LCF MBA Blog

Upon counseling, the area of help I requested for was methods I could fix my procrastination. The counselor went with the approach that I had a perfectionist issue, and it showed up in the form of high achieving. It was identified that 1. I don’t give myself enough rest, 2. I expect myself to accomplish unachievable goals on a daily basis while draining my energy in the background as I constantly worry over the large to-do lists I set for myself.

The method the councelor had me try was:

• No screen time 1 hour before sleep, get enough sleep at proper hours
• Limit working to-do list to maximum 3 items per day to pevent draining energy in the back of mind
• Have a routine, regular sleep times and meal times for one less thing to worry about

I had asked Lois if I have approval to move forward with the project, she asked if I was happy with it. I started off being happy to bring my ideas, but at this point, I’m more concerned with meeting criteria than being happy with everything I’m doing. It appears that I have more clearance on the project, especially with Lois’s idea on the social purpose.

Trying to look on the bright side, I will be looking into consumer research of dress buyers and the industry research of market players.

The added bonus is the research into bridal companies that have excess stock to solve deadstock and terminal stock problem, a sustainable approach to production with sustainable materials with a direction on upcycling ability of the produced dresses, closing the loop on this fashion item with product life end considerations.

On 5th June, an intervention tutorial was held, partially triggered by James’ commentary of “she’s unsure of what she’s doing, it’s not clear”. I find that quite disturbing and will add it to my PTES feedback for the course, because now it looks like I was lying about the session going well in my opinion.

There was a lot of back and forth in the tutorial, including me breaking down. I just wanted to do a project that would be useful to my future plans, but it seems that a level 7 project must be something that has a better impact in the industry. I am struggling to take myself out of my one man plan and to do something better for someone else, getting caught in the big wheel. The professors seem to see a lot of potential and capability from me, but I don’t necessarily want to be an academic weapon.

As part of trimester 2, I wasn’t able to complete work for the IFBF Summative. I had thought about whether I could’ve done it if I just had a few more days, if the deadlines were more spread apart. In hindsight, I couldn’t have started any earlier. I tried to stay on top of things throughout the semester but simply couldn’t put the energy forward.

Now that I’m in the final semester, we are facing on average of 1500 wordcount per week if we pace ourselves. But since I’ve prioritized the MBA this entire year ever since I landed in London, I would like to have a summer, to have a break, to enjoy London as a tourist. I have planned to write 2500 words per week so that I could free up my August. It’s week 2 in the plan and in the final semester, I have a word count of 0 so far, partially because I’m still pending on final approval of my project. I would like to churn on this week and hoping to write 5000 this week due to accumulation.

James has helped me revised my working title, aims, and objectives. Instead of bridalwear and dressmaker, the scope has now changed to occasion wear. I had in mind to have multiple revenue streams for this business which includes bridalwear, party dresses, and cocktail dresses. This will allow me to find research on the various customers looking for occasion wear dresses without being confined to the specific categories.

After seeing classmates’ presentations and seeing how a good number of students are able to go forth with their business plan, it made me felt robbed of my chances. I would still like to do a business plan for my future business. However, the difficulty lies in ensuring it’s sustainable, there is research available, and there is market demand for it.

I now have the challenge (still) of meeting the requirements for a level 7 report with subjects I’m interested in in pursuing.

During today’s session on PMCU Business Plan, I was reminded that someone else was doing a business plan in the wedding scene. It made me realize that I had forgotten I had a second choice in my plan. I planned to open both businesses after but thought I should write my project on the more complicated and difficult one, since bridalwear is a much easier subject.

After class, I asked Lois if I were to do my project on bridalwear, would that work, and she said that there would be more legs to it, yes. I can now settle on writing my project on my bridalwear startup, and the project won’t be a waste of effort as I will need to look into all these aspects when I start my business anyway. Perhaps this could solidify my foundation in this business, and I could run the dancewear line as a passion project, since I won’t be able to research as much in depth as the PMCU.

During the second last tutorial session with Sarah, she commented that I have demonstrated progress and showed that I have applied the learning to make my range commercial, that I am now looking at the range like a buyer.

I had hoped to take on the business plan option for my final project. However, I was met with resistance. I was now aware that we had to write something that was grand at industry scale. Although it’s unfortunate that I won’t be able to work on my business plan. The resolution was to write a consultancy project on sustainable material replacement roadmap for fashion companies that are currently heavy users of plastic made textiles. The key addresses are for performance clothing such as athleticwear. This is about the closest thing I could get to my original plan that has a large enough scale. The only benefit I would personally gain from writing this would be the research on material innovations for fabric replacements and their associated costs and procurement methods. I hope to finish this project quickly as I’m not overly exited about it.

The OPS2 tutorial deciding over prints has got me wondering if I truly lack an eye for commerciality and what looks good on a consumer demographic. I think this is a trigger for me to invest more time in learning about fashionality.

7th March 2024

Jo and Tina introduced us the Energy Management matrix which I found super helpful in frame working my energy management issues. It helped me visualize where I was spending my energy and which zones I tend to dwell in.

I realized that I tend to go on a counter clockwise path where my anxiety takes me into the negative side. I also realized that I take a long time in the recovery zone as a result. Otherwise, my permanent residence during this MBA is in the survival zone, as we often have deliverables or tasks that are time sensitive on a weekly basis.

I’m discovering that I have long bursts of energy investments and long requirements to recover as a result.