Another hard-working week has gone by with webinars on Operations Management, Cost and Management Accounting and Business Ethics. The week at work entailed more closure processes and meetings with the different divisional heads. The external auditors were on the ground to confirm specific third-quarter reports and balances. Meetings organised by the Finance division have been scheduled between the auditors and relevant divisional heads to discuss significant changes and anomalies during the year. Of interest to me is the level or volume of fiscal provisions to be booked for the year and this brings to fore communication skills, both informative and persuasive.
Communication skills are key at this time of the year as a lot of closure processes are documented and issued as memos to all concerned. Do contractors understand their role in the closure process and will, therefore, act accordingly by submitting invoices on or before the given deadline? Do in-house colleagues (non-Finance teams) understand their roles in the closure process and make their reports available on or before the deadline? If there are any questions, they should be raised and responses will be given with minimal delay by the corporate reporting team.
I completed the course on communication, writing and presenting (online) and found it informative and highly educative. Of particular interest was the presentation course. The skills I learned are practical and applicable to my daily work life. I am constantly preparing power points for presentations in meetings and having to struggle with not putting too much information on a slide. I am trying to desist from reading from the slides while presenting and make eye contact with the audience. Most of the time, I know the audience by their first names and the divisions they represent. But there are a few times I have to present to an external audience, and this is a real challenge for me. Making eye contact with people you don’t know could be a bit surreal and quite daunting. However, I must overcome these barriers for an effective presentation.
The course on writing was quite difficult and will take time to grasp. The module on writing was voluminous and imparted much knowledge. The practical side for me applies to memos I have authored during the closure process. I imbibed the structure of issue, conclusion, argument and action (ICAA) in the memos. However, the ICAA structure is not always applicable as the conclusion in specific cases was stated at the end of the Memo. I did not write in the passive voice but in the present and made sure that I punctuated more than I did before. I must comment that writing skills will be developed over time and put into practice on a daily basis.
Operations Management is a new course, and I cannot relate its contents to my working environment. I hope in the course of the semester to better understand the coursework and share my knowledge with colleagues in field operations. Business ethics I can relate to this as my company has a code of conduct which guides the working and operational conduct of the company.
#MEMBA 12
Modeleola JEGEDE
