“Collaboration and augmentation are the foundational principles of innovation”.
-Vaclav Smil, Czech-Canadian Scientist and Policy Analyst.
Brief:
The first brief of EDIB7012: Professional Practice required us to find a relevant industry partner/collaborative networks with mutual interests based around ideas for our final project, or wider professional interests. The brief contributes to preparation for our final project.
We are required to find a like-minded professional partner who is operating within our sphere of interest by researching relevant companies, making contact with an interested party and engaging in dialogue.
My Take:
I believe that collaboration and networking occur the minute you enter the room full of professional creators. We have to mould them into genuine connections for the advantage of all the parties involved by sharing knowledge and expertise. Take action to put yourself out and try to approach them professionally. Engaging in a brief conversation can also be much helpful.
Position Yourself:
Before putting yourself out to the world, I think it’s imperative to position yourself with the proper communication and work. This can be done in several ways according to the individual’s scope of work and talent. Preferably for me, I have always used Behance to showcase my previous graphic creative work and draw inspiration from other creators in the community. Secondly, I went upward in my MA and published my website to record my Academic Learning Journal Blog supporting my assignments. Now, when you have found the medium to collate your work on a very accessible platforms, its time to professionally leverage your messaging to the world and for that I have always used LinkedIn.
Approach, Process and Research:
Apart from this brief, I have always tried to connect with many professionals/creators in the industry, online and offline, to learn, grow, and explore opportunities.
1) Relevant Professional Profiles -
The first thing I kept in mind while conducting this brief was to get the most out of it with the qualitative approach. For that, with the help of LinkedIn Premium (using the first month's free trial) I shortlisted a few of the profiles I have aspired to collaborate/partner with and have been inspired by their work. The professional profiles were researched and selected based on their work, industry and experience, relevant to my professional development and interest in my studies. I did consider the profiles that I felt were relevant to me, even if one of them was a MA student just like me, because her education and work motivated me to connect with her.
2) Strategising The Communication -
After shortlisting the profiles, I did not approach the concept of the same bulk messaging. I researched briefly more about their work and uniquely tailored each email/message following the strategised professional structure as a presented example in my presentation. The focus was on the following major points of the structure:
The subject of the Email/Inmail - Reaching out for professional development.
Introduction paragraph - Portraying their work and putting up a request to connect.
Provide crisp reasoning/purpose of the email.
Pinning the third paragraph around their work interest by asking their perception on that matter.
A brief explanation about your studies, final project and work experience.
Sharing relevant information for them to analyse - your CV, website, LinkedIn profile, results/feedback of units. In my case, I did attach sports/other achievements when I connected with the sports industry professionals.
Getting Into Conversation:
1) Sina Port - Head Of Communication Adidas - United Voices
Honestly, I felt it was a long shot for me to get a response from Sina Port because of her prestigious position in the industry. Her work is commendable, especially she is the host and founder of the award-winning podcast show ‘Shared Diversity’. However, I genuinely wanted to get in conversation with her as I was following her work. https://www.sinaport.com/
16th March’22, I approached her on LinkedIn and fortunately I got a response from her on the very next day. She appreciated me for sharing all the work/information and loved my initiative as being a proactive. She agreed to get on a quick call with me in that coming next week. Before, getting on a call with her, I re-researched her work in detail for enhancing my knowledge.
With all the patience and confirming the availability of Sina Port through her website, the meeting was finalised on 24th March’22 - 7:30AM. However, the meeting was postponed to other day as she got busy with the meeting before me as it lasted long. All this time, Sina has been really generous, humble, and considerable towards my timing as well, as she appreciated my flexible availability.
25th March’22 at 7:10AM - It was a perfect crisp video call meeting of 19 minutes 39 seconds. Here, I have listed the major points of our conversation:
Introduction about myself - Initially she asked a couple of questions like Where do you see yourself in five years? Tell me about your background, etc.
She briefly explained me the Importance of bold messaging.
Tips for building brand strategy by understanding consumers - the central element of brand strategy to align your core stages.
She gave an example of brands with complex communication.
Explained the difference between brand campaigns and product campaigns.
After I explained my idea for final project - She shared her thoughts: Retired players/athletes hold massive importance in the industry. Young athletes lack detailed knowledge about history and evolution.
Sina shared some names of players whom she interviewed, so that I can research more on that.
Later, I briefly talked about this meeting on my LinkedIn feed as a token of my appreciation. Those were the best 19 minutes of my life as I got to have her direct guidance and mentorship for my final project in the sports industry.
Moving forward, she introduced me to Marcell Edwards, who works as a Global Talent Acquisition at Adidas, through which I got more guidance on positioning myself at Adidas, UK. Also, Sina uplifted me with the following message on Sunday morning - “Thank you so much, I am glad we connected, and it was lovely to meet you! And feel free to connect with me on any open position you might see at adidas, I am happy to recommend you directly for a position that you find interesting!”
In follow up to that, on 21st March’22, I got an opportunity to get on a video call meeting with Marcell Edwards. While motivating me, Marcell explained various roles for me at Adidas and to keep looking for them; I can get back to him if I find something suitable. We talked about my final project, and he said that many people/brands would be willing to read your research around this idea as it is very relevant to the sports industry.
2) Matt Southall - Associate Director Customer Impact at JD Sports Fashion
As I am actively working at JD Sports Fashion plc as a Retail Sales Assistant, through LinkedIn, I have been following and connecting with the people working for the same company for my career progression and professional development. I came across Matt Southall's profile. After going through his career summary - "I am a highly creative individual focusing on elevating end to end customer journeys, serving world-class content across JD channels, profitable marketing strategy, creative innovation, and project management through JD Sports UK". I got interested in knowing more about his work scope as an associate director of customer impact and its importance in the sports industry. Along with his expertise as a creative, social, brand, consumer engagement and product specialist, his interest in music makes him multi-talented.
I professionally approached him on 7th March '22 for overall my professional development and to visit JD Sports HQ in Bury. Positively, he responded to me on 15th March '22 and agreed to the meeting. Initially, I was going to see the team in May and meet Matt Southall. However, looking at the current situation and time constraints, the video call meeting has been finalised for coming 18th May, 10:30 AM to 11:30 AM via Microsoft Teams Meeting. For that, as per the request made by him, I will have to share the meeting agenda beforehand.
I am looking forward to meeting another great senior in the industry.
Reflective Analysis & Learnings:
The industry Partner assignment was genuinely helpful, and it has a significant meaning attached to it in terms of our MA course. Its impact can be leveraged if individual works on it with laser-focused efforts.
My approach to build this project was qualitative and this has proved to be more impactful. After analysing the brief, I made sure to focus on quality.
I enjoyed working on it as I took it in the form of creating genuine partnerships and networking. I follow the practice of networking almost every day in my life as I like to connect with people and know about their different perceptions.
Critically, along with professionalism, this assignment was about having patience while keeping faith in your efforts.
Special acknowledgements to Sina Port, Matt Southall, and Marcell Edwards, for their time and contribution to my professional development. I truly respect them from the bottom of my heart.
Because of my industry partners, I got the direction for my professional practice introduction to develop my knowledge about how the overall sports industry operates. And I planned to take up online courses for the same.
Through this, I learned skills needed to maintain relationships with clients, stakeholders, senior management levels, colleagues, etc in the professional environment, especially in the international market.
I already have valuable industry partners back in India with whom I worked and could have gotten into a conversation with them. However, I wanted to push myself in an international market by making another genuine industry connection this time.
After getting their feedback, I have improved my crafting professional communication skills, and a sense of motivation has also taken place for my final project.
Marcell mentioned terms like brand/marketing activation, CTC, life after professional sports etc.I researched more on it while my professional practice introduction and literature review with analytical reflection.
After a short conversation with Sina Port, I observed that she focused more on the importance of placing bold messages through campaigns, understanding your consumers, and aligning core stages of strategy while developing brand strategy. I analysed that all these can be achieved when the project is created to provide an innovative solution moving with effective creative campaigns while keeping your target audience in the centre.
After meeting with Sina Port, she is till providing me valuable mentorship where ever needed in my career through professional platform. This taught me to be generous and supportive to the ones who are my juniors.
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