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My Latest Sport Marketing Research Reports

Ipsem Blogging Team — Thu, 20 Jan 2022 10:31:30 +0000

Hi there! My intention now is to give you an update on my latest projects. As of September 2021, I’ve started the MSc Football Communications and Digital Marketing at the Global Institute of Sport (GIS/UCFB) which is part of the University of East London. The first semester went well, I completed all of my reports at distinction.

Wanting to share this success with you guys, I decided to share my five research reports below.

Evaluating Fan Engagement

This is an analysis of the glocal fan engagement landscape and an appraisal of novel fan engagement approaches.

Evaluating Fan Engagement

2. Digital Marketing for Football

An exploration of digital disruption and an evaluation and comparison of traditional- and digital marketing.

Digital Marketing

3. Fan Engagement: Chelsea FC Social Network Analysis

An assessment of fan engagement impact accompanied by an evaluation of engagement opportunities for Chelsea FC. This is all based on social network and content analyses.

Chelsea Fan Engagement Assessment

4. Digital Marketing Opportunities for Birmingham City Football Club

This report appraises the application of CRM, AI, and SEM as potential digital marketing approaches for Birmingham City Football Club.

Digital Marketing for Football Assessment

5. Global Sport Leadership: Personality and Reflection

This basically is my personality analysis, which is then used to evaluate my leadership capabilities and industry-related skills. This is ultimately used to create a PDP (Personal Development Plan) aimed to achieve my goals.

Global Sport Leadership: Personality and Reflection

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Are online communities an expression of loneliness?

Ipsem Blogging Team — Fri, 16 Oct 2020 11:13:37 +0000

I do not think it is that simple, online communities can’t only be an expression of loneliness, there must be more to them…

As a student of commerce, I can’t help but realise that the word ‘online community’ keeps popping up in the hallways and job application forms. But why online communities? What are they? What effect do they have? Which problems/challenges can they help with? And who should be building or having an online community these days?

Since I do not have the answers to the above above-noted questions, I decided to take a deeper delve into online communities.

In trusting the Cambridge Dictionary, an ‘online community’ should be defined as “a group of people who use a particular internet service or belong to a particular group on the internet” (Cambridge Dictionary, 2020). These groups of individuals on the internet can have an impact on your business according to Michael Cohn (Cohn, 2020, p. 1). He adds that it is his believe that social communities succeed because people are attracted to them since we humans naturally are social animals. He further describes this by saying that people “are comfortable in groups and feed off of each other’s energy and they like to bounce ideas off of each other (among other things) (Cohn, 2020, p. 1). So regardless of their digital focus, people are going to nevertheless be drawn to online communities.

Research found that there generally exist two types of communities, social media communities and branded communities (Ahern, et al., 2019, p. 2). Both are defined as follows:

– Branded communities: “a brand community is a group of customers who are invested in a brand beyond what is being sold. These customers want to become a part of the brand itself” (Peckover, 2019). Brand communities don’t increase brand awareness, the people in these communities are already possess a sense of brand loyalty.

– Social media communities: “are online properties in which members relate common experiences and interests” (Douma, 2007). 3 types of social media communities exist. They are defined per reason to join. Accordingly, there are:

1. Communities of Interest: involves subjects that people find interesting.

2. Communities of Task: focus on peer-to-peer reviews. People who are looking to fulfull a specific goal often visit these communities to connect with credible advocates to find information they need. Communities of task should be of interest to the company wanting to sway purchase intention during the research phase of the consumer funnel.

3. Communities of Vocation: a perfect example of this type of community is LinkedIn.com. It focusses on professional connections with specific vocational needs. These professional communities tend to be ‘templated’ in nature, offering rules and boundaries of communication and focused discussion” (Douma, 2007).

Many businesses have trouble increasing customer engagement, improving the customer experience, and increasing awareness to have people know the brand (Ahern, et al., 2019, p. 58). Ahern conducted research proving the following, “an online community can help organizations to improve engagement by up to 21%; 82% of the research respondents said that their online community has helped to improve their customer experience; and 57% of those with a branded community said that the community has led to an increased SEO” (Ahern, et al., 2019, p. 59). In assuming that an improvement of the SEO increases awareness, online communities do seem to help businesses to solve the beforementioned problems.

With regards to branded and social media communities the following was concluded in research, “branded communities are 13% more likely to have an impact on customer experience than social media communities; branded communities also are 21% more likely to see an increase in brand SEO than social media communities; branded communities are 16% more likely to successfully foster brand loyalty that social media communities; and branded communities reporter higher levels of success overall than social media communities, based on our analysis of community purpose category averages” (Ahern, et al., 2019, p. 59). The branded communities do seem to work more effectively than social media communities.

I believe that ultimately, engagement I the key in online communities and that loyal customers activate less loyal ones. This should in my opinion concisely be integrated into the customer journey map. Regarding engagement in online communities, Michael Cohn stated that “being engaged and engaging is essential”, He further added that “you need people to eventually buy what you are selling. For that reason, online social communities work well for many things, including giving each other what the other wants and needs. You want your relationship to be mutually beneficial. Just like everything else, relationships are at the heart of successful online social communities” (Cohn, 2020, p. 2)

The future of online communities is uncertain; however, some researchers have a clear idea of where it is headed. According to Shannon Abram, “this year, online communities and digital engagement are taking on dramatic new relevance. We have made considerable progress in translating the generative business model of communities into financial benchmarks, which are critical for organizations as they consider using community approaches to transform their organizations” (Abram, 2020). To end this blog, I am going to say that I agree with Shannon. I also believe that we will eventually transform our business models and organisations so that our communities can flourish. Which is pretty much the opposite of how online communities are used today.

Bibliography

Abram, S. (2020). thecr-connect/connect-2020-changing-the-way-we-work/. Retrieved from communityroundtable.com: https://communityroundtable.com/thecr-connect/connect-2020-changing-the-way-we-work/

Ahern, P., Brenner, M., Millington, R., Speyer, A., Robinson-Yu, S., & Rosa, J. (2019). Online Communities The Benefits and Impacts on Organizations 2019. Montreal: Vanilla Online community Forum.

Cambridge Dictionary. (2020). dictionary/english/online-community. Retrieved from https://dictionary.cambridge.org: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/online-community

Cohn, M. (2020). The Impact of Online Social Communities on Your Business. Kinnelon: CompuKol Communications LLC. Retrieved from https://www.compukol.com: https://www.compukol.com/the-impact-of-online-social-communities-on-business/

Douma, C. (2007, November 20). content/3-types-social-media-communities. Retrieved from https://www.socialmediatoday.com: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/3-types-social-media-communities

Peckover, T. (2019). what-is-a-brand-community/. Retrieved from https://blog.smile.io/: https://blog.smile.io/what-is-a-brand-community/

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Can We Utilize The Coronavirus Bear Market?

Ipsem Blogging Team — Sat, 02 May 2020 08:51:04 +0000

The COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly affected almost all businesses as well as people’s lives so far this year. Especially companies in leisure, hospitality, and nearly all physical contact disciplines seem to suffer most. Besides, suppliers appear unable to produce goods due to closed factories in China, Europe, or the USA.

As the virus is obliterating the global economy as we know it, investors in stock markets such as FTSE have seen their fund decrease with at least 20 per cent. The decline of the overall market and FTSE index seems to lead us into a bear market.

For investors who are watching the stock markets, surviving the Coronavirus bear market is crucial. Founder of fund management group Liontrust John Husselbee evens said that “there are moments in horror movies when you might not only cover your eyes but also forget it is only a film and you will soon be back in the real world. On occasions, investors can get the same feeling when watching stock markets” (Husselbee, John ‘Liontrust’ 03/2020). In my opinion, this describes the fear many stock investors probably feel since March 2020.

However, is there a way to invest while the Coronavirus pandemic keeps us under lockdown? According to financial and investing company The Motley Fool’s report on bear markets, one can turn the uncertainty of the present-day stock market to their advantage.

Harvey Jones, Motley Fool UK contributor, provides five key steps that investors take into account:

1. Refrain from selling your shares

Seeing a portfolio shifting red is never a pleasant feeling; however, you shouldn’t sell your shares. “You haven’t actually lost anything yet. That will only happen if you lose your head and start panic-selling, which will turn your paper losses into the real thing” (Jones, Harvey, The Bear Market Survival Guide, 08/04/2020). Their first point of advice is not to sell.

They provide the argument that “the golden rule of investing is to ‘buy low and sell high’. If you sell during a correction or a bear market, you may be selling low, and nobody wants to do that” (Jones, Harvey, The Bear Market Survival Guide, 08/04/2020). In the long term, share prices could become more expensive than they are now. Therefore, you might regret selling at this point of economic decline.

2. Keep a pot of cash ready

The Motley Fool’s perspective shares the belief that stocks and shares are the best places for long-term savings. But what is defined as the long-term? They consider two years, not long enough. Planned expenses and significant spending commitments within two years should, according to Harvey Jones, be kept safe and in cash.

3. Shop for bargains

Share discounts have never been higher! As shares are falling, investors panic and stop buying them. “What happens is that fear takes over. Investors are paralysed, and miss their chance” (Jones, Harvey, The Bear Market Survival Guide, 08/04/2020). That fear sounds very recognisable for me; the feeling of an uncertain future is terrifying. However, the ‘Survival Guide’ says that there is a way to limit the danger.

“Instead of putting all your money into the market at once, you could drip-feed it in” (Jones, Harvey, The Bear Market Survival Guide, 08/04/2020). This idea appeals to me. It suggests that every time the index is down, one should slightly upscale investments while almost everyone is selling. In the perfect world, you start investing at the exact bottom of the market so that the value of your shares and assets grows most efficiently. Unfortunately, it is tough to tell when markets will improve. Therefore, scaling up in small bits and buying in discounts can be beneficial.

4. Strike the right balance

According to the Motley Fool report, a bear market offers the chance to sell top performers and buy underperformers. “A bear market could, therefore, be a good time to rebalance your asset allocation, while taking advantage of lower stock prices” (Jones, Harvey, The Bear Market Survival Guide, 08/04/2020).

5. Look to the long term

Bear markets usually don’t last as long as bull markets. Nevertheless, they are still part of the stock market world, and an aspect investor must find a way to deal with.

Harvey Jones puts it nicely, “Volatility is the price you pay for the greater long-term potential of investing real-world business that is subject to the economic cycle”. His claim makes perfect sense to me, market forces like government, international transactions, supply and demand, and expectations are unpredictable, flexible and volatile.

The report advises holding onto already done investments and bargain for potential openings, as opposed to fearing the bear market from a short-term perspective.

What are your thoughts, experiences, and ideas on investing during the Coronavirus pandemic?

Sources:

Jones, Harvey | The Bear Market Survival Guide | 08/04/2020 | https://www.fool.co.uk/special-free-report/the-bear-market-survival-guide/?source=uuksppcl10000008
Husselbee, John | Liontrus | 03/2020) | https://www.liontrust.co.uk/what-we-think/blogs/surviving-the-coronavirus-bear-market-lessons-from-history

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The 10 Things That Keep Me Sane While Working From Home

Ipsem Blogging Team — Sat, 25 Apr 2020 08:52:37 +0000

Hope you are all well during this lockdown. Today I want to share with you the ten things I do every week to stay sane during this time of distancing and despair.

I live in a small student flat and spend my lockdown days working as an intern for a sports marketing agency from home. Additionally, I pursue social media/market analysis, as well as various private projects for university research. Altogether these work activities cover roughly 45 hours per week.

It is easy drowning in one’s work or entering an unhealthy lifestyle while sitting on your room all day. To remain healthy, balanced, and mentally sound, I devoted myself to the following habits and activities:

1. Start with passion

I like to start my quarantine days with breakfast, followed by blog-writing and platform building. Writing and building things that I feel genuinely passionate about always feels like the correct take-off. Life is too short to spend the entire day working on analytics and marketing reports, even while in lockdown.

2. Take regular and varied breaks from work

Allow for a wide variety of breaks; in my case, they are reading, walking, running, fitness, and cleaning. I would have a break after every 45 minutes of working. If I work longer than 45 minutes, I extend the break. Combining activities in one pause works well. I would, for example, walk past the Thames, read from twenty minutes, and call a friend as I walk back.

3. Facetime with friends, family, colleagues, and teachers at least twice a week

Use Facetime, Zoom, Skype, and other telecommunication apps to stay connected to society. On the one hand, these platforms offer the benefit of conference calls which facilitate corporate meetings during the lockdown. On the other hand, I use them as a tool to connect to society. Being able to conversate with family and friends lessen loneliness for me. You can even do a pub quiz with your best mates.

4. Refrain from drinking alcohol on weekdays

It may be tempting in the beginning, but I would not recommend drinking alcohol on weekdays. If I drink, it will solely on Saturday or Sunday. Since we are always at home now, this is the one way to differentiate the weekend from the workweek.

5. Fruit

The daily fruit break is vital for me. I eat two pieces of fruit at 4 pm. It’s is merely a consistent and healthy break from my work.

6. Expand, practice, and improve cooking skills

Developing your culinary capacity is, in my opinion, an opportunity since we spend much time at home these days. Also, I believe cooking should be an exciting aspect of student life anyway. It is part of becoming more independent from your parents.

7. Make sure not to look on the news too often

Keeping abreast of the latest lockdown measures implemented by the government is smart. But in the beginning, I was looking at the news the entire day. Keeping the bingo card of the number of deaths across the world is not beneficial in my experience, mainly because we can’t influence or control these figures at all.

8. Reading before sleeping

Reading helps me relax and thus sleep; I prefer to sleep at least 8 hours so that I can effectively work on my projects. It helps me raising productivity every day.

9. Roommate chats

I live in a house with three other students. We don’t get too close to each other because of the virus. However, in the common spaces, we daily see each other. Having short talks and making sure everyone is doing fine is a beautiful piece of conversation we still have.

10. Build something

No matter what it is. Just start building, designing, drawing, and conceptualizing ideas you never had the time for before. It helps me to stay sane and keeps my mind focused on things that I can control. As these newly built projects progress, you are going to start caring more and more about them. Consequently, investing your time in making your ideas a reality – regardless of the format (digital, physical), and whether it contributes to the COVID-19 climate – suddenly becomes worth your valuable time.

These were the ten things I do to stay sane during the Coronavirus lockdown. Please let me know in the comment box what you are doing to get through this unique time.

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My Experience With Culture Shock in Japan

Ipsem Blogging Team — Mon, 20 Apr 2020 12:10:08 +0000

Steve Jobs ones said that “Coming back to America was, for me, was much more of a culture shock than going to India. The people in the Indian countryside don’t use their intellect like we do, they use their intuition instead, and their intuition is far more developed than in the rest of the world. Intuition is a very powerful thing, more powerful than intellect in my opinion. That’s had a big impact on my work.”

In 1974, the ex-CEO of Apple travelled to India and stayed there for seven months. He became a practitioner of Zen Buddhism. Furthermore, USA Today Reporter Daniel Burke even stated that Steve considered moving to Japan to maintain a lifelong appreciation of Zen.

Here is where I come in as a Dutch student of economics. In 2019, I moved to Japan to live and study for seven months. Steve Jobs’ experiences absolutely intrigued and inspired me to go abroad. However, my journey proved very unalike.

The culture shock I experienced when I first came to Japan, or Asia for that matter, lasted for about three weeks. During these weeks, I travelled the country and settled in my new home, Tokyo. Later I discovered much about Japanese culture, especially my part-time job as English teacher and the football allowed me to come close to locals.

Obviously, the Japanese culture is extremely different from the Netherlands. It felt as if the most distinctive and conflicting dissimilarities between the two cultures are physical or mental effects of the deeper norms and values. In Japan, the nature religion called Shinto is dominant. In short, the Japanese believe that nature and the natural world is an embodiment of divinity and therefore sacred. Nature religions are not “identifiable religions” such as Christianity.

An unambiguous example of the Japanese being appreciative toward nature would the moment just before eating. Japanese thank the Shinto spirits for the natural elements in the food by putting their hand palms together and saying “itadakimasu”. This literally means “I receive this food”. It also expresses thanks for whoever worked to prepare the meal.

I believe that Shinto is visible in certain aspects of daily life in Japan. For example, natural elements such as trees, rice field, fire, wind, or water are interwoven in the language and used to express unnatural things. The language definitely was the first major unfamiliar feature of Japanese culture that I had some trouble with and made me feel anxious. However, as you gain experiences and study the language, daily life becomes a lot more unproblematic. After seven months, I was even able to read quite a lot when walking the streets of Tokyo.

Japanese people bow a lot, not just as a greeting, also to thank someone or to show respect. I was part of the university football team, and given my Dutch point of view, one of the most bizarre occurrences during practise was that Japanese players would bow to thank the grass for forming the pitch upon which they played football.

During the first few weeks of acclimatization I certainly had to adapt my old lifestyle. Eating rice on a daily basis in order to save money, left driving traffic, wearing facemasks, and extreme punctuality were absolutely aspects I had to adjust my lifestyle to.

And some of these aspects come from the Shinto history. Cars drive left because years ago, the samurai (who also believed in Shinto) wore their swords on the left side. Driving left therefore prevented two warriors’ swords touching which meant fighting.

Altogether, the experience of adapting to a new culture will require uncomfortable situations. But ones you get passed the culture shock, incredible opportunities lie ahead. I like to see culture as an iceberg, and that you will only see the cultural aspects beneath the surface if you adapt, accept and endure through the culture shock. Wonderful adventures await.

Please let me know your opinion regarding this particular approach of ‘culture shock’ in the comment box below!

Resources:

– Steve Jobs https://www.azquotes.com/quote/1177613

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Why Culture Shock Helps Professionally

Ipsem Blogging Team — Sun, 19 Apr 2020 10:33:34 +0000

Imagine that there were 3.7 million students studying abroad in 2009, and that according to the Institute for Statistics this number increases yearly by 12%. The studying abroad adventure, regardless of your major, teaches students what it is like being drenched into a different culture.

What I can’t directly puzzle out however, is how this all positively affects their professional lives. So, I decided to take a deeper delve into this constantly recurring term I hear, culture shock.

Culture shock remains a familiar occurrence to many, it is mostly associated with long-term travel for work or studies. Such a ‘shock’ can for example be described as the feeling of anxiety or disorientation someone experiences when they are suddenly thrown into an unfamiliar culture, way of life, or sets of attitudes.

Anxiety experienced during a culture shock is normally the result of your new environment consisting of different people, another language, and a new way of life. Separation from family, friends, teachers, and other people that would normally help you may result in homesickness. My question, as before, how exactly does this help professionally? The answer, I found out later, lies within the academic approach of culture shock that separates the ‘shock’ into four phases.

The anthropologist to conclude that a culture shock exists of several phases was Kalervo Oberg. He introduced the following four phases of culture shock:

Honeymoon

In the first phase Kalervo Oberg assumes that the person entering the different culture is polite to other people. The newness of the culture, and its specific differences to the person’s home culture are often experienced as puzzling. You are carried by enthusiasm. Also, you still have fresh memories of your home culture.

Crisis

The second phase is the toughest. Someone can become disorientated or confused due to cultural differences between the new culture, and the one left behind. You realize that family and friends are no longer directly available to help you. Even the smallest issues may upset you in this phase. For example, some people become extremely alert when it comes to cleanliness. Feelings of anger and frustration are normal in this phase. You may start to realize how much you favour you home culture, especially compared to the new culture.

Recovery

As you become more experienced living in the new culture, empathizing with the locals becomes easier. You may start seeing multiple perspectives now, not only the one that you would previously stick to. Next the locals might even start endearing you into your new culture. Presumably, you will start to feel more relaxed. The familiarization with the culture that has derived from your growing experience makes it easier to confront situation or issues.

Adjustment

Adjustment to a new environment enables you to relate to locals. You can decode signals you received in society. Learning to accept and value the cultural differences is part of this final phase. Potential, self believe, and self-trust will prevail in approaching new challenges. Situation become more pleasurable as you approach them based on choices stemmed from your own values and experiences.

The Australian International Development Assistance Bureau even published a model that can be considered a visualization of the general culture shock trends. This model of often referred to as the “W-curve”.

Going through the above mentioned four phases will be individually experienced divergently. Ultimately it can provide four benefits that can professionally contribute:

Personal growth

During the culture shock, especially in phase 2, you may endure loneliness, rejection and feel incapable. This forces you to develop toughness, decisiveness and determination which may otherwise not have been required nor necessary. Important to realize is that this may only happen when you leave your comfort zone. As terrifying as it may be, exposing yourself to the uncomfortable may prove that you are more capable than you thought. Boosting self-esteem, which is valued in business.

New Language

As you are immersed into the new culture, it will force you to quickly learn the language. Given that language is connected to your brain and thoughts, it may provide perspectives resulting into original ideas. Besides, mastering a second language is an excellent method to distinguish yourself, particularly in an international job market.

International network

Since you got more used to the environment and the culture shock weakens in phase 3, you will have built up several relationships. This will be an international group of people holding contrasting perspectives on life and business due to unalike backgrounds. Being part of this network can help you develop a more open mind. Additionally, knowing people all across the globe may offer intercontinental job opportunities.

The way of the world

Experiencing the world from a different perspective, may change your perspective on stereotypes. People often realize that, despite the fact that everyone is unique, we try to achieve similar goals. Regardless of culture we all want a certain job and lovable friends and family. Despite differences in culture, we share the desire to live the best life realisable. Experiencing that you are not alone in the struggles of life may help working and dealing with the stress of life, work, or relationships.

Sources:

Verge Magazine | Muñoz, Dylan | 29-03-2013 | https://www.vergemagazine.com/work-abroad/blogs/980-5-reasons-why-experiencing-culture-shock-is-good-for-you.html

UKCISA writers | 02-09-2018 |https://www.ukcisa.org.uk/Information–Advice/Preparation-and-Arrival/Facing-culture-shock

Giambuzzi, Edoardo | 31-12-2015 | https://expathealth.org/health-advice/the-four-phases-of-culture-shock/

Sood, Suemedha | 26-09-2012 | http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20120926-the-statistics-of-studying-abroad

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The Final Days of Normal Life For Me

Ipsem Blogging Team — Tue, 14 Apr 2020 08:48:19 +0000

It was the 9th of March 2020, life in most parts of the world was normal, serene, calm and relatively uneventful. As I live in the UK, I must say that the people here started to slightly worry about the in China originated COVID-19 virus that started spreading and had reached Italy and several other European countries.

As the spread in Italy started to intensify, we knew that this virus was definitely going to hit Western Europe as well. Subsequently, our normal life ended, and lockdown measures were imposed. Nobody knowing when it would or will be lifted.

In the period just before the virus began its spread through Western Europe, I started working as an intern for a PR and sport marketing agency in London.

My main responsibility was to deliver monthly coverage reports for ten leading golf brands. Besides that, I focussed on online fan engagement and marketing, platform strategies, writing press releases and social media analysis.

The first day of the internship was obviously just an introduction. There were new colleagues, a new office which meant new software, and a new way of working I had to adjust to. Throughout the following four days, good guidance and mentoring quickly made me feel more familiar and comfortable with my tasks, the office, and the new way of working.

This first week absolutely felt like the week in which I had to prove myself. Therefore, I suggested two ideas.

Firstly, I was asked to research the Dutch golf market. I had to ascertain the leading media companies, retailers, brands, and other golf associations in the Netherlands. When I made the suggestion to create and distribute an online survey in order to obtain data concerning the Dutch golf market, the agency directly welcomed the idea and expressed their enthusiasm.

Secondly, I realized that the coverage reports I was creating were largely focussing on physical exposure, such as magazines for example. And on the one hand, this made sense because magazines are booming in the UK golf business, on the other hand, I was wondering what online opportunities there might be.

By delving deeper into the essence of coverage, considering it could mean in terms of competitive advantage, I discovered an effective, live, and easy-to-use tool called ‘Fanpage Karma’. The correct utilization of this tool enabled me to compare clients’ online platforms to their competitors’ platforms. The agency was again quite satisfied with the result and extra data-based coverage details that they could provide their client with.

The next week, all my colleagues started to work from home due to the rapidly spreading COVID-19 virus. On Monday and Tuesday, I actually still worked from the office because I preferred it to working from home. But eventually, as of Wednesday the 18th of March, I started to work on all my projects from home as well. The virus totally disrupted normal life in the UK, London suddenly equalled something close to a ghost town, and my internship experience was going to alter completely.

Please let me know your experiences during the final days of normal life before the COVID-19 virus forced governments to impose lockdown measures. Were you working like me, studying, or meeting friends?

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The Intern’s Dilemma

Ipsem Blogging Team — Sun, 12 Apr 2020 08:47:34 +0000

Internships, from my perspective, means that students are encouraged by a university to experience working for an in their particular field of study specialising company.

In my case, it is a five-month stretch, and I work for a sports marketing agency focussed on PR and branding for golf clients in particular.

Getting an internship position is often experienced by students as a rather stressful undertaking. They are talking to companies, basically selling yourself as a brand, providing reasons for them to hire you instead of someone else.

What I always liked about it is that students are encouraged to find ways that distinguish them from others. Besides, it is necessary given that many students aspire the same few positions in the beginning, ‘dream internships’ I call those.

Anyway, now that I sold myself as a brand and got the internship I wanted; a dilemma has appeared.

Both the company as well as my university require, expect, and want me to do different things

The company I am interning for wants me to create as much value for them as I can, especially since I am a low-cost employee. If I would not be here to work on administrative reports, then a more expensive employee would have to commit valuable time to the work I now cover.

Dissimilarly, the university requires me not just to comply with the responsibilities and task the company gave me. They expect me to delve deeper into platform/market analysis so that I, ultimately, present more relevant, data related, academic, and professional advice.

In my opinion, both the company and the university’s views on the internship are comprehensible. Nevertheless, it puts me daily in a position of choice, which I sometimes experience as a dilemma. On the one hand, I want to make the company happy, that is one of the primary purposes of being an intern.

On the other hand, I also understand that it is essential as a student to analyse the marketing and particular situations first before taking actions. Also reflecting on your choices, behaviour and sticking to facts to keep it academically seems logically of importance for interns.

Finding the right balance between contributing value and learning can be difficult. Most of the time, I am prioritising the company over the university as I am learning tonnes while executing my tasks.

I am curious about how other students confront this dilemma, especially in this time of crisis. Would you prioritize, the university or the company?

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Why Culture Shock Helps Professionally

Ipsem Blogging Team — Sat, 11 Apr 2020 08:47:06 +0000

Imagine that there were 3.7 million students studying abroad in 2009, and that according to the Institute for Statistics, this number has increases yearly by 12%. The studying abroad adventure, regardless of your major, teaches students what it is like being drenched into a different culture.

The anthropologist to conclude that a culture shock exists of several phases was Kalervo Oberg. He introduced the following four phases of culture shock:

1. Honeymoon

2. Crisis

3. Recovery

4. Adjustment

Adjustment to a new environment enables you to relate to locals. You can decode signals you received in society.

Learning to accept and value the cultural differences is part of this final phase. Potential, self believe, and self-trust prevail in approaching new challenges. Situation become more pleasurable as you approach them based on choices stemmed from your own values.

Going through these four phases will be individually experienced divergently. Ultimately it may provide four benefits that can professionally contribute:

1. Personal growth

2. New Language

3. International network

4. The way of the world

Sources:

Verge Magazine | Muñoz, Dylan | 29-03-2013 | https://www.vergemagazine.com/work-abroad/blogs/980-5-reasons-why-experiencing-culture-shock-is-good-for-you.html

UKCISA writers | 02-09-2018 |https://www.ukcisa.org.uk/Information–Advice/Preparation-and-Arrival/Facing-culture-shock

Giambuzzi, Edoardo | 31-12-2015 | https://expathealth.org/health-advice/the-four-phases-of-culture-shock/

Sood, Suemedha | 26-09-2012 | http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20120926-the-statistics-of-studying-abroad

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Culture and Diversity in Business

Ipsem Blogging Team — Tue, 31 Mar 2020 13:09:33 +0000

Given that we live in a globalizing world, cultural differences will collide more frequently. I believe that a study in cultural diversity is relevant because more businesses are entering the global market. And for this reason, “it is vital for businesses to understand that cultural differences can affect how they perform in the local markets they are targeting” (Day Translations, 2018).

In 1998, Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turneropbouwen published their book ‘Riding The Waves Of Culture’. It aims to dispel the idea that there would only be one way to manage cultural differences in business negotiations. The book claims that one should initially discover their own culture in relation to others, especially before doing business with other cultures. In my opinion, the book specifically divides seven aspects of cultural differences.

Upon reading about these cultural contrasts, I realized how important these are and will become as our world globalizes. Having a greater understanding of culture and knowing how to prepare for cultural differences in business negotiations I believe to be absolutely crucial.

After reading the book, the following five aspects fascinated me most:

Relationships and rules (universalist versus particularist)

Simply valuing sticking to the rules over one’s relationships or visa versa. “A universalist culture or behavior tends to be abstract. Try crossing the street when the light is red in a very rule-based society like Switzerland or Germany. Even if there is no traffic, you will still be frowned at” (Trompenaars & Hampden-Turner, 1997, p. 31). Reversely, the particularist would absolutely value a relationship over rules, such as traffic lights. “Particularist judgments focus on the exceptional nature of present circumstances. This person is not “a citizen” but my friend, brother, husband, child or person of unique importance to me, with special claims on my love or my hatred” (Trompenaars & Hampden-Turner, 1997, p. 31). And therefore, a particularist person would be of the opinion that exceptions and deviations should be made, regardless of the rules, in order to sustain, protect or discount a particular person.

In situations between two cultures where these two distinctly different dimensions are dominant, I believe societies will tend to think each other corrupt. For instance, the universalist would say that “they cannot be trusted because they will always help their friends” whereas a Particularist person would say “don’t trust them because they will not even help a friend”. Business negotiation is doomed to end in disaster if one does not prepare for these cultural contrasts.

The group and the individual (individualism versus communitarianism)

Individualism would be a person whose prime orientation is to the self, a group-oriented or communitarianism person is primarily focussed on common objectives. Individualism is often linked to modern society whereas communitarianism is linked to traditional societies. In promoting people, we particularly see the difference between these two cultural aspects. In individualism, one would promote employees based on the most recent achievements and pay-for-performance sounds therefore like a sensible rewarding system.

Communitarianism would not use the pay-for-performance system because doing a good job is seen as a team effort. Experienced and older people should be promoted before younger and recently successful staff members are. The pay-for-performance system will not likely be accepted in the communitarianism culture because individuals would no longer focus on common objectives.

In the case of a defect being discovered during installation caused by one member of the installation team. Communitarianism cultures such as Indonesia and Italy one will likely think “encourage individuals to work for consensus in the interest of the group” (Trompenaars & Hampden-Turner, 1997, p. 58). Therefore it was the group’s collective responsibility, not just the one person making the mistake. Individualist cultures like Russia or Romania would likely think “encourage individual freedom and responsibility” (Trompenaars & Hampden-Turner, 1997, p. 58). The responsibility in their way of thinking falls to the individual.

How far we get Involved (specific versus diffuse)

A specific culture engages with others in specific areas of life and single levels of personality. As opposed to a specific culture will people in a diffuse culture engage in multiple areas of their lives and at several levels of personality at the same time.

How far we get involved is about the definition of personal space, it is best explained by looking at Lewin’s circles.

Figure 1 Lewin’s circles (Trompenaars & Hampden-Turner, 1997, p. 82 Figure 7.1)

Each circle represents a particular culture. The black parts are private space and white is public space. The U-type would represent the specific culture with a lot of public space. This could be an American, “American’s personalities are often considered very friendly and accessible, the reason for this is that being admitted into one public layer is not a massive commitment” (Trompenaars & Hampden-Turner, 1997, p. 82). The relationship only serves specific purposes, knowing each other for work would be an example.

The G-type represents a diffuse culture such as Germany. They prefer a lot of personal space, and if a relationship is forged, it often leads to close and personal friendships. I think that this is why Germans may be thought of by Americans as remote and hard to get to know. Reversely, I believe Germans may consider Americans cheerful, garrulous and yet superficial, allowing everyone in their personal space.

Finally, the below-presented figure 2 shows that diffuse cultures are high context and specific cultures low context. “Context in this situation has to do with how much you have to know before effective communication can occur; how shared knowledge is taken for granted by those conversating; how much reference there is to the tacit common ground”(Trompenaars & Hampden-Turner, 1997, p. 90). Low context cultures like the Netherlands and the USA generally believe everyone should have a say in rule-making. In my opinion, they are more adaptable and flexible. A high context culture like Japan is subtle and heavy, therefore I think it is hard for Westerners to feel fully accepted unless they have been entirely absorbed in the culture.

I think that if business negotiation between these different cultures is not properly prepared, a potential problem occurs. One party wanting to talk about the main problem, topic or objective while the other party first wants to establish common ground and build relationships.

How we accord status (achievement versus ascription)

Why is someone given a higher status? According to Trompenaars & Hampden-Turner, there are two approaches to status. Achieved status is applied in cultures where status is based on what someone has done. Ascriptive status is relevant in cultures where status is based on ones being (age, gender, social connections, educations, and profession).

I see this as the main reason why it will be more effective to send a senior business negotiator into a meeting with an ascriptive party. Reversely for negotiating with an achievement-oriented party, bringing along strong data-scientists or other personnel with extraordinary operable skills will probably be more effective.

How we manage time (sequential versus synchronic)

Reading the book “Riding The Waves Of Culture” I realized that the aspect of time may just be the most important one when it comes to cultural differences. There are two main perspectives on managing time itself. “Sequential, which is a series of passing events, or synchronic, with past, present, and future all interrelated so that ideas about the future and memories of the past both shape present action” (Trompenaars & Hampden-Turner, 1997, p. 120). I see doing one thing at a time, and logic, efficiency and speed being the focus of one’s business as expressions of the sequential time perception.

In synchronic cultures, since past, present, and future are interrelated, people do multiple things at a time. Also, relationships and effectiveness are the main focus of business negotiation.

Below in figure 3 for several the future, present, and past circles for several cultures are presented. The size of a circle shows the importance of it for any particular culture. The more intertwined the circles are, the more synchronic the culture manages time.

This is the end of this blog regarding cultural differences in business. It focussed a lot on the book “Riding The Waves Of Culture” as I personally am quite a fan of their approach.

If you are deeply interested in this type of cultural differences in business situations like me, please read the book yourself. It is distributed both online as well as in selected libraries and bookshops. The properly profound and thorough analysis of these differences described in the book goes into too much depth for this already extensive blog.

Sources:

– Website: https://www.daytranslations.com/blog/culture-nuance-business/
– Book: Trompenaars, F., & Hampden-Turner, C. (1997). Riding The Waves Of Culture. London: Nicholas Brealey Publishing

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