MBA600 Capstone Reflective Essay: Learning, Skills, and Future Career

This capstone report is a reflective essay on the MBA experience, focusing on the knowledge and skills gained throughout the program. The student reflects on the learning from the capstone project, including management tactics, business strategies, and competitive models like Porter's Five Forces, SWOT, and PESTEL. The essay highlights the development of four essential skills: theoretical, practical, applied, and reflection, and their application in real-world business scenarios. The student discusses leadership traits, team working, financial report analysis, and time management skills. Furthermore, the essay explores the impact of the MBA on the student's communication, decision-making, and self-discovery, and how these skills will assist in future career endeavors. The student also discusses the application of various management theories and competitive strategies in different business situations, including the importance of innovation, critical thinking, and the exploration of market opportunities.

Running head: CAPSTONE
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Capstone
Report
Student Name
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Introduction
This report is all above the learning and knowledge which I got from my capstone project related
to my MBA specialization. This report also includes comprehensive field knowledge which I
gained through the course from both micro and macro-level experience. In addition, it also
includes opportunity which I gained in the form of skill set related to the business environment.
It also focuses on competitive strategy approach learning which is essential for growth of my
overall development. This report also covers stepwise learning related to business competition
which I gained from this capstone course. In addition, this report includes knowledge related to
various strategies that are being used by the present organization to remain sustainable in the
business environment. It also includes learning related to development of strategy level planning
for business success along with number of workshop which helped in recalling all learning from
this capstone project.
Summary of reflective capability and learning, that includes the knowing, being and
competencies and four essential capstone skills
This capstone course helped me in learning various management tactics which offered me
significant knowledge related to business strategies as well as tactics. It actually offered me an
opportunity to take active participation in the practical business environment. In addition, this
capstone course helped me in building my business capability by focusing on those important
skills which are essential from professional development of an individual. This course really
cleared my concept related to brainstorming (Usher, et al.2015). Earlier I used to think that
brainstorming is just about putting some ideas but now I understand that it is all about exploring
innovative ideas. This course cleared my doubt related to competitive strategy such as Porter's
five force model, SWOT, PESTEL and so on. I was very confused about these models and their
applications related to the present business environment (Panwar, Nybakk, Hansen and Pinkse,
2016). I came to know that only developing these competitive strategies is not enough in order to
run business successfully. In fact, company must explore financial base resources in order to
understand whether they are capable of introducing new changes or not. Financial resource acts
as the base for the performance of the organization because at present everything is all about
numbers and these numbers provide a clear image of stepwise progress of the organization
(Eniola and Entebang, 2015). This course helped me in development four skills which actually
form foundation of success in the life of every professional individual which are theoretical,
practical, applied and reflection. I found that this capstone course was a pattern in such a way
that every student has to go through number of steps which helped them in these four important
skills. In this course, I believed that this capstone course is very helpful for me in gaining expert
level knowledge which will be helpful while entering professional life. These skills were not
limited to one area, in fact, this course has tried to cover all possible areas which helped me to
groom myself in this competitive world. This course helped in focusing on strategic problems
faced by present organization along with strategy to handle these situations (Noetel, Dawson Hay
and Touyz, 2017). I have learned various form of management theories related to business along

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with their applications. Every situation is different and therefore it is not advisable to use same
kind of strategy in a different situation. In addition, I also come to learn various traits of
leadership which are very important for me in order to understand how to maximize efforts with
optimizing resources. It also helped me in learning motivation skills which play a key role in
managing employee performance during difficult situations. Every organization has to face
issues in their life journey and in this situation; if leader is not able to manage this situation then
it will have a direct impact on the overall performance of the organization (Mikkelsen, Jacobsen
and Andersen, 2017). It is a logical fact that we cannot expect a better outcome from dissatisfied
employees who are already struggling related to their work setting. Learning leadership will
help me in providing direction to my life journey in both professional as well as in personal life
because it is realty to ethics, moral and coordination.
A personal reflection on learning from the capstone subject and consultancy research
process
MBA helped me in learning a holistic approach related to business in which I learned a lot about
organization functions such as managing, controlling organizing and planning. Understanding of
this function is one of the best processes because it helps in resolving various conflicts that can
directly impact performance of the organization. In addition, it also helped me in exploring
processes like connecting people with functional strategy of the organization (Ahammad, Tarba,
Liu and Glaister, 2016). This course helped me to convert my theoretical into practical
experience by understanding practical approach of various business management theories which
helps in increasing motivation and connect it with real-life situations. It also helped in exploring
various business planning and business elements that are mandatory for business modules. This
course has offered a resource-based learning which has made must concept clear and has
improved my learning skills. As per my knowledge, these concepts will be helpful for my
professional as well as personal growth (Zhai et al., 2017). It helps in selecting the right
implementation process for any strategy because in most of cases, strategy fails because leader is
not able to effectively implement strategy on the ground level. It may be misunderstanding
related to strategy or it may be due to resistance displayed by employees in order to accept
changes in their daily work. This course helped me in exploring my team working skills by
offering me various opportunities to work in small team environment. This small workshop
helped me to have real-life experience in which I have learned how to solve conflicts, team
management and so on (Malik, 2016). It offered me opportunity to better understand other
students in terms of their interpersonally, thinking process and their weakness. I learned
important traits of team that help in generating effective performance. I learned that team can
only perform better if their team members are having a strong relationship between them in the
form of coordination. In addition, this course has helped me in developing my confidence. At
present, I can say that I am a completely different person in terms of confidence and skill
development. This course has also improved my understanding related to company financial
report (Hsu, 2016). Earlier I used to think that financial report is related to only financial aspects

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of the organization. But I came to know that this report explains all important details and
information such as CSR activities, latest activities which have improved performance of the
organization. In addition, this course helped me in learning skills related to time management.
From various times I was suffering from time management issue which has impacted both my
professional as well as personal life (Hatane, 2015). Due to lack of time management I was not
able to balance my life because of which I was somewhere failing in enjoying my life. This
course helped me in prioritizing my work as per their importance. This learning has completely
changed my life by sorting my time as per the importance and developed a balance between my
professional and personal life. I was able to acquire knowledge related to current market by
reading various preview written by various famous scholars (Muda, Erlina and AA, 2018). This
article helped me in understand both positive and negative side of the present market and helps in
exploring new ways of managing team, process and people.
A personal reflection on skills developed over the MBA
This capstone course played a very important role in my overall development. It offered me a lot
of learning and knowledge which I would have not experience from other courses. This course
helped me in creating an effective impression and I can clearly see change in my personality,
thinking as well as my prediction power. This course helped me in understanding real power of
effective communication I was very surprised to know that effective communication helps a very
positive role in implementing any strategy on the ground level. It offered me an opportunity to
explore myself on a public platform (Greenaway et al., 2015). Earlier I was very afraid of public
speaking or in short, I can say it was one of the weaknesses which were restricting me to acquire
leadership skills. Though this course was not based on communication skill but it was designed
in such a way that communication skills will become an indirect part of this capstone course.
Regularly practicing on different business theories has made my skills productive. This course
helped me to learn team working frame in which I was really failing because earlier I believed
that individual work is more effective than combined work (Thomson et al., 2015). But to my
experience, I realized that if team members are able to have better understanding of each other,
then their combined effort is much effective than individual efforts. This capstone course helped
me in overcome my barrier related to communication-related to diverse team patterns. In
addition, this course helped me in learning effective leadership skills which are the key player of
business. During this course, I realized that it is not easy to become leader because leadership
needs a combination of various traits which helps leader to keep their employee motived as well
as their employees (Iqbal, Anwar and Haider, 2015). I realized that only known about
competitive strategy is not enough from leadership point of view. Their right timing and right
implementation play a significant role. I came across to learn various management theories such
as scientific management, classical management, behaviour management, motivation and so on.
In addition, I also learned competitive strategies like SWOT, PESTEL, balance scorecard, five
forces competitive model and so on. I learned how to implement these strategies effectively in
related situation. I learned how to access available resources and then form them base for

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arguments. I also learned how to explore opportunities related to industry change and then
convert into profitability (Amanchukwu, Stanley and Ololube, 2015). Then I learned how to
explore features that can offer competitive advantage over others related to product or service
because at present competition is so high that every organization is in need of uniqueness in
order to remain sustainable in the business market. This exploring process needs critical thing
along with an innovative pattern. This process has actually changed my thinking process related
to any topic and helped me to remain positive. This course also helped in improving my decision
making capability because of which I am able to understand level and impact of my decision on
my performance (Lerner, Li, Valdesolo and Kassam, 2015). I learned that I am good at
organizing because of which my peers have appreciated my various decisions. This course
helped me in self-discovery in understanding my strengths and weakness. Without help of this
course, I was not able to know my area of improvement related to business management.
A personal reflection on how these will assist in future career endeavors
Going through this course, I realized that they course will assist me in future in entering into the
corporate world. This course has offered me all learning and knowledge which I can utilize in
my future objectives. In this course I have played various roles right from team member to leader
of the team and small workshop has actually offered me a real glimpse of the situation. In
addition to this, management theories will helps in converting my knowledge into practical
portfolio by which I can resolve various business issues individually (Baden and Higgs, 2015).
This course has offered me necessary skills which I can use to encourage my team members in
the organization in a difficult situation by offering them both theoretical as well as practical
examples which can be connected with them. I learned that only those strategies will be accepted
which employees may feel that it is related to their growth and development. I had various
expectations related to this course and these expectations have been overtaken by reality. At
present, networking has emerged as one of the most important skills which is beyond any
expectation. Networking skills are so important that in some cases if person is talented but is not
able to develop connection, then there is very less chance for person to get opportunity related to
job or idea implementation (Barwick, 2017). Networking helps in connecting with people who
are already connected or have experience related to business world. Therefore these people can
play a very important role in shaping my future career by connecting with worthy people so that
they can offer me opportunity to prove myself in this competitive business world. In addition,
this course has helped me to find out my area of improvement because of which I am able to
create a strategic plan related to my overall development (Shimba, Mahenge and Sanga, 2017).
In future, I am expecting to acquire such a position where I can guide other people and at this
position if I am not able to possess these leadership skills then I will not be able to manage
people in an effective way. This course has helped to forecast what may be my job and what may
be nature of my job in the near future. In near future, I am going to face various challenges
related to my professional but with the help of this course, I will be able to handle these

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situations in an effective manner so that both I and my team can prosper in connection with
organization operations.
Conclusions
At present, organization strategies are very significant for ensuring success of the organization. It
is essential to ensure right strategy must be applied in order to ensure continuous success and in
this situation if leader is not able to explore significant of strategy organization may face
difficulty. As per my understanding, this course is very helpful in enhancing performance and
job satisfaction because they course has offered me a glimpse which I can relate with real
business world. This course ensures that learner will acquire knowledge in stepwise patterns so
that we can implement our theoretical knowledge into practical aspects. In addition, this course
helped me in improving my communication skills and has removed my fear related to public
speaking. I also learned various competitive skills and strategies which will act as a support base
for my future in the business environment. This capstone course was able to connect various
management theories with future needs of the business.

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