My two years is almost up and it’s as good a time as any to reflect on what I’ve learned here. I could talk about the classes or some of my favorite things here, but I think it’s best to share something more meaningful: my experience with the Iowa Medical Innovation Group (IMIG).
For those who don’t know, IMIG is a project which groups students from law, business, medicine, and engineering to identify an opportunity, design a product, and hopefully start a business in the medical device field. (If you don’t trust my description, you can check out IMIG’s website here) This is the perfect place to reflect on what I’ve learned in my marketing MBA because it’s a real-world application of everything my classes taught.
It started out with doing all the marketing research to find market size and segments using the same methods I learned in my first semester here. While crafting the business plan I used what I learned from Strategic Brand Positioning to make sure I understood the entire market, from customers to competitors to distribution channels. While we don’t yet have a brand to position, understanding these basic ideas has influenced everything we’ve done. For example, who is our true customer: the patient using the device? The nurse inserting the device? The hospital administrator selecting which products to buy? (The answer: all of them!)
Right now our team is getting ready for product testing and hope to have our patent paperwork in by the end of the school year. Meanwhile, we have been competing in business plan competitions for funding to get to the next step. So far we’ve placed first place in the one in which we’ve competed and plan to compete in several more in the coming months.
I tell you all of this not to brag about my accomplishments, but to let you know what is possible. I’m certainly not any smarter than my colleagues or the folks in next year’s incoming class. This all just an example of what can happen when you take every opportunity Tippie gives you to improve. If you take the classes, you will get the fundamental skills. If you take the opportunities they offer (like IMIG), you will get to practice these skills on the next level before even stepping foot at your future job.