An Insight on International Career Planning with Mr.Frederick Young

There’s talent within each of us, all we require is the right guidance to make the optimum use of our talent and knowledge. And, in order to provide our students with the best guidance and mentorship, INLEAD recently organized a session with the noted, Mr. Frederick Young, Managing Director, Global Education Management, United Kingdom. During the session, Mr. Young provided great career insights on International Career Planning to the students.

Mr. Frederick Young had an interaction with INLEADers on their international career prospects. He provided some very interesting  and important details on cultural aspects, international work culture, and certain attributes that needed to be inculcated while working abroad, as also some basic mannerisms that one should adopt. He had a lively interaction with students and gauged their interest areas as well as found out from them the countries where they wanted to work in.

Mr. Young started his talk with inputs on certain fundamental attributes and mannerisms that are essential while working in a foreign country. Some of these include smiling, maintaining eye contact, polished communication skills and virtues like patience and positivity. He exhorted every student to maintain a small journal and keep making both written and mental notes. He insisted that gaining respect from coworkers and customers was essential. He kept on reiterating that students should look at a long career with any organization, which will give them an opportunity to travel the world.

Post this introductory session, Mr. Young asked some questions from students related to their choice of career and their experiences if any of them had travelled abroad. From the answers he received he was able to gauge that students were extremely keen to study the diversity and work culture across nations. He encouraged them to follow their passion, maintain enthusiasm in all they would do as also explore the country where they would be posted. He asked them to keep treating their career dynamically and be prepared for changes that might happen in their sector, especially with the increasing role of Information technology.

The session concluded with Ms. Khushboo’s (Senior Vice President, INLEAD) views on   students’ expectations and she even put forth some questions to Mr. Frederick Young on   behalf of the students regarding job preparedness and cultural awareness. Mr. Young answered the questions by making the students wary about all kinds of career upheavals, work politics and work pressures. He stated that students would have to conform to certain norms (social as well as work) in any country. They should ideally find a mentor who can be their friend, philosopher & guide. This would make their stay pleasant & comfortable. The session cleared many apprehensions that students would have carried about international career prospects. All in all, the session was a huge success with the students taking home truckloads of knowledge about how to fulfill their International Jobs dreams. 

The Mantra of Brand Positioning and Personal Branding

 Mr. Peeush Tomar, Head Strategic Alliances, PVR India Pvt. Ltd.

Apple, BMW, Starbucks, McDonalds are all class brands that first pop into our minds whenever we think of buying a phone, car, coffee or  a burger and French fires combo respectively. Such is the power of their branding that they remain on our lips and minds even without being physically or virtually present there. In order to get our International Business Management and International Hotel Management students acquainted with this power and perils of good and bad brand positioning respectively, we, at INLEAD yesterday organized an Industry Expert session on the same by Mr. Peeush Tomar, Head Strategic Alliances, PVR India Pvt. Ltd.

“It’s all in the mind. Out of sight, out of mind.” is how Mr. Tomar introduced the concept of Brand Positioning to the students. He further elaborated, that Brand Positioning helps a brand to distinguish themselves from the sea of companies operating in the same domain as theirs. Hence, the prime motive of Brand Positioning is for the brand to carve a unique identity for itself in the minds of the people.  Along with this, Mr. Tomar also introduced INLEADers to a variety of Marketing Jargons like PIS (Proposition, Intent and Support), USP (Unique Selling Point) and concepts like how a bad review reaches out to ten people, while a good one reaches out to only three.

Mr. Tomar held the students spellbound for two long hours (without the students even realizing it) by making the session extremely fun and thought-provoking. In order to impart a better understanding of the concept, he also included various current examples of good and bad brand positioning by big brands throughout his session.

The session ended with Mr. Peeush Tomar treating the students with the inspirational Steve Jobs “if today was the last day of my life speech” video and encouraging them to think something new and out-of-the-box in order to make themselves and their brand stand out from the crowd.

What Corporates Want?

INLEAD campus has been abuzz with excitement and nervous energy with a fresh batch of future industry leaders joining the ranks. Their first expert session was undertaken by Mr. Jayant K. Sood, Head – Corporate & Company Secretary, Indorama Synthetics (India) Limited addressing the perennial question – What the employers are looking for in a candidate when appearing for interview. All students at INLEAD from diverse backgrounds and locations are bound by the common aspiration of professional success and they will be facing their first internship interviews in a few months’ time. The session titled “Corporate expectations and Industry Orientation” addressed the same issue and witnessed an enthusiastic participation by the students.

Mr. Sood began the session by asking the students’ one simple question, “What do you want to be in life?” The hands raised were many, while some said a successful ‘Businessman’, others said ‘CEO’ and some said a ‘Global HR’. This is when Mr. Sood pointed out the need to have a clear goal in life in order to become a successful professional.  Along with having a clear goal, there is also a need to have a passion and zeal to work towards that particular goal.

‘Self-Belief’ was the keyword most used during the session. Mr. Sood enlightened the students that a strong belief in oneself is the mantra to survive this concrete ‘corporate jungle’.  According to him, one should never under estimate oneself and always work towards acquiring the numero uno spot. He also encouraged the students to expand their horizons and look beyond the obvious as there is a huge world out there beyond our senses.

Addressing the basic question that was circling every student’s mind, Mr. Sood shared some useful insights from his own experience. According to him, the secret to excel in an interview is to be well-informed about the company and the job-profile you’re applying for. Further, a well-groomed personality with excellent communication skills will help an individual excel over his contemporaries.

All in all, the session was very successful and informative and gave the students a brief preview of what the corporate world holds for them in the future.

“It was a very informative and deliberative session. I have a much clearer vision about my goal now,” said Ankit Kumar Shaw, International Business Management, Batch : April’15 MBA  (1st Year).