Synthesis Post: The importance of communication in business field

Main point: Skills being learned in Public Relations course helps Financial Analysts to succeed

Public Relations

Financial Analysts

·         Four Essential Steps for PR Professions: “RACE” 1.      Research: Know about your customers, e.g. social background, personalities, which helps PR people to adjust themselves when they communicate with customers 2.      Action: Make a plan. Testing your plan before actually start doing it 3.      Communication: Talk about your plan with your customers. Customers have the right to follow the plan or not, but PR people should tell customers about the consequences of every decision they make. 4.      Evaluation: How did we do? Evaluation helps PR people make improvements. Also it helps PR people to act better next time. ·         Writing skills: “Bad writings shut credibility, instead, qualified writings stand out (Open Post #6).” Knowing how to write is not just enough, more importantly, who you are writing to? Who is your audiences? Should always put yourself in audiences’ shoes to target your audiences. ·         Engagement

·         Communication skillsà Knowing your customers goals and needs ·         Analyze/Research: Analyzing customers’ financial systems is the second important thing that financial analysts should do ·         Engagement: 1.      In PR field, selling products is important, but getting engaged is way more important than just being able to sell companies’ goods (Open Post #9). 2.      Engaging with customers would help financial analysts knowing more about their customers. Getting familiar with customers’ personalities helps analysts to make accurate analysis which would reduce risks for both customers and companies. 3.      Writing skills: For financial analysts, it is normal to attend meetings and write reports. Qualified writings is essential for analysts. Reports should be clearly pointed out the financial issues that customers have and give customers professional ideas about what they should do next step.

Prompted Post #10 Recognizing Truth "The wolf of Wall Street"

Financial analysts can work in variety of fields. "Financial analysts generally focus on trends affecting a specific industry, geographical region, or type of product. For example, an analyst may focus on a subject area such as the energy industry, a world region such as Eastern Europe, or the foreign exchange market (Occupational Outlook Handbook, Bureau of Labor Statistics)." Therefore, it is not enough for analysts just to know how to use business language. Instead, analysts should keep learning other fields' language once a while in order to be more professional and updated. 

Language For Business

In the movie "The Wolf of Wall Street," "uses the f-word a record-breaking 506 times in 180 minutes (The Wolf of Wall Street Guide to Fiancial Business English, FluentU)." But in real life, saying "f-word" to your customers can shut your own credibility, which means you could shut yourself out of the field. Business English is not just about using terminology, more importantly, is the way of how you communicate with your customers. Saying such bad words can lose your customers' trust. Trust is the key to build up deeper relations with customers. Customers are expected analysts respect and help them. Be careful and responsible for what you say and keeping learning your field's language.

The Wolf of Wall Street

Works Citation

"The Wolf of Wall Street Guide to Financial Business." Weblog post. FluentU. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2016. <http://www.fluentu.com/english/business/blog/business-english-finance/>. 

Open post #10 Political V.S Economy

People are always saying that the country's economy is related to politics. Donald Trump thinks that United States should not make trades with China anymore because he thinks China try to appreciate (increase) the value of Chinese currency by doing trades with U.S. Also, as what I have heard that Trump does not like immigrants. In this case, international students may start concerning about the exchange rate and if they are welcome in U.S as outsiders. If Donald Trump wins the election, he would reduce the amount of imports from China, which means that U.S net capital outflow (means U.S buys more foreign assets) would be reduced. The whole country's economy would be affected, so did China. 

Politics V.S Economy

Economy is everywhere in our life. And every move that government would take, people will get affected by it. The public does not have the power to change the situation. Nowadays, Chinese economy is declining so that the exchange rate is keeping raising daily. For international students, this is not a good sign. But we have no power to change the situation. All we can do is wishing that the government can do something to make the situation less worse. It is true that presidential election in U.S is not a big deal for international students and most international students do not even care about the result. But from my personal perspective, I still hope that the next president can actually do something for the U.S and he/she will still be willing make trades with other foreign countries. 

Prompted Post #9 Recognizing Significance

 "In the light of prior psychology research, we predict that investors' reliance on an analyst'd report and the arguments contained therein will be influenced by the type of analyst issuing the report and by whether the report conclusion is favorable or unfavorable about the stock's potential (Journal of Accounting Research: Investor Reactions To Financial Analysts' Research Reports)." The result of the research shows us that customers rely on analysts' reports a lot. Customers take analysts' advice seriously and make investment based on their professional opinions. Therefore, financial analysts are an important role in business field or any other field. Financial analysts should pay attention to the advice being given to customers. Be responsible for every decision making for customers. Customers have their own rights to refuse listening to analysts' suggestion, but analysts are required to let their customers know the consequences of every decision customers make. 

Financial Report

Financial analysts can make a big impact among companies. "Specifically, investors judge the company's stock as having less potential when an unfavorable report originates from an investment banking analyst than when it originates form a non-investment-banking analyst (Investor Reactions To Financial Analysts' Research Reports)." Being objective and analyzing figures accurately are analysts' responsibilities. Investors' decisions mean a lot for companies, therefore, being fair is win-win for companies and investors. Financial analysts are the core of the business between companies and investors. 

Investors

Works Citation

Simko, Paul J., Lisa Koonce, and D. Eric Hirst. Investor Reactions to Financial Analysts' Research Reports. JSTOR. N.p., 2 Nov. 1995. Web. 6 Apr. 2016. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/2491491?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents>.

Open Post #9 Engagement

Engaging with customers is essential for every profession. For this week, we had a guest speaker came to our Public Relations class to share some of her professional working experiences. She is the director of the department in Golin company in Chicago. Golin is a professional Public Relations company around the country.

GoLin Logo

PR professionals work on marketing and branding by reporting good things. PR people can work in variety of areas. They can work for the government for candidates to raise funds; they can be in tourism industry to work on public affairs, etc. People who is not in this field, may judge PR people that they can lie about the truth in order to sell themselves. However, when PR professions deal with situations, they always tell the truth to the public. But they just tell the truth that they want the public to know.

Our guest speaker mentioned that selling the products is not good enough, moreover, PR people or every profession should know how to get engaged with their customers. Before companies take any action or make new plans, they do research in order to target customers. Maintaining good relationships with customers is the key to get engaged well with customers. This is also why PR people have to tell the truth and make their customers understand the consequences of every decision they make, otherwise, PR people will lose their customers' trusts. 

Engagement is not just important in PR profession, also it is important for Financial Analysts. Getting engaged with customers is one of the ways to let analysts know their customers' needs. Engagement is also the key to make successful businesses. 

Open Post #8 Development of technology, Good or Bad?

Is technology a good thing or bad thing? Can it be a big helper in working field or it can destroy people's work?

Robot V.S Humanity

Shalee, who was one of the guest speakers in my PR class, is one of MSU students and stars her career as a blogger. Her blogger is mainly focusing on relatively new and growing, media trips, sponsor-ships and partnerships, and investment. She mentioned that she lost every post she wrote for the past two years due to internet crash. In the news "In Modeling Risk, the Human Factor Was Left Out" (The New York Times), Steve Lohr wrote "Math, statistics and computer modeling, it seems, also fell short in calibrating the lending risk on individual mortgage loans. In recent years, the securitization of the mortgage market, with loans sold off and mixed into large pools of mortgage securities, has prompted lenders to move increasingly to automated underwriting systems, relying mainly on computerized credit-scoring models instead of human judgment (Lohr, page 2)." Technology can advance people's life and work, but sometimes they can get people in trouble and difficult situations. 

As we know, every field needs the support of technology, especially in business. People can not over trust technology, instead should know how to balance the use of technology and real human intelligence.

Works Citation

Lohr, Steve. "In modeling risk, the human factor was left out." The New York Times 5 (2008).

http://www.artisanmg.com/millares/pdf/millares_659196.pdf

Prompted Post #8 Practing Your Knoledge

I just started working at Office for International Students and Scholars as a Front Desk Receptionist. Although, this job is not related to my field at all, it let me gain skills that may help me succeed in my  career.

MSU OISS Office

Having some real working experiences can actually make me see how communication work for every job. Last week, my PR professor invited one of his fiends, Jeff Holyfield, as our guest speaker to share some of his professional working experiences. Jeff said in his speech "Commnication is an important part of every job." OISS office hosts dozens of international students every day and every student has their own problems and concerns. Commnication will be the most effective way for receptionists to understand and help students. Students tell us about their situations so we can know which advisor should be assigned to the student. In Finance filed, finance analysts should have the ability to analyze clients' financial situation so that they can come up with the best plan for clients. And being a receptionist actually let me learn how to analyze situations accurately and objectively in order to help students. 

Practice Your Knowledge

Actual working experiences help me learn more and faster about my field than learning from written/spoken resources. When I'm in a working position, I think as a professional, I think for my students that I have been helped by me. Spoken or written resources can only give me some ideas. People always say that practice is a great way to learn. Working let me act like a professional and makes me actually gain some of the silks that may help me succeed.