So much has been going on for the past two weeks.
An important lesson learnt during this time was to CHECK EVERYTHING, DOUBLE CHECK, TRIPPLE CHECK AND NEVER PRESUME UNTIL IT IS CONFIRMED. I felt really upset one day. I had asked Ben to help me with some leads on Corporate Social Responsibilities or Sustainability issues in China or in the UK. I didn’t realise that at the same time, he forwarded my CV to some of his contacts asking for job opportunities. When I received an email from one of Ben’s contacts right after I sent him my thesis proposal, I took for granted that it was regarding my thesis. While busy and stressed with meeting other deadlines, I prepared thoroughly on the sustainable case studies about the company but not yet had the time to do a proper recap as for a job interview. When I realised it WAS for a job interview, it was too late. : ( I felt so sorry for him and for Ben as they would have had high expectation about me whereas I didn’t even do my homework properly just to confirm whether it was for my thesis interviews or a job interview. : ( Lesson learnt: if in doubt, always ASK.
Team L’Aesthetics attended L’Oreal Brandstorm UK National Final, juggling between numerous deadlines and huge amount of pressure. In the end, we didn’t manage to win the tickets to go to Paris for the International contest but we’re happy that we’ve done our best. For me personally, it was such a deep learning curve, from putting everything we’ve learnt from MSc Strategic Marketing at Cranfield School of Management, to designing A3 double-sided handouts from scratch, every stage along the way while preparing for the National Final, I’ve gained so much valuable experience.
Time management was crucial as the preparation was throughout our Research Methods lectures which were vital to our thesis writing and a First Review Paper which includes the most important elements of the thesis. I had done online tests and kept receiving ‘sorry but...’ emails. I had buried myself in the main library searching for articles and past theses until midnight. Sometimes it was difficult not to compromise on food as there was so little time to relax and cook a proper meal for myself when Tesco ready meals became my best mate for two weeks. Now that the Brandstorm competition was over, I can finally relax a little bit to treat myself and catch up with some sleep.
We arrived in London on May 2nd preparing for L’Oreal Brandstorm Final, going through presentations, sorting out team outfit as well as getting some beauty sleep the night before. Early morning, we took our suitcases and printed display boards with us, battling with the working Londoners during rush hour in the tube. Nervous but excited. Being the first team arriving at reception, we calmed ourselves down and tried to brush up our presentation flow one last time. ‘I see competition!’ Said my teammate. The other teams arrived one by one, with glamorous dresses, beautiful heels, professionally prepared point-of-sale materials and big smiles.
Amongst the ten finalist teams, there were 8 teams of British students, a team of French and us, two Chinese and one Romanian girl. It was a challenge for us first of all, to do the presentation with confidence in front of all our competitors in our second language - huge pressure. Six teams were from the same university, Nottingham Trent, doing fashion marketing and another relevant course, with their lecturer who has supervised a previous winning team. Their presentations were soooo good... Really, I was amazed by the runner-up team and totally loved the innovative ideas they had for products and the smart installation of a hair scanning machine to be placed as a salon experiment for existing L’Oreal Professionnel portfolio salons, which I also thought about but wasn’t developed further in our presentation. Great minds think alike – the winning team from our group was called Team Manifest, we had our original idea on creating a full-service salon called Club Manifesto, offering holistic male grooming experience. In the People’s Choice lunch hour, when we presented our display materials and ideas to L’Oreal staff, quite a few people voted Manifest instead of our team name L’Aesthetics. Was a bit unlucky in terms of that. :P
To be continued...
