MCVP MARCOMMAPPLICANT 16.17AIESEC in Sri Lanka

SohanMadhusanka

Section 01: Get To Know

Name: Sohan MadhusankaDate of Birth: 27.09.1992Nationality: Sri LankanMob no: +94718893746E-mail Address: sohan.wijegunawardhana@aiesec.netSkype ID: sohanmwContact Person in Emergency: S. WIjegunawardhanaAcademic Background: Marketing ManagementCurrent AIESEC Position (Entity/LC): LCP of AIESEC Colombo North, AIESEC in Sri LankaPosition Applying For: MCVP MARCOMM

1. What is driving you to continue AIESEC? Why have you decided to stand for MemberCommittee of AIESEC in Sri Lanka? And what do you want to take out of this experience?

What makes me to continue AIESEC is the impact that this organization is creating on people. During mytwo and half years of AIESEC journey I have seen how people are developing themselves andtransforming them into responsible and entrepreneurial leaders no matter how they came to thisorganization. Most inspiring thing for me to be in AIESEC is I have been a reason for people to get thatpositive impact, Inspiration and the motivation. This is what driving me to continue AIESEC.

Running for MC was an ambition of my AIESEC life ever since i joined AIESEC. Because i knew MCexperience is a unique experience compared to the experiences we are getting at LC level.AIESEC in Sri Lanka has grown a lot in the last few years but i believe now it is time for us to take thisorganization to the next level not in terms of numbers but the relevance, visibility and the impact. At thispoint Marketing and Communication has to play a vital role to make it happen which is why i wants totake up the challenge.

SInce i am coming from the Marketing background i really wanted to experience this particular rolewhere i can get the onhand experience in marketing field. I can contribute to this organization with whati know and what i can do very well.

2. What are the conferences you have attended/facilitated in AIESEC, and why were theyimportant?

NLDS 2013 - Delegate: Comprehensive knowledge on AIESEC Way, CoW, AIESEC 2015, Functionalknowledge including all the exchange functions.

NatCon 2014 - Delegate: Working in EB and collaboration between other EBs

NLDS 2014 - Faci: How to inspire and motivate people. How to deliver a session. Time managementand working under pressure. Learn how to enjoy what I am doing.

NatCon 2015 - Delegate: Power of leadership. Reflecting on my LCVP term.

International Congress 2015 (India) - Delegate: Living with 800 people from 120+ countries underone roof. It challenged the way i think and the way i do things. Simply it broadened my horizon.

NLDS 2015 - Delegate: Redefined my leadership style and the way we see AIESEC in Sri Lanka.

3. What are the three main areas in which you have had the most experience? Highlight yourknowledge/skills/passion in each.

Leadership: Being the LCP of CN and LCVP iGCDP given me the opportunity to be both the leader anda follower. For me leadership is an art because it is not same for everyone. You have to be differentat different times with different people in order to be an effective leader. One challenge that everyleader has to go through is being a situational leader in between People oriented and Resultoriented. Not just in AIESEC holding leadership positions at School level and at University is given methe opportunity to try and learn from different leadership roles.

Marketing: What i am learning, doing and living. Marketing is a way of life. No matter whether youlike it or hate it either you are doing it or you are becoming a part if it. Being an undergraduate who isspecialised in Marketing Management gives me the opportunity to gain the relevant knowledge andskills what it requires to be a Marketer.

Strategic Management: Decision making and change management are two of the mostimportant skills that are needed in this century due to the fact that them defining the future oforganization or a circumstance. By working in this organization as a LCVP iGCDP and LCP i got theopportunity of making decisions on a daily basis to manage this organization effectively. For anexample which had lead my LC to be the best leading LC in AIESEC SL so far in this term.

4. What are your 5 biggest achievements in AIESEC so far, and what were the measurableresults?

1. LCVP iGCDP 14/15 : 9 Projects, 1:5 Member to EP ratio, 'Bi Annual Excellency Award - iGCDP', 90% target achievement.

02. NLDS 2014 Faci : Managed to successfully deliver the allocated sessions, First time Faci experience, Time management and Event Management.

03. Winning 'Best Emerging Leader' : First national award of my AIESEC career, Only award CN LC won at NLDS 2014 during this award ceremony.

04. Winning 'Bi Annual Excellency : Only functional award CN won during the term, We received this Award - iGCDP' at NLDS 2015 award for the highest growth we had during Q1 and Q2 of 2015. 05. CN LCP 15/16 :73% of target achievement within 7 months. Highest member retention, Highest number of realization of AIESEC in SL so far, Changed LC Culture.

5. To which extend AIESEC in Sri Lanka had been successful in achieving AIESEC 2015 ? Discusson main achievements, bottlenecks and key learnings of the above.

The following statements of AIESEC 2015 told us what AIESEC had to be look like after 2015.

Our growing physical and virtual reach makes us the most credible and global youth voice. We are recognized across sectors as the first choice partner for our ability to developresponsible and entrepreneurial leadership. Our collaborative environment empowers every member to live a high quality AIESEC experince,creating a cross generational positive impact on society.

*Which will ultimately let AIESEC to "engage and develop every young person in the world."

AIESEC 2015 Goals (Global)

AIESEC in Sri Lanka Achievements

Bottlenecks

VISA IssueWe have only started focusing on AIESEC 2015 in the last few years and not from the beginning Lack of awareness among the members about AIESEC 2015Not having a proper plan for AIESEC in Sri Lanka to achieve AIESEC 2015Failed strategies of AIExternal challenges like lack of University administration support

Key learnings

First of all come up with a strategy to solve the VISA Issue AIESEC in Sri Lanka has to come up with a proper plan in order to achieve AIESEC 2020Innovative strategiesBeing more relavant to the Sri Lankan contextMaking membership aware about AIESEC 2020 from the beginning itself. Aligning AIESEC 2020 goals and statements with the AIESEC in Sri Lanka Goals while considering theSri Lankan reality

6. What is the unique contribution of “AIESEC in Sri Lanka” to Sri Lanka ? Explain how thedevelopment of the youth leadership through our programs can lead to a better Sri Lanka?

For me AIESEC is not just a organization or Leadership it is a "way of life." AIESEC experiences canchallenge the way you think, the way you work, the way you see things which will ultimately makeyou a different and better person. This is the contribution of AIESEC.

The unique contribution of AIESEC in Sri Lanka is the output of AIESEC which is the 'change agent'. InAIESEC our main goal is to make more and more change agents. These change agents are unique inthe way they do things or they think about the world.

In Sri Lanka as a youth we are not getting enough opportunities to expose to the outer world. So themindset that a Sri Lankan youth has compared to a some other country is very different. Our dreamsare little and we do little things whereas youth in some other country doing things which totallychange the way world works. In AIESEC youth is getting opportunities to explore the world, explorethemselves, find their passion which is ultimately contribute for better Sri Lanka.

7. What is the role of MC and what is the role of LC? How should they cooperate with theirunique role?

The MC is the strategic body in the national entities, that drives the entity forward through a longterm vision and strategies that allow the entity to grow and develop its programs forward. In myopinion MC is the driving force of AIESEC Sri Lanka. They will be engaged in the activities whichdirectly and indirectly affect to the LCs. National goals are consist of the LC goals so whenever weachieve our LC goals it will end up by achieving the National goals. MC should come with the nationalinitiatives for all the functions to work collaboratively with the MC otherwise the LCs will drive theirLCs in their own ways.

So LCs will acts as the operational entities. However bringing solutions to improve current orpotential challenges is essential. As well as forecasting and establishing a long term vision. Tracking,Coaching, Providing support to the LCs, doing follow up and giving the LCs needed knowledge andtools to perform are part of the LC role.

SECTION 2 :GENERAL QUESTIONS

1.Why is AIESEC relevant in the Sri Lankan context and according to your perspective how doyou express the clarity?

As long as our organizational vision of "Peace and fulfillment of humankind's potential" is notachieved in Sri Lanka, AIESEC will be relevant to Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka has a written history of morethan 2,500 years and during these eras we have had more than enough conflicts due to differentreasons but now with the end of 30 years old civil war all the conflicts are over. But yet have weachieved peace? This is the question we have to ask from ourselves and this is really where AIESEChas to play a vital role in Sri Lanka.

Next is the fulfillment of humankind's potential, AIESEC is 'for the world from youth' so youth is theheart of development in any economy, I hope Sri Lanka as an economy, has a lot to gain from youthand AIESEC will be the right platform for youth in Sri Lanka.

2. Explain what you understand by AIESEC 2020 statements and how it is relavant to AIESECin Sri Lanka

This is about being aware of what's happening in the world and locally, andact upon them. So here as an organization which provides leadershipexperiences we have to respond to what's happening around us by offeringleadership experiences. So this is relevant to Sri Lanka because here we areare trying to be relevant to Sri Lanka. We will collaborate with otherorganizations who are like us and actively take part in decision makingprocess.

Not just increasing numbers but disruptive innovation with the growth as well.We cannot engage and develop every young person in the world by doing thesame thing. So for us to engage with them and develop them we have to findnew ways, and find solutions for the challenges that we have. Sri Lanka as aneconomy is one of the fastest growing country in the region and AIESEC cancontribute to this.

AIESEC is for the youth in the world, so we make AIESEC is accessible for everyyoung individual in the world either physically or virtually. Sri Lanka is a multi cultural country with different religions, cultures and nations,so breaking these social and geographical barriers to make it possible for everyperson in the country to engage and develop themselves with AIESEC will berelevance of this statement for Sri Lanka.

3. Explain how the key change in AIESEC’s business model can be leveraged to grow AIESEC inSri Lanka by taking external trends into consideration.

Key Partners: Here we partnered up with like minded organizations to deliver our value proposition. NowAIESEC in Sri Lanka is working towards this for an example the partnership we have with UN Women for#HeForShe campaign. This will provide the opportunity for us to grow and be more visible in Sri Lanka.

Cost Structure: In the previous business model EPs had to pay the TN fee in order for them to even searchfor opportunities. But now they can browse opportunities free and only if they are interested they can signup for them. This is really relavant for Sri Lanka since most of the people are reluctant to pay before theytrust something.

Channels: AIESEC is booming their reach with the innovative social media and other virtual platformsavailable. Since Sri Lanka also a country with a fast growth of virtual media platforms AIESEC will be ableto leverage on this.

Value Proposition: KIck start the life long leadership development journey of young people, by fostering thefollowing 4 qualities: Empowering Others, Solution Oriented, World Citizen and Self Aware. We all knowthat Sri Lankan youth is not just depending and believing in current education system So they areexpecting and looking for something different and challenging what exactly AIESEC provides to them.

4. Illustrate AIESEC’s Leadership Development Model. (Take, AIESEC’s impact model, values,standards into consideration)

Why How

Change Agents: By providing theplatform of international

exchange and team experienceopportunities, we enable youngpeople to become leaders who

are able to make a positiveimpact on society and make the

world a better place.

What

Standards & Satisfaction, Team Minimums and XPP will act as the supporting systems to ensure that theperson who go through above LDM will be finally develop with the below six AIESEC values.

5. What would AIESEC in Sri Lanka miss if you are not selected to the MC?

AIESEC in Sri Lanka will miss the most experinced person to be in the MC team.

SECTION 3 :SPECIFIC QUESTIONS

1. Analyze the current level of marketing processes and knowledge on MC and LCs. What would be your strategy to align the level of processes and knowledge?

Current Reality: Separate marketing function was introduced to AIESEC in Sri Lanka only in the currentterm and so far it has being changing the way things happening in AIESEC. With the introduction ofMCVP Marketing all the LCs were introduced LCVP Marketing positions as well. Before that there wereno specific attention regarding the marketing side of AIESEC. At the moment what's happening is MC is working on the national campaigns regarding promotingAIESEC and its programs at a national level meanwhile LCs are focusing on promotions and saleswithin their scale. (Mostly University level). Apart from that we can identify a change of focusing moreinto Inbound marketing activities from the outbound marketing practices that we had in AIESEC.

Strategy: It is known fact that all the LCs and Expansions are having different relaties, so aligning theMarketing processes of all of them will be tricky. Because basically what they expect from thisfunction is different from one entity to another entity. My strategy will be creating sub products (SubBrands) at national level which will be delivered through all those LCs and expansions whereultimately it is contributing to a one brand. (It can be AIESEC as whole or one of its sub products) Whileletting LCs to take advantage from their own marketing functions for their operations.

2. Describe how AIESEC can use Digital Marketing to Increase OGX and iGIP exchange numbers.You will need to list down the tools/platforms you use and how each of those tools/platformscan contribute to those exchanges?

Above graphic is the customer flow of inbound marketing for any product or service. OGX and iGIP alsogoing through the same above process when it comes to customer flow. There are certain platformsthat we have to invest and focused on in order for us to get the maximum contribution from digitalmarketing. Here basically we are talking about two programs which is not essentially need for any localundergraduate or a local company. They are not asking these products because either they are notaware of such programs or they are not interested.

OGX: We have to make the OGX program more visible within our target market. The way people buyproducts or services in Sri Lanka is by listening to others stories. We do not want to be the first to trysomething. So here basically this is about sharing our success stories massively.

Global Citizen Website: We already have fully functioning and user friendly website. So the next stepwould be creating content massively. This will be a challenge especially at a national level due to thelack of HR. This content is not just about written articles, but the videos and image stories aswell. There are two ways which these content will be helping us to grow. First these content canattract visitors to the site and then these content can convert these visitors to leads.

Global Citizen Facebook Page: This will be connect with the Global Citizen website and this willcreate 'call to action' to GC website, We can share our GC stories (Content) through this page andthis will be acting as a separate brand under AIESEC. So the AIESEC in Sri Lanka Facebook page canand only be using for overall AIESEC promotions.

oGIP: Digital marketing will be helping oGIP function in the early steps. We can not send all thepeople who are being raised for this program mostly like in the oGCDP. Because here most of theEPs expectations are not matching with the reality. So first we have to find what are the countriesand industries that we can effectively send our Sri Lankan EPs to.

LinkedIn: This will be the platform for us to promote our iGIP EPs locally and enhance the quality ofTMP and TLP program. So here we can promote our iGIP EPs by directly targeting the relevantcompanies.

3. What is the importance of Internal Communication and prepare a draft plan with 2 keystrategies to maintain clear and transparent communications.

Internal Communications: Messaging to Inspire an Organization, AIESEC is an very dynamicorganization things are changing very rapidly decision making making process has become very shortwith the rapid growth of organization scale we have become more and more decentralized. Some LCsare at a level of where they need to have an effective Internal Communication not just at nationallevel. Because proper internal communication makes an organization works effectively you can see itas the oil that helps smooth the running of your organisation or a bridge that creates links betweenpeople and functions. It can inspire people, Creating consistent IC helps define goals and ensureeveryone knows what they are working towards, It will ensure the transparency within theorganization.

Strategies:

01. Listen before you Speak: Listening is more important than publishing information.So encourage inputs from all your members, So the output will be what they need they expecting toknow.

01. Newsletter plus a blog: Current MC has already started sending regular newsletter to theleadership body which is impressive. We have to continue that and something adding to that wehave make it accessible at one place,

4. What will be your strategy to showcase impact of AIESEC in Sri Lanka to our stakeholders?

National iGCDP Projects: We are doing really good in iGCDP projects all the LCs are having goodnumbers basically we have become an example for the global panery for iGCDP. But still how manyof our local stakeholders are aware of these projects and what are the methods to track the impactof these projects. This is something to think and as the MarComm VP this will be my main strategy toshowcase the impact we are creating. We have to come up with national level projects which are to be delivered through LCs. So from theproject development phase to the delivery phase there will be stakeholders who will be involved in.At the project development phase we can get the consultation from relevant people and theinstitution so it will be more relevant and impactful for Sri Lankan context. and together with themwe can create the impact measurement tools. At the end through a flagship event which covered allthe LCs we can show and make AIESEC more visible.

YouthSpeak: This is one of the very good opportunity for us to connect with Government, Corporateand NGOs in Sri Lanka and make AIESEC more relavant and impactful organization where we canshow the power of youth and be more relevant to the Youth of Sri Lanka.

5. Critically evaluate "Be Sri Lankan" campaign. Describe how we can improve this to contributetowards iGCDP exchanges.

We already have what is more needed than things that we don't have right now. That is anattractive brand.That brand is "Be Sri Lankan" but in my view what we don't have is enough andpowerful content and the platforms to fuel this campaign.

Suggestions to improve the campaign,

Clear Objective: Where do we wants go with this campaign? Just to increase the exchangenumbers? Or to make Sri Lanka more visible in the world? or make Sri Lanka more unique with theother competitive entities in the continent. Because this is an awareness campaign so we cannotexpect direct results out of this campaign. We should have clear objectives in order to measurethe impact of this campaign.

Content Marketing: "Traditional marketing is telling the world that you are a rock star. Content marketing isshowing the world that you are one" - Robert Rose

What are the great stories behind this "Be Sri Lankan" Campaign. How well have we curated them?Not just telling the stories how well and attractive that we are telling the story?

Channels: We have to have enough and right media channels to fuel this campaign. We need tohave a website, Social Media channels, Videos, Articles, and specially a blog in order to make itmore impactful.

BLANK PAPER CHALLENGE

You have 1 page (A4) and your own creativity to outline AIESEC in Sri Lanka's biggestchallenges and the solutions to tackle them. You have the license to change the system,challenging any paradigms and unleash the potential of the organization.

External Recognition: I personally believe all the external challenges including the current VISA issuethat are coming to AIESEC is based on the fact that we are not yet properly recognized in Sri Lanka.Only during this term that we have started to go for partnerships and collaborations with otherorganizations. We have to continue that and we have to extend that to the level of corporate andgovernment. I know this won't be a very comfortable task in hand but this is something essential for usas an organization with the things that we are doing right now.

Impact Showcase of AIESEC: We are doing lot of things and obviously what we are doing is making abigger impact in this society. But we have not yet realized the tools to showcase this impact. So ibelieve it is time for us to come back from the number focus and highly focus on increasing the impactof our work and most importantly showcase this impact. This is a call of MC, LCs cannot do this aloneand they won't be focusing on this unless MC is starting focusing on this.

Relevant: How many of our iGCDP projects are really relevant to Sri Lanka? It is time for us to stopgoing beyond numbers and start focusing on the relevancy of our operations in Sri Lanka. MC has totake the decision on this none of the LCs are going to stop focusing on numbers they will try toimplement different kind of projects under different sub issues. So here MC has to take the decision.

Competency Framewrok for Members: Whatever we achieve in AIESEC in Sri Lanka is because ofour members. But what are the currently available framework for members? What are theKPIs available to measure the competency of members? We need to invest on this we need to findways to track our members experience. There is no point of increasing the number TMP and TLPwithout having a proper plan for them. It will only create big troubles in the future.

Where do we wants to go?: If i ask this question from any of AIESECer in Sri Lanka what would be theiranswer? Where do we have to be after another 10 years? an organization doing 50,000 exchanges? Anorganization working with government for the peace and fulfillment of Sri Lanka?We should have a clear road map regarding what kind an organization that we are going to be aftersome particular time.

Thank You!