Recently I met a former business colleague to catch up while he was in town. Since the time we worked together at Sara Lee, he's had quite a career, jetting around the world working for a couple of different exciting companies. When it came time for me to talk what I've been doing in those years, I did not have much business-ese to offer. This particular friend did not ask the question outrigtht, but I've heard some of my other friends mutter something like, "
Why did you ever get an MBA if you're mostly just staying home with your kids??"
Not to worry, my muttering friends! All is not wasted. As any mom can attest, there are many business-like tasks we must perform in our profession. I put my home-bound, deteriorating brain to work to come up with a list of some of them.
Here are just a few of the areas in which we can apply business skills or knowledge:
Inventory control: Just as for a business, our home has ideal stock levels for hundreds, if not thousands, of SKU's. For some items (toilet paper for instance), under-stocking is far more dangerous than over-stocking. But for others (such as trampolines) over-stocking can prove to be cumbersome. So, pretty much on a daily basis I have to do use a critical-fractile
ratio analysis for calculating inventory risks/costs.
Supplier/vendor relationships: We obtain our staple items from several stores right in our area. There are 2 mass-merchandisers and 4 different grocery stores within a 5-mile radius of our home. The challenge is to figure out which supplier offers the best deals on particular items, while also balancing in time-spent and gas-used as variables in the equations. To make the formulas even more complicated, the use of coupons, especially on weeks when one of the stores is offering triple-coupon, or super-double-coupon specials, needs to be factored in. The effectual prices are constantly in flux, making it necessary to keep a pretty comprehensive spreadsheet in one's head. And, as even my son pointed out today, if you want to shop in a "friendlier" store, you have to be willing to pay the higher costs. "You can't have it both ways," he said. See -- I'm already passing on valuable business lessons to the next generation!
Crisis management: These skills are necessary on an almost-daily basis as well, it seems. A huge amount of paint just got spilled all over the floor, there is a toddler who wants to keep walking through the giant puddle, a preschooler who is crying inconsolably, and the phone is ringing: What do you do first?? This leads to important triage decisions, and the necessity to keep a calm head under stress.
Critical path analysis: As any project manager would tell you (at least back in the 90's when I learned about this stuff... perhaps software has changed it all since then!), identifying the
critical path in any plan is key. So, if I want to get everyone out the door for Taekwondo by 11:40, I need to back up all the steps to do so, and figure out which things are going to take the longest, doing those first. Any mom can tell you who takes the longest to put on shoes, who takes the longest in the bathroom, who will be most likely to pitch a fit and argue with the plan, etc. Moms may use critical path analysis on an hourly basis.
Group dynamics: I learned in a Human Resources course that groups go through several stages: forming, norming, storming, and a bunch of other ones that rhyme with those which I can't remember. By definition, moms live in groups 24-7. Being aware of the fact that they will go through stages, even if they can't remember what those stages are called, can be extremely reassuring and sanity-saving. I repeat "it's only a stage, it's only a stage" as a mantra sometimes.
Multi-tasking: We all know business people must multi-task, and the requirements of an MBA program definitely prepare one for that. Those acquired abilities have been more than helpful in motherhood, as all moms could verify. At any one particular instant, I can have 3 voices asking simultaneously things like,
"How do you factor the difference of two squares again?
"What comes after "tug?"
and
"But why can't I have more gum?"
at the same time that my toddler is pulling on my leg crying and the timer on the stove is going off to remind me of something that I now can't remember. Oh, and I'm answering an email, cleaning the office and writing a blog post.
Getting to the root of the problem: As it turns out, my children were born with the
very skill that made Sakichi Toyoda (of Toyota Motor Corporation) so successful: asking "why" repeatedly. So this business skill gets a LOT of use around here, and it's a good thing I was well-versed in its history. I also have found it necessary to use the persistent-questioning method to get to the root of mysterious problems around here. I found myself saying the following recently:
"Why did you change your shirt?... Well why was it wet?.... "What do you mean water got on it?.... Where did you find the cup?..... Why were you in the kitchen?....." And on and on it goes.
One of my undergraduate students asked me not too long ago,
"Is getting an MBA worth it?" As a person who is not exactly in a business role anymore, I can still conclude that yes, it is a valuable degree. Even as a mom, I have put a lot of my coursework to good use.
Some mothers may have been born with these skills naturally, but as for me, I've needed all the training I could get! Although nothing tops the on-the-job training that motherhood provides, free of charge.
