member committee annual report 15-16
TRANSCRIPT
AIESEC in Austria
Annual Report 2015-2016
DARE to Achieve, Growing BIG
“A ship in a harbour is safe, but that’s not what ships are built for.” Same as the ship, AIESEC was not created to play it safe and to stay within “the bubble” or in the comfort zone. With this quote I started my elections in December 2014, knowing that wavy sea is waiting for AIESEC in Austria; I had the desire to be the captain and to change the course in order to guide the ship towards the new port. The story of generation 2015-2016 is the story of change. AIESEC globally changed. Our programs changed. Our 5 year vision changed. The culture changed. Our approach towards our business model changed. And we did not play safe in our harbour - we were exploring the waves and making sure our ship is fast and agile enough to embrace all the changes and overcome challenges on the way.
Nevertheless, one thing never changed, it was a non-negotiable, and that’s our
essence. Leadership Development. No matter how radical the changes in our operations, structures, business model were, we were always staying true to our essence and we were embedding it, like every other generation of Member Committees of AIESEC in Austria, into all our strategies, projects and activities. In this year, not only that we were more clear than ever on our essence, but we also defined our progress towards becoming a Youth Leadership Movement. After generation 15-16, AIESEC will never be the same organization. This is our story.
Una Marin President 2015-2016 AIESEC in Austria
Words from Una Marin
President of AIESEC in Austria 2015-2016
What is AIESEC? “This is where the movement starts”
Our ValuesWe are able to activate the leadership potential of young people by engaging them early on with a
value-based environment that shapes their behaviors.
What is AIESEC?
Our ValuesWe are able to activate the leadership potential of young people by engaging them early on with a value-based
environment that shapes their behaviours.
Living Diversity
Enjoying Participation
Demonstrating Integrity
Activating Leadership
Acting Sustainably
Striving for Excellence
“This is where the movement starts”AIESEC is a global platform for young people to explore
and develop their leadership potential. It is a non-political, independent, not-for-profit organization run by students and
recent graduates. Members of AIESEC are interested in world issues, leadership and management. AIESEC does not discriminate on the basis of ethnicity, gender, sexual
orientation, religion or national/social origin.
The organization spans 126 countries and territories. Every aspect of AIESEC’s operations are managed by students
and recent graduates in these countries and territories. We have operated this way since our inception, making us
uniquely “by youth, for youth” for over 65 years.
The quote written on one of the walls in AIESEC Global Headquarters in Rotterdam (The Netherlands) portrays the global direction for the term 2015-2016. As we were the last
generation of AIESEC 2015 and the first generation of AIESEC 2020, it was our responsibility, as global plenary to set the direction of AIESEC for the following 5 years based on which the organization is going to evolve and become a
Youth Leadership Movement.
Our mid-term ambition, set every 5 years, provides a quantifiable, measurable way of setting and achieving
benchmarks towards our purpose - Peace and Fulfillment of Humankind’s Potential. Generation 2015-2016 was provided with the unique opportunity to set this mid-term ambition in
International Congress 2015 in Gurgaon, India.
Together with 800 delegates on International Congress 2015 and more than 3000 virtual delegates, the vision was set, we refreshed the AIESEC Way, started creating the roadmap for
implementation of 2020 and evolved our Business Model.
We grow BIG with purpose and create relevant AIESEC for Austrian society while enjoying our experience.
Our VISION
Together with the whole National Board 2015-2016, we defined how we envision the entity in our term. During our MC planning days, we defined the values and behaviors we as MC would like to set as example to the plenary, and came up with a team stand that was driving us throughout the term.
DARE to Achieve, Growing BIGFinally, as one of the values that was connecting us as a team and also a behaviour we wanted to see in the entity in our term was daring, daring to try new things, to grow, to achieve, to make AIESEC in Austria big, not to be afraid to challenge the status quo and operate as we’ve always been operating just because it’s set in stone, we decided that we were going to be called MC Daredevils and therefor branded ourselves for the rest of the term like this.
333Going towards our mid-term, seeing how much potential we have for growth and for growing big, together as a team we defined a number that was going to drive us until the end of our term
Our STRATEGIESBased on the model proposed by our Supervisory Group Chair, we went into planning of strategies, tactics and actions, where we defined 5 main strategies for increasing growth and relevance of AIESEC in Austrian society.
Growth through Sales Intensity
Increasing Relevance through External Exposure
Organizational Development for Growth
Growth through Innovation
Increasing Relevance through Standards and
Satisfaction
We wanted to focus on Sales Development programs, developing new product portfolio for sales and increasing national sales.
We wanted to focus on PR and establishing strategic partnerships with different institutions, to shift our sales approach to Business 2 Business Marketing, to ensure we are implementing the Global Brand strategies and to ensure we are showcasing what we do.
We wanted to focus on refreshment of our growth model, new ways of coaching entities, overall support for the entities in form of commission management and sustainability of the organization.
We wanted to focus on innovating our programs and disrupting our business model, through implementation of Global Entrepreneurs program and evolution of Global Citizen project business model.
We wanted to focus on customer loyalty for organizations and students, minimum standards for operations, LEAD for our customers and strategic learning and development of our members.
Our Performance
General OverviewIn the term 2015-2016 we managed to grow 32,8% when we look at our exchange performance. In relative numbers, this was the first year that we as AIESEC in Austria managed to break 200 realizations, achieving 251 exchanges for the whole term. These are the main achievements that led to the growth and success of our term:
Incoming Global Talent Program
Incoming Global Citizen Program
Outgoing Global Talent and Global Citizen Programs
0
30
60
90
120
iGT iGC oGT oGC
114
17
101
19
101
23
3926
In this term, all 8 entities were doing incoming Global Talent (comparing to 5 in the previous term) due to national focus alignment. We introduced Global Entrepreneur program (the whole business model, pricing model and legal side of the program were defined) following the global direction of the program. In terms of sales intensity, 2 Sales Development Program campaigns were launched which brought growth in results and changed the culture in the area. Business 2 Business activities were launched, although majority of them were postponed due to low HR capacity.
The biggest change that had happened in the outgoing programs was the introduction of the new Customer Flow which followed the launch of our new platform and the direction of AIESEC that is being completely customer centric organization. Major changes included the financial changes, marketing changes, structural changes and delivery changes. Secondly, we had a CEEDer from Serbia who helped us out with digital marketing, optimizing our website, introducing advertising, focusing on content marketing and education of our members in the area. Finally, we introduced Global Entrepreneurs as a new product on the market, which was piloted by LC Vienna WU.
In term 2015-2016, we managed to grow the most in this program. Our growth was based on the fact that for the first time we had MC VP completely responsible for this area, who changed the business model of the program, introduced the new sales approach and upscaled the operations in a very short time. Our processes were optimized and the culture of the area was completely changed, putting the area in focus until the rest of the term. The focus was also set on standards fulfilment so the satisfaction of our customers can grow, we managed to reach the government and receive support for our projects that we realized in school across Austria. Tracking and evaluation were improved.
Our Membership
Team Standards
National and Global MembershipDuring the term, AIESEC in Austria managed to retain Global Membership for all three International Legislative Meetings (International Congress 2015, International Presidents Meeting 2016, International Congress 2016) and was able to cast our vote and share our opinion on the global legislation. During the term, the MC retained National Membership and voting right throughout the whole term. Regarding the local offices, two entities were downgraded to Initiative Groups (LC Vienna UV and LC Salzburg) and managed to get the LC status back during the term.
Big focus in Talent Management was given to the standards of team experiences that increase productivity of the membership. Every functional area was educated and required to fulfil the 6 standards of a team experience: • Team - making sure that every team has identity, purpose,
values, rules and team building. • Plan - making sure that planning and replanning were
happening, that every member had individual plan, clear goals and deadlines.
• Job Description - making sure that members were aware of their roles and responsibilities, duration of the experience, measures of success and key performance indicators.
• Training - ensuring transition or induction, conference content and education cycle being aligned, ensuring that members have the necessary knowledge, attitudes and skills needed.
• Tracking and coaching - managing the team meetings, individual meetings and coaching.
• Evaluation - making sure that there were feedback spaces in the coaching meetings and that rewards and recognition were happening on local and national level.
Learning and Development
Youth Talent
During this term, we changed the conference cycle - the purpose and content of the conferences. Educational cycles were created for national educational cycle, functional educational cycle and local educational cycle. More about our conference cycle can be found on the following page.
LC WS 2015 SS 2016
Graz 43 34
Innsbruck 27 13
Linz 23 19
Salzburg 15 13
Vienna BOKU 13 10
Vienna TU 19 17
Vienna UV 49 18
Vienna WU 86 53
Our national conferences
Discovery Conference (July 2015)For the first time, the National Board decided not to participate in Central European Congress in Hungary, thus the MC hosted its first conference in Vienna with the support of LC Vienna UV. The purpose of the conference was introducing the national plan and strategies for term 2015-2016 and commission meetings done by all the MC VPs.
Commission Conference (September 2015)
The purpose of the conference was bringing back the knowledge and global direction from International Congress 2015 in India and commission functional preparation for winter peak and winter semester. For the first time, we did not focus on recruitment in CoCo, as our main priority was focusing on exchange operations and leadership development of our primary customers.
Austrian Leadership Preparation Seminar
(December 2015)
The objectives of ALPS were to enforce the message that Leadership is THE fundamental solution for all world issues, while AIESEC is THE organization in order to provide this solution to the world. We were focusing on Sustainability Development Goals, our leadership development model and how to implement it in day to day actions. Also, in this conference, we elected the new President of AIESEC in Austria for the term 2016-2017.
Transition Conference (January 2016)In our term, TaCo got a completely new look. Instead of functional area transition, we decided to focus on pure EB role education, organizational development understanding and introduction to our Business Model, as the core of our operations. The conference was designed in a way that our delegates would leave it with absolute clarity on EB role and good organizational understanding in order to even start with functional transition.
Planning Conference (January 2016)For the first time, we organized a conference in order to align the planning process for EBs in the whole entity. Before the conference itself, a set of educational weeks was provided virtually by the MC VPs to their commissions, in order for every commission to align the basic functional knowledge before going into the planning itself. The conference was hosted by the MC in Vienna.
National Conference (April 2016)
The last conference in the conference cycle of MC 2015-2016 was NatCo 2k16. The purpose of the conference was understanding the roadmap to our new mid-term ambition AIESEC 2020, putting absolute focus on our customers, understanding in depth the organizational development and empowering our membership for the summer peak. This conference was delivered by both MC 2015-2016 and newly elected MC 2016-2017.
Organizational changes
Organizational Timeline ChangeOne of the last decisions of MC 2014-2015 was to introduce the timeline change for the terms to come, which resulted in a big focus on change management in the term 2015-2016. This was the year when we had to change our operational timeline, LCP and EB selection timeline, members recruitment timeline and conference cycle. The cause of the change was our exchange performance and the fact that the months our members spend in the office were not put strategically in the timeline, as they didn’t comply with our operational timeline. The output of the change was creating a new timeline of LC terms (1st February - 31st January instead of 1st April - 31st March) which resulted in many changes in conference cycle (introducing a new conference, shifting NatCo from May to April), operational timeline (summer peak preparation starting two months earlier) and recruitment timeline (being done before March so the members would be fully operational in April instead of May).
National Compendium ChangeIn October and November, a taskforce was created our of 2 LC VP Finance & Legal, 2 LCPs and 2 MC members in order to revise the whole compendium of AIESEC in Austria. We spent two months working virtually on the changes in the main document and prioritized supporting documents, taskforce met in Vienna for one whole day in order to revise the changes and give final input and the changes were legislated in our National Legislative Meeting in December and Board of Presidents meeting in January.
Structural ChangeAfter International Presidents Meeting in Morocco (February 2016) MCPs gained clarity on the new business model of AIESEC that was aligned with our mid-term ambition AIESEC 2020 and the Roadmap for achieving our vision. According to the business model, we had the need to change our structures, starting from the MC structure and followed by the LC structures for summer semester with pilot entity (LC Vienna WU), and finally followed by the completely new MC structure for term 2016-2017. We decided to switch from the original structure of ICX/OGX and put a bigger focus on Marketing as the area that we had the most challenges with, which resulted in the new roles in our structures: Business 2 Business, Business 2 Enablers, Business 2 Customers, Business Analytics and Digital Marketing as a separate role for our online presence and Engagement with AIESEC. The structure was piloted in the term 2015-2016 and fully implemented with the MC and LCs in the term 2016-2017.
Financial ChangeIn the term 2015-2016, the MC made a bold decision to cut on the expenses of the national team due to the inability to fulfil our revenue goals by the end of the second quarter. We decided not to rent the office space, but to use other spaces for our office in the last quarter of the term, but also to resolve MC living situation with changing the MC accommodation as one of the biggest expense items in our budget. This change resulted in reducing the fixed expenses for the national team by approximately 30.000 EUR for the following terms, ensuring higher sustainability of the national team for the terms to come.
Financial Report
Overall Financial SituationThe financial year 2015-2016 can be recognized as a year full of internal challenges. In the national office, there were several changes within the team and sales area didn’t bring expected contribution to the national budget. Communication and tracking were not only complicated in this context, but especially not efficiently developed in order to achieve the financial goals. The consequence was that several investments were cut. In local offices, the change of the EB timeline resulted in important changes in the financial tools, structure, fees distribution system and internal control system. Even though the term started with the focus to support national sales area, the enthusiasm about a potential big income from this side converted into a realistic/negative perspective about it. The new focus was to look for stability in the national office and to support local offices within their own individual realities.
Financial ReportCash Flow
It is important to mention that the national office faced several cash flow problems throughout the year. At the beginning of the term, it was needed to take money from reserves in order to cover basic expenses, such as the yearly transportation tickets for the new MC. Then, by October 2015, it was needed to take a new loan from LC Linz (already paid by the end of the term). In order to afford the second semester, national team members delayed the payment of their salaries until the moment when cash flow would allow it. In the chart bellow, you can see the overall planned and realized income and expenses, with profit/loss of the term.
Income and ExpensesThere were three main sources of income. The main source is from local entities, called “income from fees” with 38,7% of participation - 58% by the fixed part (MC fee) and only 42% for the var iable par t (exchange fee based on performance). The second source is “others” with 35,9% participation, basically composed by previous term receivables. The third is “from partners” with 25,4% of contribution. Only 83% of the planned income was fulfilled, main reason being low performance in national sales, where we achieved 61% of the planned financial target. There was no income from new partners and some old partners decided not to prolong their partnership with us due to several reasons.
35,9%
25,4%
38,7%
Income from feesIncome from partnersOther income
Only 76% of the planned expenses were actually made. All the expenses were lower than expected, considering the difficult situation faced by the national team in the income side. The biggest expenses were the fixed costs for the national team.
Partners and Supporters
Our General Partner HAYS is a leading global expert in qualified, professional and skilled recruitment. Since 2008 they are constantly expanding the cooperation with AIESEC. They consider engagement during the studies as very important, as it is very beneficial for the personal development as well as for the future planning of the students’ career. That’s why their goal is to give AIESECers a realistic insight into practice during presentations and workshops.
EF Education First, the world leader in international education, was founded in 1995 and is today the world’s largest private education company specialized in language learning, educational travel, cultural exchange and academic programs. EF shares very similar purpose and values with AIESEC as well as its mission: to open the world through education. Thus AIESEC in Austria is happy to collaborate with EF to expand the reach of both.
To support our partner Kommunalkredit Austria with projects in social infrastructure, energy, environment and transport, AIESEC in Austria is engaging in a long-term partnership enabling both our projects to become sustainable.
The Oesterreichische Nationalbank (OeNB) is the central bank of the Republic of Austria and a long lasting partner of AIESEC in Austria. As such, the OeNB fulfills a wide range of tasks and responsibilities. Apart from fulfilling its core purpose, the OeNB aims at serving as an example and providing impetus in different spheres of society; it promotes scientific research, contributes to strengthening financial literacy, support cultural activities and is committed to sustainability and environmental protection.
National Team
AIESEC in AustriaDiesterweggasse 8, 1140 Wien, Austria E-mail: [email protected] ZVR-Number: 355282896Purpose: AIESEC’s international platform enables young people to discover and develop their potential, in order to have a positive impact on society. AIESEC Internationale Plattform ermöglicht es jungen Menschen ihre Potentiale zu entdecken und weiter zu entwickeln, um einen positiven Einfuss auf die Gesellschaft auszuüben.
Anita Živković[email protected]
Maria [email protected]
Tatjana Mutabdž[email protected]
Gabriela Vasquez Herrero