Introduction

 

In this semester, reflecting back on of what I’ve learnt within Planning and Professionalism consisted of looking into all of the nature of the organisations that were involved in the projects. Creating business models in the Whitefield project and developing new communication strategies that Tribe bike racks can communicate better with their customers. We did stakeholders analysis and mapping in the Northumbrian water project. Furthermore we identified key stakeholders in the Youth offending team project. Also changing their operations allowed them to provide better quality services with a lower budget. The Tynedale project required us to go out and see what people from rural parts of the country think of credit unions. Doing research outside from the workshops, we used other techniques such as the Brand Lens, which helped us to see the internal and external brand elements.

 

Consultancy Skills

 

In the Youth Offending Team project, there were many consultancies that we had to do such as looking at the behaviour of every staff member in the organisation. Also taking in consideration of their opinions and how they would like to see the place of improving their services and also their operations. In the workshops that we have conducted, it allowed to us to analyse each staff member’s expectations of how they feel their services and operations should improve. For example in one workshop, we used other company’s brand values and suggest to them if they should emulate them and try to implement them in their organisation. This was great because it allowed us to influence their expectations by suggesting them to see of how other companies expect their staff and organisation to functions and run their services to their brand value standards. 

 

In the Northumbrian water and Youth Offending Team projects, we had to deal with certain exceptions from our clients such as looking into stakeholders and then mapping them out which would gave us a better overview. Allowing this gave us a better understanding of how to select the specific stakeholders that would be influential on deciding the outcome of the project objectives. However even though we had a set of tasks that we did with the Youth Offending Team project, the whole process wasn’t very organised and this sometimes led to last minute changes. I believed if we used a fixed consultancy process model, then as a group we would have been much more organised by selecting the right methods and tools for completing the tasks. The Kubr five phase model consultancy cycle, it’s a model that has 5 simple phases which are entry, diagnosis, action planning, implementation and termination. This model is great because it gives us a step by step guide of what we should do as group in our consultation process with the clients. Also it would help us to look into each section in depth, so that we can get the vital knowledge that we need to accomplish the client’s expectations (Kubr, 2002).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Source: Scheepers (2013))

 

Also looking back at the Youth Offending Team Project, our brief was to look at the problems that they were facing and how we could provide solutions that they could implement in order for them to fix the problems. You could say that this consultation approach was a doctor to patient model approach than an expert model approach because we had to diagnose the client’s individual problems and then use a systematic approach of creating a plan for change. This approach allowed to develop a better relationship with the clients because in our workshops they were able to provide correct and accurate information (Farooqui, 2013). This allowed us to fully look into their problems and come up with specific solutions that would help them greatly. 

 

Creating the Brand & Also using the Brand Lens

 

In this semester we’ve learnt that when creating a new brand in some of our projects, the brand must have a meaning behind it for example Erik Roscam Abbing and Frido Smulders suggests that since the 1950’s and onwards that most brands have an emotional meaning behind them. He suggests that the brand is important for the user of the branded product in terms of the positive emotional influence that it has to the owner. This idea is called product attachment, this means that the owner develops an emotional bond with the product and this means they would likely to keep them for a longer period. Erik Roscam Abbing and Frido Smulders also claims that there are 7 stages of branding which is ownership, recognition, adding a layer of functional and emotional meaning, adding the notion of lifestyle, the brand as façade to hide behind and finally the age of transparency. Combining all of these connotations, this creates the following definition which is the brand captures of how the organisation and its customers understand themselves and each other (Bont et al, 2013, pp. 125 - 129).   In our projects we used the golden circle as tool of to get our clients to see the ‘Why’ because this way we can get them to create brand vision for themselves. In MDI and also the Tynedale Community Bank project, we created the brand lens looking at the internal and external brand elements. This gave us an overview of what internal and external attributes that MDI and Tydenale offered at the moment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summary

 

In this semester, I found that certain projects required a lot of business knowledge in them such as looking into routes to market and how Totem Pole Bike Rack could communicate with their customers. Also looking into the stakeholders and conducting stakeholder’s analysis in the Northumbrian water and Youth Offending Team projects. In all of the projects the business was the main focus and vital for us to understand how the business knowledge that we have learnt in this semester and last semester and how we had to implement them into the projects. Also allowing us to gain a better understanding of the organisations and how they are operate on a day-to-day basis.