When I began the Sogeti project, I never realized how much of the relevant experience it would add to my career. The project involved a consulting program to provide Starbucks Corporation with the recommendations on how the company could expand its presence to the international markets. The Ohio international consulting program is run jointly the Ohio State University and the Sogeti USA. The program provided with first-hand experience on industrial analysis of such a big corporation to put what I leant in class into actual practice. With the guidance of my faculty, professor Lambert and Professor Anderson, the projects turned to be a major success. Most of all, the assistance of my team Katie and mark was crucial in completing the project for international expansion part. This essay is a reflection of the experiences, achievements, and lessons learned from the successful completion of the Ohio international consulting program project.
The project appeared complex just from the impression created by the companies involved and the data that required analyzed. It involved a lot of research that the recommendations had to be based. However, as it progressed, I realized the skills that it a practical application of the theories that I learned in college. Through interacting with experienced professionals in the course of the research, I realized how great was the opportunity the projected presented me with to learn and practice my knowledge in a practical field. Obtaining the results from industrial analysis, company data, DevOps findings and international expansion were things that had a direct impact on how my knowledge would be useful on the future of my career.
Working with my team enhanced my skills in team building. My team Kate and mark proved that a coordinated team could learn and achieve a lot in within a short of time. Through our corporation, our team was able to complete the project well ahead of the deadline. In addition, our results were approved by our professors with positive remarks. It was excellent interacting with the company staff as I searched for information that was useful for the project. I felt relaxed working as a coordinated team although everyone was assigned specific tasks to carry out. Through the entire project, the experience of following protocol to be granted access to information made me appreciate the importance of accountability and on their decisions, I make. This was helpful as it made me realize that in my future career, information I grant people access to could positively or negatively affect my profession.
My critical thinking has become better from the Ohio international consulting project program experience. Starbucks Company is a major play in the coffee market and carrying out the industry analysis involved a lot of critical analysis. Collecting the data and analyzing to provide meaningful purposes required evaluation of the best method to represent the data and provide an interpretation. This analysis engaged my brain enhancing my critical thinking skills. Moreover, identifying the competitive advantages of Starbucks Company in every market required critical analytic skills. The skills enabled me to recommend the various area that the company could target and in its expansion through various marketing strategies including the use of the social media.
Time management skills were very crucial in completing the project in the scheduled time. The project helped me improve my time management skills through working under pressure to complete the assigned tasks and deliver the required results. Despite the workload, I was able to complete my tasks in time as well as my team. This would not have been possible if our time management skills were poor.
Communication was an important factor required through the project. This project has helped significantly improve my communication skills. Communication is very important while working with multicultural teams. To complete the project in time, communication skills were necessary between my team and various people involved. Through the project, I learn a very crucial element of communication of prioritizing the important facts in the message I intended to pass to someone. This skill together with the others I acquired from the Sogeti will be very applicable while searching for the suitable job in my future career.
The entire project was very interesting. Working an extra mile to obtain the information required for analysis and compiling it using various data representation method was the even more interesting. My team ensured that all the necessary information was collected, analyzed and reported before making any progress to the next stage throughout the project. I also followed this procedure in the specific tasks that I undertook. It was fun and interesting while evaluating the innovations that Starbucks Company had embraced in order to remain competitive in the market.
Despite the huge success of the projects, there were various challenges that had to be overcome. The greatest challenge was obtaining information. For instance, Amazon uses dedicated servers and it was therefore challenging to obtain traffic demands. If the project were repeated again, I would include more companies dealing with the coffee industry that were a direct threat to the Starbucks Company and its expansion plan. The Ohio International consulting program could improve the project to include this specific company’s and that implied additional funding. This will provide a more specific recommendation to the Starbucks Company relative to its competitors in the coffee industry.
The experience I gained from the projects makes it worth to recommend it to every student. It provides a platform where one can enhance the business skills learnt in class in a practical field. The project provides the much-required exposure in research and data analysis skills required in the job market. Analyzing the information from the global companies like amazon, provides a broad perspective how the company are integrating their operations with technology to win the competition in the market.
In an overall perspective, I learned a lot form the project. I improved my communication skills, enhanced my critical thinking and time management skills. These skills are part of everyday life and determine the success of an individual. In addition, the Ohio international consulting projects broadened my view of the international markets. In addition, how companies use technology to change their marketing strategies with time. Among the recommendations was the use of IT capabilities by Starbucks Company to improve its marketing strategies. These skills will be very useful in my future job search and my career. The project also improved my teamwork skills through interaction and working together to achieve the set objectives. Through my interaction with multicultural teams, I realized how beneficial it was learning from others opinions and experiences. My professors from the faculty also excellently guided me through the project. I feel better now in every part I undertook during the project.