CHAPTER ONE: Introduction

1.1 Overall:
A business can be described as an organization or enterprising entity that engages in
professional, commercial or industrial activities. Different types of businesses can exist
depending on different factors. Some are for-profit organizations, while others are non-profit
organizations that promote philanthropy and social causes. Similarly, they also distinguish their
properties from each other. Examples include sole proprietorships, partnerships, and
corporations. A business is also the effort or activity of a person who manufactures goods or
provides services and sells them for profit. Keeping an eye on the existing business environment
and adapting as necessary is the most important goal of the business environment. You can also
learn more about your company's competitors, suppliers, and customers to make smart business
decisions. The business environment contributes significantly to performing a holistic analysis of
the company and making smart business decisions.

1.2 Self-reflection:

As a student of Foreign Trade University, I was taught to assess my core understanding and
abilities for success in both professional and academic environments. Additionally, it is my
responsibility to identify my professional skills, merits, and demerits in order to create and
implement adequate initiatives to maintain an optimistic business context so that I can achieve
the goals and objectives that the subject Business Practice Explore wants to bring. Teamwork,
numeracy, problem-solving, and time management are some factors I took into account when
evaluating my qualities and skills. A personal skills audit is an excellent way to identify one's
strengths and weaknesses. I can determine where I need to improve through this approach to
make suitable options and maintain a positive working atmosphere. I can assess my performance
in carrying out various tasks and responsibilities effectively thanks to personal skills audits. Take
the example of my duties as a student of Foreign Trade University, I need to analyze my abilities
in the areas of numeracy, problem-solving, teamwork, and time management.

1.3 Business Environment

1.3.1 Personal traits:
Personal traits are one of the biggest concerns for a company or a business. The five major
personality traits are openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.
Employers care about personality traits because they may help anticipate how an employee will
interact with others in the workplace. Since then, understanding my attributes has been a crucial
part of my career development. An awareness of personal traits and others can help people
perform their best at work and enhance workplace relationships and career fulfillment.
Therefore, to be suitable as well as ready to fit into a professional environment, a business
student should: be willing to try new things, be careful and diligent, express energy and
confidence, interact with others, and restrict negative emotions.
1.3.2 Business awareness:
Through the subject Business Practice Explored, students can gain business and commercial
awareness - one of the most important things that business students should comprehend if they
wish to be successful or become a professor. From the very beginning, I found myself interested
in business, so I read many financial news and did a lot of research, enough to identify the
differences between a private limited company and a public limited company. Additionally, I am
aware of how the current economic and political issues, nationally and internationally, affect
businesses and public services. Furthermore, the course also helped me have strategic thinking,
knowledge, and creativity to suit recruiters' demands.
1.3.3 Experiences:
As a student of Foreign Trade University, to adapt heavy study program, I have put myself in a
mold to be a productive and proactive person, proactive in learning, communicating, and
teamworking. Unfortunately, I have not been able to work for any business as an employee, but I
have been working as a teaching assistant for an English center for two months. Though it has
nothing related to business, it was a nice experience as I had a chance to communicate with many
fantastic people and learned much from them. In addition, I learned many essential skills to fit in
any business environment, such as being responsible at work, teamwork right and attaching
myself to any group of people. Since the day I started my next journey at FTU, I have improved
a lot so far, and I still desire more and more self-improvement.
CHAPTER TWO: Personal fitness for business environment audit

2. Knowledge, skills and abilities

2.1. Knowledge:
I was equipped with Pestel - a handy strategic tool to help us understand market growth or
decline as well as help us understand the business position, opportunities, and direction for our
activities enterprise. Six crucial and distinctive elements represent each letter in the word Pestel,
which stands for Politics, Economy, Society, Technology, Environment, and Legal. Pestel is used
to conduct market research, marketing strategy development, product development, and
corporate strategy advancement. To start a business, it is essential to analyze a company's
industry structure and corporate strategy, so I also learned the Porter's Five Forces, which include
Competitive Rivalry, Supplier Power, Buyer Power, Threat of Substitution, and Threat of New
Entry. Porter's Five Forces allows us to gain valuable insights into your current market. This can
help us to develop a strategy to succeed. Besides academic knowledge, the course also offered
practical knowledge like the current financial statement of Vietnam or the next Economic Crisis
coming, and what we should do to avoid being left behind. After finishing the course, I found it
is interesting to read news and do research relating to finance, mainly because I can kind of
understand processes and reasons.

2.2 Skills and abilities:

For economics students like me who want to enter the business world, there are many skills that
we need to be equipped with, but one of the most important skills ever would be communication
skills. Communication skills are essential in the business world. As modern business learners,
you are expected to communicate ideas, information and intentions effectively and professionally
in a variety of contexts and formats, including oral and written communication. Clear
communication with team members, members of various departments, customers, and other key
stakeholders in the company is essential for nearly every role in the business world. I would like
to expand my network for my future career, so I can say that I am good at communication and
know how to act in different situations and phenomena. Today's business environment is
dominated by innovation and creativity, so we want to significantly improve creativity and
innovation as well. In an increasingly competitive market, companies are looking for new ways
to capture the attention of their customers and stay ahead of the industry. Being able to find new
ways of doing things outside the box is a big plus, whether it's a small change in process in your
specific role or a company-wide innovation.
3. Strength and weakness

3.1 Strength

I consider myself a highly effective leader regardless of the category or responsibilities assigned
to my group and me personally. I have three years of experience as a high school monitor, and I
successfully completed my responsibility as a class leader. I tracked their improvement process,
identified each member's strengths and weaknesses, arranged a suitable position and duty for
them, and advised which major they should follow based on their personal characteristics. Our
class was one of the top 3 classes with the highest scores in our school back then. That means
I've done my part as a core leader and team member. One of my significant assets is my ability to
develop new ideas and innovate in myriad ways. I always write down every thought that comes
to my mind in a notebook, no matter how strange or inappropriate it may seem. Most of the time,
it works, but occasionally I can come up with a new concept that's exactly what I need using the
thoughts I've written. Many challenges or unforeseen circumstances can be resolved quickly
without slowing down my and others' effectiveness by using creative approaches to study and
work.

3.2 Weakness:

One of my biggest problems is that I don't have practical skills in an actual business
environment. Specifically, I don't have a basic understanding of job interviews or resume writing,
as I've never been to a job interview that required a resume or cover letter. This hinders my basic
understanding of job interviews or resume writing, as I have never attended an actual job
interview that required a resume or cover letter. This clouded my job prospects as I applied for
several positions but did not receive a positive response.

4. Plan for improvement:

I planned to improve my IELTS band score to at least 7.5 to have a better background and apply
for a scholarship when I exchange to the UK campus. This test is scheduled to be held in May of
2023. After obtaining the IELTS score, I plan to focus entirely on achieving a bachelor's degree,
which is projected to be completed by 2025. After that, I will work in the UK for two years and
search for a master's scholarship simultaneously. I am longing to pursue a Communication
master's program.
CHAPTER THREE: Conclusion

After completing this self-reflective report, I had a chance to reflect on what I have learned and
how I improved. Business Practice Explored is one of my favorite courses so far, as it helped me
further investigate what I am interested in - business. I took the course seriously from the very
beginning so I could understand my personal traits, strengths, and weaknesses to fit in an actual
business structure. Now, I can set my goals and maximize the proportion of success in life. As a
consequence of the self-evaluation, I am one step closer to my dream job of becoming a
businesswoman.