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BUSI 1360

MAIL PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE

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Table of Contents
Introduction.........................................................................................................................................3
Internship Experience.........................................................................................................................4
Internationalization Strategies...........................................................................................................8
Conclusion..........................................................................................................................................10
References..........................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction

I have worked as a business developer intern in the Osterley Park Hotel and now I am going
to share what I have learned throughout my internship journey. In the report, I will share what
was my experience as well as what are the benefits I get and how it is beneficial for my
career.

Gibbs Model of Reflection will be used for sharing my reflection on the internship journey
and different stages of the model will be explained in detail. According to this model, six
stages are discussed in detail, and these stages explore an experience. Six stages of the Gibbs
Model of Reflection include description, feelings, and evaluation, the analysis will also be
done, the conclusion will be given and the action plan will be prepared (Martin, et al., 2021).

Osterley Park Hotel is using different internationalization strategies, for expanding its
services in different areas of the world. Internationalization strategies are helpful to expand
the business in overseas markets, so the company can select any internationalization strategy
which is beneficial for the organization according to its suitability. Internationalization
strategies that can be adopted include exporting strategy, licensing strategy, franchising
strategy, and building a joint venture, and all these strategies can be used to enter into new
markets, diversification, as well as having a competitive advantage and foreign investment
opportunities will also be provided to the Osterley Park Hotel. With the help of
Internationalization strategies, operational costs of the business can be reduced, and serving
clients in the same time zone and enable to reach a wider audience in the market.

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Internship Experience

Working as the business developer intern in the Osterley Park Hotel has helped me to gain
working experience, and gaining valuable work experience has also fulfilled my college
requirements and can also add to my resume. The internship experience provides the
opportunity for full-time employment, and it allows me to explore my interests to develop my
personal career goals (Martin, et al., 2021).

The internship experience at Osterley Park Hotel as the Business Developer Intern has
provided me exposure to the industry world. Several skills have also been developed while I
was working as the Business Developer Intern including marketing skills of convincing
someone, making development strategies, as well as building leadership skills of taking
decisions wisely at the point of time when it is required to make decisions. It also helps me to
identify how is my work-life and how I need to manage my work-life balance.

Connecting with my seniors was also beneficial because it has provided me with an ample
amount of knowledge of the market, and how can I deal with the issues of the workplace and
connect with customers as well. In my classroom, I have learned the theoretical concepts but
the internship experience gives me the practical concepts that how those theoretical concepts
will be applicable.

The roles and responsibilities of my job as the business developer intern were to connect with
the clients, sell and sell the services to the customers, and managing the portfolio as well as
sales processes, and most importantly identify the new channels which can help me to
identify the prospective clients.

While working in the internship experience, I learned different items including networking
with my seniors, and colleagues, and my communication skills have also been developed. It
also has increased my confidence in communicating with everyone as well as working with
seniors. Earlier I got afraid to talk to my seniors and clear my doubts, but they all were
friendly, so it has ultimately developed my confidence level and they too helped me in
problem-solving so that I can improve my workplace skills.

So, now let’s discuss the Gibbs Model of Reflection on the internship journey of the learning
experience, and develop my skills in academic theory.

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Gibbs Model of Reflection

1. Description – It is the first stage of the Gibbs model of reflection. At this stage, I am
discussing that working as a Business Developer Intern and my internship experience was
started on 22nd March 2021, and it was ended on the 26th December 2021, and the total
internship period was also 40 hours, which simply means that I have to devote 40 hours in
each week, in which I have learned to develop my communication skills as well as
communicating with clients and internal stakeholders of the organization. Osterley Park Hotel
has different internal stakeholders including employees, managers as well as managers.
Several other interns know how to handle their customers, as well as they, were connecting
with their clients and solving their queries, as well as I learned to participate in meetings as
well as know-how to improve my decision-making skills. Decision-making skills are
important in my corporate world because if a person takes the wrong decision, it will also
generate the wrong consequences (Oviawe, et all., 2020).

2. Feelings – The second stage is the feelings stage in which I want to share my feelings that
how I feel while working in the company, and it has also provided me the valuable lessons in
the workplace. I feel that my communication skills have been developed and I can satisfy the
business needs and fulfilling my roles and responsibilities as well. I learned that what people
are saying and taking feedback from them as well as positively taking that feedback because
it helped me to identify the areas of improvement (Oviawe, et all., 2020).

When I was connecting to my clients, I have observed that there were several customers and
clients whose behavior was not at all acceptable and they all were rude as well as shouted at
me. I learned from my manager that we all need to work hard to thrive in the workplace and
handle all situations calmly. Also, we cannot rudely talk to our customers, we have to follow
the ethics at our workplace, and ensure that all our customers are well treated. I also learn
how we need to become competitive in the market.

3. Third Stage is the evaluation stage in which I have learned to evaluate the situation
whatever comes to your path. I have learned what is being evaluated and how the internship
is considered an important part of the career journey where I have built several connections
and learned how to communicate as well as build my clients. And according to my senior,
once I understand my roles and responsibilities, I learned how it is essential to communicate
with your clients so calmly. Several things were not as per the situation or can say as per the

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expectations such as I have not good at making decisions, and don't know how can leadership
skills can be developed. I have never built my critical thinking skills, and that is what I have
received in the feedback that is what I have received that I need to improve my
communication skills as well as critical thinking skills. Also, my long-term and short-term
goals must be decided will be needed to achieve. When I was working in the organization, I
have a team of 20 people, and all the employees were dedicated to each other. In my
internship experience, I observed that knowing the products and services of the organization
is very important to communicating with clients and customers.

Teamwork was also important in the organization that I have evaluated during my internship
experience, and proper research can be conducted by the research and development team so
that it ensures that everyone is involved in making decisions, as well as teamwork, will be
considered. I have evaluated the most important thing in my life managing the work-life
balance is essential because it can directly affect your health. If the work-life balance is
maintained, then we can take out time for different things such as exercises, yoga, and
developing our interest in our hobbies. There was a time when I was only into my work and
career, and getting no time for my interest, my mental health, my physical health, they all
were getting destructed. So, I ensure that I give equal time to my health as well as my work
life. When I do exercises and yoga and maintain my mental health as well as physical health,
I can manage my work much better and do my tasks in a better manner (Bahramirad, et al.,
2020).

4. the Fourth stage is the conclusion stage in which I have recognized that the internship
experience was good. I have determined that developing my projects was also done properly
and I was able to manage my clients and I realized that getting the internship experience is
essential and developing skills, building connections are also important. The internship
experience is considered a good point in the corporate world because when employers hire
employees for a full-time job, they mainly consider their work experience and what they have
done in their career as well as analyze whether they know their roles and responsibilities or
not. My internship experience gives me a wider knowledge of MS Office in which I have
learned that Microsoft Excel, and its shortcut keys as well as formulas that can be applied
while working (Bahramirad, et al., 2020).

5. Fifth Stage is building the action plan in which I have realized that the internship
experience was good but I need to make some improvements and how these improvements

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are considered essential for my career and till what time these improvements can be made. I
have also recognized that completing work is not a single thing that we need to learn,
building connections and learning from them is also an important thing, and how we need to
build our customer base as well as how to communicate with them, and how can we promote
our customers and convince them to buy our products and services.

Gibbs's model of reflection gives me several experiences that how can we implement learn by
doing and how practical things can be taken into consideration as well as how can we
improve more. I learned that People Management Skills, problem-solving skills, decision-
making skills, and complex activities can be completed by easy process (Knouse, et al.,
2008).

Also, the most important thing that I have learned from my internship experience being in the
marketing department is that generating brand awareness can be done through proper
marketing, and that leads to generating a good amount of revenue for the organization. One
more thing that I have experienced is that getting work according to our abilities is essential
because if a person doesn't know what they have to do and how they need to achieve their
goals, they cannot satisfy their clients by achieving their objectives. Also, training must be
provided to employees so that their skills can be improved. It will increase my knowledge
and easy to develop my skills (Knouse, et al., 2008).

I can only conclude that my internship experience was amazing and it has enhanced my
resume as well as given me several opportunities to build my career. It helps to connect with
several clients and I experienced that creativity is the most essential which I need because
that skill is the topmost skill while working as a Business Developer intern. Also, every client
is different and their needs and expectations are also different, so a person should know how
to convince clients and how to communicate with them as well as what are the aspects that
can fulfill their needs and expectations.

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Internationalization Strategies

Osterley Park Hotel is a company that mainly provides restaurant and bar services to its
customers, and the bar is the place where all the guests who are visiting the place can enjoy
Indian as well as continental cuisine. It also offers different services such as free on-site and
the features that are included in the rooms that are provided by the Osterley Park Hotel is
Flattened screen TV, and all the rooms are non-smoking rooms.

Internationalization strategies help the company to capture the market share and increase
brand awareness. The company where I have worked is Osterley Park Hotel is thinking to
expand its business in overseas markets, and it can only help us by using different
Internationalization strategies including franchising strategy. This is the best option that can
be taken into consideration is setting up the franchising strategy, as well as another option
that can be taken is exporting in which the products and services of the Osterley Park Hotel
will be expanded in the overseas markets (Roque, et al., 2019).

Several companies adopt the internationalization strategy so that they can target international
customers, increase their brand awareness as well as reach foreign markets. It is very obvious
that while expanding in different areas of the world, Foreign Direct Investment which is also
known as the FDI, that can help to reduce the risks, and investing in the company's risk can
also be reduced or can say that minimized (Crăciun, et al., 2018).

Another strategy that can be beneficial is a global strategy as well as a multi-domestic


strategy, but both the strategies are opposite and work oppositely. Variations are also present
in the market requirements and a global strategy is the most suitable one for the Osterley Park
Hotel. The essential factor is the preference of customers that whether the customers prefer
those services or not, and the company can focus on targeting the customers as well as
achieving economies of scale and maintaining the level of efficiency as well (Crăciun, et al.,
2018).

Another one is the Franchising strategy because it will provide several benefits to consumers
as well as the business including that setting successful organizations in the market requires a
broad level of expertise in the marketing department as well as it will be beneficial in
lowering the cost and franchise company can easily enter into new markets (Roque, et al.,
2019).

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Multi domestic strategy is the most beneficial strategy among all the internationalization
strategies and it mainly focuses on achieving local responsiveness by ensuring that product or
service that is offered to consumers are the best suited for them and can be even
customizable. This marketing strategy among all the strategies can be stated that match the
different national conditions of the market. The multi-domestic strategy mainly aims at
reaching new customers in the wider market and meeting the local requirements of the
customers which leads to an increase in the customer base as well.

One more internationalization strategy useful for the Osterley Park Hotel is a joint venture
company, it provides several benefits to the Osterley Park Hotel if they take this
internationalization strategy and those benefits include customized services to its customers,
lower costs because the total costs will be reduced of the business as all the operating
expenses will be divided into the ratio which is determined, and the company can easily
acquire the physical as well as human resources. The joint venture company also states that it
will combine all the staff members and their talent as well, and the company can have easy
access to their technology which is currently operating in the market. In the case of a joint
venture, they can easily share the benefits among them along with the losses that are incurred
(Ren, et al., 2019).

Another last kind of internationalization strategy is licensing strategy which focuses on


expanding into new markets it also requires a low number of resources as well as costs, and it
ensures that the brand of the company will be improved. Legal compliance is essential in the
case of licensing strategy because it is negatively affecting the brand image.

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Conclusion

In the end, it can be stated that Osterley Park hotel was one of the best workplaces which
gives me a thrilling work experience and I have recognized that the skills which I have
developed at that workplace were really important for my personal growth, and it helped me
to determine that whether I have selected the right career path or not for me. I helped to
analyze whether I have developed my interest in the Business Development Sector or
Marketing Sector. Because in this sector, there are a lot of requirements of good
communication skills, communicating with customers, as well as building connections and
building a wider network. The most important factor I have learned throughout my internship
experience is coordination and collaboration, if coordination is maintained with the team
members at the workplace, we can easily achieve our goals, as there is a quote ‘teamwork
makes the dreamwork’, so we can only achieve our dreams when we are coordinating with
our teams. One of my seniors said that getting the internship experience will directly assist in
getting a full-time job, as well as a letter of recommendation easily.

Change Management is the factor that is also I have learned in the internship period, and I
learned that motivating all the team members is essential because they can easily meet the
needs and expectations of customers, and also focus on achieving their goals and objectives.
Motivating employees by giving them the benefits will enhance their performance and give
them more opportunities, also the training along with the guidance must be provided to all the
staff members because guidance is a vital factor for career growth, and all my seniors were
positively guiding me.

I can easily get a feel for the work environment, internships simply mean learning into action,
and it can also boost confidence, and taking the internship experience will also provide learn
about the person itself, and build networks, internship offers students network opportunities.
Because a person will meet colleagues and team members, and a professional environment
will be provided.

In the end, the internationalization strategy of Osterley Park Hotel, and is equally important
for the market, and they can reach out to new customers, and it can access world
opportunities, as well as entering into overseas markets can faster their growth in the business
(Ren, et al., 2019).

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