Quite unlike my situation with last week's case, in which I had been a loyal customer of a gym for years and was really into the material, this week's case on Wynn Resorts left me rather confused.
The first and last time in my life I've been to Las Vegas was when I was about 11 years old. Our family and extended family had decided to take a camping trip to Las Vegas together, and on the drive back, stop by Las Vegas to discover just exactly what the hype was. As one could imagine, Las Vegas was at least just a bit dull for an 11 year old who was much more enamored with cartoons and video games than anything a casino could offer. I vaguely remember a too strong smell of smoke, lots of glitzy slots, and interesting buffet food. I don't believe I ever left the one casino we stayed at for the two or so days, and I do remember being extremely excited to leave the place.
Therefore, upon reading this case, things did not connect with me. It was quite interesting, however, reading about these things I never knew about. Especially of interest was the fact that Macau was the equivalent of a Chinese Las Vegas. Call me ignorant, especially for someone who was born and lived in China for eight years, but I never knew about Macau either. I have no interest in visiting Macau, the same as I have no interest in visiting Las Vegas, but I appreciated learning a little more about the rules that govern China and its territories.
As far as the previous lectures on textbook chapters have been, I just have one question: why does it feel like business classes recycle and rehash the same basic information to its students over and over? Or is it because this class is capstone, and therefore meant to be an indirect summary of everything previous? Probably the latter one, but for these first two chapters I feel like I've heard everything in some format or another before.
Hopefully, we will touch on enough "interesting" companies over the course of the semester (motorcycles? buying and selling stocks and bonds? PCs? chips? fast food?).
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, this class does consciously attempt to integrate all the business/economic material you have seen in the curriculum, so naturally it should have a familiar feel to it...while still adding a few new thoughts...