed us to learn every detail about our friends' lives. Want to know how someone spent their weekend? Look at their pictures. Want to know who is flirting with who? Look at their wall. Want to know whether or not so and so are officially dating? Look at the relationship status. Of course, the last part has become so intriguing, it's almost comical. It has seriously gotten to the point that a couple are not truly "boyfriend and girlfriend" until it's "Facebook official." One of my best friends even made a bet with another friend of mine that he and his girlfriend would not be "Facebook official" just to be different than the norm. Five months later, he gave in, and they are now officially in a relationship on Facebook. Also along the lines of relationships, Facebook has saved many people the trouble of announcing via phone call if they have gotten engaged. A simple change of relationship status, of course coupled with girls changing their Facebook picture to a picture of their engagement ring, instantly notifies everyone of an impending marriage. A stream of "CONGRATS!" wall posts is sure to ensue upon viewing this update.

On the other hand, I don't believe anyone can say with a straight face that seeing the broken heart icon next to someone's name, which indicates they are no longer in a relationship, doesn't pique their interest. Surely, more than one person views every relationship breakup update and remarks to him or herself something to the effect of, "It's about time," or "I knew that wouldn't last." Sad, but true.

Outside of the relationship aspect, those in the workforce must be conscious of what is being displayed on their Facebook profiles. More than ever, employers are using Facebook to monitor their employees habits which they are choosing to make public, usually done by posting pictures of non-professional activities. This article from the Charlotte Observer discusses this issue further. While simply setting stricter privacy settings is usually enough to prevent employers from viewing one's profile, some people have taken more extreme measures. I know someone that has gone as far as to change his last name on the site in an effort to make searching for him impossible. While it requires all of his friends to remember his new last name if they want to contact him, it gives him peace of mind knowing that nothing on his page will be viewed by anyone that he doesn't want to see it. Who knew that something which started out as a way for Harvard students to connect with each other would have such a drastic effect on people of all ages across the globe?

Posted by ejmaroun at 12:04 PM | Permalink

It's over. It's finally over. After one week, countless hours spent in the IRC, and more 5 hour energy drinks in my body than is probably healthy for one person, the Accenture Challenge came to an end on Friday. After having the weekend to catch up on sleep and reflect on the week, I have a few thoughts.

One of the aspects of CICS I have thoroughly enjoyed has been the real world projects we have completed. From compiling the iDMAa Digital Media Directory to serving as a consulting firm for Ontario Systems in an ICS 602 project, the experience we have gained has been invaluable. Gone are the undergraduate days of doing work for the sake of doing work. The Accenture Challenge was no different. As someone who is wishing to enter the field of consulting, I now know what to expect when I graduate and get a job. I know not to give away "free consulting" when attempting to get business. I know to ask for the business at the end of a presentation. And I especially know that in order to be successful, time management is of utmost importance. I do, however, anticipate having more than a week to complete a project such as this.

I think a major key in succeeding in the Accenture Challenge is teamwork. Being able to coexist for long periods of time is absolutely essential in this type of environment. While it's certainly OK to disagree on certain points, mutual respect must be shown in order to see where each person is coming from with their views. After the group debates the topic at hand, I believe that teams should operate under the "51% agreement means 100% commitment" philosophy. That means that if the majority of the group feels one way, then everyone must be committed to it from then on. I really feel that we did a great job of this throughout the Challenge, and it resulted in our team coming together to support each other.

Lastly, the importance of having fun cannot be stressed enough. Yes, it's a competition. Yes, there is a monetary award at the end. Yes, it should be taken seriously. Yes, it's a learning experience. But at the same time, doing something to have fun can be a terrific stress reliever, and alleviating stress will help keep you sane when the hours grow long. Joke around with team members. Find something completely random to do. And develop an inside joke at some point that only your team will get. Trust me, you'll be thankful later.

While our team technically did not win the Challenge, it would be wrong to call us losers. We got the experience of actually being a consulting firm working on a real-life case study. We received feedback on our presentation skills. We made connections with those at Accenture. And most importantly, we finished it, and we're right back into the thick of CICS the very next week.

Posted by ejmaroun at 09:26 AM | Permalink