Introduction

After completion of my course I will be awarded a master’s degree that will open the professional avenue for me in the business world. My career aspiration is to start off as a marketing executive in a medium enterprise and progress to a senior marketing executive and hopefully end up as a marketing manager in at least six years time. In my study programme there are a conglomerate of ideologies that I am acquainted with including leadership skills and general workplace-relevant specifics. This report seeks to elaborate on my personal and professional development plan. In order to attain this, the report will discuss team activities, the guest lecture given and the Sage visit experience whilst intertwining the lessons learnt with some theory relevant to my career and skills required. In the end, I will attain an overview of my career path as well as possible amends that I can apply to it.

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The guest speaker programme

There were two speakers that engaged us on aspects relevant to our course, that is, a lecture by Naz Demir on 26^th November 2014 at Reg Vardy Building and a lecture by Alex Cole on 5^th November 2014 at Tom Cowie. These speakers handled important topics starting off with the global leadership challenge where the highlights of antecedents of doing business on a global scale were discussed. Further, we were challenged on the edge of responsible leadership in the wake of globalisation. The greatest responsibility of a leader thusly does not lie in creating wealth for shareholders only but extends to making the profit in consideration of ethical aspects of the firm. The case study of Rolls-Royce and Capgemini was used to demonstrate the need to integrate the current trends in technology to further market reach among other standards. The overall lessons that I learnt from the guest speakers is that decision- making skills are invaluable for a leader as any decision has far reaching consequences. In addition, corporate social responsibility is an essential part of firm that aims for sustainability. Having this knowledge and echoing the sentiments of Bhattacharya (2009), I believe it is important to exercise social responsibility even in my desired niche of marketing.

Company visit: The Sage Company

On 19^th March, we visited the Sage Company. The sage is an international company that boasts of being a centre for music and musical discovery. The sage inclusive approach enables all performance, learning and participation programmes to be constantly inspired and supported by each other. Sage, being an international company has a lot of work that goes into managing it. Firstly, there is the management team that is made up of qualified individuals most of them having Masters (MA) and  post – graduate diplomas and enough industry experience to make them handy. For example, the Managing Director is Abigail Pogson who has an MA in culture management and has been in the music industry for long. As such, I learnt the importance of getting the right industrial attachment as it contributes to my overall credibility. Other operational aspects of the firm that I learnt include the sources of income. Mainly, the Sage raises money through the performances and concerts that are held in its main hall. An average concert ticket goes for seven pounds and because they advertise the concerts a lot and offer various purchase options including online, the revenue they get is high. Besides concerts, they offer training to people interested in learning music, from instruments to vocal training. One can also be allowed to record music at the premises meaning they have recording as a source of income. Inside the premises there is a restaurant that offers foods and drinks which is also a source of income. The firm also receives support from the Arts council of Britain.

As established above, the various tasks are delegated to different people who are qualified for the duties and responsibilities involved. The firm, as a way of maintaining a positive image has employed elements of corporate social responsibility where they have a department that deals with environmental awareness mostly ensuring that environment-related aspects of the firm such as energy consumption are kept on the low. A great lesson I learnt from this visit is that the success of a firm depends heavily on the leadership. Effective leadership consequentially results in a well-managed firm with departments performing excellently. As Morgeson, DeRue and Karam (2009) also put it, there is need to have people skills especially engaging people as Sage does. Interpersonal skills and effective people management skills make functions between the departments make better. From this, I learnt that accruing skills in communication and working with people in paramount for my career development.

Team activities and lessons learnt

The group learning log (in appendices section) details the activities that we engaged in as a group. The process involved included researching on the location of the company, its brand and sphere of activities, analysis of the firm’s policies and political influence. In addition, there was compilation of the information gathered and then the preparation and rehearsal of the PPT presentation. Through this process, I learnt to be self-disciplined (lead self) and interpersonal communication skills. The entire process is detailed below.

The first activity involved the identification of a firm that the group would focus on. This necessitated an in-depth research beyond the firm’s name that would extend to location and the activities that are undertaken. As an individual, I went through various materials and websites online. I also searched a couple of databases and online libraries. In the engagement in such activities, I got to improve on my communication skills and my research skills. Guffey and Loewy (2010) define communication as the ability to effectively convey information to different parties verbally or non-verbally including in written form. They note that in business written and verbal communications are both important elements. In the first activity therefore, as I read through more materials written in English, I did better comprehend the language. Since I also was to communicate my findings to my group members and also analyse and understand their findings as they communicated them, I better mastered verbal and written conveyance of information. Zikmund and Babin (2010) on the other hand emphasize on the need for research skills especially in marketing oriented individuals. Further elaboration to this is that the various pieces of information that are gathered about a market are the ones that matter in the end. Therefore, the communication and research skills I acquired are important in my aspirational careers – marketing executive/ senior marketing executive/ Marketing manager. Lamb, Hair and McDaniel (2010) maintain that communication establishes trust and long-term relationships in marketing and thus is the foundation of successful marketing activities. This means that acquiring such skills is prudent.

The other activity that required group collaboration is the research on the policies and the political influences of the firm in question. This activity proved difficult at first because the amount of information to be researched was a lot. However, to ease up the task we divided the entire research into parts with each group member handling a different part. In the end we managed to cover the entire research in a short time. From this experience, I learnt the important of delegation and division of work. Further, I learnt the importance of team work in a project – it is possible to achieve more with a collaborative team. As Hertel (2011) puts it, it is important to have collaborative teams in every department as they achieve better results and synergy than when people work individually. Hertel (2011) further notes beyond synergy, teamwork is achieves better relations. In my career field, teamwork can help achieve better marketing results in the case where a group works on a project within a specified deadline. With these skills, I will also manage to become an effective team leader.

The last two activities of the group involved the summation of the entire work carried out by the group. This included each individual working on their part comprehensively and then a presentation rehearsal by all the group members. On an individual level, I had planned a day on which to finish my work which was earlier than the day my section was needed. I have always done this in other assignments. As such, I learnt the importance of time management. Besides these I gained the culture of working hard and taking responsibility for my work. This is because everyone in the group had to account for any information they provide. In the practice of the presentation, I learnt on how to help my colleagues on how to identify faults in their style of presentation as well as time consciousness. In the end I was thoroughly equipped with teamwork skills as well as personal responsibility. As Kaser and Oelkers (2015) observe, time management is an essential skill for every marketer.

Future direction in career

As established in the introduction, I plan to pursue a career in marketing starting at the position of a marketing executive then to senior marketing executive and later the marketing manager position. This career requires a variety of skills but the crucial skills inevitable for a marketer are communications skills, interpersonal skills, and time management and in the case of a marketing manager team leadership is essential. In the group activities, Sage Company visit and the study period I have harnessed skills such as communication, research skills, teamwork, time management, hard work and responsibility as well as interpersonal relationship skills. These skills are essential as compared to the skills necessary for a marketer but they are not entirely sufficient. This means that there is more to be learnt and therefore I have taken a personal initiative to help me achieve additional skills as seen in Appendix 2.

In the entry stage of marketing careers which is a marketing executive, there are varied roles including developing marketing campaigns, event organising, planning, advertising, public relations, product development and promotion, distribution, sponsorship and research (Hyde, 2003). As such, I would require the skills of good communication skills both verbal and written forms. These skills would help me effectively relay information between different parties of interest. I intend to further sharpen my language skills through interactive sessions with other people. I also would require time management skills because markets mostly work with deadlines (Hyde, 2003). As elaborated in the Sage company visitation section, experience is essential in entry level careers in marketing. Thusly, I will also engage in industrial attachment during my time out of school. While advancing towards the marketing manager position, I will need team management skills because the role transitions to becoming more of oversight and supervision (Valos and Vieceli, 2007). The leadership skills and team management skills that I have learnt will also be important here. In an effort to broaden my scope of people management skills I intend to travel to different areas and interact with people of different personalities. Lastly, I am planning to master my technical skills through more practice of coding in Javascript.

Conclusion

The intent of this report was to elaborate on my personal and professional development plan in line with my area of study and activities involved therein. Essentially, in order to excel at my chosen career of being a marketing executive, I will need a set of skills predominantly on communication, leadership and teamwork, time management and people management skills. Currently, I have managed to acquire for most of these skills but they also need perfection. For example, I have learnt the basics of business communication but they are not enough to steer me through my career. Similarly, I will need to work on my time management skills because over time duties and responsibilities are bound to increase. Other skills that i have discovered as additionally required can be developed over time. I am keen to firstly get an industrial attachment in a reputable firm to enable me kick-start my career. Over the years, I plan to develop and mould the learnt skills as I ascend to the position of a marketing manager. A perfection of the relevant skills will be imperative in wading competition and creating sustainability for my career.

References

Bhattacharya, C. (2009) Corporate Social Responsibility: It’s All About Marketing (Online) Forbes. Available at: http://www.forbes.com/2009/11/20/corporate-social-responsibility-leadership-citizenship-marketing.html (Accessed 11 May 2015).

Guffey, M. and Loewy, D. (2010) Essentials of business communication. Mason, OH: South-Western/Cengage Learning.

Hertel, G. (2011) ‘Synergetic effects in working teams’, Journal of Managerial Psych, 26(3), pp.176-184.

Hyde, M. (2003) Marketing in practice. London: Routledge.

Kaser, K. and Oelkers, D. (2015) Sports & entertainment marketing. 5th ed. London, UK: Cengage Learning.

Lamb, C., Hair, J. and McDaniel, C. (2010) Marketing. 11th ed. London: Cengage Learning.

Morgeson, F., DeRue, D. and Karam, E. (2009) ‘Leadership in Teams: A Functional Approach to Understanding Leadership Structures and Processes’, Journal of Management, 36(1), pp.5-39.

Valos, M. and Vieceli, J. (2007) Marketing management. Geelong, Vic.: Deakin University.

Zikmund, W. and Babin, B. (2010) Essentials of marketing research. Mason, Ohio: South-Western/Cengage Learning.

Appendices

Appendix 1: Group learning log

Appendix 2: Professional development plan