Katarzyna Ratajczyk

Executive Board 2013/14 Application Candidate Coo oGCDP Katarzyna Ratajczyk

General Questions 1. What does AIESEC mean to you? What has changed in you since you joined AIESEC? AIESEC, once it meant just a bunch of students who go for internships and have something to do with international enviroment. Now it’s something that words can’t describe. AIESEC is a state of mind, a way of living. We say that AIESEC is organization, where you can learn and gain experience, but to me it’s something that exposes your inner self and proves you that you are capable of turning impossible into reality.

AIESEC – the word itself desribes millions of feelings and memories. To me it’s being myself and discovering what I’m capable of doing: struggling with myself to concquer my own dreams. When I have joined AIESEC, I did it because I always had some sort of weakness to “international enviroment”, I was making friends with foreginers since I was fifteen. I had hunger of extraordinary people, different cultures, habits, everything - and that was one out of two reasons. The second one was: I had no idea what I want to do with my life, but I wanted something more than just ordinary life, that is why I decided to stop to follow the masses and to start doing something for myself, something I want to do.

Most of my life my friends and family were treating me like a bit crazy person. Why? Because of that passion to get to know other people, foreginers and everything about them and their countries. I was frustrated with those of Polish people who are not curious, who don’t have any passion in life and turn their back on everything that is “different”. People who think about nothing but their own business and brainless fulfilling expectations of others.

So what has changed in me after joining AIESEC? The biggest and the most important thing for me is belief in people. For the first time I felt that there are people that care, don’t judge, that are honest and want something more from life. People who go upstream even though their friends and family can’t understand and underestimate the value and meaning of AIESEC. Another thing is self-awarness. I reminded myself who I am, what I like to do and what I can do. I discovered that I’m in posses of my life and only I can limit myself.

There are two more important things I’ve learnt and discovered, and I want to tell you about them Dear Reader.

The first one is that people are precious. What they think, what they feel, their point of view – it’s beautiful. I never cared about what other people may think, it was completly bizzare idea for me to ask about their opinion or advice. And here comes the last thing.

I’ve learnt to ask questions. It might sound silly, but back in the days when I was little, I was expected not to ask questions and always be well prepared for everything. Especially, I wasn’t allowed to bother anyone with my stupid questions. I was growing up in belief that asking someone for help, advice or opinion is domain of not well-mannered and weak people. It took me a while to see, that for all this time I was wrong and my point of few has changed in 180 degrees. I started to enjoy asking questions and listening to people. For me it’s new and really incredible experience. And about advantages of feedback I can talk for hours!

2. What attitudes should leader in AIESEC present? What would be the characteristics of a perfect leader? Which of them do you posses, and on which you still have to work?

Leader in AIESEC. First of all, I think leader should be passionate about what he’s doing. He should have a vision of whatever he wants to do. He should always keep in mind the goal he wants to reach. He should be the first one who always stands out of the crowd. But he should listen to others and keep his mind open. No one is always right and noone is perfect. By being

open to others, we may avoid mistakes. Speaking of which, he should accept that sometimes he can fail, but also he may stand up and keep on walking to where he wants to get. Being open and keen on others is good, but, when needed, he must argument his rights to prove, he knows what he’s doing and suppose to motivate his followers. Being a leader is not easy, he must work continuosly and be self-motivated. Still, leader won’t go far without followers that will support and help to him. Leader should be hard-working and always demanding the most from himself. This is the leader I would like to follow, leader I would be ashamed to disappoint, someone that would impress me with his dedication and wiseness.

What characteristics I posses? I’m passionate, I appreciate opinion of other people and I consider their advices. I motivate myself very easily and I’m soaking with positive energy of people I talk to.

To me the problem is the understanding that I may do something right. It’s connected with the fact, that recently I’ve notived that I have a high rate of self-critisims and self-judgment. In my own opinion, I’m never good enough to achieve what I’d like to do and there’s always something I could have done better. It’s not easy to admit that I’m good at something but by writing this application, I’m taking one step forward to change it.

3. What is and what should be the role of EB? What will be your role in LC life as a part of EB team?

The role of EB is still not very clear to me. From one side, I’ve seen our EB working just like others in our LC. They went through really hard times and were overwhelmed with the amount of work.

They didn’t ask anyone for help, even though they could and had to.

From the other side, I think the weight of being part of EB is too big and too important to be working like that. EB should be a strategic body of LC and represent it. He should create proper attitudes, direct and shape present and future leaders. EB should delegate and coordinate work with MM’s so they can learn and feel the real meaning of being a leader and belonging to LC. This is how I would like to work. I would like to show my trust and attention to MM’s and support them when needed. I want them to feel like a part of the committee and that will make them feel responsible for it as well. Going further, with such thoughts and feelings they will shape properly their teams. How it will affect EB? We will have people that will share our passion and vision, people that would like to work with us and follow us as well.

4. Imagine, that you can make three changes in our Local Committee Łódź, what would it be and why? Draw main strategies of introducing those changes.

Taking care of our partners

Better knowledge delivery

United LC

•after finishing projects, doing evaluation and receiving recommendations, •sending a Thank-you letter or certificates to companies or NGOs we worked with, •passing contacts to our partners in transition process •in conclusion we can have better PR and thanks to evaluation we can improve our service, for example iGIP

•starting from induction after LCC and Leader's Commission, we should tell future leaders about all the aspects of their work, specially about financial aspect, •as a result, we might have better prepared leaders that will be aware of a fact, that matching/selling is important but they are responsible for ENTIRE LC finance area and they have influance on it

•shaping proper attitudes in MMs and OCs by LCP and EB, •better contact of LCP and EB with OC, •we can gain people that are willing to go for national conferences, who want to develop their knowledge about LC and AIESEC and in the end, they would like to get involved in actions in our LC.

5. What are your personal values (min.4). Give examples when you have behaved according to those values.

For me this question is the most difficult of all the rest. It took me a couple of days to think of what should I write here. I had to take a look back on who I used to be, and what has changed or what has been developed. Or maybe there is something that defines me all the time. There is such value that was causing problems to me, but also thanks to it I gained amazing memories and experience. It’s tolerance. It’s not only tolerance towards foreginers because everybody knows I like them just for being who they are. I’m in generally tolerant of people. Race, beliefes, habits (those good and bad ones), origin don’t really matter to me. To give you example I’ll just say, that I have very diversified friends. People from all around the world that I have met years ago before I heard about AIESEC – gays, lesbians, people with drug or alcohol addiction problems – there are saggies among them too, even though their way of living is totally different than mine. Both of my fathers are homophobes and totally against muslims. It never was a problem to me to invite my gay-friends to my house or be engaged with a muslim. I just respect all the people, no matter where they come from.

Another value is responsibility. When I start to do something, I don’t stop in the middle of the way and say:”No, I’m done with it and I don’t care what will happen”. I don’t like to give up, even if I don’t like something. Yes, I have high potential of indolence, but I don’t like to do something at half throttle. I like to give my best shot and fight for what I decided to do. The best example is my work in OGX. I didn’t like it at all, pressure, stress, higher and higher expectations, more critism than constructive criticism or advice how to do something. I loved AIESEC but at some point I had doubts. I had to learn things on my own. It wasn’t easy for me, because it was totally different from what I used to experience in AIESEC. I didn’t give up, I was always doing my best, trying to think of best solutions that can make our work more efficient. Those were hard times, but thanks to it I’ve learnt a lot about myself and I became even more stronger.

Here we come to the third value that has always been with me: bravery.

I was always the brave one, who was making the first step or doing things other people would never think of doing. I was always brave enough to be honest, but it took me a lot of time to be brave enough to do something for myself. It’s actually funny, because I was brave for others, but I was enourmously big coward to myself. I wasn’t brave enough to make my biggest dream come true, until one day. I decided to finally do something I always wanted to do, without having any idea how I’m going to do it or survive it. My friends were calling me nuts, but their words were

making me more sure that this is what I should do right now. I decided to travel to Tunisia – alone.

Before I used to travel to Germany, but always with someone along with me. This time I wanted to go completly alone and do everything alone. To gain money I even sold gold neckle and this is how I bought ticket. I packed my things and flew 3,000 km to completely different country to spend there week completly on my own. After this I decided to travel to Turkey and live there for some time. Now I’m waiting for another chance to travel, or I will create it. How cool is that?

Now the last one: honesty. Sometimes I’m too honest. Not only in giving opinions, but also in being myself. I can’t hide it if I don’t like something. I’m also not the type of pushy person that tries to convince everyone how cool I am or agrees even on the most stupid ideas ever just to achieve something for herself. My face is like open book and sometimes I don’t have to open my mouth for people to see that I have different opinion from theirs.

Here I can give many many examples but there’s one that I needed a lot of courage to say.

I told my best friend that what she’s doing something wrong and causing causing pain to somebody, even though for her such a situation had many benefits. It’s difficult to be honest, especially when it comes to addmitting that I made mistake or wrong decision. The good point is, it brings relief and conclusions that can make me a better person.

6. Write at least 2 actions towards each ELD program that can be undertaken in LC Łódź to improve the quality of AIESEC experience.

Before giving exact answers, I’ll mention why I suggest such ideas. I think that TMP is the most importat body in each LC. Why? Because if we wouldn’t have OC, we wouldn’t have leaders.

Without leaders we wouldn’t have EB. Without people there will be no one to work in OGX or ICX. We should take care of OC and put more attention on what actually they are doing in projects and how they feel about AIESEC. So here are my two ideas of supporting this area.

Team Member Programme  Giving oportunity to taste something more and different from their project. That would mean engaging Leaders, and could be supported by EB. For example, if LCVP Comm have to realise mini project in synergy with LCVP ER + F, why not giving OC a chance to help them and create Working Group? With a support like this, people from ICX or OGX can try something new, and we as EB can (maybe) discover new potential that no one has seen before. Besides, we will encourge them to take an action in LC. We will build up their confidence and perhaps encourage them to become leaders.  Education. Why? Because not everyone appear on conference, many newbies feel confused about what they can and what their Leader is actually responsible for.

Sometimes they are not aware of who is who in LC, and what other projects are responsible for. I think it’s important for people to know that not only all projects are important, but also they depend on each other. They have some responsibilities and duties. I think some people are skipping because they feel a bit lost and locked in one project. That’s why they should be aware of many other things going on in LC and what actually such work means. How to do it? Maybe we should think of changing the style of induction for newbies.

Now TLP. Leaders are amazing, but there are things that we can do to make their experience better.

Team Leader Programme  G2K with EB! Of course, by the time one becomes leader, he/she knows people that work in EB. They know them by names and title of LCVP but do they really know how looks work in Executive Board? I loved what our present EB did with MM’s. They were delegating some tasks to us like passing on the news to our teams about seminars and etc. This trust showed to us had a big influence on my attitude. They were engaging us in planning, and that made me feel that I belong to this Committee – I really loved it and I think future EB should continue this work and develope it, so MM’s are fully aware of EB’s responsibilities and will appreciate and by this they might be more active in LC.. and by this OC will follow their Leaders.  CEED! I think it’s one of the greatest things that AIESECer can experience.

Let’s don’t forget that not only MM’s belong to TLP, but also EB do. We should encourage people to try this experience and make it easier for them to make it happen. Also, we should create a chance of CEEDership for people from other countries. That would

incrase our experiance and make it more valuable. Who knows, maybe thanks to CEEDership we would be able to create cooporation LC to LC? Exchange, this one of the reasons why some students created AIESEC. Our BHAG is to engage and develop every young person in the world. To realise it, we send people on internships. Those internships are a part of ELD and to fulfill ELD people should try other AIESEC experiences.

Global Community Development Programme  Outgoing eXchange – we should pay more attention to people that are going for an internship. Sometimes we will feel a relief that finally we can get rid of them and send them far away from us, but it’s not how it should be. To provide them a better experience, we should try to cooporate with LC which they are going to work for. How? At least by contacting TN manager, OC or OCP of the project that our EP will take part in. By this, we may influence their stay abroad and make it more valuable. This will give us not only a big picture of how other LC is working, but also give us bigger control on what’s going on with our EP. Another benefit might be cooporation LC to LC.  Incoming eXchange – what we can do to make this experience more valuable? It’s long topic. First of all, we should start to analyze which type of people we are looking for.

People with hard skills like selling or maybe people passionate with international environment? Later on, I’ve been thinking of engaging other people in matching to pBOXes. It’s fun, it’s also developing HR skills and it’s increasing responsibility and interest between members of LC. If they feel responsible and interested, they will be more willing to become BUDDY and take part in Welcome Party. It would be lovely to make people who come to Łódź to feel like home and take away the stress of being away from friends and family.

Global Internship Programme  Outgoing eXchange – here, just like in case of GCDP, we should pay attention to people who are going abroad. Maybe not on so advanced level, but here cooporation with other LC is very important. Why? After talk with people, who were abroad on GIP programme I found out that they actually miss the contact with hosting LC. I guess we treat those who go for GIP as adults who don’t need such attention but actually they do and they would like to know hosting LC better.  Incoming eXchange – since I’m in AIESEC, I’ve met only one person that came here to realise iGIP programme. It’s important for us as LC to stay in touch with those people.

Not only to provide them reception, but also to know how they find such internship. By showing such care we can have many benefits, starting from good PR, ending on better understaing how iGIP looks like in Łódź and what we can do to incrase exchange.

Besides, we can invite them on our LCMs, make them meet people who come here for GCDP. If we don’t have time to spend our free time with them, at least we can give them a hint that there are other Interns and together, they can make their stay way more interesting and valuable.

7. How do you as an AIESECer have an impact on the society? Give at least three examples of how you were an agent of positive changes.

When I joined AIESEC, I didn’t think that I can have any sort of impact, specially on society. This fact has started reaching me somewhere in the end of my work as OC. The first impact I’ve noticed are people we’re willing to help. In case of my project we wanted to have influence on kids from orphanages and primary schools. I will never forget one night. I was visiting one of the orphanages and I was waiting in the hall. Some teens came around and were messing a lot. They were trying to catch my attention so I started to talk with them. I asked how they like our workshops, what did they learn, what they think about entire idea of the project. They loved it, they loved the fact that someone cares about them and doesn’t treat them like freaks. By the end they asked if they can hug me and washed some fruits for me. Couple of weeks later when I was on family picnic organisied by Happy Kids Organisation with EPs from Dziewczynka z Zapałkami, I was standing and suddenly I saw bunch of kids running to me. Those were kids from different orphanage I was visiting too. They called me “auntie” and started to hug me. They were really thankful and happy about the entire project because thanks to it, something has changed in them. I was suprised that they remembered me and touched with how we influenced them and make them happier. It’s the most precious memory I keep from holidays. Later on, one of our EPs, girl from Shanghai had some problems on her university. They treathened her that they will dismiss her if she won’t finish her internship earlier. She wasn’t stressed or worried about it at all.

She said that this internship has opened her eyes on many things. She never thought that such a travel might be that valuable. Work with those kids made her see things, she didn’t think of before.

She would never change this experience on something else. I was suprised but also proud that she is that brave. Doing something good for others was more important than her own problems.

On AutCo on of the FACI was Tonia, girl from Shanghai. She was studying on the same university like my EP so I tried to do anything just to help my EP. Luckily, my EP didn’t have any problems after coming back home and she encourgaes her friends to do something good for society as well.

Most of my EPs joined AIESEC, some took another internship in Poland – this time GIP. Some of them are going to come back pretty soon. By having an impact on them, we made them to have an impact on their society. I know that I have influence on my team, on my friends and even friends of friends. By seeing me changing into better person, so passionate, I inspire them to change their life as well. I’m proud of being an AIESECer and I don’t regret any step that I took, everything I have or haven’t done, it was a big lesson for me and I’m happy I have decided to join our organisation.

Specific Questions Finance 3. What steps would you take to ensure that every project in LC Łódź is self-financing.

It’s possible to achieve it. I would start from better education on TMP level, starting from Leader’s Commission. Higher level of education should be delivered to those who are going to posses leader or coo positions in LC. Why? Because when (during Leader’s Commission or LCC) we were talking about leadership, project management or planning, no one told us about financial aspects of our projects. When I was about to plan my project, I knew what I want to do with team, but I had no idea about the finance area. Putting more emphasis on education will make leaders more aware of how important finance are. Going further, I would make changes in our contract of donation and contract agreement. Firstly I would write clause that we expect money on our account till (here deadline) after project realization or even before it. Secondly, in the contract that I would conclude will contain a clause, that the NGO can’t change the conditions of agreement a 14 or more days before the project realization, for example by not taking 10 EPs but only 5. That will ensure us that our project realization will be more stable and projects have bigger chance for self-realization. Another thing is Host Family project. It’s amazing project worth spreading in Łódź.

If we are able to make it happen, we can think of having recommendation from City Council or turn it into social action of spreading tolerance and international enviroment. That might sound ambitious, but it’s not impossible. Thanks to properly run project Host Family, we might achieve not only self-financing projects but also earn money.

Talent Management 1. Suggest three solutions for keeping the highest retention rate from TMP to TLP. What retention rate would you suggest as our goal?

TMP is very crucial for entire LC. Of course, the most satisfying retention rate would be 100%, but 70% is more realistic. This is how we can do that:  Education – When we welcome newbies on the board, we talk a lot about AIESEC values and what is AIESEC in general. I think that what we deliver should be more specified and concrete. Many people “escape” after LCCs people think that we do nothing but lifespeeches, strange dances or shouts. From one side, it’s good that we present this side of AIESEC and we try to highlight it’s about enjoying participation too. But after LCC, do they really believe they can develop themselves in all the areas they heard about?  Diversity – Living diversity is one of our values, but I have the feeling that some people feel locked in their projects. Some people don’t even like them and don’t believe in them.

When they are about to work like that for 6 months, they are slowly burning out of energy and motivation. This year is going to be really BIG for us. We can think of creating working groups and synergies between teams to make it more interesting for their members.

Maybe by seeing that we actually really have a lot to offer and we are serious organisation, they will be fired up and ready to go along with us.  Returnee – that’s the point we forget about very often. Nobody really cares how they do after internships. There are countries where you have to join AIESEC before going abroad. That’s how they keep their retention higher and fulfill ELD programme. We don’t have to do the same, but it would be great to keep in touch with such people and invite them on LCM and talk if they would like to try doing something in our LC. Especially people, who were on GCDP use to have bigger and closer contact with hosting LC and more or less they know what AIESEC is about. So when they decide once, they are willing to do more than others.

Communication 3. How would you improve cooperation with student organizations. Please point specific steps that have to be undertaken highlighting the sequence of the actions.

As LC Łódź we have long history. Once we were really great in this city and no other students organization could have been compared to us. It would great to get back to our fame and have more web channels to spread the informations about AIESEC. By cooporating with other organizations we might not only gain higher recognition of AIESEC but most of all gain more members. To achieve it, I would start from MR and market segmentation to see how many organizations we have, on what faculties and what is their profile. Later, I would chose, for example, one organization from each faculty. I would check what they have on what they do: do they have website, are they visible in social media, how works their recruitment, do they organise any events for students. After that, I would think of the offer we can present to each of those organizations: stands, class shouts, social media, whatever that fits to their needs to create win-win situation. Next step would be contact with them and presenting AIESEC. Contact might be concluded by phone, e-mail or it can be an meeting to talk and represent with our attitude what AIESEC really is. Let’s say that we managed to find organizations we will work with. This cooporation shouldn’t end along with our recruitment. We should take care about contacts and perhaps invite their representatives on our LCM where we would be able to thank them and present to Committee members.

External Relations 3. What should be the main synergies between ER and other areas? List two main strategies and describe why they are so important.

ER (old BD) used to work for ICX which didn’t really work as it should. Now I think ER should cooporate with OGX to make it even more benefit. We can gain more (of money as well) by finding companies who would provide insurance for EP. We should cooporate with universities by allowing students fulfilling their apprenticeship with our internships. That would make people crazy about our GC and GT projects. More of them would be convinced to try it and more EP = more money in LC. Another important synergie should be with Comm. In a way Comm is responsible for our PR and what we represent outside organization. Promotional matrials and the message we send to people should be same as what we say to companies when we try to sell them our products. Our promotion should be coherent in all areas, this will make us more professional and credible. Some companies might see us as ordinary students and when they see or hear what we do outside, they might think we are not that serious as we say we are.

ICX 4. How would you ensure iGCDP projects high realization rate? Suggest three solutions that should be implemented.  changes in contract agreement – clause that NGOs can’t quite by not taking all EPs they were about to take – for example 14 or 21 days before project realization  changes in contract of donation – clause that NGO has to pay for the project before its realization  higher quality of matching – we should look for people who are really willing to work and do something valuable while internship, people that are having some background making their work more professional than random.

3. In your opinion, what are the main benefits for companies who are cooperating with GIP program. Suggest at least 3 ideas how to improve positioning GIP program in external environtment as First Choice Partner.

First of all, as AIESEC we are responsible for first selection of candidates, so we can chose those that will fit the best to expectations and requirements of company. Second of all, EPs already have experience. Since EP is a foreigner and has been working on completely different market, employer can learn about tools and methods, similar companies are working on in different countries. Another thing is that while hiring a foreigner, personnel is obligated to use foreigner language. What’s more, employer “warms” his image outside the company. Sometimes employer is afraid that after EP will end his term, he is going to be trained but he will have to leave. As a matter of fact, employer can higher such EP after finishing internship, on his own conditions with AIESEC not included in setting the deal.

How we can improve positioning? Firstly, we can ensure higher standard of recruitment that will fit to the profile of the company. Secondly we can do pocket recruitments for exact company – here we

have to start from MR and later do market segmentation. Later, we can collect recommendations from companies that we worked with before. By learning what was good and wrong, we can create offer that will be appropriate for companies.

OGX 2. Describe two crucial synergies that can work between OGX and other areas.

There are two very important synergies thanks to which, we can increase quality of internship and improve our PR. First synergy should be with Comm. Together with Comm. we work on our promotion and material distribution. OGX by seeing what students and from which faculties want to travel the most, should pass all the news to the Comm. so they will prepare appropriate offer for students. They also take care of social media and can make us more visible on the market. Second synergy I mentioned before, should be with ER. Why? Because OGX needs partnerships with insurance companies and universities. Having partnership with insurance company will assure our EP safety and will show us as professional organization. By internship with universities we want to assure students chance to have their apprenticeship fulfilled with us. This would be not only more professional but also profitable for us. We would have not only better PR but mostly higher and better results in exchange.

3. Prepare SWOT analysis considering launch of a new OG GCDP product Global Citizen.

STRENGHTS

WEAKNESSES

- new brand - conrete new offer - new and fair contract - efficient, fast and easy customer service - fast candidates selection

- new but unknow product - product that hasn't been tested by us before

Global Citizen OPPPORTUNITIES

THREATS

- higher customer satisfaction - better recognition among students - more money for the LC - better PR for AIESEC - higher rate of exchange

- product will not be taken on the local market - fast process optimization might be too fast for us to be accomplished on time

To sum up, Global Citizen is amazing but very challenging project – at least at the beginning. The biggest threat in my opinion is the process optimization, which is very demanding but worth doing. We can avoid it but good transition and well prepared strucker under OGX. If we will succeed, it’s going to be great success and it’s going to be us, who will receive awards during NatCo’14!