BUSI 1360 MAIL PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE

Table of Contents

Introduction

I have worked as a business developer intern in the Osterley Park Hotel and now I am going to share what I have learned throughout my internship journey. In the report, I will share what was my experience as well as what are the benefits I get and how it is beneficial for my career.

Gibbs Model of Reflection will be used for sharing my reflection on the internship journey and different stages of the model will be explained in detail. According to this model, six stages are discussed in detail, and these stages explore an experience. Six stages of the Gibbs Model of Reflection include description, feelings, and evaluation, the analysis will also be done, the conclusion will be given and the action plan will be prepared (Martin, et al., 2021).

Osterley Park Hotel is using different internationalization strategies, for expanding its services in different areas of the world. Internationalization strategies are helpful to expand the business in overseas markets, so the company can select any internationalization strategy which is beneficial for the organization according to its suitability. Internationalization strategies that can be adopted include exporting strategy, licensing strategy, franchising strategy, and building a joint venture, and all these strategies can be used to enter into new markets, diversification, as well as having a competitive advantage and foreign investment opportunities will also be provided to the Osterley Park Hotel. With the help of Internationalization strategies, operational costs of the business can be reduced, and serving clients in the same time zone and enable to reach a wider audience in the market.

Internship Experience

Working as the business developer intern in the Osterley Park Hotel has helped me to gain working experience, and gaining valuable work experience has also fulfilled my college requirements and can also add to my resume. The internship experience provides the opportunity for full-time employment, and it allows me to explore my interests to develop my personal career goals(Martin, et al., 2021).

The internship experience at Osterley Park Hotel as the Business Developer Intern has provided me exposure to the industry world. Several skills have also been developed while I was working as the Business Developer Intern including marketing skills of convincing someone, making development strategies, as well as building leadership skills of taking decisions wisely at the point of time when it is required to make decisions. It also helps me to identify how is my work-life and how I need to manage my work-life balance.

Connecting with my seniors was also beneficial because it has provided me with an ample amount of knowledge of the market, and how can I deal with the issues of the workplace and connect with customers as well. In my classroom, I have learned the theoretical concepts but the internship experience gives me the practical concepts that how those theoretical concepts will be applicable.

The roles and responsibilities of my job as the business developer intern were to connect with the clients, sell and sell the services to the customers, and managing the portfolio as well as sales processes, and most importantly identify the new channels which can help me to identify the prospective clients.

While working in the internship experience, I learned different items including networking with my seniors, and colleagues, and my communication skills have also been developed. It also has increased my confidence in communicating with everyone as well as working with seniors. Earlier I got afraid to talk to my seniors and clear my doubts, but they all were friendly, so it has ultimately developed my confidence level and they too helped me in problem-solving so that I can improve my workplace skills.

So, now let’s discuss the Gibbs Model of Reflection on the internship journey of the learning experience, and develop my skills in academic theory.

Gibbs Model of Reflection

Description – It is the first stage of the Gibbs model of reflection. At this stage, I am discussing that working as a Business Developer Intern and my internship experience was started on 22^nd March 2021, and it was ended on the 26^th December 2021, and the total internship period was also 40 hours, which simply means that I have to devote 40 hours in each week, in which I have learned to develop my communication skills as well as communicating with clients and internal stakeholders of the organization. Osterley Park Hotel has different internal stakeholders including employees, managers as well as managers. Several other interns know how to handle their customers, as well as they, were connecting with their clients and solving their queries, as well as I learned to participate in meetings as well as know-how to improve my decision-making skills. Decision-making skills are important in my corporate world because if a person takes the wrong decision, it will also generate the wrong consequences (Oviawe, et all., 2020).
Feelings – The second stage is the feelings stage in which I want to share my feelings that how I feel while working in the company, and it has also provided me the valuable lessons in the workplace. I feel that my communication skills have been developed and I can satisfy the business needs and fulfilling my roles and responsibilities as well. I learned that what people are saying and taking feedback from them as well as positively taking that feedback because it helped me to identify the areas of improvement(Oviawe, et all., 2020).

When I was connecting to my clients, I have observed that there were several customers and clients whose behavior was not at all acceptable and they all were rude as well as shouted at me. I learned from my manager that we all need to work hard to thrive in the workplace and handle all situations calmly. Also, we cannot rudely talk to our customers, we have to follow the ethics at our workplace, and ensure that all our customers are well treated. I also learn how we need to become competitive in the market.

Third Stage is the evaluation stage in which I have learned to evaluate the situation whatever comes to your path. I have learned what is being evaluated and how the internship is considered an important part of the career journey where I have built several connections and learned how to communicate as well as build my clients. And according to my senior, once I understand my roles and responsibilities, I learned how it is essential to communicate with your clients so calmly. Several things were not as per the situation or can say as per the expectations such as I have not good at making decisions, and don’t know how can leadership skills can be developed. I have never built my critical thinking skills, and that is what I have received in the feedback that is what I have received that I need to improve my communication skills as well as critical thinking skills. Also, my long-term and short-term goals must be decided will be needed to achieve. When I was working in the organization, I have a team of 20 people, and all the employees were dedicated to each other. In my internship experience, I observed that knowing the products and services of the organization is very important to communicating with clients and customers.

Teamwork was also important in the organization that I have evaluated during my internship experience, and proper research can be conducted by the research and development team so that it ensures that everyone is involved in making decisions, as well as teamwork, will be considered. I have evaluated the most important thing in my life managing the work-life balance is essential because it can directly affect your health. If the work-life balance is maintained, then we can take out time for different things such as exercises, yoga, and developing our interest in our hobbies. There was a time when I was only into my work and career, and getting no time for my interest, my mental health, my physical health, they all were getting destructed. So, I ensure that I give equal time to my health as well as my work life. When I do exercises and yoga and maintain my mental health as well as physical health, I can manage my work much better and do my tasks in a better manner(Bahramirad, et al., 2020).

the Fourth stage is the conclusion stage in which I have recognized that the internship experience was good. I have determined that developing my projects was also done properly and I was able to manage my clients and I realized that getting the internship experience is essential and developing skills, building connections are also important. The internship experience is considered a good point in the corporate world because when employers hire employees for a full-time job, they mainly consider their work experience and what they have done in their career as well as analyze whether they know their roles and responsibilities or not. My internship experience gives me a wider knowledge of MS Office in which I have learned that Microsoft Excel, and its shortcut keys as well as formulas that can be applied while working (Bahramirad, et al., 2020).
Fifth Stage is building the action plan in which I have realized that the internship experience was good but I need to make some improvements and how these improvements are considered essential for my career and till what time these improvements can be made. I have also recognized that completing work is not a single thing that we need to learn, building connections and learning from them is also an important thing, and how we need to build our customer base as well as how to communicate with them, and how can we promote our customers and convince them to buy our products and services.

Gibbs’s model of reflection gives me several experiences that how can we implement learn by doing and how practical things can be taken into consideration as well as how can we improve more. I learned that People Management Skills, problem-solving skills, decision-making skills, and complex activities can be completed by easy process (Knouse, et al., 2008).

Also, the most important thing that I have learned from my internship experience being in the marketing department is that generating brand awareness can be done through proper marketing, and that leads to generating a good amount of revenue for the organization. One more thing that I have experienced is that getting work according to our abilities is essential because if a person doesn’t know what they have to do and how they need to achieve their goals, they cannot satisfy their clients by achieving their objectives. Also, training must be provided to employees so that their skills can be improved. It will increase my knowledge and easy to develop my skills(Knouse, et al., 2008).

I can only conclude that my internship experience was amazing and it has enhanced my resume as well as given me several opportunities to build my career. It helps to connect with several clients and I experienced that creativity is the most essential which I need because that skill is the topmost skill while working as a Business Developer intern. Also, every client is different and their needs and expectations are also different, so a person should know how to convince clients and how to communicate with them as well as what are the aspects that can fulfill their needs and expectations.

Internationalization Strategies

Osterley Park Hotel is a company that mainly provides restaurant and bar services to its customers, and the bar is the place where all the guests who are visiting the place can enjoy Indian as well as continental cuisine. It also offers different services such as free on-site and the features that are included in the rooms that are provided by the Osterley Park Hotel is Flattened screen TV, and all the rooms are non-smoking rooms.

Internationalization strategies help the company to capture the market share and increase brand awareness. The company where I have worked is Osterley Park Hotel is thinking to expand its business in overseas markets, and it can only help us by using different Internationalization strategies including franchising strategy. This is the best option that can be taken into consideration is setting up the franchising strategy, as well as another option that can be taken is exporting in which the products and services of the Osterley Park Hotel will be expanded in the overseas markets(Roque, et al., 2019).

Several companies adopt the internationalization strategy so that they can target international customers, increase their brand awareness as well as reach foreign markets. It is very obvious that while expanding in different areas of the world, Foreign Direct Investment which is also known as the FDI, that can help to reduce the risks, and investing in the company’s risk can also be reduced or can say that minimized (Crăciun, et al., 2018).

Another strategy that can be beneficial is a global strategy as well as a multi-domestic strategy, but both the strategies are opposite and work oppositely. Variations are also present in the market requirements and a global strategy is the most suitable one for the Osterley Park Hotel. The essential factor is the preference of customers that whether the customers prefer those services or not, and the company can focus on targeting the customers as well as achieving economies of scale and maintaining the level of efficiency as well(Crăciun, et al., 2018).

Another one is the Franchising strategy because it will provide several benefits to consumers as well as the business including that setting successful organizations in the market requires a broad level of expertise in the marketing department as well as it will be beneficial in lowering the cost and franchise company can easily enter into new markets (Roque, et al., 2019).

Multi domestic strategy is the most beneficial strategy among all the internationalization strategies and it mainly focuses on achieving local responsiveness by ensuring that product or service that is offered to consumers are the best suited for them and can be even customizable. This marketing strategy among all the strategies can be stated that match the different national conditions of the market. The multi-domestic strategy mainly aims at reaching new customers in the wider market and meeting the local requirements of the customers which leads to an increase in the customer base as well.

One more internationalization strategy useful for the Osterley Park Hotel is a joint venture company, it provides several benefits to the Osterley Park Hotel if they take this internationalization strategy and those benefits include customized services to its customers, lower costs because the total costs will be reduced of the business as all the operating expenses will be divided into the ratio which is determined, and the company can easily acquire the physical as well as human resources. The joint venture company also states that it will combine all the staff members and their talent as well, and the company can have easy access to their technology which is currently operating in the market. In the case of a joint venture, they can easily share the benefits among them along with the losses that are incurred(Ren, et al., 2019).

Another last kind of internationalization strategy is licensing strategy which focuses on expanding into new markets it also requires a low number of resources as well as costs, and it ensures that the brand of the company will be improved. Legal compliance is essential in the case of licensing strategy because it is negatively affecting the brand image.

Conclusion

In the end, it can be stated that Osterley Park hotel was one of the best workplaces which gives me a thrilling work experience and I have recognized that the skills which I have developed at that workplace were really important for my personal growth, and it helped me to determine that whether I have selected the right career path or not for me. I helped to analyze whether I have developed my interest in the Business Development Sector or Marketing Sector. Because in this sector, there are a lot of requirements of good communication skills, communicating with customers, as well as building connections and building a wider network. The most important factor I have learned throughout my internship experience is coordination and collaboration, if coordination is maintained with the team members at the workplace, we can easily achieve our goals, as there is a quote ‘teamwork makes the dreamwork’, so we can only achieve our dreams when we are coordinating with our teams. One of my seniors said that getting the internship experience will directly assist in getting a full-time job, as well as a letter of recommendation easily.

Change Management is the factor that is also I have learned in the internship period, and I learned that motivating all the team members is essential because they can easily meet the needs and expectations of customers, and also focus on achieving their goals and objectives. Motivating employees by giving them the benefits will enhance their performance and give them more opportunities, also the training along with the guidance must be provided to all the staff members because guidance is a vital factor for career growth, and all my seniors were positively guiding me.

I can easily get a feel for the work environment, internships simply mean learning into action, and it can also boost confidence, and taking the internship experience will also provide learn about the person itself, and build networks, internship offers students network opportunities. Because a person will meet colleagues and team members, and a professional environment will be provided.

In the end, the internationalization strategy of Osterley Park Hotel, and is equally important for the market, and they can reach out to new customers, and it can access world opportunities, as well as entering into overseas markets can faster their growth in the business (Ren, et al., 2019).

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