Be A Manager

Marshall of Singapore: The Extraordinary Life and Times of David Saul Marshall

a) What is the objective of this event?

Marshall of Singapore: The Extraordinary Life and Times of David Saul Marshall (1908-1995) is an exhibition held at the Promenade in The National Library Building. This exhibition, held from 12 December 2008 - 12 January 2009 (which was later extended till 20 February 2009), is to celebrate the extraordinary life and achievements of David Marshall.

The exhibition is easily spotted as soon as one exits from the lift at the 10th floor. There are various boards surrounding the exhibition displaying David Marshall's biography, pictures, and everything related to him; ancestry, where he used to study and live. In the middle of the exhibition, there are paintings of David Marshall, and some of the things he used to own. For instance, David's war service medals, his favourite pipe, name plate and school tie.

There was also a sample of a letter David had written to his brother, and another letter which he had written to Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, thanking him for granting David the position of Singapore's First Ambassador to France.

b) Who is the target audience?
The target audience are people who are interested in David Marshall, patrons of the library and people who are interested in he history of Singapore.

c) How is the event publicized?
This event is not very heavily publicized. The only advertisements are on the National Library Board's website and the advertisement board at the National Library itself, along with advertisements of other upcoming exhibitions.

d) Is the event reported in the media? If yes, how widely is it reported? If no, why isn't it?
No, the event is not reported in the media because the content of this exhibition does not appeal to a wide audience.

e) Assume you are a manager overseeing this project. Evaluate the success/failure of this event. How would you do it for greater success?
To me, this event was successful in terms of the information present as one can learn a lot about David Marshall through this exhibition. However, this event was not very successful in terms of entertainment. The large boards displaying information were too wordy, and the audience present had no form of interaction with any of the exhibits.

If I were a manager, I would have put earphones or television screens by the boards so that the audience could "listen" or "watch" some of the information present rather than having to read all the words on the boards.

I would also ensure that the exhibition gained more publicity through advertisements on public transport services like the MRT, cabs or buses, or even advertisements on popular Internet Websites like hotmail.com or facebook.com.

Recruitment Advertisement

Assignment: "Write a recruitment advertisement for Media Biz Advertising, for the position of Account Executive. You should include all the important and necessary details."

Media Biz Advertising is looking for a suitable candidate to join us as
Account Executive

About us:
Media Biz Advertising is a company that strives for the best and thinks out of the box to contribute creative ideas to the media industry of today. All of us here are motivated and driven by the passion which probably explains how we have achieved numerous awards, and have had many opportunities offered to us to showcase our creativity and uniqueness. Apart from all the enthusiasm and drive, we also take time to get to know our clients and their business to cater to their specific needs, to ensure that we bring the best out of their ideas onto our advertisements.

Our company comprises of a highly motivated and professional team that would do anything possible to provide the client with quality work and commendable service. We have had experiences with many well known Multi-National Companies and are currently looking for dynamic individuals who strive hard for only the best, to join our team.

Requirements:

• Degree/ Diploma in Mass Communications or any related fields preferred
• Minimum 1 year experience in any media related fields preferred
• Has the drive, initiative and determination along with a strong interest in advertising and media
• Has a good understanding in Visual Communications
• Good interpersonal and presentation skills
  
• Creative Ideas with relevant skills and concepts
• Ability to multi-task and deliver high quality work under high pressure
  
• Computer Savvy - MS Office
• Organized, meticulous and self-motivated

Responsibilities:

• Prepare proposals and present contacts in time
• Ensure relevant documents are present and done accurately before presentations
• Co-ordinating with third party vendors such as printers, production houses etc.
• Manage work flow and make sure deadlines are met
• Oversee the development of relationships with new clients and marketing programmes with budget and schedules
• Planning and developing new programme proposals and strategies

Interested candidates who feel have the drive and passion to be part of our team please forward a detailed resume stating qualifications and expected salary, along with contact details to:

Marie Ling
Human Resource Director
82, Havenagh Drive #02-08/09
Singapore 576782

The Manager

Market Research; something we should all be familiar with since it was a topic under our Marketing module last term. Kevin Lee, 28, Research Manager of Taylor Nelson Sofres (Singapore), a global market research firm, kindly saved some time from his busy schedule to have this interview with me.

He shared his responsibilities with me which I thought could be organized into POLMC: Planning, Organising, Leading, Monitoring, Controlling and Correcting.

Planning, Organising, Leading
- Managing and serving a range of Qualitative market research projects for key clients like Nokia, Samsung, Mcdonalds and Unilever.
- Providing quality services to clients including all aspects of Qualitative research process entailing client briefings, writing proposals and reports, study design and implementation, accompanied interviewing, creative and ideation workshops, analysis, report writing and presenting finding or recommendations to the client

Monitoring, Controlling and Correcting
- Coordinating with other Research teams, Project Services Division to ensure key milestones of projects are always on the right track
- Manage researchers and facilitate their learning and development

Kevin's management style is non-bureaucratic, interactive, flexible and one-to-one. He believes that workers should be more directly-involved in the decision-making process and refuses workers to be closely supervised by many layers of management.

Some of the difficulties that he faces are:
(1) Managing interpersonal relationships (having to balance the role of boss and friend)

(2) Meeting deadlines (having to mobilise everyone to stay on the ball)
"It is hard to have your colleagues meet certain deadlines as some just do not know when they are crossing the line. They persuade and come out with the strangest excuses just to extend a particular deadline. Little do they know that it is because I am not only their manager but their friend as well, which is exactly why I know they would come up with a lie like that."

(3) Answering to higher authorities (taking responsibilities and even the blame)

Kevin then shares that he overcomes these difficulties by:

(1) Demarcating from day one. Lead by example to earn respect; interact with subordinates and be firm with them when you need to. "Successs is acheived when you are able to use your healthy relationships with your subordinates to further organisation goals instead of hinder work."

(2) Closely monitoring and tracking of individuals' work.

(3) Having clear channels of communication and staying accountable always by giving them reviews and updates. Also, taking the blame on behalf of your workers.

In my opinion, a good manager would be someone who motivates, delegates (which would be quite a big step for me as I tend to worry the person whom I'm passing the job to, won't do a good job), learns from his/her own mistakes and at the same time let people make mistakes. Last but not the least, a good manager should be someone who is fair and treats everyone equally.

Testing

I was told this is needed for MM Prin so. Hi