GLOBAL BUSINESS PRACTICUM: Kuala Lumpur July 2017

From the moment I arrived in the 30-degree foreign environment of Kuala Lumpur, it was clear that I was in for a life-changing experience outside my Melbourne comfort zone.

On day one, we were invited to a welcome briefing session with the General Manager and other senior staff members of the team at Telekom. Our project consisted of investigating the issues in the uptake of digital servicing during the customer journey at Telekom, Malaysia’s leading provider of Telecommunication services. We were challenged by the project scope and all of its intricacies and worked very closely with members of the contact center, customer service and marketing business units.

My team was cross-functional and culturally diverse with members from Spain, India and Australia and studies focused in Management, Human Resources and Information Systems. Together we pushed ourselves to become a high performing team. We soon became comfortable engaging about the project and approached conflict with constructive discussion. As a team, we galvanised each other’s strengths in order to solve our client’s problem. Both our soft and hard skills were given a platform to translate from the classroom to a real-life business context, with reverberating impacts for our client.

One of the most memorable moments of our time at Telekom was the invitation to attend their post Ramadan celebration. There were hundreds of Telekom staff members decked out in their traditional attire at the cultural feast. We thoroughly enjoyed the celebratory atmosphere and the numerous food stalls of Malaysian cuisine.

It was humbling to have our voices heard and ideas encouraged Amy Mao

At the conclusion of our final presentation, we engaged in a very open discussion with the Telekom team. As student consultants, it was humbling to have our voices heard and ideas encouraged. Through collaboration, we expanded on concepts and deliberated on meaningful insights. Our client applauded our ‘fresh perspective’ and our recommendations were respected and nurtured.

As an individual with a global mindset, I plan to travel and work internationally, with Asia right at the top of my list. The GBP allowed me to build cultural knowledge and gain valuable understanding into a different working environment.

I have learned a lot both personally and professionally. I am thankful for such a positive, immersive and inspiring experience that brought such driven individuals together.