Know-How Exchange : Student Questions

Thank you Gary for your response which I expected to be kind and humble rather than commenting on my written English, where as I am not a British born student to be excellent in English writing. I am a Sri Lankan who could speak and write English up to the level which could be understand by others.

Ok, regarding my PhD......

I chose New Zealand because it's not much expensive. And I could get a PR in New Zealand after finishing my studies. Moreover, I have many relations there who could help for my accommodation.

The reason for me to choose TEA is that I did my degree in Agri business management (Agriculture). This includes the study about Tea. Also my country (Sri Lanka) is a leading tea producing country. Hope selecting tea could help one day when I return to my country.

My PhD is on decision making by the higher level management and how they could increase their business by making the proper decision in environmental uncertainty. So hope that, after completing my PhD, most of the higher level managers would gain something from my PhD.

Gary, the above topic is my idea and I have not yet started my PhD. So I posted this message to get various types of ideas from people like you rather than commenting on my written English skills and discouraging me on it.

Do I need to change my topic?? Or do you suggest me anything further on my topic to be changed?? This is what I expected as an answer and not to comment on my selected venue to do my PhD or writing skills. Anyhow thank you for your reply and if there anything you could help me further regarding my higher study please be free to comment on it.

Hi mgoodman
Thank you very much for your response. I will research more on the topic and fine tune the topic further more. As u said I will find a specific kind of decision making process by managers under uncertainty. I will upload my fine tuned topic in few days. please help me. thank you..

You raised good points. No, there’s no reason to change the subject of your chosen area of study. Tea is a vitally important commodity. Any ways in which your ideas and area of study and research can provide a meaningful contribution to its growth, production, distribution, sale, and interest benefits workers and farmers directly, which in turn supports the Sri Lankan economy so GO FOR IT.

Where you study is up to you. If moving to and studying in New Zealand offers you the chance to pursue your studies while being supported by the solid foundation of family, all the better for your success.

Academically and professionally you’d do well to focus a little more effort on improving your English for the following reasons:

1. English is the language of international business and commerce;

2. As such you need to see English (and your use of it) as a tool—the more adept you are at using that tool, the more you’ll improve your chances of success;

3. Academically, your ideas, research, opinions, (and, quite likely your ability to secure solid funding to support your research) will be based, in part—and whether you like it or think it’s fair or not—on your ability to communicate with other academics and intellectuals in language that’s clear and that fits in with their ways of thinking, working, and reviewing the work of others, which in this case, is you.

You may have a hard time believing this but at heart, you and I are not that different.

I’m from a blue-collar, working-class background in the north west of England. I was the first member of my family to apply to, be accepted by, and to attend and graduate from college. I received a full, means-tested scholarship because I came from a family with a low income. My parents were far from what you might call well educated but they did the best they could. When I arrived at college I soon discovered that because I spoke with a working-class accent that I was somehow never going to part of the “in crowd”. So I set about redefining who I was, how I spoke, how I wrote, where I came from, and pretty much everything about the person I was in order to fit in and be accepted. Over time, the practical upshot of this was that I never felt that I belonged in either camp: working class or the higher ups—I never felt “at home” whatever the hell that’s supposed to mean. Which is why I moved to the United States.

I began contributing to this forum two and a half years ago. No one then knew who I was. I’ve never taken a marketing class in my life and I have no advanced degree or MBA in marketing. And yet … I’m now a leading contributor to the Internet’s leading forum on marketing.

How did I achieve this?

Through focused, self-determination and application. Google my name and You’ll find me in the top 8 spots on page 1 (ahead of the OTHER Gary Bloomer at TechRanch, Montana’s leading venture capital company).

I’m telling you this because my experiences have taught me a vital lesson that I hope might be of value to you. That lesson is: hard work at self-improvement over time pays off. No one’s going to hand you your success, you have to go out into the world and create your own. I learned this the hard way, through hard knocks and through experiences, some of which were less than pleasant.

Peer review at the level you’re aiming for (and at the level you WILL succeed in because you have guts, balls, stamina, commitment, and resourcefulness) is VITALLY important and in order to communicate at Ph. D. level—and be taken seriously—you need to invest time and effort in improving your written and spoken English, just as, over the last two and a half years, I’ve taken time to invest in my knowledge about marketing and sales.

Again, and no matter WHAT you think about my opinions, and as harsh as they might have sounded when you first read them, the way you package and present yourself REALLY MATTERS.

Finally, and whether you believe this or not, I know one thing: you WILL succeed. You WILL do great things. You WILL offer value and a significant contribution to your chosen field of study, and to the people of Sri Lanka. Why? Because you are among the tiny fraction of students that write in to this forum that care about what they’re doing and that are prepared to work AS HARD AS POSSIBLE in order to succeed.

Good luck to you.

Gary Bloomer
Princeton, NJ, USA

Dear Gary
First of all I would like to express gratitude and I thank you for motivating me further with your personal life experiences. I will take this message as guides to my future. As u advised me, I will look into my English written and spoken deeply from today. Me too the same like u Mr.Gary. I am the only one in my whole family have done a masters and willing to do a PhD. I have to look after my parents because they spend their whole life for me. That’s one of the foremost reason I have to do my higher studies and make them proud.

Mr.Gary, please be good enough to help me on fine tuning my topic. I have already given my subject area (decision making) to you. Is there any improvement in the below given topic?

“Proper communication between higher and lower level employees would benefit the decision making under uncertainty”.

Are there any suggestions you would like to state on the above topic or would like to fine tune further??

Please help me to select a proper topic before I submit my topic to the relevant supervisor for me to get the acceptance letter. Hope you would help me on this. Hope I am not bothering you.

Thank you
Lloyd Marshall

Dear Lloyd,

Glad you came back. Good for you. Many don't. You did. This sets you apart. Learn from this.

As for suggestions. How about looking into Fair Trade and how it impacts and supports subsistence growers in impoverished regions?

https://www.google.com/#hl=en&sugexp=kjrmc&cp=19&gs_id=2b&x...

How does Fair Trade relate to better prices? Higher sales? Greater incomes? Higher standards of living?

How could Fair Trade be used to empower growers as they supply name brands in the West with higher quality, lower-priced products but from which those growers retain a higher proportion of net sales?

How might Fair Trade support small growers through a cooperative, from which everyone: growers, merchants, dealers, wholesalers, buyers, blenders, and customers benefit?

I hope this helps. Good luck to you.

Gary Bloomer
Princeton, NJ, USA