Fictional, reflective review on academic experiences and other skills Essay

Fictional, reflective review on academic experiences and other skills acquired through internships - Essay Example While the business has grown to have a presence in eighteen nations in Asia and Europe, it is still primarily a family owned and operated entity. I am excited to work with a network of uncles and cousins in this venture, but I know that I have to complete my learning pathway so that I can make a real, meaningful contribution to the company. One of the modules that I am learning a lot from deals with a systems approach to solving problems. Many of the situations that I will face in my management career will require me to solve complex problems. These problems may be intertwined with the everyday operations of our hotels and hostels. Understanding a systems approach to solving problems will help me to untangle the many skeins that create knotty problems in a global business operation. Working through modules that involve problem solving has shown me that I have some strengths and weaknesses in the area of employability skills. I know that I need to develop strong problem solving skills in order to successfully reach the end of my learning pathway. This is obvious to me based on discussions with family members that currently are working as managers in the hospitality business. Customer service and price are the two most important aspects of our business because it is after all based on hospitality. In order to accomplish this basic mission of our business model, solving problems that keep customers from being happy with our services and problems that cause costs to rise must be solved of the business will fail. Finding solutions to problems in innovative ways is a strength I have developed as a result of work I have produced in these modules. The ability to think beyond the normal confines of business is something I have learned how to do. The key to this learning and skill acquisition centers on the willingness to be self-motivated and to take initiative when decisions need to be made. From working with my classmates, I have learned that most people shrink away f rom putting the work into solving knotty problems. It is much easier to hope that the situation will work itself out or to try to devise a quick fix that never really gets to the root of the problem. As my chosen pathway is Global Business Management, I realize that I will be working with an international clientele as well as an international set of employees. At first thought this was very exciting for me. I grew-up hearing about how operations were doing in Bangladesh compared to how things were going in Indonesia or Cyprus. As a young person, my dreams of traveling to these places and working inspired me to want to take on a role of responsibility in the family business. What I have learned over the course of my pathway is that I have a lot to learn about how other cultures work. I have always thought of myself as a broadminded and accepting individual. I have learned that many of my cultural traditions and beliefs have been challenged since I have been studying here. I have had to rethink some of the beliefs that I have always held dear. The journey along my pathway ahs shown me that I tend to be an ethnocentric thinker and that I need to overcome my tendency to think in black and white terms. Sometimes there is more than one positive solution when solving a problem given the cultural subtext. Accepting this has not always been easy for me, but I am learning and improving. Section #2 One powerful learning experience I had while working on a module involved