Category: Internship

Executive Summary

This is a coop report that focuses on Schlumberger Limited, its competitive advantages, strategies, history, and an internship project in Hub Web site development. Schlumberger Limited is an industry leader. Hence, it provided the best opportunities for internship experiences.

The company has relied on its products, services, and solutions to remain competitive and create products for the global market.

The Hub Web site project shows that internship taken in a professional organization exposes interns to vast experiences within their departments.

Moreover, interns learn from professionals, who have vast experiences and knowledge in the field. Schlumberger Limited has over 70 people who make significant IT decisions in the company. This exposed the intern to a complex organization that relies on advanced IT knowledge or usages.

Introduction

This is a coop report about an internship at Schlumberger Limited. The coop report presents training achievements in the IT department at Schlumberger for seven weeks. The report gives details about the company and the actual project undertaken during the internship, including accomplishments and challenges experienced throughout the training period.

Company Background

Schlumberger Limited is “the world’s leading supplier of technology, integrated project management and information solutions to customers working in the oil and gas industry worldwide” (Schlumberger, 2013). The company has more than 120,000 employees, who represent people from over 140 nationalities. Schlumberger’s employees work in over 85 countries globally. The company offers various “services and products for all stages of oil exploration and production” (Schlumberger, 2013).

Schlumberger has two main business segments. These include oilfield services and IT services. Oilfield services are a wide range of services and products that cover “formation evaluation through to directional drilling, well cementing and stimulation, well completions and productivity to consulting, software, and information management” (Schlumberger, 2013). On the other hand, IT infrastructure services are services that are responsible for supporting the main industry operational processes.

In the fiscal year 2012, the company recorded $41.73 billion in revenue. The company trades in the New York Stock Exchange (SLB), Paris, London, Amsterdam, and the SIX Swiss stock exchanges.

Schlumberger relies on an aggressive management strategy that covers 35 GeoMarket regions. The 35 GeoMarket regions focus on its global operations to provide “a single platform of contact at the local level for customers to reach the company” (Schlumberger, 2013). This ensures that the company consolidates its field operations from different locations to allow teams from various dispersed locations to deliver customized services that would meet the needs of customers.

The IT department and technologies have been effective in facilitating the outcome of GeoMarkets by providing avenues through which information and technical expertise reach customers. Moreover, technologies offer a means through which “Schlumberger engineers and geoscientists maximize technological synergies over the entire life of the field” (Schlumberger, 2013).

The company has gathered adequate knowledge in the exploration and production of oil for over 75 years. Moreover, Schlumberger has demonstrated its commitment to the use of technology and innovation in its processes through extensive research and a network of innovation centers. The company also derives its competitive advantage from the global outlook, which provides diversity among its workforce, international experiences that support local knowledge for excellent service delivery at any place.

Schlumberger constantly engages in research and development to obtain advanced techniques for its operations and procedures. It aims to offer leading-edge technologies and innovative solutions for oil and gas exploration from the reservoir to the surface.

The company has massive investments in the area of research and development because it believes that technologies are long-term strategies that would support and grow its operations. Schlumberger invests, “more each year in R&D than all other oilfield services companies combined” (Schlumberger, 2013).

Schlumberger has developed products, services, and solutions that rely on the combined domain “expertise, best practices, safe and environmentally sound well site operations, innovative technologies, and high-quality support” (Schlumberger, 2013). These products, services, and solutions strive to meet unique customer needs for enhancing oilfield efficiency, reducing costs, enhancing productivity, taking utmost advantage of reserve recovery, and promoting the value of assets in an environmentally acceptable way.

Currently, Schlumberger offers some of the most advanced oilfield services in the industry. It has the following oilfield services (Schlumberger, 2013):

• Open-hole and cased-hole wireline logging
• Drilling services
• Well services, such as cementing, coiled tubing, stimulations and sand control
• Well completion services including well testing and artificial lift
• Interpretation and consulting services
• Integrated project management

Schlumberger has been able to deliver these services, products, and solutions because of its strong technical and operational strategies in the industry. These approaches can support any form of complex global activities, including those in remote areas.

Schlumberger services aim to offer real-time solutions through the best expertise, knowledge, and experiences, which allow it to provide the best solution always. The company has a platform known as InTouchsupport.com, which is a knowledge management platform that offers field access to its technology center by using superior IT tools.

Schlumberger uses its IT tools to improve “production, reserves, and drill acceptable wells” (Schlumberger, 2013). It has Schlumberger Information Solutions (SIS), which provides best solutions through “people and processes, technology and infrastructure, and real-time IT enablers-delivering key value-adding solutions to overcome a myriad of challenges confronting industry operational processes” (Schlumberger, 2013). The platform facilitates workflow and achievement of business goals because of the domain knowledge and experience that the company has acquired over the years.

Schlumberger also has Integrated Project Management (IPM). The IPM is responsible for the company’s growth. It concentrates on enhancing post-plateau production and recovery, as well as solving the challenge of extensive resource requirements in the oil industry. IPM enhances the “long-term relationship between the company and the customer” (Schlumberger, 2013). Customers have derived enhanced efficiency, low investments, and improved production.

WesternGeco is a service platform that offers inclusive global reservoir imaging and monitoring. It has the most extensive “seismic crews and data processing centers in the industry, as well as the world’s largest multiclient seismic library coupled with 3D and 4D seismic surveys” (Schlumberger, 2013).

Schlumberger also aims to protect and sustain the environment in which it operates.

Schlumberger has one of the most extensive IT departments in the oil industry. There are over 70 key decision-makers at Schlumberger IT department.

SWOT Analysis

The company is a world leader in the industry. It supports oil and gas exploration and production globally. However, it also experiences different factors that control the oil and gas industry activities.

Strength

• Schlumberger has a strong market position
• The company has shown steady growths in revenues
• The global presence and diversified services
• A leader in technologies and innovation

Weakness

• The slow growth of revenues in WesternGeco products and services
• Too many companies, products, and services to track
• Lawsuit challenges, e.g., Norwood Resources

Opportunities

• Exposure to large international markets
• Improve on existing technologies, innovations, and solutions
• Peak supplies in the oil and gas industry
• Continued exploration and discoveries of new oil fields
• Incentives for new wells

Threats

• Political risks in some major oil producing nations
• Fluctuations in the oil market
• Volatile industry
• Competition from other innovative firms
• Weakening dollar

Organizational Marketing Strategy

Schlumberger offers solutions, products, and services that appeal to the modern oil and gas exploration and production. It has modern products, innovative solutions, and technical consultancy services for many of its global clients. The company aims to create products and services that can be competitive in the fast-paced hydrocarbon market (Glickman, 2006). It strives to maintain the current supply and exploration. Schlumberger invests heavily in research and development, technologies, and other innovative solutions.

Schlumberger holds the leadership position in the oil and gas industry. The company uses a competitive pricing strategy to position itself in the market as the leader. This is also evident in its stock prices, which are always at a premium to competitors.

The company has strategically positioned itself as the market leader. The eastern presence has strengthened the company’s position in the region. As a result, it aims for the global market. Schlumberger has been able to succeed in international markets because of its aggressive approaches to oil and gas exploration to production.

Schlumberger uses promotional strategies by focusing on corporate social responsibilities. The company has embarked on aggressive environmental conservation.

Schlumberger uses traditional media and social media platforms for publicity.

Organizational Competitive Strategy

The company’s strong local background and investments in international markets have provided it with a competitive advantage, which has allowed it to enhance market share and presence in such regions. Schlumberger tends to employ native majorities from the countries in which it operates. Human resources are a key competitive tool for the company in a highly competitive industry. This has allowed it to gain a large market share and enhance the acquisition of local firms, e.g., in Russia.

Schlumberger has been able to leverage its technologies and innovative solutions to create competitive advantages. The company draws competitive strategies from technologically advanced solutions, services, and products. Moreover, Schlumberger constantly focuses on product and service improvement. The company has used WesternGeco to leverage its technological solutions. Schlumberger has been able to protect itself from sharing oilfield technologies with competitors.

Schlumberger uses advanced seismic services for oil and gas exploration, which allows it to remain competitive in the growing and demanding hydrocarbon markets.

The company has been able to increase its total revenues because of growing demands for oil and gas. This allows the company to operate with large profit margins.

Competitive Advantage

Schlumberger has key advantages in oil and gas exploration and production.

• Thorough expertise in exploration and production process, which the company has accumulated for over 75 years
• Extensive use of research, technology, and innovative approaches for several decades
• A global presence coupled with local expertise and workforce diversity for over 140 nationalities
• Excellence services in all branches

Conceptual Framework

This project involved the development of a Web site for Schlumberger. This process requires a conceptual framework that guides all the stages in a Web site development. A conceptual framework helps in determining the conditions, standards, and procedures necessary for the project to create a project of the maximum quality.

The initial stage involves the analysis of how the proposed Web site would contribute to the strategic goals of the organization. The process must account for the integration of the new Web site with the existing systems. It must also focus on the audience or end users. At this stage, the designer must evaluate the available data, software, hardware, and support team.

The second stage of the framework involves building specifications of the sight. They must include the overall layout, Web site navigation, and other requirements of a Web site. Consultation is critical in this phase. The developer should write the project proposal with its aims, costs, timelines, and responsible people.

The next phase involves the design and development of the site. The developer usually provides a model for the site navigation and content outlines for the proposed Web site.

The fifth phase is content writing. Contents of Web sites should not have irrelevant information. Also, content developers can rely on the available design template (Siegel, 1997).

The sixth phase entails writing of code. This process should not interfere with the design. Also, the Web site developer must understand the process interface to protect the design and navigation elements. This is an interactive process between the developer and the designer. The Web site graphic elements may be necessary for this process.

The seventh stage is testing. The process involves thorough testing of the site. This is mandatory because the Web site would have multi-users. The developer must review the Web site integration, stress, scalability, load, resolution, and compatibility with other software and hardware. The developer can apply both manual and automatic testing. For instance, it is critical for the developer to test for load graphic and time factor during loading of graphics (Mendelson and Simone, 2000).

Eighth, the developer should also conduct Web site promotion. This process normally involves reviewing meta tags, URL reviews, and search engine testing.

Finally, all Web sites require constant updates to allow them to function effectively. Further analysis may be required in this process. Also, the developer may repeat all other processes performed previously.

After all these processes, Web sites require constant promotion, technical maintenance, content management and regular update, site visit activity reports, user staff training, and mentoring” (Eccher, 2011). Complex Web sites may require in a complex organization may require frequent maintenance.

Figure 2: Web site development framework.

Technical part

The project

The technical part of the project involved Web site development. Hub Web site for Schlumberger has different departments and all employees. The process involved analyzing and including all data within all departments in the company.

The developer wrote codes for the Web site. The project involved understanding the project requirements and their roles in the site. This would be useful for re-design and update purposes.

The developer and team members reviewed the details to eliminate redundant content from the site. This also included the introduction of new contents for the site.

Feedback was critical for all processes of the Hub Web site development. It was useful for improving certain aspects of the project. For instance, the developer used feedback to develop new contents, introduce new materials, and re-arrange the headline. Presenting a perfect project required a thorough review of the code.

The developer ensured that all parts had the right information about various departments and the company.

Integration of segments was critical for the effective functioning of the Hub site. Designers and developers worked together to integrate their parts.

Methodological used

The development of the Hub Web site involved discussion with the team members, data collection, determination of gaps, and constant reviews with the supervisor.

The team distributed tasks among the members to facilitate the development of various parts of the site every week.

Limitations

In most cases, the task required for the development of the Hub Web site were numerous, but there was no adequate time for the project. Hence, the team developed most segments hurriedly.

New users experienced difficulties working individually. Writing the code presented challenges to new users. This hindered the progress of the project based on the schedule.

The developer faced constant challenges while developing the Hub Web site. However, IT specialists provided the required help for the interns. Moreover, systems also presented challenges during the project.

Finding

Web site development is an interactive process that must undergo all the necessary phases. Moreover, it requires teamwork between the designer and the developer at various stages.

The project promoted the aspect of self-learning. The developer acquired new knowledge and applied learned knowledge in real life situations. Such knowledge can help in restoring system failures, which normally affect IT projects negatively.

Suggested solutions

• Web site designing and developing require adequate time and resources
• Teamwork and coordination of members’ activities result in the development of the best projects
• New users should seek assistance from IT specialists
• Users must expect system challenges at the course of the project but is better to understand such challenges

Summary of Findings and Recommendations

The internship provides opportunities for learners to interact with organizations, which have significant influences in industries in which they operate. The application of learned knowledge in such situation presents the best opportunities for interns to understand processes in the corporate world.

Projects shape interns and introduce them to possibilities of using their knowledge in real-world situations. Although there are challenges during project processes, learners must learn to overcome such challenges.

Multinational firms like Schlumberger have various methods of ensuring employees’ involvement. For instance, the Hub Web site brings all employees and departments together to allow employees to discuss their thoughts. Moreover, they exhibit creativity in terms of product, services, and solution development.

Conclusions

Internship programs have allowed interns to understand complex processes within the organization. Interns can put their expertise in a practical aspect of running the organization. Interns learn various strategies, which firms use to create competitive advantage and improve their marketing strategies.

Internship projects like the Hub Web site require teamwork, coordinated efforts, and feedback to ensure successful project completion.

References

Eccher, C. (2011). Professional Web Design: Techniques and Templates, (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

Glickman, S. (2006). Schlumberger’s Savvy Oil Strategies. Web.

Mendelson, E. and Simone, L. (2000). Design A Great Site. PC Magazine, 19(10), 134.

Schlumberger. (2013). Schlumberger. Web.

Siegel, D. (1997). Creating Killer Web Sites. New York, NY : Hayden Books.

Introduction

To implicate the knowledge that I acquired through studies and classroom lectures, I needed to work in a real business environment. Further, I needed to learn new skills and expertise in the real corporate environment. Hence, I decided to follow an internship in a well-established organization, where I could get all relevant experiences and a congenial environment. My choice for following the internship program was the Landmark Group.

My objective in choosing the Landmark group was to benefit from the prolific work culture of the company. I wanted to facilitate my understanding of the corporate business world and to improve my expertise in the same.

Besides this, I wanted to gain experience and develop new skills that are necessary for working in a real business environment. The reason for choosing the Landmark group for my internship program was that it is one of the leading companies in the region and offers a congenial environment for learning and experiencing the corporate work culture. In my eight weeks internship in LANDMARK, I did assignments that were related mostly to the marketing sector. The reason behind this choice was to enhance my knowledge of the English language and to pursue my interest in the marketing sector. However, I endeavored to gain experience in the jobs related to other departments too.

This report is a short description of my eight weeks internship carried out as a part of my course. The internship was carried out within the organization LANDMARK in the retail business segment in 2014. Since I am interested in marketing; the work was focused on marketing and promotional activities. The internship report consists of the activities that I performed during my eight weeks program in LANDMARK to achieve the stated objectives. It also reflects the effects on my work and the accomplishment of my expectations from this internship program. My experience of the whole internship program is also presented in this report.

Internship Objectives

The learning goals of my internship included:

• Understanding the working environment of a corporate organization
• Understanding the working principles of a professional environment
• Deciding whether or not this type of profession suits my career expectations
• Utilizing my expertise in the given situation
• Analyzing my proficiency for the professional environment and look into the areas that needed improvement
• Enhancing my communication skills
• Getting experience in organizing a project

My Expectations

My expectations were very high before joining the internship program at the Landmark Group. The group specializes in retail marketing and hospitality business across many countries in the world and is among one of the top leading companies in the MENA region and India. I knew that this internship program would help me in achieving my goal s and facilitating my expertise. I wanted to follow an internship in the marketing field because of my interest in this area.

My interest lied in promoting brands, products, and services through media and advertisement. I wanted to take active participation in making strategies, organizing projects, and doing research in promoting the products and services of the Group. Through this internship program, I wanted to learn to be precise, improve my communication skills, and work effectively as an organizer and strategist. I also wished to improve my communication in English through this internship. The Landmark Group was an apt place for following my internship as it facilitated the utilization of my acquired skills and learning of the new expertise in the desired field. It provided me with the congenial environment and support to fulfill my expectations and achieving my goals through my internship program.

Introduction to the organization

The Landmark Group was founded in 1973 in Bahrain. Micky Jagtiani started the landmark group with one store called Mothercare in Bahrain and since then the group has been excelling in the retail sector for almost 40 years. It has emerged and developed as one of the most prolific and gigantic retail organizations in the Middle East region and India. The company offers various products including apparel, cosmetics and beauty products, interior decoration products, footwear, baby products, and consumer electronics, etc. The company has its presence in 20 countries of the world encompassing various retail and hospitality sectors. It operates directly in 11 like Qatar, India, and UAE, etc., and runs its franchisee stores in other countries (Corporate Profile, Landmark Group, Para 3).

The Landmark Group has a workforce of over 40,000 employees and for sustaining good results, it invests over 136,000 person-hours in training staff. It has a warehouse space of above 6. 82 million square ft. across the Middle East. Landmark is one of the largest retail distributors in the MENA region. In UAE, Landmark Group is one of the leading non-government centers that carry out logistics & re-distribution in Jebel Ali Free Zone and Dubai (3. 1 million sq. ft.). Besides this, it is also the major non-food importer into Jebel Ali Free Zone. It delivers around 63,000 containers in this area every year.

The company has received various awards and honors for its outstanding performances in the Middle East in the past few years. “It was awarded the Most Admired Middle East Retailer of the Year Award 2011 & 2012” ((Landmark Group, Para 5). For Business Excellence &Best Performance in the re-export category, it has been awarded Mohammed Maktoum Business Awards in 2008 &2009. “It has also received the Arabian Business Achievement Awards 2010 as the Best Retail Company of the Year” (Landmark Group, Para 6). The founder and chairman of the group, Micky Jagtiani has been awarded the Retailer of the Year and Entrepreneur of the Year in 2008. Renuka Jagtiani has received the Outstanding Asian Businesswoman of the Year in 2008.

Corporate Values of the Group

The core values of the group include a passion for excellence, integrity in the actions, fostering capabilities to strive and deliver, and considering the changing needs and demands of the consumers. According to the founder and chairman of the Landmark Group, Micky Jagtiani, “Our statement of purpose is ‘Creating exceptional values for all lives we touch’. The cornerstone of our philosophy is listening, adapting, and delivering exceptional value. What sets us apart at the Landmark Group is a strong and dynamic culture of entrepreneurship” (Landmark Group, Para 1).

The business segments of the Landmark Group

The Landmark Group has been working in the field of retail business for about 40 years with its 25 owned brands and over 40 international franchise brands. It has around 1800 outlets across the world. The Landmark Group operates its business through big and expanded retail set-ups with anchor stores in big and popular malls. The Landmark Group operates through three main business sectors.

Landmark Retail

This segment includes a large variety of Landmark Group’s popular core retail brands:

Landmark Group also runs its retail business through a wide range of clothing and footwear franchises. such as Landmark International, New Look Koton, Reiss, Funkyfish, Lipsy, Shoe Mart International Footwear Division, Ecco, Kurt Giger, stride rite, FABI, valencia, etc.

Landmark Hospitality: The Landmark Group operates this sector through its own and franchisee brands. This segment offers fine and informal dining, centers for family relaxation and entertainment, health clubs and beauty salon, and health spa. Besides this, the group also offers medical centers and budget hotels through its own as well as franchisee brands.

Landmark India: The Landmark Group initiated its retail venture in India in 1999 with the establishment of the Lifestyle Stores. Since then It has expanded its retail and hospitality business in India (Corporate file, Landmark Group, Para 10).

SWOT Analysis of the Landmark Group

My internship activities in the Landmark Group

I joined the retail sector of the Landmark Group as an intern. It was only for two months. I performed various responsibilities related to marketing and other departments. These activities were related to my goals and expectations from the internship program in the group. Here is the description of the activities that I took up as an intern.

Social Media initiative: My responsibility was to assist the marketing department with social media engagement by helping manage Landmark Group’s social channels. Moreover, I was also involved in drafting and editing copy for social channels. I also had the responsibility of monitoring social media web analytics on a weekly basis such as facebook followers or page views etc. and present reports for growth and other activities.

I prepared a marketing plan for the sale promotions of the brand products. I used the social media strategy for developing the marketing plan progressively. My activities included linking-social media tools to websites with the help of blog articles, videos, etc. The objective was to attract consumers to visit the websites of the brand and increase their followers. We also tried to track the social media tools for obtaining feedback for our efforts.

Marketing and advertising activities: The marketing team of the Landmark Group has diversified roles and responsibilities. Different departments of the company have explicit roles for different consumers. I engaged with the marketing teams constantly to suggest fresh and innovative ideas for marketing and social media campaigns. Besides this, I was assisting the marketing team with preparing marketing reports, collecting relative data, and maintaining a record of these reports and data. I was also working for specific programs related to marketing and advertising such as the end of season sale offers, festive season sale offers like special promotions during Ramadan.

As Landmark is a very big group, it has all different departments and each department has its own buying and marketing group so each department targets a different kind of consumers. I was actively associated with this work to target a different kinds of consumers. Normally, the policy for giving the discounts is that it starts before the season ends so next season has a new fresh start. The offers like fitness first are given to the companies.

For doing advertisements, big banners are installed on main roads and highways like Sheikh Zayed Road. It was very interesting for me to know how a company thinks and works on its various programs. I got a chance to promote my company’s products in Oasis Mall where we had to compete with various competitors. We presented the loyalty card policy. I also got a chance to communicate with various nationalities and learned that women are more interactive while doing any sale and offers.

I was involved in making marketing strategies and plans to improve the company’s position in the market. My goal was to promote the brand’s products. I performed this activity by observing and analyzing and coming up with fresh and fruitful ideas that could help in attracting the consumers and target groups.

General responsibilities and traits: Other than the above-mentioned responsibilities, I also performed some general activities like researching product reviews on industry specific sites including blogs, forums, customer comments, etc. I also looked into the relevant marketing information on social media and maintained marketing program files. Besides this, I assisted the marketing team in making effective policies and schemes to convince people to buy the company products.

I learned that punctuality is key for any achievement. Punctuality is an important attribute which not only improves a person’s social life but also his career course.

During this internship, I learned that to be respectful is always good with everyone without giving importance to whom we are talking to. I also learned that one should not be afraid of making mistakes since one learns from his own mistakes in a better way.

Another lesson for me during this internship was to do as much work hard as was possible. No work is small and unimportant. Hard work helps to build ethics and improves a person’s activities.

In any department, it is very important to work in a team. To work together and help each other in the team is very important for any department’s success. Teamwork is a vital aspect of running any successful company and I have learned through my internships how to do teamwork on a business level. My confidence level has increased. I now believe in myself and my abilities to perform any task.

This internship has developed many skills in me. Since I was involved in drafting and editing copy for social channels, I learned how to do these techniques. I also had the responsibility of monitoring social media web analytics on a weekly basis such as facebook followers or page views etc. and present reports for growth and other activities. In this way, I learned how to think about social media not only in a personal way but also from the perspective of the business. As I prepared a marketing plan for the sale promotions of the brand products, I learned how to use the social media strategy for developing the marketing plan step by step. I learned how to write blogs. I also learned how to analyze the outcomes of our efforts through social media tools.

I learned how to deal with time pressure and how to prioritize work. After settling down in the internship, I started completing the tasks and projects given to me. I even started to create an account of my company on social media sites to promote things. My company gave me space to do things and I accommodated myself very well in the marketing system of the company. Whenever I got any compliments from my officers in the company, I felt a great deal of pride. Even any small comment on my blogs gave me a boost and encouraged me to perform in a better way. Having a moment full of pride is an unforgettable time.

Reflections

The Landmark Group has consistently performed well in every market situation and has demonstrated great significance for its customers all over the world. Working with this large and prolific group for two months gave me an insight into the strengths and weaknesses of its business and operations. I further tried to identify certain opportunities that the group can avail for its growth in the global arena and threats that can hamper its success. The idea of considering people as their strongest asset is the key contributor to the success of the Landmark Group. However, it needs to focus on promoting its brand at a global level.

The learning process during my internship has been excellent. I was occupied with the marketing teams constantly to suggest fresh and innovative ideas for marketing and social media campaigns. Besides this, I was assisting the marketing team with preparing marketing reports, collecting relative data, and maintaining a record of these reports and data. It has not only developed my whole personality but also it has increased my confidence level to do something exclusive in the field of marketing and I am proud of that.

Works Cited

Corporate Profile, Landmark Group. 2013

“Creating Sustainable Value”, 2014. CSR Report 2012-2013. Web.

Landmark Group, 2014. Web.

Introduction

I did my internship at the Yolsu Engineering LTD. During the two weeks of training, I managed to serve in accounting and human resources departments. As an intern, the scope of my responsibilities included offering support services to humanitarian aid, financial, and information networking systems in the company. This report will review my internship experience at Yolsu Engineering LTD. The essay will examine the performance of the company in terms of strengths, opportunities, and threats. The report concentrates on individual observation and how this experience has impacted my future career direction.

Internship experience

Week 1

On the first day of my internship at the Yolsu Engineering LTD, I was ushered by one of the human resource officers I was expected to report to during the entire training-work period. I was assigned a secretarial role comprising documentation, picking calls, and office arrangement. This went on for the next three days. On the fourth day, I accompanied one of the accounts clerks to several banks to make deposits. The accounting clerk guided me on registering the deposit receipts into the company’s accounts system. The following day, I went to the banks to make deposits alone and correctly entered the system’s tickets. During the first week of the internship, I was assigned chronological documentation of sensitive company documents such as receipts, invoices, and delivery notes. This duty was extended to proper accounting of the tickets that suppliers issued after delivering different products and services.

At the end of the week, I passed the weekly progress review since I was able to accurately and competently work with chronological documentation and track the receipts in the company’s account system. I learned the documentation and office arrangement during the first week. It was interesting to undergo practical training on how to deposit money in the banks and manage the receipts within the accounting system of the company. In addition, I learned the importance of teamwork and consultation to minimize human error, especially when dealing with sensitive company documents.

Week 2

At the beginning of the second week, I was moved to the human resource department, where I carried on with the documentation and other secretarial roles. In addition to these roles, I was taught how to set up annual leaves for the employees, computation of salaries, creation and management of the payroll system, and the process of setting up permission for tasks. After just two days of training in the department of human resource management, I was able to systematically generate expense accounting for charges and licenses in the company. On the third day of the second week, I was transferred to the tax office, where my manager was helpful in showing me how to pay taxes, control tax debt, and manage the tax tickets. After three or four attempts, I was able to generate a tax proof paper indicating that the company has no tax liability. I accompanied the management to the Chamber of Commerce to obtain the address proof alongside activity documentaries. At the end of the second week, I learned that the Chamber of Commerce is very proactive in auditing the recruitment process of companies such as Yolsu Engineering LTD.

The second central duty I was assigned during the second week of internship was the organization of the company and personal documentaries. The task involved arranging the documentaries and creating their registers in the company documentation system. The documentaries I worked on include the work hours, work-hour payroll, and setting the in-out records. By the end of the second week, the manager and I were able to check the March, April, and May payrolls for the company and make necessary reconciliations. I chronologically generated the payroll reports for the three months.

Significance of the internship

The internship opportunity at the company was significant for understanding the operational framework in the engineering industry. The working framework comprises policy and litigation to satisfy the demands of customers through creative and high-quality services[1]. I was also given an opportunity to manage the company’s accounts and human resource management systems. Through collaboration with the company’s funds and human resource managers, I was in a position to offer support services to the system that could track the inventory of the company.

The internship experience was life-changing since I had the opportunity to apply the class concepts in the company. For instance, I was able to use the EFT, make money order, entering receipts into the system, and managing the bills[2]. I learned that there are three types of statements in a company. These bills are perception, settlement, and clearing. Moreover, the accounts manager was accommodating in teaching me how to make checkout. Through proactive training, the manager gave me an opportunity to understand credit trade, interest rate, and how to manage the monthly payments in the master payroll. Besides, I had a chance to participate in the development of a communication system.

Suggestions for policy

It is apparent that Yolsu Engineering LTD is well-positioned to survive competition due to its exciting accounts and human resource management systems. Besides, the company has a very dynamic team that is always at the forefront of designing innovative products. However, the company should expand on its customer feedback system to guarantee client loyalty, especially among the suppliers. In order to further improve efficiency, it is imperative for the company to develop a comprehensive personnel rotation plan within the two sections at the end of every year[3]. For instance, the accounts section team should move to the human resource section. If the department embraces this recommendation, it will have the most experienced and well-motivated personnel within a year after implementation. Reflectively, the personnel will gain a lot of in-job experiences in both sections and would quickly fill any void in either of the areas when the need arises.

Improving the internship experience

In order to improve the internship experience, the company should create a training and employee evaluation department. This department may be proactive in tracking and providing appropriate information to the interns. Besides, the department may offer professional assistance and address the concerns of the interns who work in more than one department. In addition, the company should introduce a small monetary token to the interns as a motivational factor.

Conclusion

Throughout the internship period at the Yolsu Engineering LTD, I observed that the personnel were very informed of the practice accreditation standards and were generally useful in dispensing different duties.

Bibliography

Kiser, Pamela. The Human Services Internship: Getting the Most from Your Experience. Alabama: Cengage, 2011.

Lauren, Berger. All Work, No Pay: Finding an Internship, Building Your Resume, Making Connections, and Gaining Job Experience. New York: Ten Speed Press, 2012.

Newman, Daniel. Demystifying the School Psychology Internship: A Dynamic Guide for Interns and Supervisors. New York: Rutledge, 2013.

Pamela Kiser, The Human Services Internship: Getting the Most from Your Experience (Alabama: Cengage, 2011), 23-37.

Berger Lauren, All Work, No Pay: Finding an Internship, Building Your Resume, Making Connections, and Gaining Job Experience (New York: Ten Speed Press, 2012), 78-89.

Daniel Newman, Demystifying the School Psychology Internship: A Dynamic Guide for Interns and Supervisors (New York: Routledge, 2013), 34-45.

Executive Summary

NADA Dairy Company is an affiliate of Al Othman Agriculture Production and Processing Company. The company pursues a market modification strategy aimed at improving its revenue performance. Most NADA products have reached the maturity phase, thus affecting the company’s sales volume. NADA equally pursues a marketing mix modification through increased advertising. The distribution network has been expanded in order to cover a wider market. The company has adopted a Saudization policy within its HR function with a view of incorporating the Saudi culture into its operations and performance. This is proving to be a challenge to the company because it draws its labor force from all the countries it operates in, which include all the GCC member states. The company should consider addressing this challenge by delinking the Saudization from the overall corporate structure.

Introduction

Al Othman Agriculture Production and Processing Company also referred to as NADA, is a family business that was established in 1982 (Nada, 2013). The company is based in Saudi Arabia’s eastern province and mainly focuses on the production, manufacturing, as well as distribution of fresh dairy, long-life milk, and juice products. Nada has an expansive market for its array of products, which covers a significant area of the Middle East region, including UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, as well as Saudi Arabia itself. This report provides an exclusive description of the company’s business situation and position, including its background, strengths, weaknesses, and its competitive and marketing strategies among other important facts.

Company Background

Shaikh Mohammed Bin Abdullah Al-Othman founded NADA Dairy in 1982 as a family-owned business entity. His initial assets included 1,000 Friesian cows as well as four tracks that were mainly aimed at providing transport services. Growth and expansion of the business were realized almost immediately as NADA accumulated adequate capacity to sustain the distribution of its products to central Saudi Arabia and Bahrain by 1983. Between 1983 and 1990, the company introduced new brands for its array of products, including Labneh, Laban, Fresh Milk, and Yogurt (Nada, 2013).

The year 1991 saw yet another important innovation and development of products when NADA launched a new product of skimmed milk. An expansion of the product portfolio at the firm had not been witnessed until 1993 when NADA launched its first fresh juice product (Nada, 2013). The demand and success recorded by the juice product influenced the company’s management to introduce different flavors for the juice product, including strawberry, mango, and mixed fruit. Other product innovations that have been witnessed at the firm since then include an introduction of fresh flavored milk in 1995, the introduction of NADA long-life milk in 1998, as well as a further introduction of different fruit-flavored milk, including mango and guavas among many other flavors (Nada, 2013).

Nature of Company Activities

NADA mainly deals with the production and processing of milk and its related products. The company rears its own cows from where the milk is obtained prior to the processing. Self-rearing of the animals implies that NADA undertakes such animal husbandry chores as growing fodder, treating the animals, and overseeing the breeding and production activities.

Apart from the dairy section of the firm, NADA also processes juice products, which it manufactures and packs before availing the same to the market. Apart from the processing of milk and juice products, NADA also directly involves itself in marketing the products. The marketing exercise involves undertaking marketing research in order to determine consumer tastes and demands and coming up with the right product formula that suits the demand. It also involves determining the most appropriate packaging the company can use for its products.

Company Size

NADA Dairy is a large firm that operates throughout the GCC region, with an established presence in Qatar, Bahrain, Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (Nada, 2013). To effectively handle its widespread operations, NADA has employed up to 2,700 employees who are stationed in the various company operating stations. In total, the 2,700-strong labor force is drawn from a mixed nationality involving 19 countries and comprises of mixed races that include Arabs, Asians, Africans, and expatriates from the western world.

Saudi nationals form the bulk of the workers at the firm, standing at 23 percent of the total population. Overall operations of the company have been structured into 26 branches, all of which have been distributed across the GCC member states and Saudi Arabia. The sales team has the highest number of workers amongst all the departments, which currently exceeds 1,300 employees. This comprises 48 percent of the entire labor force at the firm.

Vision

The overall vision statement of Al Othman Holding Company, which is NADA’s parent company, states as follows: “To be one of the key-players in supporting Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Region Economy” (Al-Othman, 2013).

Mission

NADA’s mission statement reads as follows: “We are dedicated in providing various types of High Quality Products and Reliable Services, considering their impact in supporting the region’s Economy” (Al-Othman, 2013).

Organization Chart: HRM

The HR department at NADA is structured into five major sections or areas, which include recruitment, Saudization, employment relations, compensations and benefits, and administration. In general, the HR department’s structure appears as follows:

The HR Administration manager is charged with various responsibilities, which include overseeing both employment and government relations, and offering support to the sales team. Other roles include building the administration capacity within all the GCC countries, and ensuring that the general services are run as intended.

SWOT Analysis

Strength

NADA is owned as part of a group of many companies under the Al Othman Holding Company flagship. This offers the company the advantage of stability as a result of vast resources and great experience depth (Adekola & Sergi, 2007). Because of the many year’s experiences of operating a wide range of businesses, NADA’s management enjoys greater stability, which is highlighted in the manner in which the company is run.

NADA enjoys a wide market for its products, given its success in business that has spanned over three decades of operations. This has seen it win over the confidence of its customers, who are drawn from the several GCC countries that NADA has established operations in. This means that any new market entrants have limited chances of toppling NADA as the market’s leading distributor of milk and other beverage products.

Weakness

NADA does not produce powdered milk, which has a great demand within the domestic as well as the GCC market. This has allowed room for other industry players, particularly the foreign-based companies that manufacture powdered milk, to exploit this market. The situation denies NADA additional revenues that would have otherwise been used in developing the company even further.

There is no existing partnership between NADA and other international, well-established dairy firms. While the majority of local companies have entered into such partnerships in order to increase the capacities and capabilities, NADA continues to lag behind on this front (Adekola & Sergi, 2007). This limits the company’s ability and capacity to compete with the local rival firms, which enjoy greater skills and expertise from foreign firms.

Opportunity

Saudi Arabia and the rest of the GCC countries are rich in petroleum resources, which have helped to boost the countries’ wealth significantly. This wealth trickles down to the rest of the ordinary citizens in the countries, making them able to afford the wide array of NADA products. Thus, NADA is assured of a stable market in this region, making it assured of good business and profits.

Demand for Saudi Arabia’s dairy products in the external international market has been on the rise in recent years. This provides an opportunity for NADA to increase its production capacity and sell the commodities for the export market in order to increase its annual revenue and raise its profitability.

Threat

Saudi Arabia, and indeed the rest of the GCC countries, is located in a desert region, which makes it more challenging to rear cows. This affects milk production, forcing NADA to keep a large number of cows in order to guarantee its market’s demands.

More companies have been seeking to venture into milk production and processing within Saudi Arabia and the rest of the GCC region. This poses a challenge to NADA as it is set to increase competition in the industry and lower the profitability margins.

Saudi Arabia experiences large-scale importation of mainly powdered and pasteurized liquid milk, which affects the domestic market for NADA. The importation increases competition and could affect the pricing of the commodity as well (Adekola & Sergi, 2007).

Marketing Strategy

The majority of NADA’s products have reached the maturity stage. Thus, generally, the company’s products are experiencing declining sales growth, with market saturation being one of the main reasons behind this development. NADA’s counter-strategy involves both market modification as well as marketing mix modification.

Market Modification

The company has sought to influence an increase in its sales volume by manipulating the constituent variants and modifying its market. The modification involves expanding the number of particular brand users. NADA has entered new market segments, which are different from the traditional markets which were the main focus of the company. New milk flavors, with several fruit flavor varieties, have been introduced into the market to try and appeal to a wider market. The new milk flavors include guava and mango, which are part of the 48 different fruit flavors that the company integrates into its milk brands.

NADA has also increased its overall market promotion budget, by increasing advertisement activities. An extensive electronic advertisement on both radio and TV is being carried out by the company in order to persuade customers, mainly of its competitor firms, to try out on its products. NADA is also pursuing a vigorous online campaign, which mainly focuses on social media. Potential clients are persuaded to ask questions concerning the company’s products either on Twitter or Facebook in order to have direct interaction with the company.

For both its milk and juice products, NADA is convincing customers to consume them as much as possible for health reasons. Consumers are advised to consider using milk not only during breakfast but also during any time of the day in order to benefit from its nutritional compounds. The packaging for both juice and milk products involves detailed information about the nutrients that are included, as a strategy for increasing the usage rate.

Marketing Mix Modification

Product

Product modification involves new packaging for NADA’s beverage products. The new packaging has changed colors from the previous product packages, with the most significant addition being nutritional content. The company has abandoned paper packaging in favor of plastic jerry can containers. In its promotional activities, NADA is emphasizing to the buyers that other than consuming the beverages, more benefits can be derived from using the jerry can containers for storage of other liquid products, such as water.

Place

Newmarket segments have been introduced for NADA’s products. In particular, the firm has increased its presence and activities in central Saudi Arabia, as part of its new regional market. Although NADA products were still available in central Saudi Arabia initially, the company did not have an existing regional office as it did in the Eastern province and in the rest of the GCC countries where it operates.

Price

NADA products’ prices have been revised downwards in order to target price-sensitive buyers. The new move now places NADA’s products at a relatively lower price as compared to the price charged by its main market rivals. In other brands, however, the prices for the commodities are at the same cost as those of the rival firms.

Distribution

New distribution channels have been introduced by NADA within the regional markets where it operated before. In addition, the company has opted to enlist new distributors to help in increasing the frequency of distributing the products.

Advertising

NADA has particularly increased its advertising spending to help in the creation of market awareness of its variety of products. Additional expenditure has mainly been channeled to radio and TV advertisements, with the frequency at which the advertisements are aired having been increased. Online advertisement has also been launched, with the main attention being the use of social networks, including Facebook and Twitter. Advertisement of NADA’s products has incorporated the use of celebrities in order to capture effectively capture the market’s attention.

Services

In order to help increase customer interest and thus influence growth in sales, NADA has introduced direct contact services for all its buyers. Customers can call the company using a toll-free number and have their questions or concerns addressed directly. A web address has also been availed, through which clients can communicate through the internet directly with the company.

Organizational Competitive Strategy

Mission

NADA’s main mission is to dedicate its efforts and focus on providing high-quality products, as well as reliable services for its consumers. In doing so, the firm realizes the impact involved in supporting the region’s economy.

Corporate Level Strategy

NADA pursues a diversification strategy, with particular emphasis on concentric diversification. The focus of this strategy is to ensure that the company introduces new and related products in order to keep pace with the changing consumer tastes and preferences. This strategy has seen the firm expand its product portfolio to include juice products, in addition to its original main dairy product focus. This has also seen the firm introduce a variety of fruit flavors for its milk product in order to expand on the market varieties.

Competitive Strategy

Differentiation Strategy

NADA focuses mainly on incorporating products with specific features, flexibility, low maintenance, and availability, in order to achieve differentiation. The company pursues this strategy as a means of increasing its competitiveness in the market. NADA undertakes an elaborate research and development activity, with strong coordination existing between its marketing department and the research & development department (R&D).

To achieve success under this strategy, the company has designed its HR strategies to emphasize maintaining a skill base that is highly competitive. Employees are often motivated in order to achieve greater results while pursuing the differentiation strategy.

Job History

Report: Internship at Al-Othman Agr. Prod. Co (NADA)

Weekly report, Period: 14-Jul-13 to 18-Jul-13

Conceptual Framework

The strategic contribution of any organization’s HR function must involve four basic areas, which include culture management, fast change, strategic decision making, as well as market-driven connectivity. NADA’s efforts on strategic contribution are particularly focused on the area of culture management. The company has established a whole department that is dedicated to Saudization, which implies integrating the Saudi culture in its operations and activities.

However, this highlights a bigger existing problem for the company. While NADA targets a whole regional market that includes Qatar, Bahrain, UAE, and Kuwait, its management has not considered incorporating the cultures of these countries. The labor force of the company is drawn from 19 nations, which means NADA is a multicultural organization.

This is particularly poised to affect the HR delivery of the firm in certain specific ways. The staffing will mainly focus on acquiring employees who are easy to train into adopting the Saudi culture. This will most likely affect employees who are from the GCC countries as they are not guaranteed to easily adopt the Saudization. Legal compliance is also likely to face challenges as exporting some of the practices accepted as law in Saudi Arabia may not be achievable or acceptable in other countries. Legal requirements such as maximum and minimum ages of employment may not be applied uniformly in all countries.

Personal credibility is also likely to be affected as a result of the Saudization policy of the company (Bratton & Gold, 1999). Achieving effective relationships between workers from Bahrain and those from Saudi Arabia, for instance, may not be possible. All the workers from the GCC countries are likely to look at the Saudization policy in a negative stance because it is not their traditional cultural practice. The aspect of communication within the organization and among the employees is important because it is targeted to help the achievement of corporate organizational culture.

Although Saudization is important in helping NADA to realize its corporate culture, it is important for the management to consider revising it. This will make it appear less imposing, particularly to the non-Saudi nationals.

Projects Undertaken

Following the overview of the employment relations function in the previous week, I met with the Employment Relations Manager and the three HR Specialist (Employment Relations) on a daily basis with case studies related to:

New Hire Employment/Transfers/Separation/Termination/Repatriation/process. We discussed the process before and after each of the above actions. We discussed the HR-related policies and the Personal Action Form process and the approval authorities for each HR action.

Contractual Benefits: Case studies on Employee Benefits were reviewed case by case related to:

Employee Housing / Transportation / Employee’s vacation entitlement / Leave without pay / Vacation tickets / Medical coverage & other benefits

Government Relations: covering passport / visas (all types) Renewals / General Organization of Social insurance / Work related accidents / deaths / Disciplinary actions.

While the above may appear routine, I saw how focused the HR Team was to ensure that the Employee benefits were processed in a timely manner despite HR Head Office covering the entire Kingdom of Saudi Arabia & GCC countries.

Evaluation of the Internship Experience

My internship at NADA Dairy began on 24^th June 2013. I was provided with a detailed internship orientation program that was prepared by the Human Resources department, which indicated my schedule with systematic actions and activities. I held my first meeting with the Human Resources Director, who was also acting as my mentor. Initially, the HR director held the Administration Director’s position at the King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM) for a period exceeding 15 years. He is a former Business Graduate from KFUPM.

I was provided with an overview of NADA’s internship program, together with the planned schedules, as well as the expected outcome at the end of the internship period. The HR director’s insights into his career history and the wealth of experience acquired from KFUPM, both as a student and employee, helped in providing me with great motivation and inspiration.

Expected outcome

I anticipated acquiring an in-depth knowledge of NADA’s Human Resources & Administration department’s structure and operational framework. I additionally anticipated pursuing a career path option at NADA Dairy, specifically based on the Human Resources & Administration function.

I acquainted myself with general details and information about the company, including an overview of its operational area, market, size, and history. During my first two weeks of internship, I went through a short but intensive overview of the company’s operations. In particular, my focus was on the departments of Finance / Purchasing / Sales System & Sales. I undertook this after holding a meeting with my mentor. The overview I had been based on the overall guidance and direction that was provided by my mentor.

I had the opportunity to hold a series of meetings with the functional heads of all the departments that I had an interest in. The meetings, which also involved a section of key department staff, were extremely informative and provided me with a greater insight into the organization. I was able to scrutinize the overall organizational working, as well as the talent in the company. What was impressive was the fact that I met with employees with over 10 to 20 years of service and work experience with the company. This category of workers was well informed and had a history with the company which they shared with me.

At the HR department, I began my overview with the Sales Support Service section. The HR function incorporates a sales support department, which is headed by a Sales Support Manager & Sales Support Supervisors. The sales support supervisors are stationed in geographical locations within Saudi Arabia and the GCC countries. This department’s main objective is to provide HR support to the sales team. This includes administrative co-ordination with the HR head office related to the employment of the sales team. This is also extended to involve supervisory leave, location assignments, transfers, as well as oversee the internal promotion process, vacation planning, replacements, and disciplinary issue investigation. Other duties include commission payments, monitoring, and managing missing crates and product expiry liability penalties policy. The benefits of undertaking these include ensuring proper accommodation for employees in the branches. Additionally, other benefits related to sales include managing the administration of the company’s vehicles, coolers, and warehouses in 26 branches in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the GCC countries.

I found this combination of sales operations integrated with the Human Resources function very interesting. I saw that given the Sales department has over 1300 workers, which represents 48% of the total employees. My view is that this operational sales support department added a great deal of value to the HR Function, as the sales support manager reports directly to the HR director. This was seen as the main focus on internal promotion and talent development, with sales helpers having the opportunity of being promoted to salesmen, and the salesmen to sales supervisors.

The HR Strategy

The Compensation & Benefits Manager elaborated further on the HR Strategy as was previously explained to me by the HR Director. NADA’s focus for HR has changed from being a process function to being a strategic business partner. The HR strategy is focused on HR strategic contribution. This involves culture management, fast change, strategic decision making, and market-driven connectivity. Other roles include business knowledge, HR delivery, personal credibility, and HR technology. The HR Function has focused on devising and implementing the strategies by focusing on the acquisition of talent and its subsequent development. It has concentrated on performance management, as well as performing the important task of reward and recognizing the employees.

NADA’s HR department is structured as follows:

• Recruitment
• Saudization
• Employment Relations
• Compensation & Benefits
• Administration

During my second week of internship, I met with the team leaders and the HR specialist, who gave me an overview of their functions and processes. This helped me to understand the basis of the HR operations. My third week is scheduled for undertaking a case study methodology in order to have an even greater understanding of the organization’s overall functioning.

I concluded the first two weeks fully engaged in the learning process which I found educative, insightful, and beneficial. The support extended to me by the management of NADA and the employees were very valuable as each member of the organization took time to prepare and present their functions & roles in a very professional manner.

Summary of Findings and Recommendations

NADA Dairy processes milk and juice products, which it sells directly to the market. The company has a wide market area, which it focuses on. It covers mainly the Eastern and Central regions of Saudi Arabia, which is the company’s local market. Internationally, NADA targets the entire GCC countries of Bahrain, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar.

NADA enjoys great stability in its operations, having been in business for over three decades since its formation. Al Othman Holdings, which is NADA’s parent company, deals in a wide variety of businesses. This has ensured the company a stable financial base, with a great depth of expertise from its labor force. The growing demand for Saudi’s dairy products provides the company with a greater opportunity for growth in its business (Al-Othman, 2013).

The market for the company, however, faces several challenges, which threaten its business performance and growth. The Saudi market is experiencing an influx of dairy products from the export market, mainly powdered and pasteurized milk. Although NADA does not manufacture powdered milk, this places it at a disadvantage of growing its revenue base.

NADA’s products have reached their maturity stage, prompting the company to experience negative growth of its revenue. The company has adopted a market mix modification strategy in order to influence its overall business performance. This has included increasing advertising expenditure, targeting new market segments, and expanding the product distribution network. Advertisements are mainly aired through both radio and TV, with the company also adopting online marketing in order to target a huge audience on social networks.

References

Adekola, A., & Sergi, B. S. (2007). Global business management: a cross-cultural perspective. Hampshire, UK: Ashgate

Al-Othman (2013).AL Othman Holding Co. Web.

Bratton, J., & Gold, J. (1999). Human resource management. New York, NY: Lawrence Erlbaum

Nada (2013).About Us. Web.

Introduction

An internship is an exercise that gives students an experience of what is expected of them after completing studies and joining their field of study. The human resource aims at making companies be preferred by employers over the other competitors. This process has become a continuous one, and firms no longer hire because there is a vacancy. Companies are now treating the hiring process as a strategic plan to ensure that talent is sought and developed.

This ensures that whenever positions arise, knowledgeable staff fill these positions. The HRM department is useful to any organization because it supports career development. This has been used as a strategic aspect of placing a firm ahead of its competitors. Therefore, an internship presents students with an opportunity to practice their theoretical knowledge (Snell & Bohlander, 2013). The internship was carried out in the Human Resource Department.

It involved selecting, hiring, and training new staff in the company. During the one-month internship in a sales and distribution company based in Saudi Arabia, the student gained practical knowledge and skills in managing human resources. The following is a description of the activities, opportunities, and challenges encountered in this internship.

Job description

During this internship, the role was constant, but it also varied depending on the planned events for each day. The day began every day at 8 am by attending a brief departmental meeting that addressed the day’s activities and expectations. The activities included handling human resource complains and requests. Most of these activities include requests for extra staff in the various departments. The sections, which required extra staff, were identified and recorded to be acted in the near future.

Updating this information ensured that issues were responded to in sequence and that none was overlooked. Responding to these requests required planning before action could be taken. At the time of this internship, the human resource department had previously identified the sales department as lacking a workforce and put on an advertisement. There were close to 3,000 applications in response to this advertisement.

These were to be worked to develop a team of 8 candidates that would fill the vacant positions. This was the intern’s task to work with the rest of the human resource team in selecting, hiring, and training the new team in the system within one month. The procedure included going through the applications received and shortlisting the best-qualified candidates. This was done in the first week, while the second week involved screening the qualified candidates to come up with the final result. The third week consisted of interviews, while the last week involved induction of the new team.

Weekly log

Benefits of the internship experience

This internship was extremely useful because the student could relate classroom theory to practical assignments. For instance, picking the best candidate from a bunch of applications is a process that is intensely involving and requires paying attention to details. This is necessary to ensure that only the best is taken. It allows a student to test his education in a practical environment. It also gives students an opportunity for self-analysis to establish their strengths and weaknesses while working in their areas of interest.

They learn how to build up strong relationships with colleagues through teamwork, which is crucial for superior performance. Dealing with human resources can be difficult because people come from different backgrounds and have diverse personalities. The internship allows learners to study people and understand the personal issues that affect how people work together as a team (Turkington, 2006).

Experienced gained

During this internship, recruiting and hiring staff was significant, and the experience was exceedingly informing. The student learned the main procedures to determine whether an applicant can be considered for a job. It was evident that it involves meeting the minimum requirements and looking for the added value that the candidate is likely to bring to the company. From this experience, identifying a potential candidate who matches the job requirement is now a simplified task which can be undertaken in the future without difficulties (Noe, 2006).

Flexibility was also an aspect learned in this exercise. It was not only about dealing with staff but also administrative issues concerning staff. This meant that there was more to this department than stated in the theory work. It requires knowledge of what happens in the rest of the department for human resource personnel to adequately address staff issues (Bossche, Gijselaers & Milter, 2012).

Conclusion

The human resource department is vital in ensuring that a company meets its objectives. This is achieved by matching the organization’s requirements with the right candidate, who has similar career ambitions. It is also involved in maintaining the existing workforce interested in the job through motivation and support. Support includes training and promoting staff to the next level. This ensures that the employees do not divert their interest to other firms.

Losing an experienced and skilled employee to another company is costly because many resources are invested in recruiting, hiring, and training new staff. Management policies are also implemented through this department because they monitor what employees do to ensure that they follow the company guidelines. It is necessary to monitor staff performance to ensure that they produce the expected results and that the value for the resources directed to them is achieved.

Nonperforming staff can be coached and motivated to do better. Staff wellness also falls under this department, and organizations should be careful to ensure that they have a close relationship with the staff because they determine the business’s growth or failure. Discipline is also beneficial in ensuring that staffs follow the rules and regulations that govern the company. When discipline, support, and motivation are offered to employees, they are likely to excel in their responsibilities.

References

Bossche, P., Gijselaers, W., & Milter, R. G. (2012). Learning at the crossroads of theory and practice: Research on innovative learning practices. Dordrecht: Springer.

Noe, R. A. (2006). Fundamentals of human resource management. Whitby, Ont: McGraw-Hill Ryerson.

Snell, S., & Bohlander, G. W. (2013). Managing human resources. Mason, Ohio: South-Western.

Turkington, C. (2006). Ferguson Career Resource Guide to Internships and Summer Jobs: (2-Volume Set). New York: Infobase Pub.

The term internship is used for those individuals who are interested in practical exposure, they are known are “interns”. They work in a firm on temporary basis in order to get aware of the practical things that goes by, internship, basically prepares a person for the real world, interns are said to be “on the job trainers” because they are treated are learners, they have no command over a specific decision, rather they are asked to follow their supervisor and are suppose to conclude each task given to them on time, this helps them in learning the do’s and don’ts of the company.

These interns are usually college or university going students, who are interested in making a healthier future for them, which is the reason behind organizations offering part-time internships especially for those students who are studying. But they also offer full time internships during vacations (summers) so that students could get full advantage and take the effective use of their time. All internships are not always in a paid form, they are sometimes unpaid-depends on the requirements by the firm. They are partially paid as well. Students planning to have a degree in science, business, law, advertising, technology and engineering are asked to have a practical occurrence in their respective fields. This can also facilitate them in achieving their goals. Charity organizations usually offer unpaid internships, they typically ask for volunteers. They time duration for internships lasts on average for six to twelve weeks, it can be shorter or more than this.

There are on the whole, two types of internships, the first is “work experience internship” and the other is known as “research internships”. Work experience internships are often during the school periods. It can be from two months to an entire year of school. It helps the student to have a practical exposure from the real world and apply that experience in their studies. They are supposed to learn things and put it in practice. While the research internship is mostly preferred by the students, who are in the last year of their professional studies, this internship also known as dissertation internship where students are asked to work on a thesis assignment for a particular company. Companies hire those for this task, when they think that there are certain areas they need to improve. Students are also allowed to choose any topic they like, and are allowed to work on that.

Many students are interested in the field work. They don’t like sitting on a desk and doing all the paper work for long hours, instead they are more fascinated by the work that has to deal with people who are outside the organizations. For this many students try to get into a logistic firm. The term Logistic is the art of storing, managing the stocks of materials, energy or any information, it can also be defined as the science of keeping stocks for goods and services and delivering it to the marketplace on time. The exporting/importing of goods have always been so common between the countries, but trading internationally would be impossible without logistic firms. A logistic firm helps in creating a link between countries. Such firms not only keep the stocks but their duty also includes the maintenance of goods, the transportation of goods, warehousing, packaging and material handling. They perform such tasks just to satisfy consumer needs and demands. This has originated from the ancient times when military’s need to supply themselves as they moved to the other position, military officers had the responsibility of supplying and distributing the raw materials where it was needed. People who work in this field are known as logisticians. (Intern: Definition, Synonyms, n.p,).

A logistician should have some basic qualities on which he/she is judged by the company, qualities such as consultation, purchasing, transportation, inventory management, planning and organizing of such activities. A logistician should have qualities in order to survive ion the respective field. The field is subdivided into two main categories, there are basically two types of logisticians one is asked to store the material that comes into the flow and keep the records of each and the other is asked to deliver it on time to the right place.

Hiring individuals for such tasks is a difficult job. I joined a company in my summer’s vacation and performed “work experience internship”. The duration was of about 6 weeks starting from June 25^th to August 3^rd. I believed that I need such a period of time because this is one of the time period when I have my university holidays and I can learn a lot from this internship and I also believe that this is a way from which I am utilizing my time at its best. I have always been interested in the Human Resource Department and I was deliberately waiting for an opportunity. My university asked me to join a Logistic Firm as an HR officer and yes! I agreed to it. I was so thrilled and accepted the challenge with full heart. It was greatest ever opportunity I had ever had in my life. I was asked to join them in a week and I was looking forward to it. I always wanted to deal with different kind of people, I always wanted know that what the basic criteria’s are, behind the recruiting of employees, on what basis the management describes the salary areas, what does payrolls mean?, what is the role of compensation department, what are the rules and regulations of the company, on what basis they determine the rules and regulations. I had so many question marks in my mind that were to be answered in a week. Such type of internship also helped me in understanding the management subjects which I was studying at my university. More over it also contributed in my experience and there were many other things which I think I won’t be able to learn from books. I believe that books just explain what is right and what is wrong. I believe books have many limitations such as is doesn’t teaches how to tackle problems related to management of business and this can only be accomplished through practical experience. Many of the companies also prefer those employees who had already worked in any of the powerful companies.

The company helped me learned many things, these six weeks were the most professional time I have ever given to myself as being a student. The company let me understand the SWOT (Strength Weakness Opportunity Threat) analysis more clearly. In order to recognize whether the employee or any manager have such strengths which the company need in order to achieve success the Human Resource department plays a great role. And this can only be achieved through SWOT analysis. SWOT analysis consists of:

• Strength it talks about the advantages the company has, what is the company’s unique selling point (USP), what are the best resources the company is dealing with? Are these resources are utilized cost effectively?, what are the basic strengths that the audience outside is taking notice of. My supervisor made his point more clear when he asked me to jot down all the strengths of the company I’ve noticed up till now. He asked me to present all the strengths in 30mins.
• Weaknesses. What are the major areas a company has to focus on, what are the areas the company has to focus on, are the sales are on the breakeven? Or the company is facing losses due to the change in some external factors?, what are major things the company should avoid and why, how does the market perceive your weakness? Are they buying your shares? Or they are reluctant to trust you?. My supervisor assigned me a task to take a notice of all the weaknesses of the company and he further asked me to make a report on the company’s weaknesses, by the end of my internship period.
• Opportunity these are the basic changes that are likely to come in the future. The changes could be technological advancement. The HR manager introduced me to the IT manager, he told me about the new upcoming software that can take the company on a highway with minimum wastage. Technology heads mentioned in the meeting that they should also start transporting goods by roads; this could help them in dealing with shorter distances and can minimize costs as well. For this they just need to hire a driver. This was only the change that technology could make, there are other factors as well for instance; changes in government policies, changes in population, social patterns, tastes and preferences, local events etc. They took me to the ware house and showed me the new summer wear collection, they said that this is the time of the year when people ask for new summer collection and the stocks are pilled up to be delivered on time to diverse area. Opportunities also include a downfall of your competitor. It may provide you with a chance that now more customers are attracted towards you as your competing company collapsed.

After this tour I was given with a task. My supervisor gave me graph and asked me to give analysis on it. The graph was some what like shown below:

The graph describes a sudden increase of demand in the month of December. My supervisor wanted me to describe this sudden change. I noticed that a sudden increase in demand in the month of December could be due to the winter season but I was wrong, the graph showed the Christmas time. When new clothing, lights, gift items were demanded in this month. The company knew that they would be getting more supply and more customers so before the Christmas time they start to vacant their warehouses so that they could welcome profits.

Threats

Threats are those problems that the company faces in order to achieve higher revenues with minimized cost. The company has to keep a close eye on their competitors and their upcoming new strategies. A good company will always face these problems and bring up a new strategy to overcome such obstacles. If your competitor lowers its fees and assures the customer that his company will deliver the stock on time with no wastage- this is a threat for other companies. The competitor is now acting cleverly because he reduced its prices. Every customer would prefer the low pricing one option. In response the company can give free gifts and gain their customer’s confidence by delivering their stock n time with minimum wastage.

This might result in the changes of a company’s job specifications; this may lead to many big changes like; more training of workers, more and more updating of new advancements. And the management has to be more careful about the competitor’s reactions.

The following chart is what I showed in my presentation.

Strengths and weaknesses are the internal part of an organization that can easily be controlled but as far as the opportunities and threats are concerned, they are the external parts of an organization that need to be analyzed by the expertise. In the modern world SWOT is also known as the SWOTS analysis, where S stands for the strategies the company use to gain a competitive hand of others. They said they have now started to follow this approach and the SWOTS department is working on it.

They made me learn the ups and downs of the business, and taught me that what their strategies behind each step were. I learned a lot in these six months, they made me learn about professionalism. They said we don’t hire people on personal terms but only the Human Resource department do so on the requirement basis.

I learned about the Human Resource Department, I gained the real work experiences and applied them into my classrooms and it also helped me teaching others with their problems. I got more knowledge from others who had never been into such situation; I knew what others did not know. Due to my practical occurrence I started participating in the class more than others. I learned career-related skills. I can know judge the cultures of different organizations. I can now create a bridge between university and work. It strengthened my oral and written skills as I presented many reports and gave presentations in meetings using the latest technologies. It also supported my resume. I made a good PR I the organization that can help me through out my life and can help me getting employment else where. (Internships – Benefits, n.p.).

I learned how the department recruit employees, on what basis is the recruitment done. They hire those employees who have specialized in the respective fields. Such company need expertise, they have employees who can count the stock on computers on data basis, but not only the computers, they also need employees who can count the sock by hand. By using such a way the company lowers the wastage and grows steadily. I learned so many thing by this internship, I feel glad that my university chose me to for this company as an internee. This internship proved very beneficial for my studies, it helped me to make assignments with a touch of experience in the world, and I came to know what others feel when they are performing such tasks. The sense of responsibility, a feeling of authority and the sensation of confidence makes a person a complete man.

Words Cited

Allott D and Jamie. The Intern Files: How to Get, Keep, and Make the most of Your Internship. (n.d.)

Intern: Definition, Synonyms and Much. 2007. Web.

Internships – Benefits. 2007. Web.

Sweitzer H F and King MA. The successful internship: transformation and empowerment in experiential learning. (n.d.)

Executive Summary

Skills

Internship at AVVA, Inc. has taught several important lessons about the need to deploy the latest technology tools as the means of attaining corporate goals.

Summary of the Internship

The internship started with the identification of the company’s structure, its corporate values, ethics, main objectives and principles of organisational behaviour. In the course of the internship an extensive amount of information concerning the tools for marketing the target product to the key customers has been provided. Specifically, the methods of incorporating the tools related to modern media into the marketing strategy and expand into the global market. Moreover, the experience acquired in the course of the internship has created the basis for developing strategies for successful cooperation with international organisations and companies with high diversity rates. The experience in question can be used in preventing cultural conflicts and establishing strong and trustworthy relations with the organisations represented by other cultures.

Introduction: Company Background. Standing at the Beginning

Located at 715, 18 Wandsworth Road, London (About us 2015, par. 9), AVVA, Ltd. has become quite well known as a commercial agency over the past few years. The organisation defines itself as a commercial agency and works with other companies to promote well recognisable brands in foreign markets, particularly, in UK and East Europe (About us 2015, par. 1). The company is currently run by Anastasia Kuznetsova and has been experiencing a significant increase in its net profit due to expansion into the new market over the past few years.

The company has been doing quite well over the past few years, seeing that it has reached a new stage of development. By aiming at the international level of operations and creating strong economic and cultural ties between east Europe and the United Kingdom, the organisation has advanced considerably, altering its mission and vision significantly (‘About us’ 2015, par. 1). According to the current statement, the company’s mission concerns providing “an excellent service and lasting impact to our partners and their clients” (‘About us’ 2015, par. 4), whereas the vision of the organisation is related to expanding to “to UK and Eastern European markets” (‘About us’ 2015, par. 3). The specified concepts align well with the contemporary concept of diversity in commercial industry (‘About us’ 2015, par. 3); moreover, it opens a pool of new opportunities for the organisation in terms of international partnerships and further expansion into the global market.

The main mission of the report, therefore, concerns identifying the lessons learned during the internship. Additionally, the course for the further professional development will be identified. The analysis of the effects of cultural issues on the marketing strategy also deserves to be listed among the key objectives. Finally, the choice of marketing tools based on the cultural specifics of the target customers can be viewed as the topic of the report.

Commercial Industry Sector: Description

Traditionally defined as an active economic sector that presupposes dealing with any kind of promotion related processes and services (Huy 2014), commercial industry is a comparatively old concept the commercial industry sector has truly bloomed over the past decade. Though there have never been actual boundaries to the commercial industry in general, it is the 21^st century when the very concept of advertisement and commercial activities has been altered drastically. With the introduction of information technology tools and the availability of new and improved means of information transfer, new options for commercial industry members were opened. Consequently, the 21st century can be viewed as the rise of the commercial industry sector (Tseng & Lin 2012).

A closer look at the subject matter will show that the creation of the global market and global economy has spurred the development of the commercial industry. The introduction of new information technology tools, such as e-mail, social networks and search engines, has spurred the process of advertisement to the nth degree, allowing data of immense proportions to be transferred to the end users within an unbelievably small amount of time. As a result, the commercial industry is experiencing a huge revival nowadays.

Indeed, the global statistics shows that the commercial industry sector is experiencing a major resurgence. As Figure 1 below shows, the rates of employment in the aforementioned sector are getting increasingly big. Despite the fact that there have been several minor hiccups in the field under analysis, as the table below displays (the annual grow amounting to -0.1 currently), the overall tendency for the commercial industry sector seems to be rather positive.

Moreover, the recent technological breakthrough opened a pool of opportunities for sales and marketing experts in terms of promoting goods and services online. Seeing that mobile applications allow for a constant access to the Internet, the current marketing industry has been geared towards the design and development of applications allowing for a regular access to the services of a particular company.

AVVA Trends: Going Global. A Journey to the West

Creating the environment, in which people belonging to different cultures can communicate successfully, can be viewed as the primary objective that AVVA, Ltd. is engaged in at present. In other words, translating commercial ideas from one culture to another and selling the product created by British companies to the representatives of East European countries, the organisation literally breaks the cultural barrier that has been in existence between East and West Europe for years. As a result, the communication process, which AVVA, ltd. engages in when carrying out its routine activities, can be interpreted as an attempt to bridge two or more different cultures on the basis of compromises and negotiation.

As the graph above shows, the organisation is most likely to face certain friction in establishing relations between the representatives of the corresponding cultures; however, as working for AVVA shows, the principles lying at the basis of the company’s ethical code and organisational behaviour encourage diversity and, therefore, are most likely to reduce the amount of possible conflicts to the minimum. Most importantly, the principles that the organisation is guided by clearly show that conflicts are not only unavoidable, but also inevitable; thus, it is reasonable to use negative experiences as the source of essential lessons to be learned.

AVVA Activities: Lingua Franca for Business People

One must admit that the current strengths of the company can be viewed as significant assets that can be used for advancing in the target market. However, the lack of motivation among the staff, as well as the act that the company has only recently started integrating into the global market, needs to be born in mind when engaging in the process of decision-making. Still, an efficient strategy for conflict management and negotiation processes, which AVVA, Ltd. has developed for addressing possible intercultural issues, should be viewed as an obvious benefit and used to advance in the target market and attract more partners and customers.

AVVA Analysis: Style and Substance

Methodology: Where the Qualitative and the Quantitative Approaches Meet

Addressing the issue in question presupposes a detailed analysis of both qualitative and quantitative data. More importantly, the relations between the key variables to be considered in the study will have to be quantified at some point in order to understand the links between them better. Consequently, it is recommended that a mixed research (i.e., a qualitative research with the elements of a quantitative study) should be conducted.

Particularly, a general research will be carried out, with a detailed overview of the relevant sources regarding the issue of the commercial industry in general and the issues that modern companies face when dealing with the factors of global economy in particular. In order to identify the current trends in the specified domain and access AVVA’s chances for success in the area under analysis, one will have to consider browsing through peer reviewed journals that are related to marketing and were published no earlier than five years ago (i.e., the affordable sources will range from 2010 to 2015).

Additionally, the official site of the company, as well as any other trustworthy site that contains information on AVVA, Ltd., will be included into the list of sources to be reviewed in the process. The choice of the above-mentioned resources is justified by the fact that AVVA, Ltd. is a comparatively young company, which has not been included into vast analyses of global enterprises so far; therefore, to locate the data related to the company, certain non peer reviewed online resources will have to be viewed as an option. Finally, the sources such as books, which contain general data on the theory of commerce and the concept of marketing, as well as on communication in global setting, will have to be incorporated into the study. Although some of the books in question may date back to the previous century, they will still make an essential addition to the review of literature, as they make the basis for the theoretical framework of the study.

As far as the quantitative aspect of the research is concerned, conducting a case study based on the results of surveys carried out among the staff will help locate specific tendencies in the organisation. The surveys will include ten questions, three of them being general, three presupposing multiple choices, and four offering the respondents to evaluate specific factors on the scale of one to seven. The latter portion of the test will be constructed base on Likert-type surveys. The specified type of questions will allow for evaluating the efficacy of the marketing approach adopted by the organisation and at the same time help carry out a quantitative assessment of the opportunities for the company to become a part of the global economy (Brown 2011, p. 12). In the course of the answers analysis, standard deviations of the Likert survey results will be identified; additionally, the answers to the multiple choice questions will be quantified. As far as the first three questions, which will be general, are concerned, they will be analyzed with the help of the coding approach. To be more exact, certain elements of the answers will be coded according to the taxonomy based on the characteristics, which the respondents will assign to the organisation in relation to its corporate ethics, customer relations, organisational behaviour principles, etc. The outcomes of the study will be reflected upon with the information retrieved from the literature review in mind.

When it comes to defining the theoretical framework, which the study is going to be based on, one should consider the value chain governance theory. According to the existing definition, the specified theory bridges the concepts of technological development and international business interactions (Costinot, Vogel & Wang 2011, p. 2). Therefore, it allows for viewing a company in the context of the contemporary global economy and evaluating the effects, which external factors have on the quality of the final product and the relations between the company and its key stakeholders, including customers, partners, investors, suppliers and retailers. On the whole, the AVVA Company will be evaluated from the perspective of the theory of change, which is defined as the “theory of how and why an initiative is supposed to work” (Wijk & Vellema 2015, p. 15).

Additionally, the processes, which are incorporated into the overall framework of AVVA, Ltd.’s operations, will be viewed with the help of the tool known as the Marketing Mix, which is a range of “promotional tactics used for marketing and selling of product” (Ahmed et al. 2014, p. 910). There is no need to stress that operating in the environment of global economy requires flexibility and readiness to adapt to new cultural realities. Therefore, the need to assess the organisation’s capacity to adapt towards the new cultural realities and respond adequately to the needs of the new target market emerges. Traditionally, the Marketing Mix tool is viewed as a means for considering the cultural characteristics of the target population:

The marketing mix is not a marketing method; instead, it is a set of elements with which managers can achieve their marketing goals. In other words, the classification of the marketing mix varies according to the researcher, but it is the same from the perspective of achieving marketing goals. (Yang et al. 2014, p. 64)

Therefore, it can be viewed as a perfect device for evaluating whether AVVA, Ltd. has a chance at promoting its product to the target denizens, i.e., East Europe, including Kazakhstan, Ukraine, and Russia (Our brands 2015, par. 1).

Results Analysis: Interpreting Mixed Data

A study of the recent literature has shown that the commercial industry has advanced significantly over the past few decades, mostly due to the adoption of the corresponding digital tools as the means of getting the message across. One must admit that the specified tools used to be viewed as supplementary at first, yet, as the development of the marketing industry progressed, the power of modern media in general and the electronic tools such as social networks, online forums, etc., was finally recognised. According to the latest studies, modern media in general and social networks in particular define the course of the commercial industry development at present:

In both commercial industry and academia, significant progress has been made on problems related to the analysis of community structure; however, traditional work in social networks has focused on static situations (i.e., classical social network analysis) or dynamics in a large-scale sense (e.g., disease propagation). (Campbell, Dagil & Weinstein 2013, p. 68)

Additionally, the review of the recent sources has shown that the significance of diversity has grown greatly with the advance of information technology and the related tools. Particularly, the need to address the possible frictions in the course of intercultural communication occurring between the members of different organisations needs to be addressed. Social media, therefore, has allowed for expanding the concept of a commercial industry into something greater than merely the phenomenon of advertisement and, as a result, planted it into the grand scheme of the global economy. The opportunity to reach out for the most deserted and detached corners of the Earth within a couple of minutes has predetermined the immense scale and an even greater scope of the modern commercial industry. According to the recent studies on the subject matter, entire observatories are created to monitor the process of product promotion and its effects on the target denizens of the population: “Agency have developed information observatories that are designed to answer the needs of commercial industry and the intelligence community” (Adams et al. 2014, p. 37).The incorporation of the latest technology, therefore, helps improve customer relations significantly, which is essential from the companies such as AVVA, Ltd., i.e., the organisations, which are only starting to expand into the global market.

From the perspective of the value chain governance theory, the leader of AVVA seems to have a very good understanding of how intercultural relations in the contemporary environment of global economy work. Particularly, the emphasis on the intercultural issues and the possible conflicts that may emerge in the process deserve to be mentioned. Additionally, a closer look at the marketing strategy that the organisation adopts shows clearly that the company is determined to cater to the needs of a very specific target audience. Particularly, the incorporation of the concepts such as devotion to traditions and the adoption of innovative approaches seem quite legitimate in the specified environment. According to the organisation’s official statement, AVVA, Ltd. aims at stressing the power of traditions and, therefore, incorporating the concept of comfort, cosiness and homeliness into its marketing campaign: “Based in the heart of the English Fens, Curzon & Co makes furniture the old fashioned way – by hand. Stunning chairs and sofas that will last 25 years and that will mature beautifully with each passing generation. Every piece in the Curzon & Co Collection is individual” (Our brands 2015, par. 5).

The specifics of the East European cultures, in their turn, are also linked tightly to the idea of sustaining traditions and appreciating the past: “A similar dynamics might be found in other countries which have gone or are still going through similar economic transformations, particularly the ones with strong patriarchal traditions” (Tsetsura 2012, p. 15). the air of nostalgia, which the entire promotion campaign carried out by the organisation is shot through with, is more than adequate when adopted in the target market, especially in the light of the fact that the products in question are introduced by a foreign company: “nostalgia and nostalgic-related consumptions play a major role in acculturation” (Brunk, Visconti & Witten 2013, p. 96). By showing the target customers in a very graphic manner that AVVA, Ltd. appreciates traditions and is ready to create the environment, in which the clients are likely to feel happy and satisfied, the organisation develops a very strong basis for customer relations. Therefore, the company’s approach works impeccably as far as targeting the nostalgia driven denizens of the local population is concerned:

Moreover, the study has shown that most customers tend to agree on the quality of the products provided compared to what they were promised in the corresponding commercials: according to the outcomes of the research, the population standard deviation makes approximately 5.5 as far as the specified issue is concerned, which is comparatively low given the fact that 20 responses have been gathered. Likewise, most of the survey participants claim that they were attracted to the product chosen by them when communicating with the company representatives based on the environment created in the commercial. Particularly, adult respondents pointed out the business oriented style of the furniture together with the luxury of the furniture as the key characteristics that made them choose the products promoted by AVVA, Inc. Middle-aged clients, in their turn, mentioned the concept of comfort and reliability as the main reason for them to choose the furniture in question. AVVA’s partners, in their turn, also seem to have chosen the specified organisation due to the trustworthiness thereof and the unique opportunity to enter new markets and become leaders there.

Marketing Mix

Price

The pricing strategy supported by the company and its partners is, perhaps, one of the most dubious aspects of the company’s operations, which may hinder the process of establishing the organisation in the target market and promoting trustworthy relations between the company’s staff and the customers. There is no need to stress that the recent economic and political events in Russia and Ukraine as well as the lack of economic stability in Kazakhstan have reduced buyers’ capacity in the specified countries:

Trade oriented policy measures were the most widely spread policy response to high world market prices, and aimed to curb domestic food price inflation. For example, during the 2007-2008 food crisis, roughly 37 countries implemented export barriers and 59 countries removed import restrictions. (Götz, Djuric & Glauben 2014, p. 2)

The above-mentioned effects of the issues in the states’ current policies can also be attributed to the marketing industry. As a result, the prices suggested by AVVA, Ltd. as a UK-based company may seem unreasonably high to its possible East European customers. Though the current pricing policy of the organisation can be viewed as moderate from the perspective of the global economy and the global market pricing standards, of the target markets, the expenses taken in the process of business transactions with AVVA are unreasonably high; according to the official pricing policy of the organisation, AVVA, Ltd. takes a commission of approximately 20% of the overall sales, as one of the company representatives mentioned in an interview.

Moreover, additional fees are traditionally implied along with the aforementioned 20% in case of successful sales. Therefore, for most entrepreneurs, the prices charged by the organisation may seem unreasonably high. The same concerns the people, who will supposedly buy the products promoted by the organisation; because of high prices stated by the companies partnering with AVVA, Ltd., the residents of Russia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine are most likely to search for cheaper options. Therefore, the pricing approach needs to be redesigned with more options for saving money for customers. On the one hand, the company’s willingness to increase its net worth and expand into the global market is quite understandable; on the other hand, the approaches that the organisation uses for attaining the aforementioned objective can hardly be viewed as reasonable at present, given the financial opportunities that the local partner companies may provide.

Product

As it has been stressed above, AVVA, Ltd. puts a very strong emphasis on quality management and, therefore, delivers the finest products and services. Not only does the organisation provide its customers with an opportunity to become partners with the company in question and sell furniture and other products in new markets, but also buy state-of-the-art furniture from innovative companies across the world.

Promotion

A study of the recently published information on the overall progress of AVVA, Ltd. display clearly that the organisation seems to be very efficient in terms of addressing the needs of the local customers and adjusting its marketing approach towards the requirements set by the Kazakhstani, the Ukrainian and the Russian population. Indeed, the Marketing Mix, which AVVA, Ltd. has designed for promoting its services to the target customers, is practically flawless, as it puts a very strong emphasis on the concept of multiculturalism and cultural acceptance. The specified issue is especially topical in the contemporary political and economic environment of the above-mentioned countries; therefore, the strategy adopted by AVVA, Ltd. can be considered a viable and economically reasonable approach to undertake

Place

While the idea of creating an economic link between East and West Europe may seem quite innocent at first, a closer look at the venue will most likely show that the actual choice of location could become a reason for a major concern. There is no secret that the recent political events occurring in Ukraine have led to some major problems in its economy. For instance, the GDP rates plummeted to $131,810,000 in 2014, which is 2.5% lower than it was the previous year.

As Figure 2 provided above shows, the Ukrainian economic strategy does not hold up, making the state practically incapable of competing in the global market. The same can be said about Russia at present,; as the state is caught in the midst of an economic crisis caused by numerous sanctions imposed on the country because of the above-mentioned conflict in Ukraine, Russia can hardly be viewed as a proper place for establishing an international organisation in. Kazakhstan, in its turn, can be viewed as a relatively peaceful and economically stable state. Therefore, AVVA, Ltd. should put an emphasis on creating stronger ties between Europe and Kazakhstan at present.

Analysis

Based on the specifics of the Marketing Mix created by AVVA, Ltd. one may assume that the firm has rather good opportunities in the specified region. Nevertheless, the current political events, which shape the economy of Russia and Ukraine to a considerable extent, may hinder the process of creating partners in the target areas, not to mention attracting new customers and promoting the products provided by the partner companies to the target denizens of the local population. In other words, AVVA, Ltd. will have to reconsider its priorities in terms of choosing the key venue for its activities. Additionally, the aforementioned conflict seems to have affected the sense of local people’s identity (Herrera & Kydd 2014). Therefore, when creating a promotion campaign for the products supplied by the partners in the target countries (particularly, Ukraine and Russia), the organisation must reduce any possibility of controversy regarding the current political and cultural issues to the minimum. Finally, as far as the pricing issue is concerned, in order to succeed in east Europe, AVVA will have to consider a more flexible pricing policy. At present, the prices for the furniture are bound to be very stiff, as the company charges its partners 20% for the promotion procedure. Therefore, the pricing issue clearly is the greatest dent in the overall reasonable strategy adopted by the organisation.

The surveys, in their turn, have delivered rather mixed results. Despite the fact that the company seems to uphold to the present-day standards of an international organisation, AVVA, Ltd. seems to be in need of a more rigid set of rules for its corporate ethics and communication policy. Although the current rules cannot be viewed as faulty, they are far too vague for the company to deploy these standards as the basis for possible intercultural and business related conflicts. Seeing that conflicts are an integral part of evolution, AVVA, Ltd. will have to set the stage for addressing further communication issues, which are very likely to appear given the recent political controversy surrounding the current Ukrainian conflict.

Recommendations: Corporate Social Responsibility

When it comes to determining the tools that will allow AVVA, Ltd. to prosper in the above-mentioned controversial environment, the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) seems to be the most obvious and reasonable choice to make. Seeing that the organisation lacks rigid communication strategies and conflict-solving techniques, as well as certain motivation among the staff, the introduction of the CSR principles into the company’s framework will have a very powerful effect on the quality of the services provided by the company, as well as the relations between the company’s staff and the target customers. More importantly, the principles of CSR will help address the above-mentioned political issue in a manner as tactful and delicate as possible, therefore, allowing the organisation to operate in both the Ukrainian and the Russian markets without causing either of the partners to feel insulted.

Moreover, seeing that the survey returned rather low rates regarding the enthusiasm of the staff, the incorporation of the principles of CSR into the organisation’s framework could encourage the staff members to be more passionate about their job. Herein the need to consider a change in the leadership approach as the tool for improving the marketing related issues lies. Indeed, once the staff’s motivation rates are increased, the production process is enhanced; as a result, the marketing related processes will be boosted as well, therefore, leading to a rapid increase in the company’s revenues. It is strongly recommended that the model for managing the staff should be switched from the current one to the model of transformative leadership. According to recent studies, the specified approach helps both motivate employees and create specific behavioural patterns, which the company’s members will be able to comply with. As a result, the possibilities for the staff members breaking the company’s rules and, thus, leading to a major issue, are bound to drop to zero.

Learner’s Experience: Selling Ideas

Significance of Cultural Interactions

Despite minor discrepancies in the course of AVVA, Ltd.’s daily routine, the overall impression of working in the organisation was clearly positive. Working for AVVA, Ltd. meant acquiring immense experience regarding selling not only actual products, but also ideas. While sounding very inspiring, the concept in question turned out to be rather tedious and complicated, as it required defining a compromise between the conflicting notions in two or more cultures, e.g., the British and the Kazakhstani ones. In fact, the problem of a culture clash can be defined as the recurring one in the process of designing a marketing campaign for AVVA, Ltd. the above-mentioned dilemmas were mostly predetermined by the differences in the visions of the cultures mentioned above; as a result, what seemed as a passable idea in the target cultures did not translate well into the English one, and vice versa. More to the point, certain misconceptions emerged even when translating a certain message into the three languages mentioned above (i.e., Kazakhstani, Ukrainian and Russian ones).

Additionally, the cooperation between the company members and the members of the partner organisations, which also belonged to the three target cultures mentioned above for the most part, presupposed dealing with the possibility for a misunderstanding. Indeed, some partner companies belonging the cultures other than the British one, the threat of a misunderstanding emerged quite often. Moreover, even certain conflicts sparked after unsuccessful discussions of the promotion related issues with AVVA’s partners. However, with the help of the negotiation strategies chosen by AVVA, Ltd. and based on the concept of a mutual compromise, these negotiations returned mostly positive results.

Additionally, working at AVVA has shown that the choice of the approach to be adopted to work with a particular customer depends heavily on the cultural specifics of the country, as well as the current political and economic state thereof. Apart from the complexities related to the bellicose attitudes in Russia and Ukraine, the issues regarding the exploration of the Kazakhstani market deserves to be mentioned. Particularly, the fact that the middle class furniture market is underrepresented in Kazakhstan should be brought up. Despite the fact that AVVA, Ltd. offers only the products of the highest quality, the firm is ready to be flexible and adjust its services to the needs of the customers.

Consequently, because of relatively low income rates in Kazakhstan, the company was eager to consider the option of catering to the needs of the middle class representatives, learning in the process that the middle class targeted market was reduced to the size of a molecule in the state. As a result, “Both moderate and mid level furniture have equal demand level throughout all regions of Kazakhstan” (Furniture market in Kazakhstan 2014, p. 2), which presupposed that AVVA, Ltd. was going to have a tremendous success in the designated state. Moreover, when addressing the needs of the customers in the aforementioned area, the company had to consider the promotion of the furniture that aligned with people’s concept of comfort and cosiness. According to the culture and beliefs of the Kazakhstani people, the above-mentioned notions are associated with traditions; as a result, the promotion campaign was altered slightly so that the concept of homeliness could be introduced into the advertisements.

Likewise, the process of product promotion in Ukraine had to comply with the culture and traditions of the local residents. Particularly, the fact that the Ukrainian population could be split into two key categories, i.e., the eastern denizens, who relate to the Russian culture to a considerable extent, and the western population, who have a number of cultural and economic ties with the west, needs to be brought up. The duality of the cultural paradigm in the above-mentioned area was one of the trickiest issues to address in the course of the promotion campaign; as a result, AVA, Ltd, decided to use the symbols that both sides could relate to easily such as the air of cosiness and the warm colours that allowed the viewers to feel at home.

The experience of working at AVVA was truly refreshing in that it showed in a very graphic manner that any intercultural issues can be dealt with once a sound and creating marketing strategy was applied. It would be wrong and vain to claim that AVVA’s promotion campaign in the target markets helped remove cultural bias from the daily agenda; the significance of the commercials that aired in Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan had little to no effect on the economic and political situation in these states whatsoever. However, the commercials and advertisements did affect the viewpoint of the target population on the concept of furniture as an integral part of daily life and the source of comfort. Particularly, the commercials in question attacked the idea that the concepts of comfortable and useful do not go hand in hand when it comes to furniture. The company has altered the point of view of the local residents slightly, making it quite clear that buying beautiful and cosy furniture had nothing to do with a status and, instead, had to be viewed as an essential part of an ordinary life, making it more pleasurable and fun.

Additionally, working in the three states in question and communicating with the local partners, including furniture producing companies has shown that negotiation is an essential element of business interactions. Because of differences in mentalities of the local organisations’ members and the ones of AVVA’s representatives, numerous conflicts sparked in the course of communication; however, in every case, the conflicts in question were addressed successfully after a thorough analysis of the cultural differences that stood in the way. As it has been explained above, AVVA members have never feared conflicts, viewing them as an opportunity for handling misunderstandings, approaching the issue in question objectively and locating the compromise that could satisfy all the stakeholders involved.

Apart from successful communication with the target partners and the development of the strategy that helped handle the conflicts between the company and its partners, working in AVVA, Ltd. has shown the ways, in which marketing strategies used by other companies could be adjusted to the mentality and the mind frame of the target customers. Particularly, the marketing tools used by the organisations, which promoted their products with the help of AVVA, Ltd. needed certain change so that Kazakhstani, Ukrainian and Russian customers could understand the message that the producer was trying to get across, deserve to be mentioned.

For instance, the tradition of following a comparatively reserved design that borders the concept of minimalism and active use of wooden elements, which has recently received a rather warm welcome in Ukraine, was not incorporated into the framework of the Belgesto initially. Instead, the company representing the Italian brands such as Serenissima emphasised the importance of cosiness and offered an opportunity to enjoy a more exotic colour palette, such as a combination of red and white colours. However, after AVVA shaped the marketing approach that the organisation used as the tool for attracting new customers and offered the furniture of the company in question as the luxurious products that offered an opportunity to experience extraordinary comfort and exquisiteness that goes beyond what the customers may have experienced. In other words, the marketing approach used by AVVA’s partner had to be tailored to the demands set by the target denizens of the population; as a result, the company’s turnover reached £6,500,000, or $10,080,000 (Company overview 2015, par. 2).

Apart from developing the above-mentioned marketing strategy, AVVA, Ltd. has also taught several important lessons concerning personal relationships. Particularly, the methods of addressing conflicts deserve to be listed at the top of the crucial outcomes of working for AVVA, Ltd. One must give the company credit for designing an elaborate approach towards managing misunderstandings within the firm. Particularly, the fact that the organisation views conflicts as the tools for learning essential lessons should be brought up. Although the above-mentioned idea is not new, seeing it implemented in the environment that presupposes intercultural communication and, therefore, provides a plethora of chances for misunderstanding is truly refreshing. For instance, the communication process in AVVA, Ltd., when aimed at resolving a particular conflict, never pursued the goal of laying the blame to somebody’s doors. It would be wrong to claim that the organisation’s managers avoided punishing the guilty; however, one must give the company leaders credit for focusing on the positive reinforcement, which allowed for a successful resolution of the conflict and the location of the strategy that would help address a similar issue in the future. Therefore, learning about the complexity of intercultural relations and the ways, in which intercultural communication can be facilitated, should be viewed as the essential outcome of the internship at AVVA, Ltd.

As a result the information regarding the approaches towards solving intercultural conflicts has shown that being personally involved and viewing the negative attitudes displayed by the opponent in the course of the conflict is clearly not the best way to address a complicated situation. Instead, a marketing agent must detach themselves personally from the issue considered in the course of a conflict and analyze the problem presented in a manner as objective as possible. Additionally, viewing the issue form an objective viewpoint is essential for the negotiation process, as the internship at the organisation has shown. Particularly, it is important to bear in mind that some realities of different cultures, such as the East European and the British ones, may have certain differences in their worldview, which may lead to misunderstandings and even conflicts.

Modern Media and Social Networking

Naturally, practice at AVVA, Ltd. was very different from what the theory of management had to offer. Particularly, a valuable lesson concerning the significance of using modern technology as a tool for expanding business and attracting new customers has been learned. Though the information concerning incorporating modern tools, such as social networks, into the marketing plan, does not offer anything out of the ordinary at present, watching the actual implementation of the above-mentioned principles of marketing had a truly immense effect on me as a learner. I am quite sure that I will never be able to see social networks as mere platforms for exchanging information; at present, they seem to be massive tools for a comparatively cheap and unbelievably efficient promotion.

Specifically, the creation of a Facebook page of the company and its consistent updating has played a significant role in the promotion of the product across the three states in question. The fact that a page on a social network site could increase revenues to the degree that it did to AVVA, Ltd. was a real eye-opener; it showed the importance of keeping in touch with the target customers and informing the latter on the changes that have occurred to the organisation since their last visit to the official site. It should be noted, though, that the actual results of AVVA, Ltd. being promoted via Facebook were quite humble to say the least. In fact, the organisation received drastically few hits on its main page, not to mention the fact that barely anyone wanted to hit the “like” button or to share the information posted by AVVA with their friends. Nevertheless, as I stressed above, working at AVVA showed me that even negative experiences can provide a range of peculiar ideas to learn about and ponder over; as far as the lack of success with the social networks has shown, e-marketing needs to be done in a more interactive manner, which invited the target audience to participate and discuss:

Marketing through social networking is a new way of reaching and connecting with consumers and marketers have been quick to respond to this shift in online activity. Facebook has rich biographical and locational data with which to target specific consumer groups. Firms can also create fan pages where brand-related content can be posted and consumer-to-consumer discussion encouraged. (Campbell, Ferrano & Sands 2014, p. 446)

Indeed, as it has been stressed above, avoiding any possible conflicts, controversies and even mild arguments has been the focus of AVVA, Ltd.’s policy; though working quite well for a face-to-face communication, the specified approach seems to have worked backwards in the realm of modern media. Social networks need to incorporate the material that can be viewed from different aspects; people need to have something that prompts discussions and invites them to share the information with their friends online. Well-polished and, therefore, rather bland, the posts that AVVA, Ltd. has been supplying to its Facebook followers do not seen to stir any discussions among the people that come across the articles. Therefore, working for AVVA has shown me that promoting an active discussion and, therefore, interaction among the community members, as well as communication between the latter and the members of the organisation, is a crucial step towards gaining customer loyalty and attracting new clients to the organisation.

The above-mentioned consideration, in fact, aligns with the key tenets of the theory of commerce in a rather logical and accurate manner. Indeed, a closer look at the basic postulates thereof will show that an efficient promotion campaign must be targeted at getting people involved; particularly, the target audience must relate to the products or services that an organisation offers. As it has been stressed above, the process of promoting the concept of expensive and luxurious life to the target denizens of the population has not been efficient up to a particular point in the company’s operations. The lack of success can be attributed to the complicated economic, financial and political situation in two target markets of the three that the company has chosen (i.e., the Ukrainian and the Russian ones). Consequently, the promotion concept that was utilised in the process had to be altered, which taught an important lesson about the need to translate certain messages from one culture to another in a careful and elaborate manner. Thus, the instances of a culture clash can be avoided.

Additionally, the issue regarding interactions between the organisation and the target denizens of the population needs to be reminded of once more in order to connect the experience acquired with the key principles of the theory of commerce. According to Balkin, the very process of promoting a product or a service, i.e., the notion of a commerce is based on the process of social and cultural interactions: “So, to carry the day, it is simply not enough for Balkin to notice that “commerce” is defined as “intercourse,” and provide a few examples of each term having a “social interaction” connotation” (Barnett 2012, p. 643). In other words, for a company to attract new customers, a dialogue between the organisation in question and the potential clients must be started. Therefore, it is in the company’s interest to use as many tools for tricking customers into starting a conversation as possible and social media is a perfect tool for accomplishing this goal. Despite the fact that the current promotion of the organisation via Facebook can be viewed as comparatively passive, a stronger emphasis on the use of social networks and similar media must be put so that people could engage into a discussion on the topics related to AVVA, Ltd.’s operations and services.

The principles, according to which AVVA, Ltd. operates, as well as the changes, which it undergoes under the influence of the environment that it exists in, may also be viewed from the perspective of Porter’s Value Chain Theory. Consequently, the lessons learned at AVVA can be used as the basis for understanding the model in question and learning to apply it to real life situations. Particularly, I have learned that, in order to approach a company and evaluate its performance, as well as the success of its operations, one must incorporate the company’s partners as the elements of the value chain apart from the organisation and its departments into the analysis. Thus, the perspectives of the firm under consideration can be viewed in a manner as full and explicit as possible.

Power of Innovations

Finally, the ability to suggest innovative and original solutions to specific problems can be considered one of the most valuable lessons that were taught to me during the internship at AVVA, Ltd. first and most obvious, the fact that the organisation aims at bridging the cultures that seem so distant from each other needs to be mentioned as one of the key innovative solutions. Instead of merely supplying products to the target countries, AVVA, Ltd. serves as a cultural and financial mediator between AVVA, the companies that it cooperates with and the target residents of the areas mentioned above. As a result, the furniture supplied by foreign partners become a valuable part of the target market and meets the demands of the local population.

Therefore, apart from teaching the practical application of the theories studied prior to the internship, the experience acquired at AVVA Inc. has also allowed for understanding the alterations, which Porter’s value Chain theory had to undergo in order to turn into the Global Value Chain theory. By displaying the specifics of interactions between different organisations, AVVA, Ltd. has shown in a very graphic manner that, when coordinated well, several different organisations may function as a single entity. Although the companies that cooperated with AVVA pursued different goals and had the mission and vision statements different from those of AVVA, Ltd., the companies managed to integrate into AVVA, Ltd.’s organisational framework with the help of mutual compromises and numerous negotiations. Thus, working for AVVA, Ltd. provided a unique experience of watching a local value chain turn into a global one, the suppliers turning into international vendors. In other words, the experience acquired at AVVA has shown that the process of moving from a local value chain development to a global one, though having similar stages, is unique for each organisation: “Moving up the value chain is then given a specific definition as an upgrading in the set of tasks that a country, an industry, or a firm conducts. For different countries and firms, the task-upgrading pattern may vary” (Liu 2013, p. 2).

In some sense, AVVA Ltd. can be viewed as an innovator in its area; therefore, by participating in its value chain development can be considered an essential stage in defining the importance of innovation in global supply chain management. Though the creation of a global enterprise traditionally requires a very scrupulous, by-the-book approach, AVVA, Ltd. is a graphic example of the fact that the process of integrating into the global supply chain can be carried out in an original and unique manner.

Last, but definitely not least, the issue concerning population segmentation needs to be brought up. When it comes to discussing furniture, one must admit that identifying specific customer segments, which the promotion campaign should be targeted at, is quite difficult mostly due to the fact that furniture is the kind of product that does not have remarkable characteristics allowing a classification based on customers’ personal characteristics. However, working for AVVA, Ltd. has shown that customer segmentation can and should be carried out in the target market so that sales could be boosted significantly and new customers could be attracted. Specifically, the segmentation based on the clients’ income and buying abilities should be mentioned. Although most of the organisations working with AVVA, Ltd. maintain high product quality and, therefore, charge corresponding prices for their products, a range of organisations follow a rather tolerable pricing policy, therefore, creating an opportunity for middle-class buyers to enjoy their services and goods as well.

Therefore, customer segmentation based on the buying abilities thereof is carried out in AVVA, Ltd. despite the obvious focus on the customers with significant financial assets. In addition, the experience acquired at AVVA, Ltd. displays that customer segmentation also needs to be based on age. As the analysis of the company’s net sales and clients’ feedback has shown, the organisation should target at all denizens of population in terms of age; consequently, the products in question need to be marketed to not only adults, but also children, middle-aged people and elderly customers. As a result, the very principle of marketing to the target denizens of the population was altered. After a reconsideration of the current approaches adopted to sell furniture, it was agreed that the existing promotion campaigns target primarily business people of a specific age. To change the given situation and appeal to all denizens of the population, it was suggested that the commercials, as well as the advertisements made available to the public should be very neutral. Thus, the initial message regarding the elegant simplicity of the furniture was tweaked to stress the notions such as comfort and cosiness, which middle-aged population is likely to find attractive. As far as the younger audience is concerned, it was suggested that the emphasis should be put on the issues such as safety, utility and comfort, which parents are most likely to appreciate.

Conclusion

Working at AVVA, Ltd. can be viewed as a unique experience for someone willing to become a sales and marketing expert. While the specified experience was related to the promotion process directly and, therefore, allowed for gaining an impressive amount of knowledge and skills, the company has also revealed important secrets concerning communication and conflict management. Particularly, being a sales and management expert at AVVA, Ltd. meant addressing the current political, economic and financial issues that the residents of the target countries have to deal with and base the company’s policies on the information discovered.

Particularly, working at AVVA involved learning about the means of marketing products (furniture in the specified case) to the target population so that the latter could become interested in the unique opportunities that the company has to offer them. The connection between the choice of marketing tools and the cultural specifics of the target population, as well as the necessity to identify and prevent potential conflicts, has also proven to be an important experience, which a sales manager is bound to find useful at some point of their career.

It would be wrong to assume that working at AVVA, Ltd. has taught me everything that I need to know about marketing and sales; far from it, now that I have learned about some of the strategies traditionally adopted in this realm, I realise that there is still a lot to learn and explore. However, internship at AVVA, Ltd. will serve as the basis for acquiring new knowledge and incorporating it into the array of professional tools for managing marketing processes. The experience acquired during the internship has launched the process of self-directed learning, which helps engage in meta-cognition and understand the very process of learning and skills acquisition. Therefore, the experience in question can and will be used as the means to learn new information and train new skills related to sales and management.

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