Kick-Off Conference Output

July 10 – July 14, 2011

Introduction

This past year, AIESEC Hong Kong has faced many difficulties. As a result, we can see that currently many of our EB members have not remained in Hong Kong this past summer for planning, there has been a poor leadership pipeline, and planning for the next year is progressing extremely slowly.

In order to address these issues, Kick-Off Conference this year was conducted quite differently than in the past.

Co

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Current Reality • What is the

current situation in AIESEC Hong Kong?

Major Issues • What are the

main problems we are facing?

Root Causes • What are the

reasons behind the current main problems?

Identification of the Vicious Cycle • What are we

seeing, as a result of these issues and root causes? The main trends?

Functional Area Relationships • How can each

functional area contribute to breaking the vicious cycle?

Consolidation • What should we

focus on in the next year?

Logic of Flow

In order to come up strategies and initiatives that will best address the needs of AIESEC Hong Kong, the first issue was to investigate the key problems of our organization, and from there determine the root causes of these problems.

Logic of Flow

The MC consolidated the key output from days 1 and 2 of the conference to present on day 3. Starting from day 3, a team composed of members of different entities and from various functions and different roles (member, EB, LCP, MC) consolidated all information.

THE CONSOLIDATION TEAM

Natalie Wong (HKBU) Hamilton Le (MC) Rex Wong (HKUST) Kelvin Li (HKU)

Rafael Wong (CityU Day 1) Karl Yeung (CityU Day 2)

CURRENT REALITY

Current Reality/ Major Issues

We identified the current major issues in AIESEC Hong Kong that either will contribute to future major issues, or are contributing to the current situation (weak LR pipeline at both LC and MC level, delayed planning timeline, lack of quorum at GMs).

• Despite opening up conference registration to all AIESEC HK members instead of just EBs (as done in the past), attendance on the first day was below 10. Attendance on other days hovered around 20 members.

Kick-off conference attendance

• Most LCs have had a delayed planning timeline, as many EB members have not remained in Hong Kong for the summer.

LC planning

• Due to low membership involvement as well as members abroad (both on AIESEC X as well as non-AIESEC X), most LCs have had trouble securing quorum for either AGMs or EGMs. Some LCs have been unable to transition to the next EB because of this issue.

GM attendance

• Many LCs have had difficulty in securing a leadership pipeline, both for the EB as well as for manager positions, which resulted in a delayed timeline. Additionally, it took two EGMs to elect an MCP, and until June the full MC team was not completed.

Weak LR Pipeline

• While AIESEC Hong Kong’s membership numbers are around 450 during the academic school year, every year the number of newly recruited members is around 350, indicating a significant loss of senior members.

Low Membership Retention

SYMPTOMS

Identifying the Vicious Cycle

Incorrect delivery of Communication of

AIESEC

Mismatched

AIESEC

Experience

Members either want to leave or change the

organization

Due to lack of @XP, members don’t

understand the values + organization

fundamentals of AIESEC

Vicious Cycle

THE TEN ROOT CAUSES

Lack of Holistic Development

Professionalism and Role Modeling

Poor Relationship Management

Matters Are Too Internalized

Poor Transition

Poor Delivery of Message

How to Balance on Focus

• Leadership and organizational competence

Lack of Objectives for Remaining

Lack of Sharing

Not Prioritizing AIESEC

THE THREE CATEGORIES Of root issues

Experience Delivery

Local LR Empowerment

Membership Engagement

• Poor delivery of message, matters are too internalized, lack of objectives for remaining

• Gap between reality and the recruitment message

• The message we send is often exchange focused, does not show the work we do or LR opportunities

Experience Delivery

•How to balance on focus, professionalism and role modeling, and poor transition

•LR Pipeline Management

•Transition Management

Local LR Empowerment

• Lack of holistic development, poor relationship management, lack of sharing, not prioritizing AIESEC

• Conferences, need a good TR stage

• Issues: MC Capacity for conferences, no national calendar, few general meetings

Membership Engagement

NATIONAL FOCUS AREA

NFA

For the first national focus area, the consolidation team came together and following the examination of how different functional areas can contribute to resolving the “vicious cycle,” created main strategies/ideas on how to tackle the issues, as well as what the NFA should be centered around. The MC then created a name for the NFA to summarize the essence of the NFA.

Action Steps

Regular LC platform for members

Solving the cycle by pinpointing a specific

stage

More realistic expectations in I2A

stage

Cycle for member development: a) goal

setting, b) XP review, c) XP sharing & planning

for next step

Cross-entity calendar (constantly updated)

Ongoing initiatives

Calibrating the organizational operations of experience delivery

Different Functional Areas

FUNCTIONAL AREA RELATIONSHIP

How each functional area can contribute to this National Focus Area (NFA) – suggestions from the conference

Talent Management

• Regular lunches/dinners/social meetings with both members and leaders

• Open LC office for people to hang out • Gossip box • Facilitate leaders’ ability to manage teams • Proper expectation setting during I2A, as well as

proper selection criteria • Train the trainers • Help members recap their @XP • Initiate cross-LC cooperations

Incoming Exchange (ICX, ER, Externally-based Projects)

• Debriefing from leaders following company meetings (to track members’ individual development, not just performance)

• Make better use of @International Saturdays

• Engage interns and TN takers more

• Have senior members share experiences and learning, and assist in career planning

Outgoing Exchange (OGX, Issue-based Projects)

• PBoX events for cross-LC cooperation

• Proper expectation setting for reintegration

• Exchange promotion that arouses interest (culture night, exchange sharing of EPs)

Communications / Information Management

• AIESEC Hong Kong national calendar with all events, located on a central virtual platform

• Blogging after events, external promotion of events

• Virtual sharing platforms for encouraging future participation in national events

• More promotion materials

• Creation of sustainable knowledge management (KM) system and documentation of area-specific reports

• Gate-keeping of branding

Finance

• Transparency in annual reports

• Planning from perspective of finance (more investment, tracking of ROI)

• Draw attention to finance as revenue center and action

• Set up R&R system (with TM) to reward members in different stages

CONCLUSION

A great deal of this year’s Kick-Off Conference was devoted to bringing everyone up to date on the most recent occurrences and issues of AIESEC Hong Kong. Moving forward, we would like to cultivate better cross-entity relationships in order to bring this organization to the next level, and lay a more solid foundation for the future as well. By coming up with comprehensive initiatives originating from all entities, Kick-Off Conference will serve as the platform for us not only to increase functional performance this coming year, but to additionally give our members the best experience possible, and develop the future leaders of society.