~* mY rEmiNiScEncES *~

A 3-weeks project for me; approximately 2-months project for them - our X-Culture project has finally accomplished.
There were at least 326 international teams from 70 universities, 40 countries of 6 continents who took part in this project.
Yeah, my team comprised of Kevin (USA), Marti (Estonia), Victor (Spain),Waheed (Pakistan) and Zivile (Lithuania).
The detailed evaluations were just released yesterday.
Guess what, my team was one of the few who received additional positive comment from the panel of judges!

My team may not scored the highest for overall but I feel really contented for the overall marks.
Jaws-dropping upon realising the executive summary that I have did was graded the 2nd highest among the hundreds of submissions.
I still remember it was quite a long and draggy one till my team leader, Marti reviewed my work and suggested to make the it more efficient with some guidelines.
I even seek for my friend's help to refine on a paragraph or two so that it appears to be short and sweet.
Thanks Marti and Tuck Wai.


Well, speaking of group assignment, being in a group with good team mates who are about your standard or even has better performance than you is really a bliss.
I love the way on how participants were filtered and examined by taking a pre-project training and readiness test to gauge the suitability of one to join in this project.
Then we were allocated to a team to get started.

Initially, I was kind of worry:
1. being left behind/ out since my batch joined it few weeks late due to the late commencement of our semester
2. same group with parasite/ sleeping members (yes I truly HATE that to the extent that I can do the whole thing on myself and exclude those people's name in the end of the report though it is suppose to be a group assignment; it's not that I don't value teamwork)
3. can't be accepted into the team due to the late joining while they might have almost in the finalising stage of the report

However, things seem to be turned out that the team was in growing stage and I was able to join them before the delegation of task.
While hearing my friends' moan of not having an official team leader, we were lucky to have a member to take the initiative and take the lead.
Tasks were divided and distributed fair and square.
One can clear his/ her doubts by posting in the group and members will help each other in responding to that (yes, you won't feel alone though you were burning the midnight oil and suddenly need to clarify your doubts in the dead of night).
We were fortunate to have a member, Zivile who was formerly working in the company in better understanding the company.
However, a friend of us: Waheed suffered from food poisoning, admitted to the hospital and then followed by having to prepare for his examinations at the university who eventually being inactive in the group.
This had resulted increased workload of other team mates who assisted in making up for his part in the report at the final stage.
You can really see the existence of team work at such critical point.
Efficiency and productivity of the members can be discovered too disregard of different time zone.
Since we have to adhere to the standard time zone: New York, Kevin from US did a good job in turning in our final report on time.
Yup, one can have his/ her post responded by the ever-active Victor from Spain.
It was just amazing that things worked out well regardless of where we are from.

To be frank, although this project was a course requirement for my subject of Export Practices and Management, my part was more about business to business (B2B) marketing upon task delegation.
As a matter of fact, we were working on proposal relating to beer industry and I find it challenging that little did I know about it since I don't really drink.
Plus, it was about B2B marketing that I just started to learn the subject few weeks ago.
B2B marketing is something that's internal and we can hardly find substantial corporate information on how it operates from the sheer internet.
Seriously, it was more challenging than the global marketing plan that I took part - L'Oreal Brandstorm 2013.

Therefore, I seek for help from a few friends of mine:
Ket Wei: who has been living and travelled to myriad countries and explained the types of liquor, culture, lifestyles and preferences from different continents to me; a fan of beer who has relatives operating liquor business. I can't remember when was the last time talking through the phone until it heats up.
Edwin: a beer devotee who been to Brazil, our targeted market! this allows me to connect the parts of information gathered to propose appropriate marketing strategies.
Joey: a beer aficionado who studied at overseas for more than past 12 years. He also has a broad travel experiences across the continents.
Jie Kang: not a fan of beer but has a father who operates business that serves liquor
Joon Kie: not a beer lover too but has a father who owns F&B businesses
and of course, consulted my new B2B lecturer - Dr Balaji from India.
Not to forget, my lecturer of this project and subject: Professor Nan Jiang from China.
I truly appreciate their big help in enabling me to grasp the industry and with some industrial insights that inspired me to propose feasible marketing strategies.
Yeah right, my questions were appeared to somewhat funny but thanks for bearing with me.
Really, it's about B2B where one can hardly gauge the way how they work unless with industrial info.
This has aided me and prevented me from suggesting funny and impractical strategies.
Guess what, most of the time I receive instant reply from them even though at the wee hours of the morning, birthday, and at overseas regardless of some of their real hectic & tight schedule. (I don't mean to disturb them at such hour but due to my whole-day long of classes, that was my free time upon reaching home).
Truly glad & lucky to have them with me.

Oh well, I admit that I am a person who treasure (particular, in a way) team work and team members.
I really love working with this amazing team mates who portrayed dynamism, efficiency, productivity, great teamwork & effort with good English language standard though some of them are not native speakers.
This has inspired me to work more in honing my English language skills :)

In spite of the fact that the winners of the top 10 business proposals are yet to announced, I am satisfied with our work.
My work was done when I was at the peak of my other university's individual assignments. Phew...
I really wish to meet the team and attend the conference at Turkey in July yet the expenses cost too dear for me.
Anyway, I hope we can meet in real one day, and work together again in the future!
Cheerio and...

It was a 2 months+ long semester break including CNY holiday.
Just a brief & compendious summary of what I've accomplished in this period:
1. volunteered for OCBC Cycle Malaysia 2013
2. competed in L'Oreal Brandstorm 2013 semifinal
3. had fun while working at outstation
4. rejected a global company's job offer (yet allowed myself to have more time flexibility & chances of learning)
5. worked for few events & enriched my job experiences
6. take up Korean language lesson (my 5th language!)
7. gained more rest finally instead of continuous hectic & busy schedule for years
8. rewarded myself with Ipoh & Hong Kong trip
9. found the charger for my camera after a long long search between M'sia & HK and it's now alive!
10. ultimately, spent more time with my family :)

I've been posting quite a few photos taken at Port Dickson and Wisma Genting lately.
And, my friends thought that I was having vacation.
It's a misconception!
Indeed, the purpose of heading down to Port Dickson and Wisma Genting (yesh, not the one at Genting Highland, Pahang but the head office building at KL) was to obtain some information for our assignments.
To my surprise, I actually received reply from the Marketing Manager, Mr Andrew Leong of Genting Berhad on the next day upon sending my interview request.
Due to our clashing of time table (yeah, it's a group assignment while we all have different time table), we managed to arrange a time and meet with him at the nick of time.
It was such a relief though it was very last minute.
The interview session was extended from the prior schedule of 1 hour to 2 hours+!
We were glad to collect some interesting insight during the interview that public wouldn't know of.
It was just too bad that I can't join the blogger gathering night by Nuffnang (yes, I'm a Nuffnanger too!) at Genting due to prior commitment when Mr Andrew Leong invited me.

Well, in order to work on our research, we were required to delve into the operations management of either 5-star hotel, beach resort or shopping mall.
To get that done, we really have to interview the person-in-charge or, we can't proceed.
While I was scratching my head of requesting which operations manager from which hotel that we shall look for or worst come to worst, getting my friends who are working in this industry for help... * poof *
You wouldn't believe that once again, I got replies from the resorts that I have sent my request to earlier.
We chose the award-winning Avillion Port Dickson after considering a few factors.
I've never thought of the first person that I met at APD was the security guard who was working at Reliance College.
He still can recognise me after a few months' time!
Seriously, we were fortunate to interview the Assistant General Manager, Mr Gared the Senior Operations Director who has been with APD for more than 15 years!

 
No, I did not ask for help from my boss this time though he was at Avillion few days before I went there.
Besides getting substantial operations information from Mr Gared, we got to know that APD, the flagship of Avillion Hotel Group was Dato' Gan Eng Kwong and Datin Irene Tan's dream.
Yeah, AHG is one of the subsidiaries of Reliance Pacific Berhad that is spearheaded by them.
"Their dream come true", Mr Gared told.
Guess what, I actually met Datin Irene and talked to her before when I was working at Reliance College.
Didn't know she was such a calibre figure but the mother of my boss at that time.
LOL.
What's even more appealing to know that APD was named after the tale of Lord Jennings Avery.
In point of fact, the architecture and the naming of each room, each pier is evolving on the story of Lord Avery.


Another place that one must not miss upon visiting APD was the Avi Spa.




It is a sanctuary of recluse offering spa and massage treatment.
Kind of amazing to know that it is the brainchild of Ms Gricia Gan, the daughter of the spouse.
Well, we don't really get to visit the entire resort due to the rain :(
No photos this time as it was prohibited.
Anyway, it was easier for me to relate the info due to my prior working experience at Reliance.


As a matter of fact, it is one of the costly coursework that I have done so far.
We spent a day and overnight at Avillion Admiral Cove as the driver of the trip, Jayden brought his friends along too.







 
 keep biting my slippers >.<''     when the turtles meet the rabbit:"don't invade my territory!"



Thanks to this research, I was able to reap extraordinary experiences with the guidance of our tutor though some of my course mates regarded it negatively.
Personally, I think it was really fun (provided that you manage to interview the key person and get the relevant info, otherwise be prepared to fail this course work) and eye-opening.
In fact, I have never thought that PD has transformed to such a paradise!
haha..
I'll visit this place again by any chance in the future!