Industry Practice in One Two Trade - Case Study Example

Industry Practice Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Part Portfolio of Evidence 3 Part 2: Skills Overview 8 Appendices 24 Introduction In this essay, I will try to share my view point regarding my personal skill development during the time I was studying in university and working in companies like One Two Trade. This piece of work will explain how I have used 9 key skills at university and at the work place with the help of real life examples. In the later part of the study, I will also try to explain how I want to improve skill levels in order to achieve my career goals in near future. I will use spider diagram in order to define the skill gaps. Showing the diagram will help me to identify the roadmap to improve my skills to achieve my career objectives in future. Part 1: Portfolio of Evidence Skill 1- Self Awareness Although I have the strength to accomplish task under stringent deadlines and coordinating team members to achieve objectives of a particular task but there are also many weaknesses inside me. I have found these weaknesses as stepping stone to learn new things while doing work in One Two Trade. One of the noticeable weaknesses in me is that I am a slow learner of things. During the first 15 days of work in One Two Trade, I never took the initiative to learn applications of the trading platform which helps the company to process enquiries of clients. One day my boss rebuked me for my lazy behaviour in the workplace, and then I took the challenge to learn each and every application of the trading platform. I am proud to say that, I have not only learnt the software application of trading platform but helped more than 100 customers regarding enquiry processing. My boss has appreciated me for my effort to help customers by using trading platform application. So, I can assume that, the advice from my boss will help me to convert more of my weaknesses into strengths in near future. Skill 2- Problem Solving & Numeracy During my employment at One Two Trade, I found that mission and objective of the company is to decrease risk for customers while investing. Customers trading through One Two Trade, get supports from financial analysts who help customers to understand risk associated with binary transactions. I used my mathematical and statistical knowledge in order to help the company align its business operation with its mission and objective statements. I worked there as a risk manager. I used various statistical models such as multi regression analysis, correlation analysis, ANOVA in order to produce a logical SWOT report for the organization. The use of statistical model has helped my top level managers to understand future business opportunities in a quantifiable manner. Skill 3- Enterprising I became interested in entrepreneurship while I was studying for my degree program in management in the university. Hence I founded a small business by establishing partnership with JE Clothing, which is registered and trademarked in the UK. I have taken help of from JE Clothing and offered urban garment range for men, women and children. Currently, I am working on developing the website in order to push the brand to consumer market. I want to cite another example of my entrepreneurial skill in order to elaborate more on skill portfolio. During my university days, I found a community for senior citizens in my locality; I found the idea of doing something to older people of my locality is an exciting one because doing something for someone doesn’t require huge financial resources but all it takes is the courage to take initiative. The local community was a non-profit organization and I use my personal earnings to buy novels or gifts for the senior citizens of that community. Although management practitioners might find my initiative to establish a local community for senior citizens as insignificant from the viewpoint of entrepreneurship capability but I personally feel that establishing local community is one of the great achievement in my life. A STAR (Situation, Task, Action, and Result) framework can be used in order to analyze the situation. Skill 4 – Team Player I took an initiative to raise fund for unprivileged children of the local community by collecting donation from students of the university. I felt the urge to do something meaningful for my society, which is why I formed a team of four members and organised everything in a systematic manner to set up fund raising events. Books and clothes were bought with the money collected from the fund raising activities; my friends and I distributed the items among unprivileged children during the Christmas season. I listened to the suggestions of all the team members and implemented some of those potential suggestions while organizing the fund raising activities. During my employment in Kervan Benqueting Suite, I was asked by the owner of the company to lead a team of four members for creating a service process map for catering service of the company. I used my common sense and business acumen in order to utilize skills of individual team members to design the process map. We shared our own idea about the task in the weekly knowledge sharing session and subsequently the team worked by forming lattice structure. I was attached to each of the team members and shared my personal thoughts on critical issues regarding the service process map. Skill 5- Business Awareness During my work tenure in Kervan Benqueting Suite, I found that almost 10% of food offered by the restaurant was contaminated with microbial infections; it was a health and safety issue for the Kervan Benqueting Suite. I took personal initiative to investigate into that matter, collect data from various sources regarding previous cases of food contamination in the restaurant; I used rational judgments to analyze graveness of the matter and finally produced a risk assessment report regarding extent of health risk associated with microbial and bacterial contamination of food for owner of the restaurant. I studied the macro and micro environmental context of microbial contamination in order to judge the health and safety issues of food contamination for the restaurant. Skill 6- Judgment During of my management degree program in the university, I found business ethics as a coveted and relevant topic for both management researchers and business leaders. I personally believe that, leaders should follow “Kantian model of business ethics”, where business leaders are advised to work for betterment of society and not to think about satisfying personal interest while performing their duty (Fernando, 2009). During my work tenure in One Two Trade, I tried to maintain utmost honesty and professionalism while making the SWOT analysis by using statistical analysis for the company. In order to derive a satisfactory result for top level management of the company, I never tried to assume results prior to conducting the analysis. I believe that by doing fake analysis with financial data of the company and its competitors, I would not only cheat the firm but also disrespect the interest of its customers. I must say that Kantian model of ethics guided me to address issues related to business ethics and professionalism, when I was working in One Two Trade. Skill 7- Communication Skills I have fluency in three languages; such as English, Portuguese and Spanish. In One Two Trade, I used my proficiency in these three languages to attract customers to use company’s trading platform to make transactions. For example, I used Spanish language while talking to customers from Mediterranean region; using Spanish and Portuguese helped me to understand queries of those customers from Mediterranean region who do not have proper understanding of English. During my bachelor’s degree in business administration in University of Hertfordshire, I was asked by my supervisors to give oral presentation about various topics of management and I took part in college level debates and seminars. In every case, I had to use communication skill to influence my audiences or opponents. I am extremely grateful to my supervisors for allowing me to participate in above mentioned events, which have increased my communication skill up to a satisfactory level. Skill 8- Technology Appreciation I took help of various technologies, such as internet browsing, MS office package, CRM tools etc., in order to accomplish business assignments during my degree program in the university. I used technological skills heavily on a project to develop new CRM system for TV Systems Company during my business administration program in the university. There is no doubt that technology plays crucial role in the life of management students like me; a management student takes help of technology in order to complete project works or assignment in efficient manner. I used an online database in order to maintain data in systematic manner during the project on developing new CRM system. I also Gmail drive option as cloud storing option in order to save important documents regarding work or academic projects. Skill 9- Self Management In One Two Trade, I had to do the work under stringent deadlines, sometimes I was asked by my boss to monitor more than 100 transactions through trading platform. The company gave me monthly targets and pushed me further to achieve those targets. I did time management optimally in order to meet my targets within specified time period. I maintained work-life balance properly while doing work in the One Two Trade. Management education in the university has improved my ability to use reasoning skills to solve daily life problems. For example, I used the accounting lessons taught by my respected teachers in the university to create profit and loss statement and cash flow statement in my own small business. Before joining the university, I was little immature about handling cash and maintaining financial records about spending but management education of the university has improved my skill for handling financial documents. I used my financial knowledge in order to make a financial projection and break-even analysis of my own investment in order to attract investors, such presentation had impressed JE clothing and they became partner in my entrepreneurial venture. Part 2: Skills Overview I am indebted to my teachers for assisting me during the degree program in the university. I personally believe that my language skills have been improved a lot during the Business Administration degree program in University of Hertfordshire. I have no regret in accepting the fact that my language skills were not up to the mark prior to joining the university, it was the teachers who encouraged me to improve my language skills by working on grammars, punctuation, sentence constructions etc. I have developed language skills further by learning Portuguese and Spanish during the course of degree program. I want to present a tabular representation about my skill development during the tenure of University education. Skill Set Before Joining the University Skill Development Path in the University Skill Set at Present Stage Future Possibilities Language & Communication Skill I could not communicate properly to people and I also did not know how to give business presentation. I took help of our language teachers in order to improve my grammatical skills. For improving communication, I started watching BBC news and other business news channels. I started participating in business quiz and seminar in order to improve my oral presentation skills. I can communicate with people properly and able to handle business negotiations. There is future possibility for me to improve my language skill up to expert level in order to accomplish business negotiations more effectively. Research Skill I did not know the difference between primary and secondary research, I was not capable to find potential data from available resources. I started reading book of Saunders et al. in order to understand core concepts of market research. I took the initiatives to read research papers of various research scholars with the help of databases like Emerald and Proquest in order to improve my resource findings skills. I am able collect and analyze primary and secondary data which are pertinent to research problem Understanding basic research framework will help me to improve my skill to use statistical tools to analyze primary and secondary data. Administrative Skill I never took initiatives organize events or neither participated in any social or business events. My teacher encouraged me to participate in various business events like quiz, paper presentation, seminars and game show in the university. I am able to organize events and coordinate with all members of the team to accomplish any task. I have the opportunity to supervise and encourage other team member’s work in order to improve their performance. Computer Proficiency I was not proficient with using Microsoft Office options such as power point, access, excel etc. I started watching you tube videos regarding how to use different Microsoft office option in order to improve my computer proficiency. I used to practice in university computer lab for the sake of increasing my understanding about how to improve my computer proficiency. I can proficiently use different options of Microsoft office to complete any business project. Understanding of Microsoft office tools will help me to understand applicability of complex statistical tools such as Excel VBA, SPSS, SAS and Matlab in order to solve business problems. While doing work in One Two Trade, my negotiation skills have improved; working under stringent deadline in the company has improved my time management skill. I am able to accomplish my task without taking much help from supervisors; however, working with many employees within the same team in One Two Trade has improved my capability to perform in groups. Skill Gaps I am seeking a job position, where I can use my analytical and numerical ability to make valuable contributions to achieve success portfolio of the organization. According to my key skills, I will select a career in business analytics field in the future course of time. A spider diagram can be used in order to explain the gap between my current level of skills and those that are required in my chosen career. Fig 1: Spider Diagram for the Skill Gap According to my limited knowledge, I guess that problem solving capability, business awareness and judgement are must-have skills for an aspirant who wants to excel in the field of business analytics; hence I have given highest priorities to these skills. I believe that my present numeric ability is not sufficient to solve complex data analytics and business analytics problems; hence I have assigned a gap of 2 units for problem solving skill. Although I have fair bit of knowledge about current business affairs but a business analyst needs to be meticulous about every aspect of different industries. Therefore, I think my current judgemental and business awareness skills need a facelift in order to be successful as a business analyst. A business analyst needs to work rigorously in a team in order accomplish a particular project; I believe that my current level of skill is not sufficient to handle team project; which is why I have assigned a gap of 3 units in the team player skills. It is evident from the diagram that gap between my current skills on other portfolios, such as self awareness, enterprising, communication skills, technology appreciation and self management are not very high to required skills to be successful as business analyst. Personal Development Plan Research scholars such as Adams et al (1976), Bragg (1996), Brewis (1996) and Brouwer (1964) have stated that personal development is an import aspect for managers, business leaders, young aspirants who want to be future leader etc. I believe that skill gap analysis will help me to direct my efforts to achieve desirable skill sets to be a successful business analyst in future. Atkinson & Meldrum (1998), Burgoyne (1988) and Butcher et al (1997) have argued that personal development is the cornerstone for achieving an overall organizational development. Therefore, I believe that developing my personal skill will definitely help my future organizations. I have selected problem solving capability, business awareness and judgement as priority skills which I want to develop. I will join the data analytics program in order to learn applications like Excel VBA, SPSS, SAS, and Matlab etc. This will enhance my analytics capability and implicational mathematical skills. I will take self-motivated approach to enhance my numeric ability to decrease the skill gap. Next, doing master’s degree in business management will definitely improve my theoretical knowledge about business but for enhancement of practical knowledge, I will take part in various workshops, projects, business seminars, industry projects etc., in near future. I believe that increasing judgemental ability is the most challenging issue for me. I will try to increase my involvement in social and real life problems in order to increase my judgemental ability. For example, expanding operation of my small business will be a daunting task for me due to resource constraints, market competition, macro environmental challenge etc.; using judgemental ability to overcome these obstacles will definitely help me decrease skill gap related to judgemental capability of a business analyst. I will decrease other skill gaps by using a periodic and systematic skill development approach. Goleman (1995) has proposed emotional intelligence model for developing personal skills, I will follow the model by taking part in non-profit and social activities, and thereby increase my emotion intelligence along with business intelligence. I personally believe that, developing skill will not only help me to achieve career goals in future but also help my employers to achieve human resource based competitive advantage (Teece, 1986; Kogut & Zander, 1992; Grant, 1996) PDP PLAN Personal Details Name EDSON DE SOUSA Course BA (Hons.) Business Administration (ongoing), Oct 2009 – May 2013, University of Hertfordshire Priority (1,2,3) Development Need How will this be achieved? N S D M B G Priority 1 Problem Solving & Numeracy, Business Awareness, Judgment and Team Player       Priority 2 Enterprising, Communication Skills       Priority 3 Self Management and Technology Appreciation       Key 1 = as soon as possible 2 = within 18 months 3 = within 30 months D = Doing Data Analytics Degree, B= Expand the business, M= Taking admission in masters degree of management, G= Participating in seminar and group projects, S= Participating in Social activities, N= Reading and watching business news Sections 3 & 5 Review of First 12 months – Development Activities Development Activity Little or No Use Some use Useful Very Useful Joining Data Analytics Degree Program in order to improve my numeracy skills. Joining Masters Degree program in Management Participating in business seminars and business workshops Reading and watching business news in daily basis. Trying to reach break- even for my business within 12 months Comments: At the end of the first 12 months I will review result of above mentioned five activities. If there any discrepancy in the result then I will include the activity in next year’s time schedule. Review of Second 12 months – Development Activities Development Activity Little or No Use Some use Useful Very Useful Expanding operation of my business and increase profit margin by 10% to 15%. Participating in different of business activities during the master’s degree. Participating and organizing social events such as blood donation camp, community for senior citizens. Reading and watching business news in daily basis. Doing internship and team project during the masters degree Joining a software programming course in order to improve my technical skill. Comments: At the end of the first 12 months I will review result of above mentioned five activities. If there any discrepancy in the result then I will include the activity in next year’s time schedule. Review of Last 6 months – Development Activities Development Activity Little or No Use Some use Useful Very Useful Increasing product portfolio of my business. Joining a business analytics firm in order to handle real world business challenges Reading and watching business news in daily basis. Joining language courses in order to learn a new business language. Comments: At the end of last six months, I will review my overall development for last 30 months and take corrective actions if there is some discrepancy. For example, I will create another short personal development plan for next 12 months in order to cover my weaknesses if there are some discrepancies in the previous PDP. A PRIORITY AAAA A References Adams, J., Hayes, J. and Hopson, B., 1976. Transition: Understanding and Managing Personal Change. London: Pitman Press. Atkinson, S. and Meldrum, M., 1998. Dont waste money on management development. Organisations and People, 5(4), pp. 4–10. Bragg, M., 1996. Re-inventing Influence: How to Get Things Done in a World without Authority. London: Pitman Publishing. Brewis, J., 1996. The `making of the `competent manager: Competency development, personal effectiveness and Foucault. Management Learning, 27(1), pp. 65–86. Brouwer, P., 1964. The power to see ourselves. Harvard: Harvard Business Review. Burgoyne, J., 1988. Competency approaches to management development. Paper given at IMP Conference, Harrogate. Butcher, D., Harvey, P. and Atkinson, S., 1997. Developing Businesses through Developing Individuals. Cranfield: Cranfield School of Management. Fernando, A., 2009. Business Ethics: An Indian Perspective. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education. Goleman, D., 1995. Emotional Intelligence. New York, NY: Bloomsbury Publishing. Grant, R. M., 1996. Towards a knowledge-based theory of the firm. Strategic Management Journal, 17, pp. 109-122. Kogut, B. and Zander, U., 1992. Knowledge of the firm, combinative capabilities and the replication of technology. Organization Science, 3, pp. 383-97. Teece, D., 1986. Profiting from technological innovation. Research Policy, 15(6), pp. 285-305. Appendices Appendix 1- Grant Chart of Personal Development Years 0-6th months 7-12th months 13-18th months 19-24th months 25-30th months Skill Gap Reduction           Problem Solving & Numeracy           Business Awareness           Judgment           Team Player           Enterprising           Communication Skills           Self Management           Technology Appreciation           STAR Framework Problem Solving & Numeracy Situation Task Action Result Customers of One Two Trade are worried about risks of financial investing. Statistical modelling of risks associated with investment was required. I collected data of customers who have invested through One Two Trade and coded the data in SPSS, used multiple regression and other inferential statistical tools in order to analyze the data. Report generated through SPSS analysis has helped me to prepare a SWOT analysis for One Two Trade in terms risk portfolio associated with investment of customers. Enterprising Situation Task Action Result There is financial opportunity for entrepreneurs like me to start clothing business. To set up clothing business. I did partnership with JE clothing in order to start the business. Within 3 months of establishment of partnership, we started our business. I am hoping that the business will reach its break-even within next 12 months. Business Awareness Situation Task Action Result Food offered by Kervan Benqueting was contaminated with microbial infections. To prepare a health and safety report. I took the food of the restaurant to local chemical lab, and tested the food and found the sign of microbial infections. I took their help in order to prepare a report regarding health and safety for managers of the restaurant. Restaurant owner read my report seriously and started using antidote in order to decrease the contamination. Technology Appreciation Situation Task Action Result I was in JEEE team, my team was asked by my supervisor to implement CRM system for a TV company. To implement a CRM system for the TV Company and improve customer service and improve its customer service. We have divided the team as, Jordan Nesbitt – Project Manager, Ewelina Matalowska– Chief Analyst, Emmanuel Medugu– Risk Manager, and Edson Sousa–Resource Manager. We have divided the new CRM system into six components such as specification, modulation, delivery & installation of system, support and project management. We have avoided the data delay risk by following A-9 strongly. New CRM system will help the TV company to increase its turnover to £6mil by 2013 and increase sales win rate from 30% to 60%. Read More