Lessons from Meetings with Project Mentor

PART ONE: LESSONS FROM MEETINGS WITH PROJECT MENTOR

1.0 INTRODUCTION

In this part I have explained the experiences I had during the three meetings with my project mentor.

1.1 FIRST MEETING

It was clear from the first meeting that I had not read extensively around the research topic I choice in order to arrive at the proposed objectives. During this meeting I realised that it is important to have an agenda for meetings. I forgot most of the things I intended to discuss with my mentor because I did not have an agenda. I also learned that it was important to come up with a realistic timetable that would help me meet deadlines if I were to succeed. My project mentor explained that the timetable was important because it would help me to know what I should be doing at any given time before the research report and the skills and learning statement are completed and submitted. I, therefore, came up with a realistic timetable which I followed.

Furthermore, my mentor helped me realise that the time which was remaining before submitting the research work was not enough for me to collect adequate primary data for the research project. So I decided to use secondary data for my research work. I also choose the company that had been listed on the Lusaka Stock Exchange as it would help me gather information from its publications.

Finally, I learned from this meeting that I needed to recognize the work of different authors by referencing due to legal implications and to differentiate my work from others. This made me realise I needed to read widely.

1.2 SECOND MEETING

Before this meeting I had done two parts of the Research Report and I sent a copy to my mentor. Thereafter, the feedback was given to me about the work I had done up to then. My mentor told me I had written too much on these parts and advised that I stick to the word count recommended by Oxford Brooks University on all the three parts of the Research Report. My mentor further advised me to demonstrate wider reading on the accounting and business models. This provided me a lesson that I needed to show that I had accessed various websites and read various books on the accounting and business models by citing all the sources of information of this research.

1.3 THIRD MEETING

During the third and final meeting with my project mentor, I made a PowerPoint presentation (see the PowerPoint slides) on my research report. Prior to the meeting, I concentrated much on reducing the number of slides and forgot to practice the presentation before the actual presentation. My presentation therefore revealed several weaknesses that my project mentor brought to my attention. He advised me to rehearse the presentation before the actual presentation as this will improve my confidence and avoid nervousness. He also advised me to improve on time management. This could be done by monitoring time throughout the presentation to avoid exceeding time allocated. He further mentioned that my eyes should be in regular contact with the listeners so as to attract their attention. This meeting, therefore, had helped me learn how to prepare a PowerPoint presentation and plan an effective presentation through practicing prior to the presentation date.

PART TWO: ANSWERING THE RESEARCH QUESTIONS.

2.0 INTRODUCTION

This part outlines how I managed to answer the research questions in addressing the objectives of the research project.

2.1 Research Question One

This question was asking what the best corporate governance practices were. In answering this question, I had to access and review the various reports on corporate governance practices from the various websites. I had some challenges in appreciating some principles reported in the various reports in that I expected all the reports I read to contain the same principles. However, I realised different committees had specific areas that they reported on. I managed to appreciate the principles of the various reports and answered this question very well.

2.2 Research Question Two

This question was asking on how Zambian Breweries Plc's corporate governance practices were compared to best practice in good corporate governance. Since I chose to use secondary data only, I gathered the corporate governance information through reading the company's annual reports for 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 and other publications. I relied on these publications to answer this question and, therefore, addressed it sufficiently.

2.3 Research Question Three

This question was asking who the key stakeholders of Zambian Breweries Plc were. In answering this question I used the Mendelow's stakeholder matrix to classify the various types of stakeholders. The key stakeholders were those considered to have high power and interest in the activities of the company and these were the shareholders and customers. I, therefore, answered this question adequately.

2.4 Research Question Four

This question was asking whether the current corporate governance practices in Zambian Breweries Plc resulted in increased shareholder value or not. So I had to extract information from the financial statements contained in the annual reports. I also used the financial perspective and calculated the shareholders ratios to help me answer the question. I had difficulties because while earnings per share showed that the shareholder value increased the return on equity and dividend per share showed otherwise. This made me doubt whether this question was well answered or not.

2.5 Research Question Five

This question was asking how Zambian Breweries Plc protects customers' interest. In answering this question I had to gather information about the customer care system of Zambian Breweries. I achieved this through reviewing the annual reports. I had difficulties in answering this question because it took me a lot of time to appreciate that the company protected customer interests by improving the quality of its goods and services and reducing prices for its products. However, this question was well answered by the use of the customer perspective of the balanced scorecard.