MBA Professional Placement Module: Bidfresh Limited Reflection Report

This report reflects on a student's nine-month professional placement as a credit controller at Bidfresh Limited, a UK-based supplier of fresh produce. The assignment utilizes the Gibbs reflective model to analyze the student's experiences, focusing on a specific situation that prompted reflection. The report details the student's initial expectations, the challenges faced due to software issues and team dynamics, and the strategies employed to overcome these obstacles. Key areas of learning include the importance of communication, leadership, and the development of essential skills such as listening, managerial abilities, and problem-solving. The student highlights the significance of team encouragement and the need for personal and professional growth. The report concludes with insights gained and plans for future professional development.

As a part of professional placement module in Master of Business Administration, I worked with
Bidfresh Limited on nine months contract as credit controller at Fleetwood location. Bidfresh ltd is a
supplier of fresh produce, meat, fish, and dairy foods to chefs across the United Kingdom through its
local business specialist. The purpose of this placement was to gain practical knowledge and work
experience after completing one year of theoretical and class room trainings. I have learnt many
things during this placement from personal and professional perspective. But there was one such
happening that awakens my reflection during my placement. This essay will be focusing on that
experiences with the help of Gibbs reflective model. Gibbs model helps individuals to learn from
experiences on regular basis, especially when things didn’t go as per expectations (Husebo, 2015).
While applying for this role, I was very confident of achieving it as I had 3 years of accounts
payable and payments experience. After successfully completing my interview process in last week
of March 2019, my joining date was 4th April 2019. I was very excited to join the company and
explore my job role as I was always keen to experience western work culture. Secondly, accounts
receivables experience would be added to my work experience which would be very beneficial.
I made couple of plans and reviewed some useful accounting information which would be helpful in
the job role. But after reaching the office and meeting with the team, fear and negative thoughts
started coming in my mind by seeing the work pressure of existing employees. After which I backed
myself and was confident that I would excel if I keep calm and don’t overthink. Human resource
management is the process of managing people efficiently in order to achieve organisational goals
and gain market competitive advantage (Lengnick-Hall, 2011). Bidfresh being big company with
many local supply chains across UK, I expected my first day induction process to be very positive and
energetic where normally employee will be introduced to workplace, company’s background, values
& ethics etc. but induction process in the Bidfresh company was very poor. This process is handled
by the line managers at every location. Additionally, they also take care of other activities like
collection of employee’s personal details and forwarding it to payroll department, setting up and
planning of work stations etc. the reason being, company doesn’t want to invest on Human resource
management which is major concern for company’s future.
The credit control department which I worked consists of nine employees including the line
manager. Initially I was not much interactive as I was more focusing on getting used to work
environment. The process was bit quicker than expected due to beautiful team members who made
efforts in making me feel comfortable. After one two days in the company, I got to know that the
company was struggling with debt collection from customer as company brought changes in its
software and it was bit difficult for employees as proper training was not given on new software.
And due to several other backend issues, the customers were receiving wrong invoice copies and
payment were not being received on time. The team were chasing customers for payments, but
many queries were coming in return regarding invoices, credit notes, invoice allocations etc.
Sideways, there was pressure on the team from headquarters to reduce the numbers. We as a team
always tried to make each other strong through constant encouragement so that every team
member feels positive during tackling this pressure situation. Encouragement is the best gift which
you can give to an individual, most people don’t get required encouragement to make development
and reach their potential. If this was provided to every individual to grow and display, the world
would be wealthier beyond their wildest vision (Madwed, 2007). Recently, after receiving November
month end reports, our team was awarded with excellence for making great progress in debt
collection for the company. There are many points which can be considered for our achievement.
And the most important aspect for our success as a team being communication and leadership.
Team helps leader in completion of tasks. The composed team includes connected attributes,
attitude and drive which leads to success (Collins, 2013). The significant agenda in team
management is listening, communicating, leadership and obligation. These are considered as
important in team coordination and leadership (Corominas, 2006). During this situation, there were
many miss agreements between team members and line managers. But this never had a major

effect on the team work and team bonding. Everyone does errors and no one is perfect. Similarly,
there were some errors which had major impact.
There are multiple things which I would be taking in to consideration in a situation like this in future.
Firstly, I would try to get rid of communication gap. I would keep transparency between top level
management and employees. So that the team understands the expectation of the management
and discussion possibilities with the team in order to meet those expectations. Secondly, brining in
short term goals set up which act as steps and helps the team to achieve long term goals.
There are several facts which I have learnt about myself. Firstly, I need to develop listening
skill. This is because, listening skill is one of the most effective elements that a person needs
to develop in order to maintain healthy professional relationship, within the team and also
among the employees of different ranks in an organization (Yu, Brown and Etherington
2013). As a novice, it was very essential for me to listen carefully to the professional
conversation of others. For example, if any issue related to credit control occurs, how the
experienced or veteran employees discuss about the issue and find out the way out. I realized
that if I listen to the professional conversation of my seniors carefully, I will be able to collect
valuable tips as well as tricks to perform well or handle any problem in a better way. Hence,
gaining work related knowledge will be possible, if I develop listening skills.
I know that, I was not much interactive. This is another reason why I realized that, the
second priority should be improving my communication skill. This is because, poor
communication skill may create misunderstanding among the team members. Again, poor
communication skill can also hamper the coordination among the members of a team. Again,
poor communication skill creates substantially negative impact on the people I deal with in
the professional level (St Clair-Thompson and Chivers 2019). This negative impact may in
turn creates misperception about myself to the influential people I will meet in the
professional level. This can cast upon severe negative impact on my career. On the contrary,
a good communication skill can accelerate understanding as well as cooperation among the
team members. the development of communication skill can facilitate in creating a positive
impact over the people I will meet in my professional career who can provide me significant
guidance to achieve success (Rennie et al. 2018).
Another thing I realized after Bidfresh Limited is that, I need to inculcate some managerial
skill, to stand out in the team of 9 people. The employee strength of the company is low. In
the company, take care of other activities like collection of employee’s personal details and
forwarding it to payroll department, setting up and planning of work stations etc. the reason
being, company doesn’t want to invest on Human resource management which is major
concern for company’s future. There lies the importance of inculcating managerial skills. I
learn managerial skills it will facilitate me in many ways. Firstly, I will be able to stand out in
the crowd. Secondly, the company will be benefitted, as it does not have to look for human
resource manager (Nallaya 2016). Thirdly, apart from my skills to solve credit control issues
I will be able to acquire additional skills of management, this will enhance my value as an
employee. Fourthly, there will be chances of a salary hike or promotion in the same company.
Though Bidfresh Limited is a small company, I will be able to secure my position as a
manager in that company. This will be a great opportunity for my career. This is because of
the fact that, at the initial phase of my career I, if I am able to secure the position of a
manager, this will pave the opportunity for me to secure the position of a manager in a large
company in future (Ma and Cavanagh 2018).

I also realized that I need to inculcate the skill to motivate my peers. This will not only
strengthen my professional relationship with my peers, but also create a good perception of
mine to my peers as well as higher authorities. Motivation refers to the needs or desires or
drives, inside every individual. Motivation is also considered as the procedure with the help
of which people are stimulated to actions associated with the achievement of individual goals.
In the education sector of UK, the motto is to enlighten the majority of the young population,
by helping them to explore and nourish their potentialities. In order to attain these goals,
teaching staffs at LSST Birmingham need to be patient and calm (Lomi and Ballnus 2015).
They need to address all the queries of the young learners and need to be strict and
affectionate at the same time. LSST Birmingham needs to arrange enough resources, so that
the teaching staffs at LSST Birmingham feel motivated and be kind, empathetic and patient
to young learners.
There are some intrinsic and extrinsic factors which can motivate staffs in the educational
sector the most. An in depth review of the literatures focused on concept as well as factors of
motivation For example, there are many teaching staffs who feel satisfied by fulfilling their
duties to the young learner like- assisting the learners in comprehending lessons, completing
projects (Lang et al. 2015). In this case, satisfaction of the teaching staffs depends on their
success in evoking an interest for learning among the learners, disseminating knowledge and
wisdom to the learners properly. A satisfactory assistance, in this case encourage the staff to
be involved into their duties with more dedication. the believer of the intrinsic motivation
focus more on teaching and less on the outcome of the teaching or the rewards received from
a third party, or people other than the learners in return of their teaching. the believer of the
extrinsic motivation focuses on the outcome of teaching, more than the duties related to
teaching. For example there are staffs who are encouraged to be involved into their duties
more, if and only, if they are rewarded with a good remuneration, incentive and also
appreciation in terms of exemplary achievement of the learners they have guided. According
to a rarely observed motivation is altruistic motivation. This type of motivation is intertwined
with the concept of altruism (Durksen, Klassen and Daniels 2017).
Again, I need to acquire the skills of problem solving. The development of the skill of
problem solving largely depends on several factors. Firstly, I need to observe my seniors the
way they attempt to solve any professional problem. Secondly, I need to understand the
severity of the work related issues. Further, I need to makes realistic assumption as well as
observation regarding the spill over effects of the problem arisen in the credit control
department (Dalgarno, Reupert and Bishop 2015). This will be followed by gaining
knowledge regarding the decision making skills. In other words, both the problem solving as
well as decision making skills are interrelated. In order to solve a problem, a person needs to
take prudent steps which are the immediate results of effective decision. Motivation is
considered to be a very crucial fact to take effe3ctive decisions.Motivation refers to the needs
or desires or drives, inside every individual. Motivation is also considered as the procedure
with the help of which people are stimulated to actions associated with the achievement of
individual goals. In the education sector of UK, the motto is to enlighten the majority of the
young population, by helping them to explore and nourish their potentialities. In order to
attain these goals, teaching staffs at LSST Birmingham need to be patient and calm. They
need to address all the queries of the young learners and need to be strict and affectionate at
the same time. LSST Birmingham needs to arrange enough resources, so that the teaching

staffs at LSST Birmingham feel motivated and be kind, empathetic and patient to young
learners. There are some intrinsic and extrinsic factors which can motivate staffs in the
educational sector the most. An in depth review of the literatures focused on concept as well
as factors of motivation. A motivated person can analyze a problem with a free and positive
mind (Crowther, Sealey and Harris 2017). If am able to have a stress- free as well as positive
mind I will be able to contribute substantially , in finding out the probable solutions of any
issue associated with credit control. This will also facilitate me to formulate effective plans
and take prudent decision to actualize and attain the specific solutions, that I have pointed
out.
I need to understand the severity of the work-related issues. Further, I need to makes realistic
assumption as well as observation regarding the spill over effects of the problem arisen in the
credit control department. This will be followed by gaining knowledge regarding the decision
making skills. In other words, both the problem solving as well as decision making skills are
interrelated (Crowhurst 2016). In order to solve a problem, a person needs to take prudent
steps which are the immediate results of effective decision. In order to become a successful
employee in any organization, the first skill which needs to be developed is the time
management skills which will be helping me in building positive relationships with the
superiors and ability to work within a team. During the time of placement, I realized that as to
participate in group discussions of the multidisciplinary teams, the most effective approach
which needs to be ascertained is the fact that I have the capability to work with diverse
culture of people which will be enhancing my efficiency. It will be helpful for me in
developing different opportunities for developing problem solving skills in managing the
tasks appropriately within stipulated time frame (Attrill, McAllister and Lincoln 2016).

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