Finalizing my assignment (week 13,14 and 15)

I am delighted to say that I have completed my internship. I learned a lot from the experiences at Philips and I am happy to have been given the opportunity to do an internship at Philips.
I am also aware of the fact that without the help of other people I would not have been able to write this recommendation report. Therefore, I would like to give a very special thanks to a number of people who were closely involved during the research, who have supported me during the process of writing this report, who gave me the opportunity to pursue an internship, and who enabled me to compose this report.

First, I would like to thank Gert van Santen, Head of Internal Communications at Philips. In a situation that was unexpected to me, he called me in for an interview and rewarded me with an internship. I grabbed this opportunity with both hands. Cameron Batten, my coach did a lot of work in supporting me and, gave me a lot of freedom in the research process. I spent a lot of time in the office with Cameron Batten, Noëlle Prins and Shari Lemmen. They helped me with my English, supported me with ideas, and checked my drafts, especially Cameron Batten and Noëlle Prins.

I also want to thank my school, InHolland and especially my thesis supervisor, Cees van Wijk.
Thank you sincerely,

Dennis Aguši
Amsterdam, April 22th 2010 

Data analyses (week 11 and week 12)

I provided the survey to all the Socialcast users and the group that didn't activate their potential membership. The response was unexpected. 72 respondents. That is a great result. My goal was 65 respondents. I'm very happy with this. There were a lot of comments and people were really engage to help me.

Last week I started with the data analyzes. There are some surprising results. This week I planned to work all the results into the report. I will try to finalize my report this week. In the week of 19th April I want to start with my thesis. I have to finish it before 10th May.

I have a great time at Philips. But the combination of having a family life, internship, and part-time job is hard. Till the end of April I have to deal with this after that I hope I can make some time for myself.

My goal of 8th April was too ambitious. I hope now I can finish the report of the end of this week. That would be great. I kept it short because I have to do a lot. See you next week!

*Please let me know what you think about this blog and also correct me if you see that my grammar isn’t good.

Survey is finished and waiting for a go (week 10)

In the title you can see where I am. Wating for a 'Go'. That means that I solve the problems with the indicators and that the questionnaire is finished. I provide the survey to my teacher and to my Coach. The teacher gave me already a go.

I'm done with the quick reference. Now waiting for feedback to improve it. It took me a couple of hours to finish it but the end result is nice.

This week I will wait for a 'Go' and after that I will wait for the data from the questionnaire. This week I will try to start with my thesis. Huh didn't you already started with that? Yes and no. The thesis is in Dutch and is for the school only. The assignment report is for school and the company (Philips). The differents between those two is that the thesis must be broader and with your own theory. In your thesis you going to generalized the theory for a branch or sector.

Today and tomorrow there is big event within Philips. It is the global marketing forum. All the CMO's, CIM's , and AMO's are coming from all around the world. More than 100 participants will contribute to this event. I will 'tweet' live to the microblogging tool. So the whole online community can also pick up some messages and photos from the speakers at that event.

My mother will be out the hospital tomorrow. So thats great news! Happy, that she is recovering well.

Next week I will wait for the data and start with my thesis and try to check the grammatic of my assignment report. My goal is still to finish it before 8 April. I have to admit that I'm not sure if this is realistic. But a little pressure is always good for me :)

*Please let me know what you think about this blog and also correct me if you see that my grammar isn’t good.

Work life :) Personal life :( (week 9)

In my last blog I said that my plan was to start with the questionnaire this week. Unfortunately, this wasn't possible. I am still struggling with some indicators. First I have to solve this problem before I can send out the questionnaire. My plan is to finish it this week. I also have to make good screenshots for the quick reference. A lot to do for this week. Important for me is that 15 May is the deadline of my thesis and assignment report. I didn't start with my thesis. So I have to hurry up!

Great news for me is that Cameron is trying to let me join his team. This means that Philips could be my first real employer. That would be great for me. A point that I need to improve is my English. I cannot give a presentation in English. This is not good, I have to train this. Other great news is that a CEO of Philips joined us in the test environment. This is great for us and give us the acknowledgement in the company that you need to roll this out.

My mother was very ill last week and has to go to the hospital. There was a moment of critical condition and we have to fear for her life. I am happy to say that she is stabilizing now. She have to stay in the hospital at least for one week.

Next week I plan to do the questionnaire and to receive the data of it. My goal is to send out the questionnaire on Tuesday or at least on Wednesday.

*Please let me know what you think about this blog and also correct me if you see that my grammar isn’t good.

Moving forward to the research (week 8)

This week was an interesting week. I learned a lot of last week and I realize that it a great experience here at Philips. Last week I started with refreshing the research questions and with the research design. I conclude that I have to interview or do a group discussion and a questionarry to finish the research chapter. Yesterday there was by surprise a groups discussion in a team meeting this was perfect for me. I record the group discussion. But I think that I still need more specific information.Thats why I planned some interviews for this week.

The dimensions and indicators are almost done. After the interviews I will change them with the feedback of my colleagues. I already use the information from the group discussion.

I want to finish the whole recommendation report for 16 April because than there is an important deadline. My goal is to finish it for 8 April so they can use my recommendation for the implementation of the social media tool. After finishing the recommendation report I can work on my thesis.

Cameron ask me in the Skypecall of last Friday, if I would like to join his team. I'm really into it so I sad yes. He will look if this is possible. He just want to be sure that I would join his team before he ask for the possibilities. Philips is a great company, so I would be stupid if I sad no.

Next week I want to start with the questionarry. I'm not sure if this is possible. I hope so. The basics of the report are already good. I think I'm now at 60% of the total report. We will see!

*Please let me know what you think about this blog and also correct me if you see that my grammar isn’t good.

Back on earth (week 7)

Last Tuesday (23 Feb) was the first online training in my life. In the morning at 7 am (so early) I started with the training. There were three employees (from China, Japan and Dubai). Really international. This training was a good training but the next one (4.30 pm) for EU and America, was a disaster. There were more than 22 attendees and that was scary. They were all talking at the same time and it was difficult to keep order. The problem was that they want to discuss the tool but the intention of the training is just to learn how to use the tool. I've learned a lot through this training and I'm back on earth.

Giving a training to 22 professionals is not easy as an intern. I've learned that I had to ask for more help and advice about giving an online training. I had to search somebody in the company that does this a lot or had a lot of experience in this specific area. Now I understand that I had to prepare the training better and I had to manage their expectations.

Cameron (my coach) was very understanding and has another plan. Next Tuesday someone of the owners of the tool will give a online tutorial. Cameron also manage the expectations of the audience with a clear note that this is just a product demo.

Last Friday I was at school because I had some questions about the recommendation report that I'm writing for Philips. The teacher had some comments at the draft of the report. The questions were too technical. He told me that my focus must be more at communication and not at the channel (technical). Good feedback. Because I study communication and not IT.

Next week I have to come up with new research questions. The literature study is done. I only have to write the recommendations to Philips in the literature study. After this I will look for new questions and set-up the dimensions and indicators story.

*Please let me know what you think about this blog and also correct me if you see that my grammar isn’t good.

Set up a training (Week 6)

This week was a great week. I have worked home for three days. I have worked on my assignment and on the online training. Working home is great for me because I don't have to travel for 3.5 hour.

A lot has happened this week. I thought a lot about what I would do, if I were 44 years old, working for Philips and would not know anything about social media.This is the basics for the trainings. Last week I sent the invitations for the training. Many communicators accepted the invitation. This gives me a good feeling.

Every week I will give a training about a specific topic. The first week is the kick-off of the training. In the kick-off I treat the basics and some specific social media language. I will give a live presentation by internet and will give the explanation through the phone. This gives the audience the opportunity to ask questions if they don't understand it. I can also ask them questions so I can find out if they understand me.

The new social media tool is doing well. My coach Cameron did a report from an event in America. Everybody likes it. They can follow the event while they are at home. This gives Philips new opportunities. Employees can follow events while they are at the office. The sharing of information is really coming up now. This is a milestone for Philips.

The online community is active and a lot of people are seeing the benefits of it. It's nice to see results so quickly. Some are posting that they don't know what to say.

Next week you will hear from me how the training went. I hope good. Today I will only prepare myself on this.

*Please let me know what you think about this blog and also correct me if you see that my grammar isn’t good.