The Corporate Lasso

Happy week 5 everyone!

Okay so this blog is about how in-love I am! With my HBF placement of course ha! Over the duration of my internship, after getting my article published in the paper (yay again), I dove into a new line of work in PR – Internal Communications.

I worked with Jodie Leishman learning all there is to know about internal communications. Working in the not-for-profit sector, stories produced were welcoming and stimulated a sense of community amongst staff.  Thankfully they are also a lot less demanding and rigorous than outbound media releases and so much more fun to write, on the basis that I produced 15 article during my 20 days at HBF.  I love the idea of internal communications! There is something so enriching about creating a unified body of knowledge around an organisation of over 900 staff members and developing a piece that invites all staff to envision the same goals and work toward them as a team.

Those 15 intranet article were a large facet of what I produced during my internal communications experience, I thoroughly enjoyed the idea of knowing that my article will have the power to encourage over 900 HBF staff to take part in many of the wellness initiatives put in to play by HBF around the workplace. Of those internal articles published on HBF’s intranet system ‘The Pulse’, favourite article is posted below:

The Global Corporate Challenge an exciting ongoing event for the corporate world to reach their quota of 10,000 steps necessary each day for a healthy lifestyle. I produced this article from an energetic and playful perspective (one of the perk of internal communications is that you personality and style can shine through in your articles) in hopes that my energy and my love of fitness would radiate through my article and impact each HBF employee positively. Being in an already health conscious industry a lot of employees were already taking steps to change their lifestyle, a rule of thumb created was that all employees have to take the stairs instead of the lift (I did not abide by this rule, as most days I had already completed an hour of cardio or weights before 7am hit haha – my HBF team were very forgiving thankfully!). This article remains my favourite as it aligns perfectly with my beliefs and the results from this story were fantastic with employees packing healthy lunches and only healthy treats and muffins were to be allowed into meetings. A truly inspiring work place to be a part of!

Just before developing this blog contribution, I stumbled upon Holly Hazels “Don’t dread the red pen” blog entry raising the topic of constructive criticism on personally written pieces. I felt immediately connected to Holly’s blog as it related to my intranet articles. My first intranet article had a lot of edits to ensure that the language and tone matched that of HBF, however with each article the edits became minimalistic. It felt wonderful to eventually adapt to HBF’s style of writing.

Hope all is well, and that everyone is thoroughly enjoying their internships! I am currently in the process of seeking out my second work placement. Wish me luck!

Kiara Natasha xx

Week 3: A new week along with new responsibilities

Good Morning friends,

For my third week of internship, when I arrived at work on Monday, I was told that I would not only be doing the media clippings process, but that I would also be the one in charge of uploading all of them on the Medine Limited's Head Office's intranet.

At Medine Limited, media clippings are made daily but are uploaded on the intranet every Monday.

So far I was only doing the media clippings and was only showed once how articles are uploaded on the intranet, but was never the one to actually be in charge of the whole process. Obviously, I was thrilled at the idea of being given such an opportunity, which showed that I could be trusted and given work without any continuous monitoring and was quite a fast learner.

This task easily took up my entire Monday. When I was done with the uploading, next I had to check the PDF files one by one to make sure that it was uploaded correctly and whether they eventually corresponded to their headlines. At the end of the day it felt nice to know that I got to do this task all by me and that the day after everyone connected via the intranet would be viewing these files.

However, I observed that the particular process of scanning all the articles on the same day that they are meant to be uploaded in the Press Review section took most of my time. As such, I proposed that instead of only doing daily media clippings and filing them in their specific folders, I would also go through the scanning, cropping, auto correcting and/or re-sizing, cross checking and through the conversion into PDF files daily, so that on the next Monday, less time would be spent in going through this process and as such time would considerably be saved, as only the uploading and checking would have to be done.

During the internship, I also learnt that making suggestions and working hard never hurt anyone. Of course, when making suggestions, one should not sound as if he or she is trying to impose their decisions, but should be done politely and by giving valid justification as to why and how this might help in saving time or making certain tasks easier. Even as an intern, my suggestions were often taken into consideration and put into practice, which in a way makes one feel valued.

The following days I was in charge of document filing of the articles which were uploaded the previous day and was asked to re-organize the folders in the files in alphabetical order and make simple 'Table of Contents' documents for each file. This is where organisational skills come in handy. 

The third week was pretty much about re-organizing certain folders and files and about document filing. Another section on the intranet referred to 'Living Better Tips', for that week I was also in charge of uploading new articles/files to this section and remove old articles - in other words I was generally in charge of updating the intranet specially the press review and living better tips section.

Additionally I was asked to review and add more details to a document concerning the Fondation Medine Horizons that had to be sent to Business Magazine as soon as possible.

As usual as the days passed by, I could not get the fact that - theory learnt and applying the latter in the real world of work is two very distinct processes - out of my mind. Learning is good, but being able to apply it in certain contexts and/or situations is what we are required or expected to deliver. 

I still remember and I know my fellow friends also vividly remember that at the end of every PR lectures up until now; there have always been the slides where we were told how "To be an Aspirational PR Practitioner". I personally found that these aspirational notes/steps/tips proved to be very valuable and very much applicable not only as an intern but also as an ambassador of our campus, namely - Charles Telfair Institute. 

Well, that was it for my third week experience at Medine Limited and as promised, here are some pictures of the event that took place on Friday 15th February 2013, of the 'Laying of the Foundation Stone of the new Casela & Leisure Park' by the Prime Minister - Dr. Hon. Navin Ramgoolam, GCSK, FRCP: 

The Prime Minister - Dr. Hon. Navin Ramgoolam laying the foundation stone of the new Casela & Leisure Park.

 On the left: Mr. Thierry Sauzier, Managing Director / Deputy CEO of Medine Limited, in the middle: one of the experienced feline tamer and on the right: Dr. Hon. Navin Ramgoolam.

Dr. Hon. Navin Ramgoolam (R) and Mr.  Thierry Sauzier (L) petting the cheetah under the supervision of the feline tamer expert.

On this note, I take your leave until my next blog post.

Thanking you all for your time,
Warmest regards,
Geetika Boyjoo
Curtin ID: 15172402

The first week of my PR 393 Internship

Greetings everyone, 

I am Geetika Boyjoo and am currently undergoing my final semester at the Charles Telfair Institute (CTI), Mauritius,  majoring in a Bachelor of Commerce in Tourism, Hospitality and Event Management and Public Relations.

I started my internship at the Medine Limited last week on Monday 4th of February 2013. The first day I have to admit I was rather stressed but as I got to know my colleagues and more importantly my supervisor, I was able to adapt and understand what the internship entails.

However, before giving you an insight of my first week at Medine Limited, allow me to give you a brief introduction of the company. 

Medine started off as a sugar estate, which means that it formed part of the sugar industry which was once Mauritius's main economic pillar back in 1911, when Medine was first established. Later on Medine diversified its activities into other promising ventures as the sugar industry's economic importance declined with time. As such, in 2009 Medine divided its activities through a rebranding exercise, into 3 definite clusters which are as follow:

1. Medine Property: this involves the development of the property portfolio of the company.
2. Medine Agriculture: this cluster's role is to generate and try to implement innovations related to the agricultural activities of the group while at the same time considering diversification programs.
3. Medine Leisure: is all about managing, operating and developing the leisure activities of the Group, including the Casela - the Group's leisure hub.

For more information, you may visit their website on the following link: 

http://www.medine.com/  

and/or if you prefer their facebook page on: 

https://www.facebook.com/MedineLimited?fref=ts

As you will be able to see on their website, the Group also does news, publications and CSR-related works. The Corporate Sustainability and Communication Department at the Head Office, is where I am following my internship. 

The first few days were already scheduled as being my period of Familiarisation with Medine Limited through their printed materials namely their newsletter - 'The Medine Post', their website and facebook page and their Medine Master Plan - a document downloadable from their website which is a high-quality document written and published in 2005 by a team of architects, town-planners and sociologists under the guidance of Mr. Maurice Giraud, one of the architect planners.

This specific document contains all the details of the vision and plans of the organisation over the western part of Mauritius for the coming years. 

Up until now many of the projects have been undertaken and are still ongoing. Also every year the Medine Master Plan is reviewed, updated and adapted to current economic situation and according to present demands. Below are the covers of the latest 'The Medine Post' and the Medine Master Plan:

Moving on, on the first day, apart from going through the familiarisation process, I was able to experience what real media clipping is all about.

 What I was asked to do, was to convert the JPEG articles into PDF documents to be uploaded on their intranet so that everyone connected would be able to get access to it on one main location, in order of - published date and  - separated into 5 sections, namely:

1. Agro Industry 

2. Tourism & Leisure

3.Property Development

4.Regarding Medine, and 

5. Education 

Additionally, I was asked to make a comparative study which involved research work to identify in what ways Medine was different or similar to its competitors.

Moreover, I was asked for the address details of particular ministers and ambassadors for which took place yesterday night - 15.02.13 - concerning the laying of the foundation stone at Casela by the Prime Minister. 

Even if I was not asked to search for their phone numbers, fax number and e-mail addresses, I produced a contact list where these were included in case these were urgently needed. I used the same procedure when making the ambassadors' contact list and as a matter of fact, these two documents came in handy when we had to make follow up calls afterwards. 

Also, during the first week I learnt how to officially communicate on behalf of Medine Limited, whether this was done by calls or e-mails when asking for quotations of certain logistics and how crucial proof-reading is before sending out e-mails. 

Furthermore, what I essentially grasped was that representing such an organisation called for professional behaviour and attitude. 

Afterwards I got to help with the company's fun day scheduled for their employees, which involved:

1. Cross checking of a Power point presentation

2. Re-organising and adding details to a budget document

3. Making integral calls, and 

4. Chase up calls of logistics

As a whole, this is how my first week went by in a jiffy. Having been working on these two events is the reason why I was not able to post my first blog earlier.

Nonetheless, remain posted to check my second blog post coming up soon.

In the meantime, I wish you all good luck with your internships,

Take care everyone,

Warmest regards,

Geetika Boyjoo

Curtin ID: 15172402

Consultancy or In-house?

Hi again,

Throughout my studies at Curtin I have always pictured myself working in a consultancy due to the variety and scope of work it would provide. Now I’m not so sure. Having just completed my time in-house for a large oil and gas company, I can happily report that the variety of work was great. This post will describe some of the things I worked on during my placement.

Media Monitoring

As mentioned in a previous post, I had to monitor and create a summary of media activity following two major milestone announcements by my company. I took the initiative to include a Twitter summary which is now being implemented in daily media reports emailed to staff. The monitoring included online print, online radio, print and television mediums.

As well as having staff monitor media, Media Monitors, a specialised analyst firm, are outsourced to provide a daily report highlighting any mention of the company or important issues in the industry. This provides a great evaluation tool for determining the scope and reaction following an announcment or during a campaign.

Community Benefits Fact Brochure

This was my major project during my placement. The task was to gather the appropriate information, rewrite it in a more relaxed form, and then format it for an A3 brochure to be published and made available to the public.

The company I am working for have a great reputation for engaging with the community and making an effort to minimise the social and environmental impact the project may have on the surrounding area. I have learnt a lot about community relations and issues management while creating the brochure and it will be an excellent piece of work to include in my final report.

Recording Studio

In my first week on the job I was sent to the recording studio to monitor the creation of the company’s radio adverts. Linc Integrated Marketing and Communications were outsourced to create the script, as well creatively direct the recording of the ads.

Before studying at Curtin I completed an audio engineering diploma so this was really interesting for me. My job was to sit in on the session and make sure all information was recorded correctly by the voice talent.

Intranet Audit

This involved searching through the Intranet and making notes on anything I thought could be cleaned up, updated or deleted. Currently the company is in the process of an Intranet overhaul and the public affairs team oversees any information that is added or removed. I made suggestions for a move towards a more socially orientated site that could feature a weekly staff profile and regular department updates so each team knows what the other is working on. These updates could save time spent at meetings and help staff get to know one another a little better.

Research

As we have been told over and over at Uni, research is extremely important in Public Relations. I was asked to research a number of things, some of which included:

• Researching speakers for a conference my Public affairs manager is chairing.
• Find information on a conference in Korea where the company was invited to make a presentation.
• Research and report if other oil and gas companies mention relevant Government Ministers in their media announcements. This research was compiled in a report and presented to mangers in Tokyo.

Meetings

I have been invited to attend many meetings, some of which included:

• Environment.
• External Affairs and Joint Venture (including Government and Indigenous Affairs)
• Community Issues.
• Public Affairs.
• Social Impact Management Plan committee.

All meetings have been really interesting and I’ve learnt a lot just from listening and taking notes. The people were really helpful and happy to explain anything I didn’t understand.

So that’s a selection of some of the things I did while at my placement. The variety has been great and I have thoroughly enjoyed all aspects of it. I can really see myself working in-house now, but to  things up a little I’m going to do one day a week at Purple Communications throughout my last semester to add some consultancy experience to my resume.

Cheers,

James Clothier

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