English - Reflective Essay - Integrated Project (Sem 1 - 2014)

     Doing this assignment has taught me many things and it has been a fun learning experience, for sure. I learned how Tesco’s market structure works and how things are run around the workplace. This experience has taught me tolerance, patience and the benefits of working in a team. Do not get me wrong, as a learning student; I have had to work in teams plenty of times before. I just never had the experience I have had whilst doing this assignment. You see, being dependent on someone and they deliver is one thing, but being dependent on someone and they deliver more than what you expect them to is a completely different thing. I have been blessed to have the opportunity to work with such great people and I enjoy being with every single one of them. Despite some complications that arose, they were not anything that we could not handle together as a team. The lessons and knowledge we have taught each other were more than enough to overcome these issues. In the future, if I ever decide to venture into doing business in the same industry as Tesco, I can assure you that I feel a lot more prepared now. I was enlightened with so many new things about economics and was able to see them in action first hand which was very empowering.

    

     Discipline specific knowledge was one of the things in the Taylor’s Graduate Capabilities I could apply in the process of doing this assignment. This is one of the things we use in our daily lives as it is the understanding in the knowledge we learn. We learn new things everyday. It’s just a matter of how we apply them in our lives, to better ourselves and improve as individuals. My group and I had to go through a little problem with security while we were in Tesco. We had to have our backpacks zip-tied which was left us with perplexed looks considering we have been to many different Tesco outlets and non of the times we went, were we made to have our bags zip-tied. The security guard kindly explained how they needed to take extra precautions and how they just want to be safe. There have been many instances in the past of shoplifting and theft. My respect for them and the company increased as it opened my eyes and really reassured me because all these little safety measures can make such a big difference. We proceeded to let him do his job and continued our way as per usual.

     Secondly, interpersonal skills was one of the skills in the Taylor’s Graduate Capabilities I had to use. This is one of the skills we use in our daily lives as well as it basically focuses our manners, attitudes and behaviours towards other individuals. It can be influenced by anything we see, hear, feel or simply by how we were raised. Since this was a group assignment, a lot of communicating and interacting had to be performed by each of the members. We had to discuss a lot about what we wanted to achieve, how to achieve it and see if all of us are on the same page. Just like the time we were discussing which website we should use for this assignment and after about 20 minutes of discussing, we finally settled with Blogger.com. We figured it was just an easier site to work with.

     Last but not least, lifelong learning skills. As mentioned in our MIB, under Taylor’s Graduate Capabilities, lifelong learning is under cognitive capabilities and is defined as a way to locate and extract information effectively. Not only that, it is also defined as a way to relate learned knowledge to our everyday lives. One of the things I discovered about Tesco was their clever and innovative ways to attract consumers and sustain in this industry. As seen in one of our pictures in our Accounting post (in my group and I’s blog), they have recently started a delivery and online service for people’s convenience. Consumers will be able to shop for their necessities in the comfort of their own homes or any where they want. This really inspired me and gave me a rough idea of what businesses like Tesco mean by ‘being innovative’. This idea is so simple yet so efficient and would not need an award winning genius to come up with. Moreover, this assignment has taught me importance of being a little tech-savvy. This is the first time I had to do an assignment on a blog therefore, I was required to know a few things like how to design a website, choosing the right templates and etcetera.

     Now that I have a rough idea on how the market works, I can plan my expenses for the future properly and strategically without receiving any losses as much as possible. Furthermore, because our project required us to speak with the manager of Tesco, it taught me how to behave professionally and how to achieve an excellent encounter with managers or anyone from a high management, for that matter. The importance of observing the rival firms is paramount. Considering Tesco and their rival firms fall under the market of perfect competition, they have to take and accept the market prices or suffer huge loses. So, in a way, these companies are dependent to one another and have to come up with strategic and creative ways to stay on top. This has uplifted and inspired me to strive to be the best in the future. Another learning experience this assignment has taught me is that, sometimes, when companies increase the price, it is not necessarily their fault as they have no control over the market price. It taught me how to empathise, to put myself in to their shoes before complaining like majority of the consumers when inflation occurs. All in all, I feel a lot more confident and assured as I can definitely apply these new knowledge in the future.