Background information
Harvey Nichols Group Limited is a global dealer in luxury lifestyle and fashion brands. The UK based business has exclusive fashion stores that offer jewelry and fashion brands across the world. Most of the company’s brands are suitable for men and women to wear, accessories, food, and beauty products. The business started as a single linen shop in 1813 and has rapidly expanded to meet the diverse needs of its customers.
Harvey Nichols has major distribution outlets in Bristol, Manchester city, Edinburg, Turkey, China, London, Dubai, and many others. The first one shop mall for the fashion retail business was established in 1996 in OXO Tower Restaurant in the middle of London and later spread worldwide to meet the diverse needs of its customers. In 1991, Dickson Concepts International limited bought Harvey Nichol Company. Dickson Concepts is situated in Hong Kong and is among the major companies in Hong Kong’s Stock market. In 2003, the company became a privately owned business and is currently run by Dr, Dickson Poon.
Organization scope and strategies
In Turkey, Harvey Nichols shopping mall began its operations in 2006. The shopping mall is an ambitious project exclusively dealing with art design and fashion brands, beauty, fragrance, and home products. The company also deals with the distribution of food and runs a grand restaurant and a bar. The company facilitates a worldwide spread of the high–end lifestyle brands from the UK Harvey Nichols Group Limited.
In order to facilitate the growth of career and utilize the dynamic skills in fresh graduates, the company creates internship opportunities for students in different areas of academic specialization. By so doing, the business provides opportunities for career openings to enthusiastic and energetic professions. This is one major reason that qualifies the organization to be one of the best workplaces for internship students and the reason as to why I sought my attachment with them.
The internship is an essential requirement in furthering student’s skills and must never be overlooked. Through an internship, students get practical skills and experiences that equip them for excellent work performances in the job market. Harvey Nichols Group Limited has established management which fosters for the viability of the organization for students looking for internships. The company has been severely listed in Hong Kong’s stock market and is widely known for its services in the lifestyle industry. This is an indicator of effective performances in the work industry. Therefore training in such a company leaves students with practical skills. This further enhances the theoretical skills that one gets from books.
Working for Harvey Nichols’ outlet in Turkey improves one’s work ethics and enhances confidence in their abilities. The company is a destination for most tourists and celebrities in the country; hence a major distributor for these groups of people in jewelry and beauty products. I chose the company because it is a widespread business and has dynamic opportunities for anyone who would want to grow career-wise. The daily operations of the business leave a student with the dynamic skills of working in the fashion industry. I worked with the creative team as a sales assistant, a position that helped me acquire great skills in organization, advertising, and communication.
The sale of Jewelry and fragrance products is dependent on a fine and attractive overall design for the product that compliments the quality of the material used in making the final product. To meet this standard while in an internship, a student must be able to do his duties and produce measurable end results. Sale and creative units in the company offer intern students with this chance. As a sales assistant, I was engaged in organizing a show window.
Here the requirement was to match colors in order to come up with a unique display that would attract customers hence increasing sales for the company. This is a very practical lesson for any intern because it provides the student involved with practical skills required for the job market.
In the world of business, every worker needs critical thinking skills. At the creative department in Harvey Nichols, Istanbul, one is involved in determining the final design of the products. This is a unique experience because the procedure for coming up with the best design would only come from personal initiatives. One is expected to come up with a distinct design that would be liked by almost all the celebrities and finally be bought. The obligation for the interns therefore in such duties is to try out several combinations of colors and fabrics in order to design a matchless product.
The strategy in reaching the company’s objectives is to produce the best in order to meet customers’ expectations. This is a high point for any student who wishes to work in a busy an engaging organization. Training should involve acquiring new skills and knowledge and also provide an alternative to the boredom that is common in classrooms. Harvey Nichols Group Limited. Is such a busy organization with diverse operations all aimed at making and distributing lifestyle products? Therefore, interns get the experience of working with the aim of producing the best. This being the initial job experience provides the students with great opportunities to become productive members.
The organization’s line of responsibilities and duties are well defined hence allowing the interns to acquire skills in a specialized field. Other than having general responsibilities for all individuals there is need to divide roles so that every worker sticks to certain duties. Division of labor among workers is very necessary for any organization that wishes to effectively meet its goals and run profitably. This is because; it is easy to point at someone’s actions and question about the outcomes of the actions, a requirement that does not exclude interns in the company. The interns also therefore are obliged to comply and avoid any irresponsible actions.
The authority and delegation of duties in the company are well designed to ensure that every worker has a person to whom he or she is answerable to. This is an important value for any organization because it defines the protocols that one has to follow while working for the company. Harvey Nichols Business in Turkey has well defined authority that helps in monitoring the junior personnel hence a proper coordination at work place. As an intern in the organization, I would make consultations in order to ensure I accomplish my daily duties in organizing windows for the displays.
Based on logic, I was expected to make decisions about the products brands and materials. I was expected to logically think and make decisions concerning the material to use for what brand and the combination of the two to come up with a unique design that would be most customers’ favorites. The organization deals with a wide range of brands that requires an intern to master and be fast to learn in order to adapt to the operations of the firm. At the beginning of the internship program, the training unit orients interns to create awareness for the various brands and products that the Company deals in.
This is an intelligent thought because not every person either hired or in internship is familiar with the products and brands in the company. This creates harmony in running the business as well as creating the right work attitude among workers and also in interns.
Internship programs are meant to increase an intern’s communication skills. At Harvey Nichols, Istanbul, I worked as a sales assistant in the sales and creative unit. This provided me with the opportunity to sharpening my communications skills. Being a sales person is a profession and communications skills are necessary in order to convince the target market about the product displayed on windows.
At Harvey Nichols Company, Istanbul, communication is not mere words but also actions and thoughts. The various brands in lifestyle products must be designed in a distinctively way, this can only be achieved through clear and creative thoughts, later on the display must reflect the unique design if the product is going to call a distanced customer and convince the person to buy the product. The communication of the interns is also be polished through the dynamic interaction with the various people involved in the business. This includes the customers and also the employees.
This is further facilitated by the fact that the company is situated at a tourist destination. This calls for the business attendants to harness their communication skills right from word of mouth, way of handling their customers and how they serve them. This is an essential skill that any intern must acquire while in the internship period. The organization provides the opportunity for students training to familiarize themselves with communication skills necessary for the work place.
Teamwork is another essential work skill that interns at the company acquire. Interns learn to work with colleagues in order to achieve the general goals of the organization. Workers sharpen each other with the required knowledge while doing their daily duties. This handy knowledge can only be attained while putting hands at practice instead of just observing. The interns also get to know how to handle difficult situations at work place and resolve conflicts. The daily activities of employees at workplace involves a lot of procedures that may require mingling and making consultations in order to perfect one’s skills.
This in turn calls for the ability to work and relate well with every one despite the differences in skills, experiences, and in behaviors. The organization provides the opportunity for an intern to handle conflicting incidents like individual differences and knowledge differences. It is important for students to get an experience of working with colleagues that have different cultural backgrounds so as to be able to manage any differences that may affect work relations. This is also another factor that qualifies the organization for the internship.
Apart from the delegated duties at work place, an intern must be able to learn about other units of the business that co-exist to complete the organizations’ operations. This is a perfect requirement in any organization because it ensures that the personnel can handle customers efficiently without having to send them to the customer service officers.
Harvey Nichols, Istanbul in Turkey has other units like administration, distribution, marketing and production units that harmoniously co-exist to facilitate the production and distribution of the lifestyle brands, restaurant and café. Hand in hand with this was the deliberate step to enhance and sharpen customer service skills on all employees hence retention of customers. This is because customers feel satisfied and when served by qualified staff. This was done by various trainings given at different times so as to enhance service delivery at the work place among all the staff.
Time management and self discipline is a work policy at Harvey Nichols, Istanbul in Turkey. The organization has a set schedule and program which helps its employees gain time management skills. The work force has to manage their time well and dedicate their time towards achieving the organization’s goals and aims this is because performance can only be generated from a dedicate staff. This helped me in managing my time and meet deadlines throughout the period of my internship.
The organization’s tight schedule demanded that every worker learns and become accustomed to the delegated duties as fast as possible in order to be able to handle the daily streaming and increasing number of customers in the restaurants and cafes. Initially it seemed difficult for any job starter, but with time one would start enjoying serving the everyday new customers with different needs.
Most of my expectations as an intern sales assistant had been to a Greta extent met at the end of the internship period. I had learnt about how to organize a sales window that drew so many people’s attention. I managed to do this by having various trials at the beginning of the internship period. I was given the chance top try out organizing a sales window, through corrections and assistance; it became much easier after every trial.
This is because I was ready to learn from the corrections, an attitude that every intern must have during an internship period. This is one area in the business that I gained comprehensive and practical skills leaving me a profession in the field. At one point my immediate supervisor recognizes this ability and assigned me to show other new employed workers who were incorporate after my introduction into the company. This resulted into motivating while in internship because. Motivation and incentive among workers play major role in influencing their attitudes towards work.
At the end of the internship my confidence had been enhanced. It is normal for all students to have mixed feelings of eagerness to work and on the other hand fear of failure to perform. The same case applied to me. However, the organization became a platform for me to overcome this by supplementing the fears with an attitude of I can do it. By working in such a busy and demanding organization, I gained confidence in facing the challenges that one encounters at work place.
Despite the organization helping me as an intern attain the above discussed skills, there were other few expectations that I failed to realize while in the organization. Firstly, the business did not conduct team building activities to re-energize the work force despite the long hours of working. Any organization that wishes to have an increased production from a refreshed team, then it should have team building activities with the aim of rejuvenating the employees. Team building activities relieves workers from the daily routines and fatigues hence an increased output and profit. Harvey Nichols Group limited exclusively deal with the sale of beauty, fragrance and jewelry darns.
The company’s workers face several challenges in their daily operations from the customers who come from diverse cultural backgrounds. At the end of the day, a worker serves close to a hundred customers with varying needs hence the varying challenges that require different strategic responses. The only solution to this is to provide a chance for team building that would allow the workers share about their experiences and get new skills from their colleagues on how to handle difficult customers. This is a very effective technique because the ideas are from practical experiences and can be applied to the dynamic customers of the business. Team building also provides chances to relieve tension and work pressures.
Apart from conducting orientation programs for the interns so as to familiarize them with the daily routines, other essential knowledge like legal implications associated with the business dealings must never be ignored. Harvey Nichols Group Company is not an exception in this rule. This is because the interns may unconsciously do something that is legally wrong hence facing legal cases that may damage their profiles and never to get any job even after graduation.
Recommendations
The first recommendation is that internship programs at Harvey Nichol must be geared towards the objective of having mutual benefits. The organization needs to benefit from the fresh skills that students have and in turn give them an opportunity to try out in real life hence gain practical skills. In addition, interns must no be confused for under-qualified personnel. This is an attitude that majority of company’s personnel have over the interns. As a result of this, they end up ‘abusing’ them. Contrary to this, internships are chance for students to build professional network and work related mentoring relationships that will help them while seeking for employment after their qualifications levels at school.
Like every other global company that wishes to sharpen its cutting edge worldwide, Harvey Nichols Company must embrace advertising as a major tool of promotion. This will help the company in taking advantage of advertising as a platform of creating new customers. This will help the company in increasing awareness allover the world. This must be a deliberate measure for the company instead of running the business with the general assumption that it is an international business. Hand in hand the interns may be involved in other promotion activities to foster their skills in sales and advertisements.
Internships may also be used as the basis for full time employment among companies. This is because the students who go through such programs get handy experiences to practice on jobs that match their career ambitions and personal interests. This grants the interns’ chances to centralize their abilities in an industry specific field hence enjoying the positions. They are chances for the students to test drive what they enjoy most.
Conclusion
Internships provide chances for students to relate their learnt theoretical knowledge in a practical environment. Some of the attributes that one gains during internship program include motivation, oral communication, leadership and the essential interpersonal skills that almost every employer looks for. Organizations need to be regularly providing such mentoring programs so that potential employees can gains essential skills to enable them solve problems and the use emerging technologies in practical environments.