技能与学习声明The Skills and Learning Statement

TABLE OF CONTENT

 

1. LEARNING FROM MEETING AND PRESENTATION 1

2. ANSWERING THE PROJECT QUESTIONS 2

3. ASSESSMENT OF INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION 3

4. BENEFITS TO THE CAREER DEVELOPMENT 4

4. BIBLIOGRAPHY 4     

1. Learning From Meeting and Presentation

From knowing a little about the project to absolute completion of the report finally, I found it is extremely useful for the meeting and presentation, as I have mainly learned the following: 

a. adequate preparation can make things smoother, for example, to gather some relevant and useful information in advance could make the meeting more efficient and effective, my mentor and I could focus on  critical points with lots of time saved; 

b. from the early meeting, I got to acknowledge my weakness areas and the mentor could provide clearer solutions for my subsequent progress, such as I am not good at presentation before, but through guidance of mentor and encouragement of classmates, my performance on presentation have been improved (with improvements in presentation skills detailed in Part 3 of this SLS). ; 

c. multi-medias could be helpful in facilitating the communications, such as messages by mobile phones, emails, on-line discussion, e-mails etc, these medias helped a lot in clarifying sophisticated issues and provided timely communication;

d. Sharing the different opinions through presentation by others cultivate diverse thinking; this is just like a brainstorming practice as the new questions or ideas driven by the presentation and in the process of mutual interaction could facilitate the deepening of the discussion and reflections.

e. Team-work and division of work speed up the progress compared to performing individually. Many complicated work shall be undertaken by division of labor to ensure efficiency, for example, I have asked two of my former classmates to attend an interview program with the staffing representatives in CMB to try to identify the difference in the training and development system in CMB compared with that of the Bank of China, many useful suggestions before the interview and many deep interpretation and opinions after the interview could help me in figuring out a more complete picture.

f. The importance of meeting scheduling and time management in the presentation. Skills improved by using spread sheets in arranging the activities more completely and systematically, program management software used to identify the critical path of the activities and also work out the plan for resource allocation. Power point slides to be used in facilitating the logic flow and highlighting the most important issues, by means of dynamic demonstration and colorful pictures in the presentation to the audiences. Using Power Point can make my presentation my lively and attractive. 

h.  Better logic flow and diagrams (such as data-flow diagram, pie chart and bar chart) could help deliver a better and clear presentation, trial practices before the real rebuttal is very important to raise the self-confidence, wiping out the worry and fear before exposing to many audiences.

2. Answering The Project Questions

I believe I answered the project questions pretty well in the RAP. The RAP’s objective is to evaluate the business and financial performance of China Merchant Bank between 1 January 2008 and 31 December 2010. I conducted the analysis by targeting several main objectives:

a. Access to financial information and key financial indicators for comparing with peers in the same industry to reaching persuasive conclusions on financial performance. Pure comparison of financial data is meaningless, finding out the causes and reasons of fluctuation are absolutely crucial. Macroeconomic policies, such as international economic situation, social and technological factors, such as advancement in IT, industry policy such as capital adequacy ratio and core adequacy ratio etc should also need to be taken into consideration. 

b. Collecting books, journals and websites material etc to find out public assessment and competitiveness (including the competitive advantage issues, brand position, operational strengths and weaknesses). Fred Reichheld of Bain & Company, the strategy consulting firm, puts reputation as a good indicator of likely future success. So some focus has been applied in identifying the measures undertaken by the company to build and consolidate the goodwill and reputation in the market in China and overseas. 

c. Personal experience and the feelings of the service and products of Target Company to obtain deep grasp. This may be subjective regarding to the personal feelings involved. 

d. I have also undertaken other market research activities to approve my conclusions and investigate whether my suggestions are feasible. Such as searching banking industry research report from famous research institutions and proving their reliability by collecting official analysis and data. 

f. Through internal and external source of information received, building up my own opinion on business and financial performance of Target Company, put forward constructive suggestions for senior management consideration. 

 

The strengths of carrying on above procedures include: (1) analyzing financial data using official financial statements provides objective information and equal basis of comparison (2) individually participate in research provide real experiences, which can not be achieved just by reading books or any other means of information sources or collection methods.

The weakness such as off-balance-sheet items in the financial statements which conceal the real meaning of the financial data, the inherent limitations in the study methods and other limitations in the whole process limited the quality of the report.

 

But above limitations could not impose the basic threats to the success of the report as I planned pretty well and considered most perspectives of the analyzing process/methodology before I started to write the RAP, I strengthened my efforts in data collection, improving the analytical skills, undertaking more relevant performance review, I am confident that I answered the project questions clearly and persuasively.

3. Assessment of Interpersonal Communication

 

1. My listening and speaking skills have been improved a lot. Firstly listening to the mentor’s methods to approach the project is critical. Secondly understanding classmates’ opinions on presentation and discussion is also important because it will save me a lot of time to search this information and avoid misunderstanding. So I learned to listen with patience and attention and continuous improvements in capturing important information. Speaking skills include vocal rendering, such as tone, tune, rhythm, speed, and body language.  Studies in communication illustrate that 55% of interpersonal communication comes from expression and body language; 38% comes from vocal quality or tone of voice. (Owen Hargie, 2006). 

2. In order to make audience better understanding of my expression, I tried to highlight most important areas with skillful repetition, indicating my interests and agreements or disagreements to arouse the reflection and feedback with body languages such as eye contacts, which would facilitate audiences’ focus on main points.

3. The communication skills such as the application of body language may help build the rapport with the stakeholders involved. Besides that, my diligence and enthusiasm in the process has also gained lots of feedback and assistance from many of the contacts in the project, I really feel that my communication and cooperation skills could be improved a lot after this project. Especially after I understand the importance of such soft skills.

4. Benefits To The Career Development

Firstly, the study process effectively improves my analysis capability, I learned that analyzing things should be from various angels and using different methodology which suitable to the situation rather than generalizations.  At the same time, adequate information is necessary to give an overview of the target and avoid subjective judgment.

Secondly, due diligence and care during the working process is vital factor of professionalism, especially as a professional accountant.  Only by holding the attitude of due diligence and care, work can just be accomplished at the best end and get trust from customers, fellow and managers.  #p#分页标题#e#

 Thirdly, learned how to collect information in an effective and efficient way can improve productivity in my career. For example, in the past, I collect information over-relying on wide website, but websites information is massive and filter process is time-consuming. During the research process, I learned from my classmates to search information from professional websites and technical books, saving lots of time in choosing which is useful. In the future, I would fully apply those techniques to my work. 

Fourthly, I benefit from improved communication skills; it not only enhances working efficiency, but also they make my points to be more understandable by fellow members than before. Better communication with senior management demonstrates my capability growth and increases the promotion opportunities. 

Liaison with customer groups also need communication skills, for example, as a seller, let customers understand your company advantages and the products for selling, gain their confidence in the short term, and eventually accept your services or products, those all need sound communication skills. I will inquiry customer needs and provide better services through excellent communication in the future combined with the knowledge and experiences learned in preparation of this RAP and the study journey in Australia. 

Fifthly, in recent years, ACCA courses continually stress the significance of professional ethics in response to the recent corporate and accounting scandals.  I think improvements in the moral training at both strategic and operational level is top priority, only accountants with high ethical standards and strong operational level, the accounting information provided could be true and fair. This demands me to strictly comply with professional ethics which includes:

 Ⅰ. Accountants should act honestly ad not to be swayed from fulfilling their duty to the employers by considerations of personal interests or illegitimate pressures to act other than in their employer’s interests; 

Ⅱ. Accountants should respect confidentiality information that they have about their employer and should not disclose it without proper or specific authority or unless there is a legal or professional right or duty to disclose; 

Ⅲ. Accountants should exercise and skill in the service of the employer and maintain knowledge of best practice, legislation and techniques; 

Ⅳ. Accountant should seek to fulfill the company’s objectives of trying to maximize shareholder value, also maintaining good relationship with other relevant stakeholders;

Ⅴ. Accountants also have a duty to promote their employer’s legitimate business interests and not take actions that would be detrimental to their employers. (ACCA Textbook, P1)

The standards above I need to emblazon on my heart and comply with law, regulations, also ethic codes during my accounting career to avoid any action that discredits the profession. At the same time, if I find out any actions which violate the professional ethics, I will report the phenomenon to related authority or responsible persons because as a professional accountant, it’s my duty to do so. 

In conclusion, those benefits I obtained during the project will assist me in future career development and I will benefit forever. 

 

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 

1. Owen Hargie, (2006), The Handbook of Communication Skills,http://www.ukassignment.org/uklunwen/ 3rd Edition, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, London and New York.

2.  ACCA P3, (2010), Business Analysis, ACCA Paper Professional 3, Kaplan Financial Publishing, UK.