A week's training

Ahh...it was finally over. The management has organized a 5 day offsite training for all the marketers at a hotel. It was a very expensive course.

Day 1 (Mon, 31st March)
Course started from 4pm and ended at 6pm. We started had some finger food before the start of it. It was basically an introduction by our facilitator of what to expect throughout the week. Had dinner at the Manhattan Fish Market restaurant in Subang Parade with a colleague.

Day 2 (Tues, 1st April)
Actual course started. Though I live the nearest, traffic can be bad. Facilitator has mentioned specifically to reach 5 minutes to 9am. Course starts at 9am and I reached on the dot thanks to traffic *phew* It was a lot to absorb on the first full day training. It's a lot of theory but at the end of it, there's a game that we have to play. All marketeers inclusive of the TM team were divided into 4 groups aka companies. I was in Company 4.

The game is to see how each company devise their strategies to manage the brands given to them. I was in the only group that didn't have a Mktg Mgr. We also had our TM colleague from Singapore and she's the only representative. Had Japanese lunch for the first time at Miyako. Never knew the hotel has this Jap restaurant.

Day 3 (Wed, 2nd April)
The training continued and got more intense by the day. As competition heats up between the companies, it got really competitive and we don't share our work at all. Good thing is also that we got to know our colleagues better because of the mix of how each company was grouped. Lunch was at the Coffee House.

Day 4 (Thurs, 3rd April)
As usual, more things given by the facilitator to confuse our mind! He has told us right from the start that this training will and is served to mess up the already existing jigsaw puzzle in our brains so it's normal to start wondering and thinking and not feeling comfortable thinking that things that you have known all along suddenly didn't seem quite right. In other words, you feel stupid.

Lunch was at the Coffe House. Dinner was at Miyako, Japanese restaurant. Put up a night in the hotel as we had to work late within the companies because of the presentation due the following day.

Day 5 (Fri, 4th April)
Presentation and wrap up day. Happy to know that we were the 2nd company with the biggest revenue and the biggest growth in share which is ultimately what Shareholders of any MNC sees. We just lost out by 1% to the first company. Oh well, fantastic learning for everyone!

Last lunch was at the Coffee House before everyone split ways. Because of our intense training, our HR director actually allowed us the rest of the day off. Most of us went back because work obviously would have piled up over the week. I did go back and prior to that, headed to the LHDN to collect my E-Pin for E-filing of the income tax submission form.