Tiffany Chow
Prof. Aksoy
Integrated Project RSH
November 4, 2012
Dean's Essay #2
The Revolution of Congressional Race Qualifiers
In this day and age, running for a
seat in the U.S. Congress is not as simple as having strong leadership and
well-supported views. Owning business experience is also an essential factor in
outplaying your opponents in the race. Running a business is not much different
from running the government. If you have the knowledge of how a business
environment works, this knowledge will not only give you an upper hand against
people aiming for the same position, it will also be proof that you are
suitable for the position and capable of dealing with situations related to
business sectors once you've obtained a seat in Congress.
While running for Congress, having
business experience will give you an advantage over others who do not.
Foremost, because of this experience, you will know how to appeal to the
voters, as a business appeals to its customers. Similar to a business setting,
the government seats are to a product sold by a company as voters are to
consumers of the product. Therefore, if you already know how to deal with
consumers, how to market to them, then you will also have knowledge of how to
deal with people you want to vote for you. You will know how to choose a target
market and aim for them. The four P's (price, product, place, promotion) also
translate over easily. Essentially, you have to market yourself to the people
as if you were a product in a company, trying to get them to choose you over
your competitors. Having this knowledge of how to do so is the first step in a
successful campaign. If you have the best leadership skills and the most
impressive qualifications in the world and the public doesn't know about it,
there is no competition there between you and the least qualified person who
knows how to play himself up to the masses.
Since having business experience
gives you this upper hand, and since most everybody who runs for government has
this experience, it is apparent to say that not only is it an advantageous qualification
to have, it should be a required one for a fair competition for a seat in the
U.S Congress. College graduates once had the advantage in obtaining jobs (or
better positions) over those with lower levels of education; now the world has
become one in which graduating from college is expected and almost required to
survive in this economy. Just like that progression in history, now business
experience is also a minimal requirement to compete with others in a government
setting.
