Curiositea Gift Company, the project that I developed together with other four girls, had the mission to sell affordable handmade vintage teacups filled with tea scented candles, shower gel or bath bombs, separately or as a gift. For this aim, we targeted as the end use women aged 30-50, with refined tests for home accessories and an interest in relaxation, harmony and aesthetics. The direct buyers, however, are much more varied, ranging from students to adults who desire to purchase gifts for their friends, mothers, and acquaintances. The main marketing strategy consisted in a combination of strong social media presence and promotion (Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook), online sales (using Etsy website) and physical presence within the Christmas markets and fairs. We developed an integrated and customized marketing communication for delivering to the targeted group the message that our product is accessible, hand-made, vintage, and refined. We set as the project’s objectives to sell 300 products by the end of April 2014, to obtain a profit, to place our own shop on a niche website and to develop strong social media presence. The result was that we broke even at an early stage, earning a total profit of £ 853.5. Additionally, we enjoyed popularity on social media, and we did open our own shop on etsy, a niche website selling handmade and craft goods. However, the overall development of the project implied various challenges, from which I achieved consistent hard skills (analytical, finance and numeracy) and improved my soft skills (communication, working with diverse workforce, problem-solving, time management, double checking, risk analysis, etc.).
Working in a multicultural team within the project implemented for setting up the Curiositea Gift Company was challenging for me, but in the same time highly rewarding and motivating. Interacting with other cultures (British and Russian) taught me that diversity is good for business and a positive aspect that enhances inter-human relations, allowing me to understand varied perspectives and rationales. Alongside two British colleagues, one Russian teammate and another Chinese girl, just like me, throughout the project I managed to overcome the barriers of communication imposed by culture, language and technology. Succeeding to easily adjust to a diverse working environment, I have improved not only my social interaction abilities, but also I have gained consistent adaptability to international interaction. I consider these valuable assets, required for young professionals, for easily adjusting to the diverse workforce existent in multinational companies. Although I had difficulties in adjusting to cultural differences (such as the accepted lateness for meetings in certain cultures), I learned to overcome them through open and assertive, but empathic communication. This skill achieved during the project strengthened my adaptability to foreign cultures, which makes me a suited candidate for multinational companies, but also for small and medium enterprises, as I can preserve and promote a sense of harmony within a diverse working environment.
Throughout our project development, we used web-based medium for communicating, whereas Facebook has been the main tool utilized for exchanging information, ideas and documents. However, I learned that, through Facebook or another web-based communication channel (emails, or instant messages), we could not transmit real feelings and impressions, which were lost somewhere between the sender and receiver of the message. However, within the face to face discussions, communication was more effective, as the group members could express their feelings and ideas using not only words, but also body language. Facial expressions, specific body movements, gestures, eye contact or the lack of eye contact, etc. are indications of the existence or absence of assertive communication and active listening (Borbye, 2010). Moreover, as I learned from the interaction with the other group members, body language can give indications about what people actually think, which can differ from what they say. The fact that non-verbal communication can be more accurate and can say more than words is a well-known fact, recognized by the literature that studies communication and body language (Dowis, 2000; Scott, Webb and Sorrentino, 2011). In my experience, the cultural background of the participants imposed various communication problems. As such, the group members from United Kingdom were very polite and each time they provided feedback, either if it was a positive or a critical response, they would give it in a positive tone, making difficult to understand that sometimes they were sending a negative feedback. The main purpose of communicating a critical feedback to somebody is to reach improvements (Singer Dobson and Singer Dobson, 2000). However, if one cannot perceive a negative feedback as negative (because it was provided on a positive note and tone) improvements cannot be reached. Nevertheless, after successive meetings, we discussed more openly about providing critical feedback, so that we can reach effective results as a group. In this sense, we decided to provide an objective feedback, identifying the positive aspects of the issues discussed, but also the areas that would need improvements. We agreed to use a polite and tactful tone for suggesting alternative solutions, to receive responses with an open mind and together to reach a common solution (Butterfield, 2009).
Personally, I suggested the communication rules, because I observed that there were misunderstandings between the team members because the feedback was not properly communicated. Moreover, as a group, we needed to improve our active listening skills, to erase the biased communication (which reflected our stereotyped perceptions that Chinese individuals are shy, or that British people are conservative) and to have more face to face meetings. Nevertheless, I have proposed the communication rules in a democratic and friendly manner, explaining the necessity of these rules for time effectiveness and for financial concerns. Succeeding to overcome this communication barrier facilitated the working process and brought more effective results. As a result, I have gained effective communication and problem-solving competences, which improved my team working and coordination abilities.
Referring to the problem-solving competences, we faced a technical problem within our project, from which I learned the significance of providing full attention to details. For creating our products, the Curiositea, we needed tea cups and the saucers, which we ordered from local, UK suppliers Everything went all right with the first shipment of these materials. However, according to our planning, on January we needed materials for a new selling session, so we placed an order for other 100 units sourcing. Unfortunately, many of the received china pieces were broken. Because I did not check them carefully when they were delivered I lost the opportunity to impute the broken pieces to the seller. I had realized the mistake I made: because everything went all right the first time we ordered the china pieces, I considered that everything will be perfect the second time also, so I did not check the entire content of the packages received. This experience taught me that I need to double check my actions, my partners’ and my colleagues’ actions and to ask for revisions each time I observe a lack of conformity. Paying attention to details is not solely an advice coming from the old-school practitioners who look for safety, but it is a managerial principle, one highly required when dealing with fiscal attributions (Barr and McClellan, 2010). The outcome of this personal slip was that we lost money that we did not expect to lose in the initial planning. This outcome connects me to another aspect that I need to improve, which is risk management.
After the broken china pieces experience, I have thoroughly analyzed the incident and investigated various modalities through which I could have predicted such a loss. Besides attention to details, I understood that an effective business needs a solid risk management plan. Risk management implies identifying the situations that might go wrong and planning ahead ways to reduce or eliminate the risk (Angerame and Billows, 2001). Similarly, risk management implies assessing the impact of the risks, quantifying its gravity and identifying solutions to mitigate the risk, in order to reduce the consequences of the risks (Molenaar, Anderson and Schexnayder, 2010). Had I developed a risk management plan, I would have indicated the possibility of registering losses in the delivery or ordering process, and I would have been able to prevent the incident. Fortunately, we had the support of our families and friends who, before the incident, donated 31 free second-had teacups to help our business. Although this donation reduced our losses, it nevertheless did not change the fact that a mistake had been made. Although it was an incident, I now know that I could prevent it. I was disappointed that I missed the opportunity to argue with the seller for the broken china pieces. In the same time I knew that it was important for me to get over that incident with a lesson learned and move on to the next stages of the project more experienced. Indeed I was more experienced because I had gained a significant skill: of double checking everything. Equally important, I have learned how to build a risk management plan, which I consider an essential skill for young professionals in the current business world, wherein the effective assessment of risks can represent a competitive advantage.
Through this project I have gained significant hard skills, which shaped my non-formal professional training. In my role as Financial Director, I have achieved economic, accountability and numeracy skills. I have learned to read and interpret balance sheets, to create budgets, to calculate expenses and profit, to develop a pricing strategy, to produce the break even analysis or to forecast sale. As I was previously unaccustomed with financial language and financial operations, I know that the financial skills, achieved through this project, represent strong assets that increase the strength of my personal profile. My experience as a Financial Director without previous contact with this field indicates that I am a fast learner, easily accommodating to tasks that are outside my area of expertise. This experience also indicates that I am permanently eager to learn and that I can be a proactive employee, boosting the employer’s performances through easy adaptation and effective involvement.
In my Financial Director role for Curiositea Gift Company, I have gained analytic skills, which allow me to look at situations that I am faced with from various perspectives and to logically assess them for selecting the best solution. The abilities to clearly define the situation, to identify alternatives and to see it from different angles corresponds to the democratic culture specific to a democratic organizational behavior (Bergan, 2007). For my future career I am targeting companies that embrace the democratic organizational culture.
The forecasting ability gained within the group project shaped my rationale, my creativity and my organizational skills. Twiss (1992) notes that there is an association relationship between forecasting and creativity, based on the process of predicting the future using imagination, which they have in common. Nevertheless, besides imagination, forecasting implies data analysis and interpretation of the data, which requires the ability of translating numbers into real-life outcomes and meaning. Hence, forecasting means vision (Ryan, 2008).
Applying the forecasting abilities within Curiositea Gift Company, I have been able to generate a vision for the company’s plans. As such, in the future, we are planning to extend our product, placing it as an item appropriate for Valentine’s Days or other holidays. This will increase the sells for the product and will allow us to diversify more and gain increased popularity not only in the social media environment, but also in the physical space. Once our product will become more renowned, our plans include partnering with tearooms and cafes for distributing our product directly to customers, through physical sales. This strategy would assure year-long sales and would maximize our profits. Continuing to mix the online with the physical presence is one forecasted strategy, which include developing our own website for our product. This strategy would erase the website fee required by the host websites and in the same time would generate more awareness for our product, given the integrated mix of online and physical presence.
Nevertheless, this forecasted vision will be adapted to the changes from the external environment (political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental (Henry, 2008)) that will impact our company. As we will strive to adapt to the changing environment, we need to cope with various situations, to remain flexible and to be open to permanently learn, making our company a learning organization (Secord, 2003). Nevertheless, the fact that we broke even at an early stage with our project is because our main clients are our families and friends. Aiming to expand the business to a broader market imposes challenges, but I am confident that with innovative thinking and team work, we will bring our business closer to the forecasted vision.
The Curiositea Gif Company project allowed me to diversify my areas of skills and competences. Implicitly, the project and the team work influenced me to be more self-critic, while aiming to achieve self-actualization (Maslow, 1954). In relation to my personal development, the skills, abilities and competences achieved through the development of Curiositea Gift Company project improved my self-efficacy. As such, I was able to rapidly overpass my frustration and disappointment over the failure with the broken china pieces, looking ahead at the new challenges (Bandura, 1997; Chase, 2006).
As a future employee, I will permanently seek to absorb new skills, abilities and competences through continuous learning, obtained through formal or informal training. I intend to share my interest to ongoing learning throughout the organization for which I will be working, shaping a learning organization, which will improve the employees’ moral and the overall business performances (Porter and Tanner, 2012; Pepitone, 2000).
My mix of skills, abilities and competences include mastering technical programs such as Lectra Kaledo and Modaris, Photoshop or Microsoft Office. In addition, I am a cooperative a supportive team member, creating a good atmosphere for customers, through my ability to communicate and interact with customers from a diverse cultural background. To complete the list of skills that I possess, I am a Mandarin-native speaker, I have excellent English proficiency and I am intermediate with Cantonese.
As a future employee, I plan to utilize all the skills that I have gained through the development of the Curiositea Gift Company, within my former employments and the knowledge I have absorbed during my education (University of Machester, UK and Suzhoul High School, China). I plan to optimize the achieved skills and knowledge for becoming a self-driven, competitive and analytical professional, demonstrating vision and the ability to permanently accommodate to novelty, by maximizing the sought opportunities.
References
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