By Anissa Basinger, USD Senior studying International Business
For the last few months, I was given the amazing opportunity to be selected as a Project Lead for the Socialway e-Services Digital Media project through SIBC. I was a new member of the organization, so the position of being a Project Lead was a bit intimidating at first. Nevertheless, it taught me more about the organization, leadership, and myself than I could have ever hoped for. Having first-hand experience in leading a team to successfully analyze the digital media industry in more than 7 countries was something invaluable to my undergraduate experience. This experience not only broadened my view of what my International Business degree could amount to but what it takes to be a successful leader.
Over the course of the project we utilized multiple analytical tools to evaluate the industry such as 5 force analysis, PESTEL, and a competitive profile matrix. These tools taught me a lot about not only how to analyze a specific industry in many different ways, but also that first I had to have a complete understanding of what they were before I could expect my team to do so as well. Overall my leadership skills have improved immensely after this project because it has taught me that there is so much more to being a leader than I had imagined. Making sure your team fully understands and feels motivated to complete their tasks is a large part of what makes the team successful as a whole. I learned that a project’s end result can’t be successful, if the team as a whole isn’t successful first.
Socialway e-Services: https://socialwayeservices.com/