LONU052 Global Business Management Essay.

The process of reflective writing in the academics is a way to encourage the students to systematically think the stages of the activities or the experiences that they have gained while undertaking any project. It requires that the students analyse the identities, processes and practices in order to increase their learning(Lew and Schmidt, 2011). It facilitates self-reflection and critical thinking and allows the learners to develop a broad vision by looking beyond the normal course of action and factors external to the learners(Sutherland, 2013).

The purpose of this report is to reflect on the presentation work undertaken by my friends and me on building a business. This reflection report is written to reflect on my strengths and weaknesses that I learned about myself while undertaking the project and reviewing the academic frameworks with which I became familiar during the project.

The project was to develop a business model, its working, profit and loss and marketing plan. The project was assigned to a group of five, wherein my friends and I developed a business model for an online portal that works as an online directory to provide information about the New Year parties and increase the number of people who attend these parties.

The Belbin team roles is a behavioural test that aims at assessing the manner in which an individual behaves while working in a team environment. It includes getting a 360-degree feedback from the observers and even the individual about their own behaviour and contrasts these behaviours with what the colleagues do (Gravells, 2016; Smit, 2007). There are nine team roles as per Belbin and this test determines how strongly the people express behavioural traits that resemble these roles (See Appendix 1). According to the team roles, I took the responsibility of a completing the task and coordinating activities as I was responsible for coordinating with all my team members, getting their contacts and finally completing and preparing the presentation.

According to Kolb’s learning cycle, an individual learns by acquiring abstract concepts that he can apply in different situations, the new experiences that an individual gets helps in the development of new concepts and enhancing the learning process. As per Kolb, there are four stages of learning concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualisation and active experimentation (See Appendix 2) (Joughin, 2008).

The application of this cycle is also reflected in my learning. Throughout the process, I had various experiences that made me learn new things. Earlier I believed that working in a team was not difficult. However, while performing my duties I came to know about the team dynamics and the requisites that make a good team.

The four stage model indicates that a team progresses with time. Every team undergoes four stages namely forming, storming, norming and performing while undertaking a project. The role of each member changes over the fixed period of time during the task (Halverson and Tirmizi, 2008; O'Connell and Cuthbertson, 2009). In respect of our team, initially, we were not clear about the individual duties and responsibilities, due to which we even had certain arguments which affected our group relationships. However, we mutually decided that it was necessary to sort out our issues and take certain decisions to bring out clarity and achieve the team goals. Later on, everyone was clear with their role and had a shared vision which was successfully accomplished.

Even though SWOT analysis was introduced as a business tool, it is widely used as a tool for determining the personal strengths and weaknesses of an individual. It allows an individual in determining the strong and weak aspects of his personality and allows him to focus on the areas which require improvements (Martin, 2015; Thomas, 2007). On the completion of the project, there were certain points on which I was not clear. I wanted to identify my strong traits and the areas in which I need improvement, for which I used took a personal SWOT analysis (See Appendix 3).

The Ansoff matrix is primarily used for devising corporate growth strategies by considering the pros and cons of each available alternative (Proctor, 2014). However, I have used this strategy as a career planning tool which has helped me in weighing up the risks associated with my career decisions and taking the best decision. It has guided me to determine the next skills which I want to achieve and how it is going to help me.

SMART Framework is an acronym used for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound (O'Neill and Conzemius, 2006; Marinel, 2005). This framework has helped me with setting certain objectives based on the weak areas where I need to improve. I am planning to achieve these objectives in the future.

Undertaking this project has been a very good learning experience for me. I learned that it is not easy working in a team, it requires the participation and efforts of all the team membersto make a team work success.It is essential that all the members respect each other’s opinions and share their views with each other. This project has also helped me in providing the information on how to develop business models and widening the research to get the accurate information.

Undertaking the personal SWOT analysis helped me in identifying my strengths that helped me with this project and the weak areas that require my efforts for improvement. I realised that I have good coordination abilities, conflict management skills, research and analytical skills. Many of the team members found it difficult to analyse and interpret the information; however, I found it to be very simple.

I motivated my team members to have regular meetings after our roles and duties were assigned so that further disagreements could be avoided. The biggest learning experience that this project has given me is by pointing out the weak areas where I need to work. The main requirement of this project was to have networking skills which I lacked. I also realised that I have the potential of becoming a leader and a team manager, it only requires few efforts on my part, which I am definitely going to put.

As a part of the Belbin's test, every team member had a 360-degree feedback from their own and from others. This feedback highlighted the performance of each team member in terms of their assigned roles and responsibilities. We also got feedback from our lecturers in form of the suggestions that we should implement to improve our personality.

The suggestions made in the feedback were adopted by three team members including me which definitely improved our performances. I am planning to work on the suggestion given to me to work on my leadership skills very soon.

All the good and bad experience that I had including the conflict among the team members, I learned that the most important factor for successful completion of the team goals is coordination and communication among the team members. This entire project has been a wonderful learning experience where I come to know about my strengths and weaknesses and the possible opportunities that I have and which can add up to my personality and help me with my career choices.

From the personal analysis, it is apparent that I have to work on certain areas so that I do not face the same problems that I have faced during this project. In order to do this, I have created few SMART objectives, which I wish to accomplish. These are as follows:

• The first skill that I will be working on will be the leadership and team management skills. It is said that if a person is a good leader, he is capable of handling tough situations. In the next three months, I will work on this skill by reading different articles, magazines, case studies, and journals to identify the qualities that are required for becoming a good leader. Moreover, I will involve myself with the group events organised in the institution and try to take on more responsibilities involving managing people in order to become a good leader and gain confidence.
• Another skill that I would be working on would be the public speaking and presentation skills as these two are required in the corporate world. As I am hesitant in addressing people, I would work on these two skills for four months by attending the training sessions for personality development.
• I would also like to improve my networking skills as I realised that it is necessary for the business to have right contacts. I would attend existing networks, fairs, conferences and try to socialise with people more so that not only my confidence level is increased but my professional network is also developed. I expect to develop these skills within six months.

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