The seminar in business management course hosted by IBMBA comes to an end. This week’s honourable guest is Mr. Vildon Foo, students benefit from his speech on management. When Mr. Vildon was an MBA student, he was inspired by a speaker from the course. Not only in a practical aspect but the business view and awareness. Because of it, Mr. Vildon is glad to be a part of students’ MBA life and hopes they are able to gain something different from this section. To start the sharing, Mr. Vildon briefly introduces his background and lets students know more about him. Then. Mr. Vildon jumped into today’s management class.

Mr. Vildon believes that commercial awareness is important for MBA students when they get into the business world. Having a big picture and creating value for the company is to show your value to the company. Transferable skills and cross-functional are able to get you promoted and gain an important role. Nowadays, recruiters and hiring managers are demanding. With these skills, it would be easier and more capable in different companies.

First, interest in the business. It is more internal work to build up your own interest in the business. Second, customer care skills. Having empathy is very important when communicating with customers. A “What's In It For Me?” mindset is the worse when working directly with customers. Third, economic and political awareness. It is needed to build up awareness of the external environment. For example, the lockdown situation in china now. Brings a lot of damage and detail needs to be care of. Fourth, creativity and thinking out of the box. From Mr. Vildon’s past experience, creativity can help to balance the expectation of customers and practical situations. Use some creativity when communicating within the different departments, and create new solutions. Fifth, strategic thinking is also important. It is the basic line of minimising the resource but maximising the return. Sixth, utilize your knowledge. Having research, analysing data or any other method to improve your decision.

After sharing some elements of commercial awareness, Mr. Vildon provide some related case studies. All studies come with practical examples and experience. While the case study, Mr. Vildon also introduce a useful tool, Pareto principle-20/80 rule. Students know more about the importance of commercial awareness. For the next section of the speech, Mr. Vildon prepares a self-reflection writing exercise. To let students know more about themselves and the environment around them. Students are separated into groups and discuss their thought and experience. In the end, Mr. Vildon invites some students to share their own views. Students have shared their opinion on different aspects. Mr. Vildon appreciates the different points of view of students. Thinking out of the box is really helpful for improving awareness.

Last but not the least, Mr. Vildon has some tips on improving commercial awareness. Have a curious mind and gather more knowledge, do not put yourself in a box no matter how much you familiar with that. Develop a basic understanding of numbers and facts. Mr. Vildon has a financial background, by his experience, data and fact is very useful and should pay more attention to. Utilize PESTLE and SWOT analysis, it is super basic but super useful in every industry you may work on. Although many people may not agree, be happy to be used by people. It means you are useful, you should feel good about that. Elevate and extend your thoughts and vision, and try to understand what you want and what you need. Develop empathy, care for everyone and care for everything.