BM0088/BM0528 Teaching Enterprise Project (Practicum)

Summary Reports = 5% x 2 rounds = 10% (weightage)

TEACHING ENTERPRISE PROJECT

NAME
ADMIN NO
CLASS
TEAM
PERIOD OF ATTACHMENT
LECTURER IN CHARGE

ATTACHMENT SUMMARY REPORT

Muhammad Syarif bin Mohd Yasin
145834W
BM1423 (BC)
2
30th May 2016 15th July 2016
Mr. Sudesh Dharmaratna

Note:
Keep your report to a minimum of three (3) pages and a maximum of five (5)
pages, excluding Appendixes (if any).
1. Describe, specifically, Your Role in the tasks/projects assigned.
(20 marks)
2. Describe what some of your key challenges you encountered in your roles or
projects and how you overcome them.
(30 marks)
3. Describe your personal Learning Experience and Achievements gained from this
particular stopover with reference to the 4 main Learning Objectives of TEP
(including out of training attachment activities for shift stop overs).
(30 marks)
4. Provide at least (2) suggestions on how to improve efficiency and effectiveness of
your team/stopover.
(20 marks)

1|Page

Table of Contents
1.

2.

3.

Roles in Tasks/Projects.....................................................................................................3
1.1.

Mini Roadshow Treasures of Asia............................................................................3

1.2.

Retail Entrepreneurship Fair........................................................................................3

1.3.

SBM International Fair................................................................................................3

1.4.

Singapore International Waterweek.............................................................................4

Key challenges & how you overcome them....................................................................4

2.1.

Mini Roadshow Treasures of Asia............................................................................4

2.2.

Retail Entrepreneurship Fair........................................................................................4

2.3.

SBM International Fair................................................................................................5

2.4.

Singapore International Waterweek.............................................................................5

Personal Learning experiences........................................................................................5

3.1.

Mini Roadshow Treasures of Asia............................................................................5

3.2.

Retail Entrepreneurship Fair........................................................................................6

3.3.

SBM International Fair................................................................................................6

3.4.

International Waterweek..............................................................................................7

4.

Suggestions for efficiency & effectiveness.......................................................................7

5.

Annexes..............................................................................................................................8
5.1.

Gantt chart...................................................................................................................8

5.2.

Timeline.......................................................................................................................8

2|Page

1. Roles in Tasks/Projects
1.1. Mini Roadshow Treasures of Asia
For the first event, I had the chance to take on the role as the Overall-in-Charge. My role was
to overlook every stage of the events planning and to ensure that it follows the teams
strategic vision whilst closely inputting the business processes. The objective of the event was
to create awareness for Sansesans new products while organizing the event. This role
requires various delegations and opinions as a leader, which may go against the opinion of the
other team members but it was important for me to make certain decisions to ensure a
successful event. As a leader, I often let members who are quiet in nature to switch seats or
even move the conversation elsewhere (e.g. our whiteboard) so as to achieve higher levels of
communication with the other members rather than staring at their computer screens. I also
helped to liaise with our vendor from making revisions to our stock selection to arranging
the delivery and collection dates.
One of the main tasks was to always keep the team members and our supervisor informed of
updates from the vendor, so that we are all well aware of all the aspects of the event. To
accomplish this, we had daily morning and evening briefings to communicate with the team.
My role also required me to be spontaneous and quick witted during the actual event day so
as to combat unforeseen circumstances, e.g. developing a contingency plan when the P.O.S
machine was not up and running on the actual day. I also had to oversee all the duties and
responsibilities of each member to ensure that everyone would be occupied so as to not waste
manpower resources and this was done through a well-structured Gantt chart. (Please refer to
annexes)

1.2. Retail Entrepreneurship Fair

For the second event, I took on the role of Logistics. This event required us to work alongside
the retail students for their showcase that included selecting their fixtures for the actual event.
One of the many components that I had helped with during the planning process was
reassuring Anita, the Overall-in-Charge, with email conversations with Ms Sylvia, providing
suggestions for the A&P materials and creation of a timeline as it was one of my duties in the
previous event. The main duties during the actual event was to set-up and tear down fixtures
for the retail students; which included instances where it required me to step up and help
manage the teams decision making.
1.3. SBM International Fair
For the third event, I took on the role of A&P (Advertising & Promotion) during the planning
phase where I was tasked to create posters, brochures and the props for the photo booth. I had
to constantly update our posters and brochures after meetings with our client, Ms. Ros, but at
the same time with Ms. Nurul, who constantly gave feedback to our A&P materials. As part of
our advertising efforts, I had to carry out International Fair talks at lecture halls to help
remind, inform and promote the event; this was to help achieve the set quota of 1,100 SBM
students for the attendance of the event.

3|Page

1.4. Singapore International Waterweek

For the final event, I was assigned to the role of Event Ambassador. As this was a biennial
event on a global platform, the duties assigned were formal and required hospitality and
communication skills. The main duty for this event was the scanning of passes - which was to
scan delegates' badges, access control and to assist in room set-up. My second duty was to
usher delegates to their seats which included room turnaround and oversee scanners. I also
helped to place writing boards and tent cards for the speakers on their seats during
intermissions. The last duty was as a microphone runner - during sessions, questions are
raised by the audience, and mic runners will have to go over with the mic. I was also tasked to
act as an OIC for group 3 as we had different event timings. My role was to help overlook any
challenges the rest of the team might be facing and to bring it up to the event representative
on site.

2. Key challenges & how you overcome them

2.1. Mini Roadshow Treasures of Asia
During the planning process for this event, our team faced obstacles that were rough and due
to us having limited knowledge about business processes, we often made the wrong turn. The
first challenge I faced was the importance of being a good leader; as a friendly person in
nature, my opinions are often ruled out due to majority votes or the fear of being shunned by
peers. However, after a talk with Mr Sudesh, I realised that if I do not make the right
decisions for the team, there would be more dire consequences than just a few peers hating
me. I took responsibility and initiative to always voice out when something was not right and
had greater control over the teams decisions; including the planning process. As
communication was key, I reassured each member to be aware of what they should be solely
focused on - then, there will be fewer overlaps and lesser confusion down the road.
The second challenge was not coming up with a contingency plan for some unexpected
issues. It was often the minor details that caused the major issues. So, on the second day of
the event, I kept tabs on each little detail with back-up plans that I made to overcome any
major hiccup.
The last challenge I faced was not focusing on the business processes of the event. In this
instance, I had led the team to focus on the creativity aspect of the event which caused
confusion (lack of input) in the technical parts. After many discussions with the team, we
decided to drop the redemption tickets and also minimized confusion for the redemption
booth; we simplified everything so as to allow customers to enjoy the promotion without any
complications.
2.2. Retail Entrepreneurship Fair
During the planning process for the Entrepreneurship Fair, the major challenges faced were
the lack of communication in the team. As the event was small scaled, we would think that
the Overall-in-Charge would be capable of handling it, with the logistics team only helping in
drawing up the floorplan. However, with only a few days left until the event, we came across
a multitude of problems that were critical to solve. As a leader for the previous event, I
decided to help with the A&P; mass printing flyers and also creating a banner out of eight A3
papers. After that was done, we quickly discussed on the manpower duties and shift rotations.

4|Page

We managed to complete everything within the same day; however, on the actual day of the
event, we encountered problems again due to miscommunication. As the logistics team
werent familiar with the equipment; some of the fixtures were not ideal and we also had
missing parts like the acrylic pegs. That was when I tried to intervene and quickly asked
everyone what they needed; rushed to the logistics room, returned all the incorrect fixtures
and brought up what we needed. The teardown went smoothly except that we had a trail of
duct tape residue on the floor; however we quickly cleaned it up as a team.
2.3. SBM International Fair
As the lead for A&P materials, the first problem I faced was when communicating with our
client. During meetings with Ms Ros, she often gave her feedback for us to make
amendments to the posters or brochure. However, when we sent a cc (carbon copy) of the
documents to her colleague, Ms Nurul, she would send another email for us to make another
set of amendments. This has led to me being confused as to whose instructions I should
adhere to. Therefore, to facilitate smoother communications, I discussed with Ms Ros about
the problem and she suggested to leave Ms Nurul out of the loop. The second challenge was
to link our promotional materials to the theme. As we had initially divided the work for each
of the posters, they varied in many different shapes, designs and illustrations, thus there was
no clarity and consistency amongst the posters. Also, the backing for each of the posters were
badly constructed. Therefore, we re-printed the posters, pasted appropriate backings and
included them with borders that made it looked like Polaroid photos.

2.4. Singapore International Waterweek

During the first briefing, the presentation provided by the organisers were gone through
vaguely and I was not certain of my duties. However when they held small group discussions
for each of the event dates, that was when I addressed my questions and doubts and they
roughly went through the duties and manpower needed during the event. The next key
challenge was in the duty rotation during lunch; as we had limited manpower, we were unable
to go for lunch as a team, in fact, some of us had to shorten our lunch to ten minutes to cover
those who have yet to eat so that they would not be late for their next duty. This was because
there was a lack of manpower strategizing before lunch; they could have released the first
batch of students half an hour earlier for lunch so that when they came back, they could
resume the second batchs duties. I gave this feedback directly to the event representative
present that day so that it could be implemented during Waterweek in 2018.

3. Personal Learning experiences

3.1. Mini Roadshow Treasures of Asia
In this event, there were many learning experiences that had helped to enhance my thinking
skills, which will help me in my future endeavours. One of my best personal experiences was
becoming a better leader and elevating my leadership skills to greater heights. Being a leader
for the roadshow has taught me to prioritize tasks over being favoured; eventually, not
everyone can be pleased and that doesn't matter as long as the tasks on hand are completed.
The next learning experience was to send out formal emails to our client. As a HR student, I
personally felt that this has been one of the key takeaways for this area as it helps me to
follow-up and reassure what the client have said after a call/conversation, so as to help
eliminate confusion and uncertainties.
5|Page

Following that, I have also learned to discipline myself to be early for school every day; so
that I could prepare the morning briefings and the days agenda. I learned to efficiently use a
paper cutter without damaging the borders; this was mostly used for posters and flyers.
During the selection of stocks, we were not confident that Ginger Tea was going to appeal to
our target audience; instead of reducing the quantity of the product, we decided to create four
different recipes so that patrons could enjoy it the way they want it therefore possibly creating
a demand for them. Also, as we werent confident in selling these Ginger Teas, we decided to
only consign twenty-four boxes; however, to our surprise, the tea was sold out on the second
day. This means that we must not only think from our point of view but also the wants from
the target audience. It had also given me a chance to carry out my entrepreneurial ideas such
as the bundle deal and also gave the opportunity to empower us to make decisions which is
also a new learning experience (in terms of retailing) for me as a student.
I learnt to set our own objectives and targets for the mini-roadshow; it follows in perspective
of the event or for the client. This is important as it helps to determine whether the event was
a success and if not, what changes are to be made in future. I also learned more on choosing
the right suppliers; the first step was to do an in-depth background check on the company to
check whether they are credible, as some companies tend to have a bad reputation or are
involved in skimming. We also had to ensure that the vendor we wanted to consign from is a
GST-registered company. All in all, the roadshow has provided me with learning experiences
that will benefit me in the long run.
3.2. Retail Entrepreneurship Fair
The first learning experience from this event was creating a banner using eight A3 papers that
was used as a promotional material during the fair. The margins of the poster design were
divided into eight equal sizes using an online editing application. However, one of the
mistake here was creating posters with too much dark surfaces which ended up wasting a lot
of toner. The promotional poster that was showcased around school had been added with the
products that the retail students were selling so that students and staff would be able to find
them if they were interested, and thus this would help to increase their sales. During the
promotion of this event, I managed to practice my communication skills as we had to attract
the attention of passers-by and other strangers in school using our flyers and a banner. We had
to approach them carefully so that we will not irritate them, thus this also boosted my selfconfidence as we continued doing it a few times.
3.3. SBM International Fair
For this event, I had learnt many skills relating to design. Firstly, I had created a brochure
using Microsoft Publisher, something that I had rarely used before. As the brochure had to be
proportionately accurate, it took me days to finally get the alignment correct; with that I
found out new features on the application. The second skill was creating posters using the
online application, Canva. Canva works exactly like Photoshop where you are able to create
beautifully designed artwork using layers and fancy fonts. This has been one of the main
takeaways for this event as I can now rely on my design skills to create outstanding posters in
future. Thirdly, I have also learned to use a penknife with precision when cutting small
cardboard pieces for the photo booth props; this will be a useful when helping out with
logistics in the future.

6|Page

3.4. Singapore International Waterweek

The Singapore International Water Week was an eye-opening experience with delegates from
all around the world with one focus in mind; which was to discuss solutions to pressing water
issues. One of the main takeaways from the conferences was communication. As an usher and
scanner personnel, I am tasked at the frontline of the event hall and have direct contact with
delegates, therefore I must always be mindful of the words I utter and of course my body
language. Also, we were provided with a list of Dos and Donts during the event which I had
found useful and could be used in the future when I go to work. I have also learned that
during events, your client is the most important person u need to adhere to, for e.g. if your
client wants you to be positioned at 1pm, regardless of any excuses you have, you must be
there at exactly 1pm.

4. Suggestions for efficiency & effectiveness

My first suggestion for EMRS is to provide a run-through (preferably on the first or second
day) for new students on creating a simple timeline to use in their events or as a learning
experience. As we are always competing against time, a proper timeline is needed to properly
distinct the required tasks and also limit ourselves on a particular task while trying not to get
too caught up in it. During the Mini-Roadshow event, I drafted a Gantt chart which was hard
to decipher according to my team members; therefore a simple timeline with informative
details would help students achieve their goals on time and if not, they would have to reflect
on what had hindered them to finish the task on time. This timeline can include some of the
already stated details of the event & roadshow checklist presented to students, therefore
students will not skip steps during the planning processes. This can be categorised by the
duration of the event; either by the number of week or days. (Please refer to annexes)
For my second suggestion, it is for students to change seats into their respective sections
during meetings. This is to decrease the chances of students working in silos. I feel that this
can be improved if we have more team bonding sessions and cooperation within the team. We
should also learn to speak up and not be afraid of sharing our ideas. By doing so, we can
incorporate more presentations within the team, reaching out for every individual to come up
with at least a suggestion to solve problems. We could also implement bonding sessions at
least once per week for an hour to keep the momentum and bonding alive.
For my last suggestion, it is in consideration of the event planning. For the A&P, I urge that
future EMRS students to use Canva as it a very good platform to create wonderful posters and
flyers. With more than a hundred designs, the possibilities are endless. For Finance, I would
suggest teams to not include five cents in the prices of the items that they are selling as it
would simply cause discrepancies, and this is one that is the easiest to avoid. For logistics, it
is important to label the items that you need 1 week before the event, to avoid it being taken
by other students, as this can greatly affect their planning decisions. It is also important to
familiarise the whole team to the fixtures as it would make retrieving them from the logistics
room a breeze and this will reassure that no wrong fixtures will be brought up.

7|Page

5. Annexes
5.1. Gantt chart

5.2. Timeline

8|Page