Analysis and Synthesis
In Loyola’s EMBA program, we talk a lot about the synthesis of learning. Throughout the program, we are challenged to look beyond the segregation of systems and to integrate knowledge and experience.
The final module of this year (composed of Macroeconomics, IT Strategy and International Business) has been the most exciting in terms of bringing together the academics of business and the actual experiences of world around us. I feel very fortunate to be in this program during a time of economic crisis and global change and to be surrounded by twenty five talented and smart classmates who bring a range of perspectives and meaning to the subjects we study.
One of the biggest challenges when I started this program was figuring out how to synthesize my school experience into the rest my life.
A Framework for B-School
Inspired by frameworks of business process change introduced during our IT Strategy class, the picture above is a graphical representation of my synthesis of the EMBA program. Similar to the business concepts behind the framework for IT Strategy, my B-school model illustrates the four main areas of life — work, school, life and community. By using a model of synthesis (and not just analysis), I believe the Loyola program pushes students into deeper learning by helping us to recongize that success in any one area cannot be achieived by taking the pieces in isolation. It took me a few months to gain some lopsided alignment in all the quadrants of my life, and it is the process of integrating input from of all these systems into a larger and broader whole that creates value.
