Melbourne

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Things are still going well down under. Last week I had a "progress report"-type meeting with Dean to go over where I was with the marketing plan and discuss any questions or feedback. He seemed surprised by how much I had gotten done in the first two weeks, but I assured him that the implementation would slow me down. After four years of psychology research and a year of reading Harvard business cases, analysis comes pretty easily for me - it's the marketing strategy and implementation plan that is gonna stump me. But, then again, that will also be the fun part - figuring out how to make people buy our products instead of the competitors' products, getting inside their heads and using my psychology skills to persuade them! I also got thrown a little challenge last week from David. He was meeting with Laerdal's largest distributor in the Aust/NZ market and was filling me in a little on the situation to give me some exposure to that aspect of the business - my own personal Harvard business case, if you will. Basically, he went over with me how they want even MORE discounts (they already get 30% on most products and up to 50% on some of the high-volume products!) and how he was thinking of offering them a volume discount to guarantee they were really going to generate the new business they were promising. So, then he asks for my suggestions, and I told him I liked the idea of the volume discount and could only think of adding to it by maybe creating a few tiers of volume discounts (or waiting to see if the volume discounts were well-accepted and successful and then creating more tiers later). So, he says, "OK, why don't you draft that up for me and e-mail it to me, and I'll call you when I get to Sydney about 10:30" (which was only about an hour later!) So, I'm hurrying around trying to figure out how to do this project I'd never done before, not really having a good feel for the numbers or whether the discounts and sales targets were too optimistic or too conservative! (Turns out later that the meeting wasn't actually until the next day, and he didn't look at the email until that night. haha) So, anyway, got my first dose of a stressful challenge! The distributor didn't end up liking the volume discount idea (said they weren't being rewarded for the amount they were selling). So, I haven't had a chance to go over the plan with him yet and get any feedback or learn the best way to do something like that - but I'll let you know how the feedback goes.

Saturday I went into the city to wander around and explore. I took the train into Flinders Street Station and saw: Federation Square, St. Paul's Cathedral, the Queen Victoria Market, the harbor, and the Shrine of Remembrance. My photos didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped - it was a very gray day, and nothing I photographed was very artistic looking. But oh well, it was a good day anyway - had a lot of fun just exploring and getting a feel for the city. Sunday was a lazy day - slept in a little, did some Bible reading, made a grocery trip, and watched some more DVDs. Then back to work on Monday. I'm going to spend this week doing competitor and pricing analysis and customer segment descriptions for the marketing plan.

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Photos

Flinders Street Station
my arrival point into the city

Pipe Organ in St. Paul's Cathedral
for my Aunt Nancy ;)

Melbourne
the booming metropolis from the top of the Shrine of Remembrance

Shrine of Remembrance
memorial to members of the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps

Home, Sweet Home
my home and vehicle during my stay down under

Comments

[Aunt Nancy]

Melbourne, here we come!
Thanks for the picture of the pipe organ. There's another one in the Town Hall I'd like to see when I get there. See you SOON! Aunt Nancy