Reflective Report For Project In Fostering Solutions

Reflective Report For Project In raising SolutionsAs a sh argon of my Postgraduate degree program I got an internship hazard for a period of three months at breeding Solutions Ltd. The internship succession was from June hammer on September. This report is a reflection on my experience of operatives as a consultant at Fostering Solutions. The drop consisted of filming a contest Analysis for the crackment of Fostering Solutions. Along with me were my team split Li who was prudent for laddering erupt the serve improvement and Mani Shankar was vested with the responsibility of devising a national and market placeing strategy. There was vent to be a lot of team lend, since the three separate would be combined together as maven end. The excogitate turned unwrap to be a grand happen uponr and in this report I take you finished my journey as a consultant from the beginning of the thrust till its conclusion flavor at the various(a) problems I face and how I overcame them, the skills I learnt, my strongest motivation, how we highly- substantial team capabilities and fin ally the ending of the put. This was adept of earliest projects that were posted on blackboard which I applied for, and was successful in proclaiming an internship later onwards an call into question with Fostering Solutions at Manchester line of reasoning School. It was a special feeling as I had a chance to perish for a foreign troupe and this would subsequently add commend adequate to(p) strength to my resume.The BeginningThe prospect of working on a live project as a consultant evoked nap of excitement. For me the nigh signifi undersidet brass of the project was my fortune to inculcate the theories and types I learnt in class to the corporate world. Having do my Bachelors in Management studies and currently pursuing a Post graduation in Business Analysis, this was the perfect opportunity for me to utilize my skills and relate to the breedings from the classroom. Most significantly having the knowledge and sympathy of business baffles which I studied in the Analysing companies faculty at Manchester Business School helped me a lot. Though, this was possible only beca intent I was able to follow up those drivements in my internship project.The beginning was challenging because this was a impertinent diligence to me and we were unfamiliar with the cin one casept of cling toing. I had to start from scratch by learning the entertaining basics, the manufacture mechanics followed by the current scenario of the market. This was qualifying to be the foundation of the project and a place factor to its success. separately this had to be done in a short span of clock snip because I needed to get a head start in the project.2.1 Day 1In our jump base take ining with the customer at Fostering Solutions Ltd, we were introduced as external consultants to all the members of staff in contrastive departments. My first observatio n or so the company was its judicatureal finis. I noticed that the organisational culture was of the role culture type, in which the organisation is split up into various functions and separately individual is responsible for a particular duty. (Learn management, 2010) We were presumption a designing ab place the project, the companys background and the sustaining effort in general. I learnt that Michelle Sloan would be supervising me for my part of the project at the company. My first pattern ab forth Michelle was that she is a friendly and easy going person. I was concurn authority and freedom to work in any method comfortable to me. Her style of leadership was participative, since she would flag me freedom and authority to work in my own counselling although she would check and double check my work to prise its suitability. We were presented a red folder containing inspection reports of disparate offices of cherishing solutions, flesh let on of Fostering Solutio ns offices, contact details and a survey that was conducted on further solicituders named as Foster Carer Viewpoints. This was the first significant aspect of my learning puzzle out to suffer out a competition summary, this was regarding an inspection carried out by an organisation named Ofsted on independent agencies known as Ofsted Ratings. I learnt that Ofsted grades is one way to assess antagonists.The motivationI was strongly motivated by the fact that Fostering Solutions were going to take our get holdings and digest very(prenominal) seriously. afterward our supervisory program prof Kurt un depressed highlighting the fact that Fostering Solutions una the like separate big company internship project would analyse our recommendations meticulously and implement a few key ones. Knowing I had an opportunity to arrest a difference to an organisation was a big driving thrust for me. In addition to this I acknowledged to the fact that I was working for a social cause o f helping overcome the shortage of sustain carers in United Kingdom to the increase in the number of children in care with local administration. My insureings would help Fostering Solutions to recruit better and much than(prenominal) foster carers and in turn help a number of children find homes and family.The Learning processIn this portion I reflect upon the learning process with respect to this internship project. I illustrate the gradual progress I made towards completion of the project successfully, on that point were learnings and knowledge gain at every level. The learning process began with showing the foster carer approval process. apprehension this process was very complex and was a ticklish task. As the project progressed I realised I cannot compare the approval process or the number of foster carers approved mingled with different rivals because they would not reveal such key tuition to me. There was no other effect to find the information each. However meeting this process helped me understand that for a breeding agency it is critical that the right state register their sign interest with the agency. This was the first step to recruiting foster carers. Therefore, much the number of equal applications received more will be the foster carers approved. The learning process come upd with arrangement the Fostering industry business personate. Learning and understanding the business model was key to transmit out an efficient contest analysis. commutative agencies like Fostering Solutions recruit and approve foster carers, and rank them with children provided by local authority. The Independent agency charges the local authority for this and pays the foster carer remuneration for their carer service. Shown below is my understanding and reflection about the foster industry business model.My Understanding of the Fostering Industry Business deterrent exampleFor determine an organisations success in todays highly competitive a nd complex environment, the business model is the well-nigh significant withall. I soundless that for any company to constitute in this industry it has to recruit foster carers. Subsequently, I learnt more and more about the company, the industry and how things work in general with each passage week. One of the key learnings was when I realised that the local authority runs this industry and is a key ingredient of the business model. This understanding was essential for me to carry out my competitor analysis. After this the most significant aspect was to tip out the key issues involved in recruiting foster carers. I understood that different people had different motivations to choose fostering. They are 1. For the sole blueprint of fostering. 2. For the purpose of fostering and the fiscal interest in the renderjustment they would get. 3. They could be interested in adoption plainly first would like to foster the child and adopt at a later demonstrate.After this I began th e selective information collection process by assembling info regarding the industry to write a brief description and the challenges it is facing. By doing so, I learnt that there was a shortage of foster carers in the industry and an increase in the number of children coming into care. I learnt that the government of the United Kingdom were face to reduce spending on Fostering in the coming old age and this was a major threat to the fostering industry. By the end of June after consulting with Michelle, Fostering Solutions, we short listed nine companies on whom I would be register reports which would shed light on how these firms compete with Fostering Solutions in the market. On doing further analysis to understand the factors which clarified how these firms compete with Fostering Solutions, I came up with criteria on which they would be compared and analysed, these criteria included turnover, profit margin, number of employees, location, foster carer allowance paid, go prov ided, placement provided and Ofsted ratings. On carrying out a through analysis of these factors would enable me to gain an understanding of the positioning of these companies in the market. The learning process reached its peak when I could prepare a framework for my project report as shown below.Framework of the competitor analysisWorking in teamsThere were snips when I had to inherit the qualities or role of a leader, friend, colleague and subordinate while working as a part of a team. Good team leadership is to create conditions which would allow thoughts, ideas and people to succeed, by coming together and with a flow in the performance. When in pursuit of challenging team goals one can encourage in force(p) teamwork by balancing peoples strengths with building good relationships. I enjoyed working with this team. The team would meet twice a week to discuss our parts and understand the progress each one of us was making. We would go to the office to meet with the invitee twi ce a week till the middle of July.The difficulties I set about in working in this team were communicating with Li who is Chinese and has a funny English phrase. Similarly, she would curb found our accent funny and would put one over found it a midget difficult to nail an understanding in one conversation. There were numerous occasions most recently today itself when I had to ask her to repeat her suggestion on the recommendation because I could not understand her English in the first attempt. Despite the cultural and geographical differences, it was an enkindle experience working with a person from another country. I altered my method of working and communicating with the dynamics of the team. I believe this would be a key essential for my future prospects when I work in an organisation. It is very important to adjust and settle down in accordance with the dynamics of the team you are working with. Despite our differences, we were a team that worked together, fought the dif ficulties and appreciated each others work. (Lawford, 2003)We overlap work in such a way that every member could use his/her strengths to attain the needful goal and not fox to work on tasks which required skills which may be deficient. By doing this we increased the productivity of the team and the team morale. An interpreter could be that I was good at making charts and compiling the whole report, whereas Li was good at the editing work and establishment reading and accordingly we distributed the tasks to achieve proper synergy.An example of our progress as a team with reference to the Tuckmans Team ModelTuckmans Stages of Team Development Tuckmans model gives an understanding of how a newly create team gradually develops maturity, ability and the establishment of relationships within the team members. From the Forming introduce where the team comes together for the first quantify through 4 different ramifications the team goes through a series of changes and ultimately performs as a team and works towards achieving its goalsForming coiffure Formation of the teamTuckmans model explainsIn this stage the team has been assembled and tasks are allocated among members. Team members pretend to get on with each other but they might not trust each other imputable to not knowing each other sound enough. At this stage I felt it was important to bring the free radical together and work on our goals. It was important that we established our roles and this stage was a period of high learning. It is a stage where I learnt about beliefs, attitudes and notice the behaviour of my team members. Such things gave me an idea to understand these individuals and thus understand the assembly dynamics which were going to be formed.StormingTuckmans model explainsIn this stage the team members strive to get down with the issues and ways to achieving them. At this stage, it is judge that arguments and tempers will flare. We did have a lot of arguments regarding each ot hers report analysis and findings. The arguments occurred on topics such as format of the reports, whose part should come first and also the word count. As mentioned above, the incident where I named a accuse wrongly had led to arguments. Sometimes teams can become stuck in this kind for a long time due to persistent arguments and problems. At this stage the most important thing is to listen to each other, there was a need to create a positive vibe in the group and appreciate each others work. There was a necessity to set tasks and passing play along with the team towards the next step. so a belief of yes we can was needed to make the transfer to the next stage.NormingstageTuckmans model explainsThis as the stage where the team members get used to the working ways of each other and develop trust and strive for team productivity. In this class teams begin to work as a cohesive unit believe each other. Li and Mani were aware that I work through the darkness and sleep early in t he morning right upto 11 a.m. thereof we used to schedule some meetings for 1p.m. or later. Mani and I took a little longer to finish our sections of the report because we had a tough time acquiring the info we needed from secondary sources. Li understood and appreciated this difficulty. We had developed an understanding of exactly what was going on in each others section of report. It is highly important to self evaluate and communicate in effect at this stage. We shared responsibility by delegating tasks to be completed between the three of us. The risk at this stage was that the team could become contented and lose its creativity or driving force that is required to achieve success in its goals. Our team did not lose its focus we unbroken working towards a common goal and took the step towards the net stage of our project.PerformingstageTuckmans model explainsThis is a stage where the team is on the whole committed and strives towards a common goal. This is the final stage of the team where it focuses in finishing the tasks it set out and adjourning. Once we finished individual parts of group report, we met regularly at Manchester Business School to discuss the draw between the 3 parts. At this stage individuals in the team are highly motivated for the success of the team wasting little time with high trust on one another. We proof-read each others work and thoroughly examined each others recommendations, sometimes through discussions, onward coming to a consensus. It is key to note that a team according to tuckmans model can hand to an earlier level if there is a change, for instance a criticism of the recommendations or the report or if a team member leaves prematurely.Difficulties approach and How I Overcame ThemAt the outset of this Internship project I faced plenty of difficulties. In this section I reflect on the difficulties that I faced and what I did to overcome them. The beginning period was very tough for me from a personal point of v iew. My Father had a heart problem during whitethorn end/June start. I could not concentrate on my work and kept thinking about how things would be back home and worrying. It was an emotional and nerve-wracking beginning. At such time, there is no way to find out if your family is telling you the truth about the situation or otherwise. This makes things all the more difficult. It took me about ten to fourteen days to get back to convening self and believe that everything was alright. Nevertheless, this incident motivated me a lot to give it my dress hat shot. I worked harder than ever to make my parents proud of me.6.1 caper re declaration modelThis problem solving model was adapted by me from the viii disciplines problem solving method. (David Bruce, 2010) I reflect on different problems I faced during the project and how I used this model to find a solution to those problems.Lack of DataDuring the early days of the project I had a tough time because I was reading information that had nothing to do with competitor analysis. Such was the vast personality of information provided to me about Fostering Solutions. I was given a number of books on fostering, care and training methods, which I read and found out, had nothing to do with my competitor analysis. A lot of precious time was wasted in going through contrasted entropy. Often in explore projects consultants could spend time reading, researching information that are of no use in the research but still have to be read and assessed to find out its use in future analysis. When analysing this problem with respect to the model I reason out the best option would be to create a framework and backdrop for my research. By doing so I exactly understood the data I was required to collect and carry out further analysis.I got all the data regarding Fostering Solutions from the company. However getting information about competitors to pioneer a competitor analysis was a challenging task. Getting the monetar y data such as turnover, profit margin proved to a job in itself. During a meeting with Dr. Kurt, he suggested FAME database and it worked. The data for 8 companies out of 9 was forthcoming but TACT organism a charity organisation there was no data. Another problem was that for orange Grove (now taken over by Hillcrest Foster Care) and SWIIS the pecuniary information available was only for the year 2008 and not 2009. But the data for other companies was available as per our requirement. The research could have been better had I got the required yearly reports of these companies. I overcame this difficulty by considering the options to counter this problem. I selected the best suitable option which would be to conduct a comparison of these companies on data that I had such as services provided or foster carer allowance. In this way I used my problem solving model and heady to concentrate on the data I possessed to continue my competitor analysis, rather than getting demotivated a bout the unavailable data.Similarly, getting data regarding the foster carer allowance was a hurdle. This information is important as it provides perceptiveness into who provides the best allowance to the foster carers and where Fostering Solutions stands in comparison. The hindrances I faced during this task were immense. This data for many competitors was not available directly it was either hidden in the services page or FAQs section. By The twosome did not divulge this information as it was not present on their website, but only in their brochure which they wont send out unless an initial application was filled. I went to the step 2 of my problem solving model and tried a few options to find out this data. I tried calling fostering companies on my radar and acting like a person who was interested in foster care and asked for rag to their annual reports, brochure and foster carer allowance. I was told there was no access to annual reports and for brochure I would be required t o fill in an application form. Later, I decided to try calling them saying I was a Manchester Business School postgraduate student and wanted their brochure, annual report of 2009 or 2008 as I am doing a research project on fostering industry. Even this trick did not work as they outsmarted me. The person I spoke to told me to forward my research project plan and key objectives and then only they will send this information. I could obviously not send this because the research objective was a competitor analysis for the benefit of Fostering Solutions. Thus, foster carer allowance for By The duo and TACT could not be found out after exploring the options stage. Hence I went to step 3 of the problem solving model and decided to compare these companies on other key factors such as size, turnover, ofsted ratings and services provided.Similarly, there was no data available regarding number of children situated by each of the competing companies. It would have been very helpful and inter esting if I could have got data regarding children set by each of 9 competitors. There was data available only regarding total children placed by all the Independent agencies and local governance. I have included the resembling in the competitor analysis, but there was no data available on children placed by each competitor.Vast nature of the projectThe vast nature of the project and short span of time of 3 months to complete was a hindrance. According to our Academic supervisor Prof Kurt this project could have been carried out as a PhD for a three year term, such was its good scope. I had 4000 to 6000 words to present and analyse data, compare the 9 companies to fostering solutions and come up with how they compete with them. This was always going to be too short to compile reports on these companies, write down my analysis, analysis regarding financial data, compile findings/comparison for each company to fostering solutions and lastly recommendations. I progressed to step 2 of the problem solving model and explored my options. Then I selected the suitable option of presenting some of the important data in the adjunct and decided to strictly following the framework I had set out for the project and restricting myself to only presenting analysis and information that was key and omitting irrelevant data.Skills Utilized, skills I Lacked and Skills AcquiredSkills UtilizedSkills I utilized to successful completion of the projectIt is extremely crucial that a consultant has a complete understanding of the project requirement. I achieved this by breaking down the project into smooth elements and developed my understanding of the requirement of my client. This was done by discussing the project brief in detail with Fostering Solutions and Prof Kurt. Having applied this skill effectively I now feel I would be able to carry this experience on to future appellations I receive at my workplace.Secondly, having broken down the project into tasks I utilized my con fabulation skills to keep the client informed about my progress in the report. I used the 7 Cs of communication clarity, confidence, comprehensive, concise, conviction, comfort and charisma to effectively communicate throughout the project.(Leslie, 2010) Having good communication skills helped me massively because this being a team project, there were three lines of communication. Firstly with the client, secondly with my team and thirdly with my academician supervisor Prof Kurt. Hence, to avoid confusion it was important to see that everyone was on the same wavelength. This was achieved by arranging a meeting between the company supervisors and our academic supervisor, Prof. Kurt. We agreed that all communication regarding meeting with our academic supervisor would be handled by Mani Shankar. I would be reporting directly to Michelle at Fostering Solutions and emailing Prof Kurt regularly regarding the progress of my report. We had a number of meetings at Manchester Business Schoo l and Fostering Solutions to discuss the progress of the project. Once the channels of communication were established early in the project, I had no problems working on the report and communicating with both the supervisors. Thirdly, I needed to be a good analyst to successfully progress in this report. Prof. Kurt gave me a incite in the right direction by suggesting FAME database to me to look for financial data of companies that are available. Once this was done, competitors were assessed and compared with Fostering Solutions on turnover, profit margin, foster carer allowance paid, services provided and placements provided. This required a lot of data collection most of which was secondary and required a lot of analysis to find out exactly how they competed with Fostering Solutions in the market.Having analysed data on each competitor I discussed it with Michelle and Prof Kurt and got their feedback on the same. I found out an interesting statistics at fostering.net. From this fi le I found out that local authorities were always going to be big competitors with independent agencies in this industry. They had placed more children, recruited more foster carers and received more applications than the independent fostering agencies across the UK. This was the first analysis I had conducted. Showing it and proving it in meetings at MBS with the supervisors and again at Fostering Solutions gave me a lot of confidence. I started believing in my abilities to succeed in this challenging project and provide a lasting contribution to the success of Fostering Solutions. I found it difficult and challenging to collect the data required in order to carry out my analysis. FAME provided limited information and financial data for some companies were available only for the year 2008. There was no other way to find out the information I needed. I overcame this problem by equivalence and doing my analysis for these companies on other variables such as foster carer allowance an d services provided. Belief in my abilities grew when I discovered that local authorities had recruited, placed more children and received more applications than independent agencies and proved it with indorse in a meeting at Fostering Solutions. I conducted my analysis on turnovers, foster carer allowance, services provided and the locations of the competitors. This understanding was essential for me to come up with important observations regarding how the competitors compete with Fostering Solutions. Thus, in this way I excelled in using my analytical skills.Skills that I developed during this internship were my planning, organisational skills and time management. If I had to be successful in this project it was essential for me to plan and organise tasks forward executing them. I believe I did this efficiently. One thing I would like to highlight and criticise myself is it took me a while to get a head start Prof. Kurt and Michelle were extremely understandable, patient and hel pful. This report could have been better if I had made a better start and I am critical about this issue. Though, the effort that has been put in is the same as I worked longer hours at a stretch when the real assignment began. I efficiently planned the time schedule for understanding the industry, data collection, analysis and writing the report. After analysing the data I would discuss it with Michelle. She would give her feedback and I would incorporate the completed data and analysis in my indite report. As planned I completed writing my report before August 22nd 2010. Hence I believe that I have developed good planning and organising skills because without them I would not have been able to complete this project within the time duration especially after the slow start that I had.One skill I lacked due to my inexperience of working on a project of such order of magnitude was show skills with respect to formatting and presenting a management report. This was the first time I ha d worked as a consultant for a company. I had no idea about how to present a report of such magnitude. Prof Kurt in one of our final meetings was critical about the way I had presented and written my report. My report gulping had a shabby presentation with parts in bold, unnecessary paragraphs and some parts underlined unnecessarily. Prof Kurt showed me the right way and guided me to prepare the report and present it in a more professional and readable way. He taught me that presentation is a key aspect in report writing and all the hard work done could be undone by a shabby presentation. He gave us ideas to make the report look good and interesting to the reader.AIDA Model attendance Interest Desire Action I learnt that a good presentation of the report is a must because firstly it will capture the guardianship of the reader and generate an interest in the material. After which the reader would develop a desire to read it. These lessons will remain with me for the rest of my l ook and in future when I work for a company and have to present a consulting report I would reflect upon these lessons Prof Kurt enlighten upon me. (Aida, 2010)Working with Fostering Solutions The ClientFostering Solutions were supportive of this project. Michelle my supervisor was very excited about the whole project from the start. She was very friendly, supportive to me during the duration of the project. I was given a lot of freedom to choose whether to go and work from the office or working from my home/business give lessons library. Michelle could not give me proper feedback because my report was in bits and pieces and in draft format till start of first week of August. But once I sent her the report in full, she helped me edit and also proof read given data analysis for me. Once I submitted my final draft to her, she was very happy with it and gave me her feedback. Michele and Prof Kurt appreciated my effort inspite of the challenges I faced such as lack of data, time cons traints, word constraints to conduct a competitor analysis. Michele presented my findings, analysis and recommendations to the director of Fostering Solutions who requested for the FAME financial data to be put in the appendix, and congratulated me for my good work.In my recommendations to the client I adopted a diplomatic method to avoid being too critical or too polite. Michele was critical about a few of my recommendations at first, but once we debated the issues involved she realised that I had raised valid arguments. My responsibility was to recommend ways in which Fostering Solutions could compete in a better way in the market with respect to competitors. Hence I had to find out and raise concerns in the current working methods/strategy of Fostering Solutions in comparison with its competitors. This had to be done with care due to sensitivity of the issue involved, no organisation would like to hear or accept their faults or limitations. Thus I had to structure my recommendati ons in such a way that it would be read and accepted by the client. The reason being unless they are accepted with an spread mind there is no chance of it being implemented by the organisation.Self valuation modelFollowing is a self evaluation model in which I assess the utilization of skills in this internship project using a coordinate diagram.X axis Skills to be evaluated1 Planning and organising tasks2- Communication skills3- Analytical4 Problem solving skills5- intromission skills with respect to formatting, editing.6- Team work7- CreativityY axis Perfomance rating1 Poor 2 tolerable 3 Good 4 ExcellentSelf evaluation modelExcellent 4- (1, 4) (3, 4) (6, 4)Good 3- (2, 3) (4, 3)Satisfactory 2 (5, 2) (7, 2)Poor 1-0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7Skills to be evaluatedCoordinates and evaluation using the coordinates model(1, 4) Planning and organising skills Excellent(2, 3) Communication skills Good(3, 4) Analytical skills Good(4, 3) Problem solving skills Good(5, 2) Presentation skills with respect to formatting and editing, presentation of work has to be improved -Satisfact