Essay: Discussion of poster presentation for Credit Suisse

In the process of making the poster presentation for Credit Suisse, there are things that went well and things that didn’t. Regarding the effectiveness of the work, there are some advantages and disadvantages. In terms of the things our group executed well, examples like critical/comprehensive thinking, the amount of effort we put in, follow instruction and execute the presentation well and finally all of the above contributed to a well-organised presentation. Not everything went smoothly there are many disadvantages that need to be address and improve upon. Examples like our revenue stream is not complete, our strategies often have low feasibility, our poster included too much detail, the research we conducted are to some extend ineffective, there are also some self-contradicting points, and lastly some strategies we came up do not have actual benefits. Furthermore, summarising the lessons learned during the Credit Suisse presentation in the view of the fact that there is another group work. It is crucial to perform such evaluation since it helps with the transitioning to said future group work and more importantly to keep up what our group did well and avoid what went wrong. At the end, I will be discussing the lessons learned during the said future group work and the professional presentation -Online Ceramic exhibition.
Advantages:
1. Critical and Comprehensive thinking
– During the course of completing the presentation, critical and comprehensive thinking from each of the group member boosts the overall quality of the coursework and eventually help the presentation to be more effective. Critical thinking enables our group to identify the objective analysis of facts to form a judgement which gives members in the group an unbiased perspective, allowing everyone to approach the matter more fairly, furthermore, comprehensive thinking prompts questions stemming from the poster presentation which essentially gives the group different options and perhaps categories to approach and analyze together. To put it in perspective, the way of thinking critically helps our group to identify the needs and wants of Credit Suisse promptly and by thinking comprehensively it helps our group to approach the solutions for said needs and wants in different angles and eventually come up with various solution such as implementation of biometric security, virtual reality, real-time translator, etc. Hence by thinking critically and comprehensively tremendously boost the effectiveness of the poster presentation for Credit Suisse.
2. Effort
– During the process of making this poster presentation, just being critical and comprehensive are not enough, even if you have the most brilliant idea in the world it won’t mean anything unless you transform it into an actually product that can be presented. Therefore, putting in hours of work into the poster presentation and ensure that all the details are well presented are critical. In order to validate the ideas our group came up and making it into actually solutions, our group browsed many websites and read through related articles. By putting in lots of effort would ensure the ideas our group came up are well executed into actually solution for Credit Suisse and hence boost effectiveness.
3. Follow instruction
– With critical and comprehensive thinking and the amount of effort our group put in, it would all be useless if we did not follow the instruction and meet the criteria properly. It is crucial to understand what Credit Suisse’s needs and wants are so our group can dedicate our time and resources on finding the right solution and presented in a proper, instructed and formal way.
4. Well-organised presentation
– The aforementioned points combined together will produce a thoughtful, well-researched report to read but it is also essential to have a well-organised presentation. It would be meaningless to have a prefect report but a disaster presentation. Therefore, our group planned out the presentation part by part and each member wrote a script for their individual part and practiced until is smooth. By having a well-rehearsed and well-structured presentation further enhance and deliver our solution and boost effectiveness.
Disadvantages:
1. Incomplete revenue stream
– In our poster presentation, lack of revenue stream hinders our overall performance and weaken the effectiveness our group tries to deliver. Since some of the solution we produce are related to future technology therefore it is difficult to calculate the budget and we did not consider too much about the budget therefore some the solutions we provided related to technology are overprice and in some cases deemed impractical.
2. Low feasibility
– During the process of completing the poster presentation, the solutions our group came up with were at that moment deemed feasible since we did not know that budget is a problem but we should’ve thought about it. Some solutions including biometric identification system and incorporate virtual reality into meeting room and cooperate training. We should’ve go for the approach that would be more likely to be executed and more importantly reduce costs.
3. Too much details
– On the actual poster, our group put too much information on it therefore when we are presenting some information is hard for the people who are listening to locate and it is taking them longer to read and understand what the poster is about. We could’ve partition the poster and some detail information should be on a separate document. The approach our group took hinder the overall reading experience for others and therefore prohibit the solutions for smart working that our group try to deliver to the audience.
4. Cost bigger than benefits
– Some of the solutions our group provided indeed bring value and return to Credit Suisse but the cost overweighs the value it brings. For example, the biometric identification system and virtual reality technology, its symbolic meaning is far greater than the actual benefits it can generate at the moment since those aforementioned technologies are still consider unrealistic when trying to implement into a multinational cooperation like Credit Suisse.
Upon finishing the poster presentation, there are many things that our group did far from satisfactory. After evaluating the entire process of making this poster presentation, there are many aspects that require improvement. For instance, make sure that finances can back up with the ideas that we came up, most importantly is to stay practical, sometimes ideas/solutions do not need to be fancy but it needs to be feasible and easy to implement. Secondly is to make sure that the solutions bring actual benefits and it outweighs the cost. Instead of implementing technologies like biometric identification system and virtual reality that are immature and relatively expensive at the moment, perhaps look from the employees’ perspective and come up with solution that way may, or improve on existing product may suits the situation better. The approach to come up with solutions aside, there are lessons to be learn from the poster presentation as well. The most important and imminent one is to not have too much detail on the poster, our group’s poster had too much detail on the poster which makes it less a poster but more of a scientific report. Poster should be concise and straight to the point since people who are listening sometimes don’t have the time to listen for a long duration time. Therefore, the way our group approach the Credit Suisse poster is problematic and need to be rectify for future poster presentation.
In future group work and presentation, to start off by understand the desired of the company and fulfil its needs and wants and the solutions suggested did not overlap with existing products or functionalities. Make sure that the research conducted is effective and make sure that company understand the process of making the solutions into reality, for example installation period, how it can be managed. Also, to be clear about the benefits that the solutions deliver and make sure the solutions fit into how the company operates, without having to invest a huge sum of money. Furthermore, the solutions suggested are clear about the benefits and values which are delivered.
Question 2.
During the course of Foundation of Management, we had several famous and talented guest speakers/organisations who devoted their energy and time to give us speeches and presentations to share with us their experiences and their perspective of the world. The guest speakers include Deutsche Bank, Washington Post, Happy Space and Michael Virardi. The following essay will try to evaluate the presentations and speeches those guest speakers presented, relate the content of the guest speakers’ presentation with the Information Management for Business program, identify the strength and weakness of the said presentations and state one of their speaker’s leadership style, the core strategy, and the reasons why.
1. Deutsche Bank
In the Deutsche Bank’s presentation, the nature of it is to demonstrate to us the importance of technology and innovation and how it can aid on different areas such as management, research and development, and finance and how does innovation related to the 1001 course.
Dilara Okci – Innovation at Deutsche Bank
In the first half of the presentation delivered by Dilara Okci, Dilara focused on the innovation part of Deutsche Bank and how technology and innovation can help boosts effectiveness and efficiency within organisations. Furthermore, in the slices Ms. Okci presentation, an experience innovation has to include three factors: Business (viability), People (desirability) and Technology (feasibility). With viability and desirability, you can only produce an emotional innovation, with viability and feasibility, you can produce process innovation, and with feasibility and desirability, you can produce functional innovation. Either two of the factors combine can only form an incomplete innovation and only with all three factors and form an experience innovation.
Natalie Avon – Deutsche Bank lab
In the second half of the presentation delivered, Natalie focused on the Deutsche Bank lab and innovation is carry out in a company. The purpose of the lab is to evaluate if an innovation proposed is feasible. The process is categorised in three parts, first is by working closely with tech companies, understand the market and technological development and predict future directions. Second is to understand deeper on user’s need. And lastly to create an environment to test out the innovation.
Strengths:
– The Deutsche Bank presented a well organised presentation, all their points are thorough and choosing the topic of innovation and technology attracts audiences and can easily get their attention. The Deutsche Bank presentation gave a comprehensive idea for audience to understand what innovation is and how to achieve the optimum innovation. This is effective that Deutsche Bank included the process of how an innovation is adopted into the company, from brainstorming ideas to doing trial experiment of that innovation
Weaknesses:
– The Deutsch Bank presentation aren’t without its flaws. The first two part where Dilara and Natalie gave their presentation were intriguing and attractive to audience. Later on, when others came along and start talking about Deutsche Bank’s graduate program and career opportunity which is less attractive and somewhat off topic.
2. Washington Post
In the Washington Post presentation, it is about how an organisation
investment and adopting of a new leadership style can improve and help a business dramatically.
Emma Winchurch-Beale
In the presentation, Emma started by talking about the importance of organisation investment and adopting of leadership style. With the help of Amazon, Washington Post is able to multiple on staff members, double their readers, increase engagement growth, subscription growth of over 13 times, and won 63 Pulitzer prizes. (Winchurch-Beale 2017) This shows that the strategy of organisation investment and changing leadership style are effective. Later on, innovation in technology was mention as well, by adopting trending Social Media and developing effective mobile application with unique feature further strengthen the success Washington Post achieve.
Strengths:
– The Washington Post presented an informative presentation. Audience is able to understand by adopting a new business strategy and leadership style can tremendously benefit a company. Later on, the development of a comprehensive mobile application further helps strengthen the advantages
Weaknesses:
– Majority of the presentation are focused on talking about the development Washington Post gained across the years and the core strategy wasn’t discussed in detail.
3. Happy Space
In the Happy Space presentation, it is about how the leader structure and strategy and how it can deliver actual benefit to the company which is relevant in term of company structure to the 1001 course.
Hugo Layard Horsfall and Anatasia Lozhkina
Happy Space is a non-profit organisation the focuses on student’s mental wellbeing and aims on helping university students ask and answer questions. Happy Space also provides events, partnership with other university and organisation to further facilitate student’s mental wellbeing in order to achieve their own Happy Space. Later on, he talked about the structure of the company which is categorised in three sections:
Content: The use of website and social media, also include on magazines and guidebook.
Partnership: Partner with universities, school, counsellors and conferences
Events: start launch, fundraiser, and events like “Sports day” and Little Yellow Weekender
Lastly, he talked about the success their company achieve and the strategy they proposed. By evaluating target audience in three aspects: University, demand of counselling services and the impact it brings.
Strength:
– The Happy Space presentation is able to deliver their core value of the company effectively. They are good at influencing audience and delivered their ideas about the mental wellbeing of student and what their approaches are in solving the problems –through events, partnership and their content.
Weakness:
– For this presentation, they should be focusing more on the business structure of their company but the content they deliver weren’t enough to cover this topic hence they weren’t able to describe the entire business model.
4. Michael Varardi
In the presentation deliver by Mr.Virardi, he talked about the legacy approach he took when managing his company when it comes to staff management. This related to our 1001 course in terms of staffing management. Mr.Virardi stated the “Four Principles” of staff management.
1. Start from the bottom
Employees should start from the bottom therefore, they can gain perspectives of different positions and Mr.Virardi concluded that benefits people get are from the position they are in instead of who they are
2. Where others see labels, see human beings
Instead of focusing on concept like Business to Business or Business to Customer, nowadays it is crucial to recognise that Face to Face communication in the most important in terms of staffing management. Also Mr.Virardi talked about the 5Ps, which are positive, present, prompt, passionate and product-centre.
3. Never give up
By consistently telling employees to stay persistent and never give up their work.
4. Never burn your bridges
Having one extra friend is always better than having one extra enemy.
Strengths:
– During the presentation, Mr.Virardi’s approach on staff management is effective and he have many real-life example of how he put theories into practice. Furthermore, since Mr.Virardi is an excellent public speaker therefore, his presentation is very intriguing and attractive to the audience.
Weaknesses:
– Mr.Virardi’s presentation talked a lot about the lessons that his father taught him and is it difficult to understand its relationship between the lessons he proposed and staffing management
I will be discussing Mr.Virardi’s leadership style and his core strategy. Mr.Virardi has a charismatic leadership style where he inspires his employees and motivate them with enthusiasm in order for his employees to achieve goals and produce satisfactory results. Mr.Virardi’s legacy approach’s core strategy focuses on improving and enhancing employees’ overall mentality and eventually make employees to feel a sense of responsibility in which is not only about the finance part of the work but make them feel that they can achieve something meaning and can be pass down to future generation. The conclusion is drawn based on the methods Mr.Virardi proposed, the “Four Principles” of staffing management. All those principles are trying to develop is the sense of responsibility that employees and the leader have and the dedication of them working together to achieve things that are meaningful.
Question 4.
In recent events, the entertainment industry has had significant revelations regarding its ethics, particularly in the matter of sexual harassment. From Harvey Weinstein, a renowned director and producer who has taken part in many great films, to Kevin Spacey, a well-respected and Academy Award-winning actor, these problems are surfacing from A-listers. Thus, this gives the public the impression that perhaps the more famous one is, the more power one holds. As such, the only thing shielding these powerful celebrities from scandals is very much the fact that they hold enough fame. In other words, because these celebrities are idolized and are respected in the industry, they have an entire team of lawyers, managers, and advisors that protect them from such disgraces. This, in turn, allows the celebrities to escape from public shaming or at the very least reduce the damage that can be done to their image. With that being said, the ethics in the entertainment industry should therefore be questioned, as there are too few instances where the law can rightfully prosecute these individuals.
In a recent public scandal that left a huge impact on the entertainment industry, Harvey Weinstein, the director of many high budgeted movies such as Shakespeare In Love and Good Will Hunting, has been revealed to be involved in many cases of sexual harassment with several female co-stars. These allegations date all the way back to 1980, yet the curios factor is that only to this date in 2017 is when the news is being made public when at least 90 women have accused Weinstein of harassment. Furthermore, some have even accused him of rape. Undoubtedly, Weinstein as a producer of popular films and a founder of the highly-regarded film agency Miramax has earned himself a significant and demanding reputation; artists who wish to become more well-known would not dare to challenge his authority, as it would only serve to ruin their own future. Thus, these shameless and illegal actions were ultimately buried. Until recently, Gwyneth Paltrow, who has worked with Weinstein in Shakespeare In Love was amongst the first to admit that she has been a victim to the producer’s harassment. Several male actors such as George Clooney and Matt Damon who have worked with Weinstein in the past claimed that he had always been somewhat of a bully on set. Damon even states that he “knew the story about Gwyneth [Paltrow] from Ben [Affleck]…” and that [Weinstein and Paltrow] had come to an agreement and [Paltrow] had handled it…” (ABC News 2017). While the rippling effects of Paltrow’s confession is still discussed today, the more important factor is that there are many other artists out there who are in the same situation as Weinstein—as they are being protected by their agencies simply because of the fact that they have reputations to uphold.
The Harvey Weinstein scandal served as a means for the public to acknowledge the fact that there are many more celebrities out there who are hiding under their reputation, and they are taking advantage of the flawed ethical system in the entertainment industry. Also known as the “Weinstein Effect”, an extensive list of other famous celebrities has since been accused of being involved in allegations of sexual harassment. The power of social media has brought upon a surge of women who have confessed of being victims of these A-listing actors, creating an uproar on the internet. The hashtag “#metoo” has since been trending, flooding social media with personal stories of assault (CNN). Kevin Spacey, an Academy Award-winning actor, producer, director, and amongst many other widespread accolades is another one of the more famous celebrities who has been accused. While there is no mistake that Spacey should face the charges for the unspeakable actions that he has done, he, along with Weinstein and the other accused, are not the only ones who violated the ethical norms. With no doubt, it was the agents and producers along with other authoritative members of this industry who have swayed the actresses and other victims to stay silent. This phenomenon is also known as the “Bystander Effect, whereby those who can change behaviour stand back and do nothing hoping (or rationalizing) that others will step forward” (Mintz). Specifically pinpointing on the agents and producers who stood idly by as these crimes were being conducted, no such miracle happened as many, particularly women, became victims. Ultimately, these inactions only serve to illustrate a sense of ethical blindness—in that, people are choosing to be ignorant of the ethical issues—or lack thereof—in the industry. Improvement on personal responsibility, integrity, and equal treatment should be stressed and concentrated on in the entertainment industry right now more than ever.
In the end, it is the ethics that govern the entertainment industry that define the stability of this workforce as a whole. According to Los Angeles Times, a leading industry executive has once proclaimed that “ethics is not a good word for our business… there are no ethics. It’s a total jungle, a barroom brawl” (Los Angeles Times). A legitimate reasoning to this is that entertainment in itself purposefully touches upon controversial matters. Amongst all of the current events revolving around our everyday lives, entertainment is the one subject that is constantly seeking for change, for something different. This very desire for something new sparks a need to delve into the taboos, the unspeakable, and whatever it is that defines “unique”. Hence, violence and sex, stereotypes, and the need for attention is constantly being touched upon. moral philosophy is therefore forsaken for something that appears much more important; in the entertainment industry’s case, money and fame would be the ultimate goal for all individuals. More specifically, people are willing to abandon ethics in order to achieve something that many may consider to be superficial. In the short run, artists are able to gain profit, fame, and anything else that benefits them, but the flawed ethical measures that control this industry bring upon problematic issues. In particular, artists who do not have as much reputation as others may feel inferior and, much like the aforementioned case regarding Harvey Weinstein, resort to keeping the trauma to themselves. The public will therefore never know of these scandalous acts conducted by artists, and most of them would pass by as simple, well-respected and innocent celebrities. Ultimately, the ethics and moral compass that govern the entertainment industry allow us to see how flawed the entire system is, and how easily people can exploit their authority.
Ethical issues that surround entertainment has always been questionable solely because the industry as a whole lacks accountability. While entertainment may appear to dominate our everyday lives, as whether we like it or not, we hear it on the radio, we see it on T.V., and we are made known to it through advertisement that we see. Truth is the industry is a community, a business like any other that puts its own merits ahead of anybody else’s. if by exposing A-listers such as Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey of the horrid acts they have done would mean filing for billions of dollars on lawsuits, or even the fact that programs would be cancelled, the higher-ups would prefer paying a small amount to cover the truth. This tragically makes the industry appear grim, also it emphasizes the fact that it is misogynistic and is unfair. Lawyers and agents are by far the most frequently mentioned causes of entertainment’s declining ethics (all for the benefit of financial gains); they are in turn are also creating a negative impact on the patterns of conduct, behaviour and performance. Ultimately, by protecting big-name individuals by hiding the truth, the industry on the long term would only build up a reputation that would otherwise ruin its entirety. This is precisely the reason that producers and agencies should refrain from hiding the truth but, rather, let it be known to promote fairness and equality.
Question 5.
The four factors of production are land, labour, capital and entrepreneurship, and the final factor is deemed the most vital one of the four. A business without a leader is like an army without a general, employees need a leader to guide their way. But this lays the question: What is leadership? Everyone may have a different answer for this, but for me, leadership has multiple types hence different types of leaders. In general, leadership is a process of a leader and his/her followers achieve a common goal and grow as they proceed along. Every company has a leader, most of the time it is determined that an individual is needed to lead a company, but why leadership is so important? First of all, leader of a company is the representation of his/her company’s core value (what his/her company stands for), leader is crucial when it comes to strategic decisions for the company, leader needs to provide a direction for the company develop on. Second a leader is needed in terms of motivating employees to make sure they are devoted and dedicated to their work. Therefore, leadership skills are required in order for a leader to operate his/her business effectively. There are four areas of expertise that leaders may need to have:
1. Understand specific subject:
– People need to studied on a subject for a long duration of time before they can be good on it and become expert. But an expert leader is different from an ordinary expert, in an organisation or company, an expert leader can be someone who had work in the company for a long time therefore understands the company’s operation and is able to deliver and execute strategic decision and lead the company.
2. Perspective and vision of the future:
– A leader needs to have perspective and vision of an industry and has deep experience. They shared their ideas with other people in order to help them gain the perspective and the vision the leader has. Therefore, with the perspective and vision, leader is able to analysis and understand the future. Leader needs to be willing to stand out and lead the company or organisation to certain direction when necessary.
3. Knowledge of outside world:
– Leader needs to gain knowledge of the outside world so they are able to confront others with truth when they are being blind about it. Knowledge of the outside world for example legal knowledge, accounting knowledge etc. Leader needs to know that perhaps is because his/her expertise is narrow to specific subject therefore, it is essential for he/she to know.
4. Communicating expertise:
– Another important expertise leader needs to master is to communicate and interact with people. For example, a leader needs to be able to read the situation when negotiating, deliver his/her intentions clearly and find the hidden passageway that can lead to a deal that maximize the profit and generate return.
There are many ways to learn and become a good leader, and the best way if to first earn the respect from the team your leading, if people do not respect you as their leader, they won’t be listening to you not to mention finish their tasks. Second is to learn from the people around you, never assume that you understand everything please professional development is important and learn from the people around you if the best way to start. Third is to make strategic decision, when you spend time working with your team on project you will gain better understanding of how the project works and where it is headed, therefore, you will be able to identify what’s wrong and make know what people did wrong and know exactly what to adjust in order to deliver optimum results. In short, the best way to learn to become a good leader is to learn from the team you are leading.
There are different kind of leaders, for example, leader by his/her area of expertise, and leaders as a role model etc. Therefore, there are various types of leadership styles since there aren’t one leader that can lead everything, different leadership styles apply in different industries and different leadership style needs to be selected for different situation. Leaders are required to learn and adapt in different situation in order to produce optimal results. The following essay would be discussing different types of leadership styles.
1. Autocratic leadership
– Autocratic leadership is an extreme form of leadership where the manager retains as much power as possible and staff and employee have little to suggest. This kind of leader rarely consult staff nor allow any input from them. Employees are expected to follow instruction and the structure is set to award and punishments. This kind of leadership style is efficient and effective. Decisions are made fast and the works are expected to finish as fast. But this kind of leadership style can only be effective with routine and unskilled jobs where steady control is more effective and the advantage outweighs the disadvantages. For instance, a good example of autocratic leadership is Franchises. Franchises have a home office where the owner of manager dictate rules and standard. Franchises need all the business under control and maintain an operating standard that allow it to consistently produce adequate products and services. And fines and punishment may result from violating said standards. Franchises like McDonald’s and Starbucks where every outlet offers identical products and services and follow rule directly from its home office.
2. Bureaucratic leadership
– Bureaucratic leadership is when leaders follow a set of rules and make sure that his employees follow them as well. This type of leader ensures that everything is done according to the rule or policy. This kind of leadership is effective when the work is involving high security risks, or in organisation that employees perform routine tasks. A bad example of Bureaucratic leadership is the case study we encountered during the course of 1001 course – Amazon. In the case of Amazon’s deliveryman, since their job doesn’t require the employee to have any professional background, Amazon set out standard for employees like deliveryman and warehouse staff to follow. This is considered as a bad example since there are ethical issues involve in terms of employees’ mental and physical health, but nonetheless the way Amazon execute this is effective.
3. Democratic leadership
– Democratic leadership involve and encourage staff to take part of decision making. Therefore, employees are often highly engaged and enthusiastic about the work they are doing. This kind of leadership style helps with personal growth and develop personal skills, but it tends to slow down decision making but often produce positive results. A good example of Democratic leadership is Virgin. Virgin set out guidelines for any new proposal and employees are welcome to propose any idea as long as it meets four points and the company will consider it seriously, but it is always up to CEO of Virgin Richard Branson to make the final decision. This demonstrated a good example of democratic leadership style where employees are encouraged to contribute ideas to the company and with the help of the guidelines it boosts effectiveness and efficiency of the process.
4. Laissez-faire leadership
– Laissez-faire leadership is when the leader provides little or no direction and give staff as much freedom as possible. Therefore, by giving all the authority to staff and let them guide their own way and set their own deadline. This type of leadership style would be effective when the staff members are highly skilled and motivated to work on their own. Laissez faire leadership style is not wise when staff members lack the experience and the professional knowledge to make strategical decision and lack the motivation to complete tasks. A good example of leader that uses Laissez-faire is Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. In his case, he gives his manager full autonomy and he created an environment where his employees feel motivated to complete their tasks.
5. Charismatic leadership
– Charismatic leadership is when leader inspires his/her employees and motivate them to move forward. This helps create excitement and commitment among employees and have them feel a sense of responsible. There drawback is obvious that the leader is the core of the entire company, this may harm an ongoing project or the entire organisation of the leader leaves. A good example that we studied during the course of the 1001 course is the guest lecturer Michael Virardi. The charismatic leadership style Mr.Virardi uses enhance the enthusiasm of staff, and is able to have employees work willingly. With the legacy approach that Mr.Virardi’s father taught him, employees can obtain a sense of responsibility when working in which makes employees not only working for the money they earn but also make them feel that they are able to achieve something meaningful that can be pass down the generations.