Demanding and Challenging in the Corporate World - Assignment Example

Question No. 1 One very vivid and unforgettable experience I encountered when I volunteered to take part on a community service work while in college was when I acted as part of a team of volunteers to conduct an outreach and awareness program, and to our disposal, we have to choose between: 1) promoting proper diet and nutritious food for public elementary school students, and 2) educating students in a public high school of the drug abuse and prevention. Our group picked up option number 1. Our aim for three weeks is to develop strategies that will make an engaging, interesting and highly educational symposium and discussion. Believing that this is an easy project with easy process, and that our group's composition (10), are more than enough for this project, we were mistaken. On the first few days, our team had to agree and decide on a team mission or goal that will guide us and spur throughout the course of this group activity the enthusiasm, dynamism and cooperation of everyone up to the last minute of the symposium. At first we are all unmindful of the time or our deadline and that team effort and cooperation is expected to all of us. It is all along like that that we believe that even just with only few of us, who are really responsible and very eager, can be left behind to do most part of the project and the others can just sit back and relax for the first leg of the week. We also do not elected officers because we do think everything will run more smoothly and organized or systematic since we operate on an equity basis. Good thing though, someone from us, who have had experience in community services in their town suggested that we should elect officers and leaders for the whole course of the project and that we should nail down the timeline to our heads because three weeks is not really a very long grace period and really do not afford us much time to relax. We decided to have an officer and the overall in charge who will lead us to the final completion of the project. It also helped that our leader gave us an assurance that he will be more than willing to receive or accept suggestions so long as the whole group agreed to implement or undertake such and that he will be very willing to vacate his post in any moment he will commit grave errors or troubles that will put into peril the group's welfare. Then realizing we already wasted few days and started none, we run eagerly now to cope for the lost days. It also added pressure to our group that in class, we are hearing some stories of the other groups about just how far they have progressed. Then immediately after the following day, our team leader called all of us up for a private meeting at the organization’s headquarter to draw the itinerary and timeline of activities about our project. The timeline would include conceptualization of the program for the symposium, writing a letter requesting for a venue, a listing of prospective class who will be invited to attend the symposium, writing the guest speakers or resources to participate, coordination with the venue, food and beverages arrangement, symposium facilities and productions, preparation of banners, streamers and campaign materials, and everything. Aside from the team leader, we then decided to form committees who will handle the different set of tasks and to divide the group into the work load so as everybody would be able to start on something. This then we realized how very few we all are because of course we would need writers, events coordinator, production assistants, liaisons, etc. But we approached this by making sure that we carry out our works on time so if one job is already completed, the other committees can then help the others in fulfilling the task at hand. With each one working and doing their tasks responsibly and on time, the mood and tone of the work became infectious and effective. During the last week, everyone was busy for the campaign, knocking out doors of classrooms and talking to teachers and mentors about our invitation. We also provided a booth on hallways with banners and pamphlets about our symposiums. As we expected, the symposium and discussion was well-attended and the response from students was positive as well as enthusiastic. Thankfully, this was all brought about by our group's determination, cooperation and quick realization that we never should be wasting time and that projects like this demands focus, flexibility, resourcefulness and good leadership management. Question No. 2 Demanding and challenging are two seemingly naïve words that best describe the field of the corporate world, including the sales and marketing field. Two words—feared or inviting to some—that seems to have become regular job descriptions used in classified ads for companies seeking for med reps or medical sales representatives. But these words have hypnotic effect that spurred interest inside of me. And one particular moment that this beauty moves me was when I was told by my immediate supervisor, a thirtyish, tall and respected manager in the inner circle of sales and marketing in our firm, of an assignment he had for me: Drive the wheel to make a turnaround of one of our company’s product, the Leuciton. To solve that, my boss gave me a team to work on launching a product campaign to achieve our sales target. Few hours after the challenge was plastered on my mind, I hurriedly pick out my notebook to write about a mission statement I will need to impart to my teammates regarding what we need to achieve and work out concerning the project, dividing this into two: individual works and group works. I understand that challenging and demanding works require calculated and measured moves because there are only two sides of it—either we make a turnaround or lose as a team. Our goal is to succeed. Our team was made to realize that challenges in any marketing environment are almost always the same: coming up with an innovation or a novel idea, then, solving the challenge of selling them, and identifying or determining to whom to sell. All these tasks are to be undertaken differently and we must have the plan work for us, aware that this aspect of marketing is one of the most vital ingredients to success. In order for me and my team to achieve this aim or goal, I realized I have to prepare my team for the heady challenge and the rigors this task would entail us. It is logical to condition my group that teamwork will best serve us with ease. My first move was to call a meeting outside, in a coffee shop. I told them I will be shouldering the expenses so all they need to worry about is themselves and their ideas. Everyone, including me, is present, so there were seven of us. The place happened to be at Starbucks, which is cozy and convenient for us to insert discussing our project, to brainstorm and to throw out ideas and feedbacks on each others’ inputs while sipping hot coffee latte or fruit smoothie. The experience was overwhelming and proved very helpful as we were able to draft our little constitution as a team, thresh out our mantra and approaches to achieve results and we enjoyed the day and proved to be a very good start for us to begin the heavier loads. Everyone after the meeting was assured that everyone’s input is important, and everyone will move forward, together with the others, singly as a team. Some are even chanting after leaving the doors of the coffee shop of our adopted mantra: “Walk your Talk. Walk your Talk.” On the prepared list of things to work on, we penciled number one market research. Our objective in this task is to determine the market opportunities for the product, to study the industry, to evaluate the associated risk factors, and to study our intended market that will have to take into consideration certain key elements. These may include market potential, product campaign and marketing, and our prospects for profitability or break-even. After market research, we will move on to product campaign and finally evaluation of our achievements or misses. The assignment given me by my boss was time-bound and so I reminded my teammates that we need to set a realistic daily goals and job order, in accordance with a timeline that we can use as guide as we work out this project. I also assured my teammates that everyone is encouraged to work creatively and independently during the whole course of our assignment, even if this means having each one of us reporting the progress or update of our works on a daily basis before leaving the office. So daily, it became our ritual to have progress checks or monitoring, hear feedbacks, receive suggestions or comments and even complaints. This way also, we are able to determine early on if we are on track to achieving our targets. We make each day collaborative, interactive and instructive as well, but mostly, this approach that we adopted were actually training us to concentrate, focus and discipline ourselves like gold explorers in the deep realms of El Dorado. We are always motivated to move forward, no matter the hurdles and challenges. Out of the market research completed by the team, which is actually to determine the public’s perception and awareness of our product and how its image played on the consciousness of our target market, and to find out our product standing in the competition, we then formulated our marketing approach and plans. The marketing plan comprises of product differentiation strategies and campaigns to make our product, the choice brand over its competitors, issues that will pave the way for the profitability and penetration of the product to mainstream market as a whole. Apart from these, I also prepared my own plan that details how we are to expand the client base for the said product, maximize revenue potential, client or customer retention strategies, and the development of strong customer relationships. Basing on the market research that we had and that strategic plan I designed, we agreed that we can compete head on if we would strengthen the identified opportunities in the market, which our competitor did not or may be afraid to work on or push through: use viral marketing online through social networking and intensified telemarketing. We identified that online marketing can provide us with tremendous sales opportunity with a captured market, the wired population. When I submitted the plan for approval to my boss, he eagerly encouraged us to go on and prove how our proposal can work to our advantage. In less than three weeks of our campaign, internally at the team, we feel confident we are able to achieve our goals. But we still have to wait for the figures, the official release of data from our marketing department. Finally, we are right after all. Our campaign proved to be a success. We cheered the tremendous growth of sales of our product after posting 14 percent turnaround against the -60 percent sales posted prior to the campaign. Question No. 3 Many corporate organizations today are deeply exploring myriad approaches to adapt to an increasingly changing corporate landscape and to achieve sustained competitive edge. Such level is not easily achieved and requires the creation and delivery of products or services that are valuable, distinct, rare and hard to imitate. Like products or services, human assets are equally important mix and companies understand that knee-weak workforce cannot drive growth or sustainability for organization. Along the positive changes, there are negative ones as well. In the sales and marketing field where I was in, one sad and a challenging trend for companies is the very high attrition rate of the sales people. This means the rate at which sales or marketing representatives are dropping or shifting careers but without new or alternative person who will refill the vacated post. Some leave their current jobs to search for better opportunities which are sometimes normal at this very competitive kind of work. One experience that happened to me once in my job as marketing and sales representative was dealing with the surprising career shift of some of my fellow teammates who previously took part in making a big leap of progress in several time-bound marketing campaigns our group singly developed and implemented for over two years in the company. Of course I understand nothing can be permanent or secure in this world, much so in the corporate field. But sometimes like in this case, it was deeply worrying and difficult to immediately adjust and do the necessary corrections in order to fill in the vacated posts so the group or the project initiated by the group can still move on even with the changes that had eventuated. This experience also made me think hard that it is also not always the money part that an employee or a medical representative considers as factor for leaving. Sometimes one has some expectations in terms of job satisfaction or how the management has given him due respect and if his accomplishments are valued and appreciated. This experience taught me the importance of preparing in my plans or priorities setting up a backup plans not only for the technical requirements but also in terms of human resource. This backup strategy aims to build on the notion that works or sales campaigns should not be hampered with the often sudden and surprising transfer or resignation of a co-member in the team. It also made me realize that each member, including myself, be trained to be versatile in all manners that were expected of us, meaning, we need to be always ready to substitute and be flexible enough to handle double or another task other than what we are just assigned to work on with. As highly volatile is our work, the same with customer, so we must always ensure that the level of progress achieved by the group need to be maintained and sustained as well. In order also to prevent or discourage some from leaving the company, it entails that the fellow team members are made to feel appreciated and that their other needs, aside from the financial reward and perks, should be satisfied. Sometimes, it took me extending far beyond the office kind of work because there were times that would necessitate me to even visit fellow teammates at their homes, to really show and make them feel their family as well is important for me. In fact, the genuineness and the sincerity of establishing relationship with fellow teammates can be a source of a long, lasting bond, and that even though one co-member would leave, it can easily be remembered and looked at as source of inspiration to others and that leader and their members parted ways without regrets. Read More