Colorful Balconies

Colorful Balconies, a photo by Habub3 on Flickr.

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Entry 2 : Be a Manager

Celebrate 2011 : The Event Of The Year

For our Media Mnagement Principal blog entry 2, we were to choose a media event to attend and note down our observations. Below is my reflection of the event, Celebrate 2011 at The Float @ Marina Bay on 31^st December 2010

Celebrate 2011, which took place on 31 December 2010 at The Float @ Marina Bay, is more than a celebration; it is an annual tradition for all Singaporeans.  Tickets to this event were sold at $38 dollars.

The objective of this year-end event was to bring together the collective wishes and aspirations of thousands of Singaporeans, unite all in counting down the final seconds of the year, to celebrate the beginning of a new year full of hopes, challenges, changes and dreams.

Started in 2005, The Marina Bay Singapore Countdown is a celebration that connects people from all walks of life through a collective expression of their wishes for the year ahead. Wishes are written on wishing spheres and lit as part of a visual arts presentation in Marina Bay. 

The unique annual affair had over 500,000 wishes from the community, penned on 20,000 wishing spheres, set afloat in Marina Bay to form a spectacular visual arts display. Fast becoming an annual tradition for Singaporeans is the signing of wishing spheres for the countdown each year at various wishing stations.

I feel that there is no specific target audience because the main aim of the event is to gather all Singaporeans and people from all walks of life and bring together collective aspiration and celebrate as the year comes to an end. However, based on the artistes who are performing or involved in the event (David Tao, DJ KENNERVE, Sylvia Ratonel and Sezairi Sezali ), I would think that the organizers are looking to attract a big group of the younger Singaporeans.

Advertisement for the event

Before the event, I saw numerous advertisements about the “event of the year” which thoroughly fueled my excitement. I realized that on the official website, there are options for people who enters it to suggest this site to various other portals / social networks like Facebook and Twitter. In my opinion, using social media to publicize the event is very effective seeing that the main target audiences are younger Singaporean who spends substantial amount of time on the internet (e.g. researching and social-networking) 

Also, the advertisements on magazines like 8 days reaches out to a wide range of people. TV advertisements of this event were also broadcasted at prime times from 7pm to 10pm on Channel 8, Channel 5 (official broadcaster of the event) & Channel U. 

Sheikh Haikel

On that day itself, we went through a series of checks on our Identification card and bag-checks before passing through and entering The Float @ Marina Bay.

The skyline was amazing, clear sky after a rainy afternoon that made the stairs (which served as seats for us) wet. This, contributed to the “failure” part of the event. The camera that broadcasted the event “live” were positioned directly behind the mosh pit seats so the audience had no choice but to sit on the spots that were wet.

The atmosphere hyped up a lil when Jack & RAI, Sylvester Sim & Queen Band and Jill-Marie Thomas performed to a few tunes with the likes of “Forget you” and “21 guns”, which the crowd sang aloud to. However, throughout the event, there were repetitive technical problems and the mikes didn’t work. One awkward moment happened when Sylvester Sim tried to speak but his mike didn’t work. He then tried to make it less awkward by trying to make a joke that wasn’t very classy or appropriate.

The great performances by Sylvia Ratonel, Sezairi Sezali , taiwanese singer David Tao and One Nation Emcees - Malaysian hip hop group, largely contributed to the success of the event.  Although the local idols did a good job in keeping the audience entertained, David Tao failed to impress. His songs lacked energy, and  bored non-chinese audience who couldn’t understand the songs. Lastly, there were pole - dancing and belly dancing performance by OMG! Contenders.  

Overall, I felt that the audience which is mostly made up of younger Singaporeans, some with their family, enjoyed themselves watching the outstanding performances by stellar acts.

The next day, I realized that there were little / no reports of the event which came as a surprise to me because it was quite a well-publicized event. I think the fact that media did not cover the event was due to the angle and approach that they chose to take. Instead of focusing on one event, the news articles focused on the nation-wide celebrations and the ways the different countries ushered in the New Year. However, there was a news report on Sunday times that mentioned a little about the event.

Generally, people are interested in novelty. In order to attract media coverage, I feel that organizing committee could organize something new, something that has never been done before in a countdown event which could attract media coverage.

Assuming I was the manager overseeing this project, I would say that the event has been fairly successful. People of all ages enjoyed the outstanding performances by stellar acts and at the stroke of midnight, gathered with their friends and families, watched the breathtaking firework display. A picture of bliss, this is. Other than that, the amenities like toilets were very user-friendly.

To make improvements for greater success, I would have made sure that seating arrangements as well as technical difficulties are attended to before the start of the event. Another thing I would have done differently as a manager overseeing this project would be to consider the choices of performers with greater consideration. Also, I would talk to the artistes to tell them what to do in case of a technical problem so as to avoid “live” awkward moments.

Photos taken during the event:

Photos of ads (sadly, there weren’t any significant news report about the event) 

Individual Assignment Entry 1: The Manager.

Individual Assignment

Entry 1: The Manager.

                                     

For this week, our assignment was to interview someone who holds a management position in a company.

I interviewed a friend of my brother’s, Herbert Liu. He is a 27-years-old Freelance Emcee and a Marketing Manager at Jig Asia Entertainment Pte Ltd, an entertainment and events company that provides services of models, dancers, choreography and basically, Entertainment Consultation.

Herbert‘s everyday work involves maximizing revenue and profit for the company by overseeing his team’s sales result. He is also in charge of the some of the dancers/performers/free-lancers that his company hires. This means that he manages quite a big number of people.

Managing a large number of people involves applying a highly effective style of management to show excellent result. When asked about what he thinks is his style of management, Herbert says that his style is more “people-orientated”. His ideals and management style are a mixture of Human Relations School of Management and Modern Approaches to Management. He agrees that managers need to use different techniques to motivate people according to their needs. This comes under Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs under the Hawthorne Studies, which is under the Human Relations School of Management.

He also feels that a company’s aim always affects a manager’s choice of management style. “Customer-first” or “profit-first” attitude is also very important. He believes in effectiveness and leadership in an organization, especially in his job as a manager. He feels that that there should always be good communication between employee and management. As stated in the Modern Approach To Management, there should be an agreement between employees and managers regarding performance over a set period of time. This theory is part of MBO (Management by Objectives) which involves a particular type of interaction between managers and individual employees. Managers must set expectations for staff which they will be informed of.

Leadership is the process of influencing the activities of an individual or a group in efforts towards goal achievement in a given situation. Herbert agrees that it is important for a leader to have vision and passion in what he / she is doing. He strongly believe in what he does as well as the potential of his employees. He set goals for himself and the team to make sure they are clear about what they want to achieve and how to get there.

One of the problems faced by Herbert in his work as a manager is the different opinions expressed among the employees. There is often conflict in interest and belief because of the diversity of people working together, differing in many ways like educational background and more.

Another problem is that some employees tend to feel that they know best and they have their own idea on how things should be carried out. This is where discipline and unity of direction should be applied ( Henri Fayol’s 14 Principles). This theory is under classical school of management.

In his own words, Herbert mentions that in general, there are no right or wrong management styles. “It really depends on the perspective and attitude you take upon.  There could be a thousand and one reasons that could result in a conflict/ disagreement. Therefore, it takes a good manager to resolve it patiently and calmly.”

Herbert deals with the difficulties at work based on the Human Relations School of Management’s principles under Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. He says that he would first try to understand what the employees’ concerns and problems are and then deal with it on a case-by-case basis because he understands that different people react differently to various management tactics. So it’s important to listen, understand and then, choose an appropriate way to deal with these difficulties.

Other than that, Herbert’s advice would be to try to preempt it.  As they say “prevention is better than cure”. However, Herbert adds that if he feels like there’s no way he could do that in a situation, the least he would do is hold a meeting to find out what the problem / concern is and whether the employees are putting anything into execution.  This ensures that he has control over the situation.

In his opinion, Herbert feels that a good manager should be able to strike a perfect balance between both the interest of the staff as well as the interest of the establishment. According to him, for most managers, it is easy for them to be caught in the center. A good manager would be one, who could somehow, strike a good balance between both.

Herbert ended the interview with this statement that he strongly believes in. “Whatever method one would use, it’s the efficiency and effectiveness that matters. Belief and passion is crucial to effective management.”