MSc Management and International Business & Consultancy Project Experience

1
Name: Khaled Boumali
Student Number: N0955386
Module Title: Consultancy Project Experience
Title of Course: MSc Management and International Business

2
Contents
Introduction ....................................................................................................... 3
Project Management .......................................................................................... 3
MSc Management and International Business & Consultancy Project Experience ......... 3
Flow of Events ................................................................................................... 3
Challenges ........................................................................................................ 4
Communication .................................................................................................. 5
Online Performance ............................................................................................ 5
Project management methods ............................................................................. 6
Team work and Leadership ................................................................................ 6
Team engagement ............................................................................................. 7
Cultural Diversity Factors .................................................................................... 7
The Team Characteristics .................................................................................... 8
Leadership values .............................................................................................. 8
Personal Development Plan ................................................................................. 9
Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 10
Reference List .................................................................................................. 10
Appendix List ................................................................................................... 12

3
Introduction
This reflection article will highlight the experiences I have had this throughout this
academic year, including the consultancy project in cooperation with my classmates as
well as my personal growth and development, and how I have honed my skills in this
field. I aim to explain and structure my experience using the overall model of The Gibbs
Reflective Cycle (Gibbs, 1988), as well as other theories as needed to show the
processes and ideas I have experienced. This final project for the 2020/21 MSc
Management and International Business course at NTU is a consulting experience that
completes the excellent experience of the programme. I will present in this report the
team research process in a narrative way to deliver an accurate reflection on the process
that was used during the consultancy project experience. The relevant literature will
uphold the flow of argumentation.
Project Management
MSc Management and International Business & Consultancy Project Experience
One of the most remarkable and important elements of the 2020/2021 Msc Management
and international Business MSc course is positive impact on the ongoing professional
growth that it affords. Since the beginning of this course, I have found the blend of
theoretical and practical teaching to be engaging and instructive despite the pandemic,
which affected somehow the engagement with modules that I think would have been
more enjoyable without the restrictions. This academic year has been concluded with the
Consultancy Project Experience that allows the postgraduates to apply the knowledge
and skills they have gained throughout the academic year by helping an assigned client
achieve some of their objectives in a strategic context.
Getting to know each other and understanding and gathering the project requirements at
early stages enabled us to start the project with full preparedness. On top of that, after
just a few meetings, tasks and roles have been assigned to each team member. So, in
other words, tasks were assigned based on how much each person participated and their
academic background. Similarly, according to Palmer et al. (2016), the earlier definition
of team roles helps in assigning work and confronting team doubts. Personality
characteristics that the team members discovered early had a large impact on team
members’ expectations. Also, team tasks and roles are analysed in-depth in the Team
section.
Flow of Events
At the beginning, we were provided with a project brief which outlined the objectives
that our client “Hive Thinking” want to reach, the main objective was to help Hive
Thinking expand nationally in the UK. Thus, our objectives were not to completely alter

4
Hive Thinking’s marketing approach, but to build on their current strategy while offering
value.My original aim was to create a list of solely cost-effective methods. Having
completed this assignment again, I will steer clear of this thinking process, since the
short-term context is not an effective mean of attaining substantial objectives. From our
first meeting with the supervisor on 20th May 2021, we had projected all the tasks that
need to be done withing a timeline. While I predicted that I would be able to fulfil this
timeline, I underestimated the amount of additional work that I had to do. There, I had
to implement realistic deadlines that maintain my production. Fortunately, we managed
to submit all of our group assignments on time starting from the proposal to the group
report.
Each week, each member was assigned a task to help us achieve our goals. The first
assignment was to write a proposal for client in which we explain what methods we are
going to apply. Primary and secondary research defined each member's commitment to
the project, as well as the subject about which they were most concerned. We started
meeting only online due the cobid-19 pandemic restrictions. We discussed the essential
points that need to ab addressed in the proposal, and the good thing is that we have
never had a conflict. What we did is sharing ideas, commenting on them and then
agreeing on the best approach. However, since our ultimate goal was to improve the
client’s market entry methods, I was expected to exhibit professionalism and critical
thinking. I handled such situations with a rational thinking process to determine which
solution fits our ultimate goal, which I can transfer to work since it demonstrates a
degree of objectivity via a balanced approach to decision making. Due to the fact that all
necessary resources were readily available, cost estimates were not required. However,
timetabling was the worry of all the team members because we all do part-time jobs. At
times, I felt as if I was impeding my development by being sometimes not available for
some meetings. Hence, we had always to agree on a time that suits all of us or to
update the members who were absent during the meeting.
Challenges
The main challenges that took place during the whole period of the project are the fact
that our whole performance was conducted online and the hectic schedule of every
member. Moreover, we faced a challenge related to the primary data, which was the
limitation of responses from the SMEs even though we sent the only survey to over 8000
SMEs across different regions in the UK and we were restricted to the submission
deadlines. Therefore, I can say that time has played against our expectations. We would
have obtained more results if we had sent the survey at earlier stages.