Say hello to Maccabi Tel Aviv's newest cheerleader

After a long day of company visits yesterday we had a little fun at the Afula v. Tel Aviv basketball game. That's where I learned all my new cheerleading moves! Maccabi barely won, just by one point. It was an interesting game as the fans were crazy and really into it, and there were all sorts of guards everywhere.

We visited Plasson, a plastic manufacturer, where we got a tour and learned about Kibbutz life. Then we went to Iscar, a metalworks maker. Long day! Although today sounds longer, ugh!

On the Sea of Galilee

Yesterday was a long day, we got up really early and headed to Nazareth. We got to see the Church of Annunciation, which was a modern church built over Mary's cave. The church had gorgeous contemporary stained glass and mosaics of Mary from each country.

After the visiting the church we had a walking tour of the streets of Nazareth through the old souk and Mary's well.

Then we had about 2 hours in Tiberias, a seaside resort town. It had some bustling street stalls (Charlton and I got falafel and delicious strawberries) we also walked the boardwalk.

Next up another long bus ride to the Mount of Beatitudes and the Church of Bread and Fish where we had a long hike through some San Diego like hills.

Then off to Mt. Bernal (an IDF lookout point) where we had sweeping views of Jordan and Syria. Before checking into our hotel we stopped at the Golan Winery to taste some of their wines, yum! (Even though I don't drink)

Then we had a nice little dinner party in our MBA directors room where we all could get together and relax over great food. But again another early night as we have a packed day today!

Heading North

After a few packed days in Jerusalem: visiting the Western Wall, going through the Kotel tunnels and going to museums, we are heading to the North of Israel to Nazareth and Galilee.

It's going to be a long day on the bus.

We're in Israel!

After what seemed like forever, we are here! We haven't got to see much as we got in so late and a few of my classmates were detained (helping us get to the hotel a little late) So after a meet and greet with the guide and dinner we strolled along the Med and then went to bed. Now we have a packed full day ahead of us and I can't wait to see Tel Aviv!

For Charlton's recap and some pictures check it out here:

http://www.thelejo.com/2010/03/international-arrivals-tel-aviv.html

Built Strong to Last Long, or at Least that is what we told Creative

Day 2 of Academy Week was a presentation on working with agencies and creative. It was a really helpful session to help understand the relationship between BMs and creative and how to get the best work out of them. We learned about what makes up a creative brief, and then were put into groups to analyze a print ad and reverse engineer the creative brief. Each team then presented to the academy so we could dissect the brief and see which ad best fit. And as our presenter, Eric Bauchet, was from Whirlpool the day would not have been complete without some Maytag ads and comparison to LG, GE and Electrolux in the space.

After a quick lunch break, we got a preview of Jonlee's M537 Channels class with a discussion of the retail and manufacturer relationship. Going into retail myself this was an incredibly valuable presentation and I learned a lot of things I can apply this summer (GMROI, etc) I am really excited for the full length class in the fall.

After we wrapped up for the day, my team met for 3 hours or so to go over where we stood on our project. We assigned tasks and banged out a lot in the time we allotted then headed home to do the last of our "WHO" research. I grabbed a quick dinner of a salad and a Lean Cuisine (no I am not being healthy, I am stressed and have snacked all night!) and got to work. I read over 20 articles on Japanese consumer behavior before coming up with a one pager for my team tomorrow. Not looking forward to everything we still have to do! Tomorrow will be a busy day!

Innovation and Ideation

Today was the kickoff of our second Academy Week. Our speaker was Ralph Blessing, Managing Director of Chicago Office and Senior Partner at GfK Strategic Innovation. He talked about his career and some of the amazing products he had a chance to work on: Coppertone Sport Continuous Spray, Degree Antiperspirant, and Axe to just name a few. He explained the needs approach that GfK uses to help develop products to fill in shelf "white space." It was a really great presentation and it got even more interesting when we went through the process to create a new product. We picked Quick Service Restaurants as our category and then just brainstormed ideas, concepts and positioning. Look for our Mediterranean/Tapas QSR soon with our own branded olive oil and hummus (which we will expand into grocery) soon!

After we finished our scheduled activities we were able to work on our team projects...my team split up and worked on our own, we should come back together tomorrow ready to knock this out of the park.

Can't wait!

for the Bloomington P-Fresh! It can't get here soon enough, now I will no longer have to leave my beloved Target, hooray!