PERSONAL QUESTIONSSurname: Reta

First Name: HiwoteCurrent Role: MC VP OGX and Expansions

AIESEC Entity: AIESEC in EthiopiaContact Number: +251912079077

Skype: hiwi.negashPrimary E-Mail: hiwote.negash@aiesec.netSecondary E-Mail: hiwmik2007@gmail.com

Studies & Work ExperienceUniversity Completed: EiABC

Bachelor Degree Awarded: Bachelor in Architecture

Professional E

xperiences

Contact info

Personal Details

1. What is your drive to continue in AIESEC?

I believe that AIESEC in Ethiopia is one of the entities growing in the regional network. But I also feel there are very obvious challenges walling in front of hindering us not to have achieved perfect success until now. And in this entity, starting from since AIESEC in Ethiopia was put on map [4-5 years ago], I was able to add up different experiences which also have helped me to analyze and come up with solutions to achieve best results. I want to able to put the name of my entity in the list of top performing entities in the global network.

Being a leader in the LC level most of my AIESEC life, I have learnt the magic of leadership. True leadership is developing others. And I want to stay in AIESEC and develop others so that they get to experience what I have experienced until now.

Through this experience I also believe I will learn a lot; starting from how to lead a team to growing my international contacts and adding up my professional skills. I have always wanted to become an ambassador of my country. And this opportunity will really help me achieve my personal vision as well.

2. Who are you and what are your values? How does this shape your leadership style?

I am a transformational leader; a leader who stirs up the good in you and helps you to make it the best. My values are as follows.Listening to others: I listen to people very well. This helps me to easily analyze the situation in front and come up with ways to develop the person. Respect: A team is like a family for me. I respect and love my team. This relationship will help the mem-bers to synergize well and communicate effectively. I also would like to have a team where everyone respects one another. This will help in tolerating differences and growing the team bond enough for the team to be most productive. Practical: I also push people in a way for them to achieve their goals. I think failing to plan is planning to fail. But failing to implement is worse. Encouragement: I also am a motivator. I believe that there is nothing impossible in the world as long as you put your mind and heart into it. I am very passionate and I see the good in people. I love coming up with ambitious new ideas, and I also like people who are creative and ambitious. A person should be encouraged and nurtured more each time he/she accomplishes to build a step further. This helps me always to keep my team energetic and motivated towards our goal. Honesty: I am very honest with my opinions. This shapes my style to be an effective communicator with my team or others.Collaboration: Collaboration is a very famous word in my vocabulary. I love helping people. So I push my team to also do the same. This will help the team synergize more and built on the organization’s behavior towards collaboration with the other networks.

3. What is your purpose in life? How will your possible MCP term help you in achieving it?

My purpose in life is as simple as positively shaping the world around me for the future genera-tions to become better, and make a better peaceful world. When I was a kid, since I was always top of my class, I used to love the idea of helping my other classmates study. When I was LCP I used to love the idea of seeing my members come up with events by themselves and organize it without needing my help. I always feel accomplished by others accomplishment. It fills my eyes with happiness tears to see a person become mature through this organization that has also helped me to become who I am today. My possible MCP term will definitely help me engage and develop lots of youth within TXP or Exchange. And that is the biggest achievement for my purpose in life.

Personal Q&A

4. Describe your leadership experience and give key conclusions and learning points you have regard-ing leadership

SUP of SU in EiABC: best experience because the team was very productive. I see it as a very fo-cused team. I was the kind of leader who took care of both the strategic and operational. But it some-how helped in motivating the team that I was also working. What I learnt was that a leader should always walk the way and show the way. LCP of AIESEC in EiABC: My LCP term was one of my most challenging experiences in AIESEC. I started my LCP term when I had little or no knowledge to perform in different portfolios except OGX. It has taught me about most important knowledge including exchange and customer experience man-agement, financial management. It has also taught me what real leadership means i.e. to develop and create more leaders. MC VP OGX and Expansions of in Ethiopia: This is my extra conscious and real leadership experi-ence where I got to start strategizing to achieve organizational goals nationally. I learned more struc-ture and professionalism and my network grew. I have also learned that a leader in the national team should be able to think from the national level and at the same time as the local level.

5. What are the main challenges you expect to face during your term regarding the following areas;

a. My TeamIf the team has different values, attitudes, communication styles, expectations about the experience and each other …etc. To overcome these, I will be having personal and professional expectation set-ting and team time every month starting from planning time. b. Our WorkIf I and my team still have additional obligations as EiABC work which has become un-necessarily additional to AIESEC work, we won’t be fully performing to our un-divided attention and energy. To overcome this, I have already started reviewing the partnership of AIESEC with EiABC and would like to propose to bring GIP full time HR to work instead of national team of AIESEC in Ethiopia and get salary only as consultants for the External and international office. This would definitely decrease our EiABC commitment and still keep us in check for office space and internet support from EiABC.c. My Personal LifeI have always been a workaholic. And I tend to forget about my personal life somehow when I get im-mersed in to my tasks. To overcome this I wouldn’t have to create a solution because being MCP is being the face of the entity. And this will push me to go out a lot and meet different people with amaz-ing mindsets. One of my personal growth strategies is that I need to be part of different events which will mix work with fun. I will also encourage my team to go out and have fun with me.

6. What role do you play in a team? What unique contribution can you make to the 2015.2016 team?(Provide one example)

I listen well and analyze how my team functions, how each member contributes, their strength and their weaknesses. This analysis will help me know who each person is and how I can contribute to his or her growth. I also play a big role in motivating people. Everybody needs someone to believe in them. And I think I am that person. AIESEC in Ethiopia really needs a leader who believes in her/his members that will drive their inner strength out and make them do more. Plus my unique contribu-tion is knowledge of the organizational growth in my country’s reality [from the establishment of the organization I was there.] is clearly a plus for me in analyzing it or finding solutions for different chal-lenges that me and my team might stumble upon. And for the knowledge that I don’t have I will play the educating and nurturing role by bringing my proactive side to the table.

Personal Q&A contd

AIESEC Experience

7. Rank the 3 main areas where you have had the most experience in and you consider that are related to the position you are applying for.

Personal Q&A contd

8. List the relevant conferences/meetings/trainings you have attended in the past.

a. East Africa Pioneers 2014 Tanzania – My recent AIESEC conference in Tanzania, my first sub regional conference as a facilitator. I love facilitating at conferences, because it is an amazing fast paced learning process. b. Iconic AIESEC Ethiopia first Conference Feb 2012 - My first AIESEC conference- in Akaki, Ethiopia – helped me to know more about AIESEC and showed me how I can develop in AIESEC. It also helped me get more curious about the organization and how I can contribute to Ethiopian youth developmentc. Complementary currency summerschool and Future cities laboratory in September 2012 – non AIESEC conference which has increase my awareness that I can also contribute and develop myself apart through Architecture [the background I graduated in]- plus I was also named one of the young scientists of Ethiopia and got an award.

9. Analyse our current mid-term ambition (AIESEC 2015) in relation to the AIESEC Way and the BHAG. What are the successes, challenges and key learnings attained over the past 5 years?

Have we engaged and developed every young person in the world for the past 5 years? Not yet, but I believe that we are in the right path. Our vision is peace and fulfillment of humankind’s potential. But for years since 1948 there wasn’t a clear grasp on how that can be done. AIESEC was and still is an experiential learning environment for the youth engaged with any of our leadership development programs. The Midterm ambition of AIESEC was introduced in 2010. This year was where the global network had to understand and work in collaboration. After having AIESEC 2015 as a global direction, we needed to set an ambitious goal BHAG [Engage and develop every young person in the world] which is driving and motivating us one step closer to our midterm ambition. Simultaneously we created an MoS for ourselves [AIESEC 2015 statements]. Actual activities to implement this midterm ambition were started in 2011. The coming years the global network was able to understand and focus more on quality of experiences provided.

Success: introducing of myaiesec.net of a new system era; AIESEC way was reviewed for a better understanding of organizational identity, values, etc…; The Introduction of the leadership develop-ment model; The new EXPA and OP; Defining of Clarity of Why in an easy way for the global network to understand; Introduction of the concept inner and outer journey to help youth engaged with the organization to better understand their learning process through the organization. Youth speak, expo-nential growth of number of exchangeChallenges: global performance wasn’t evenly distributed throughout different regions. GIP ex-change performance was also another big elephant in the room. We were performing lower in GIP than GCDP. We have not achieved even half of our GIP goal for the year. Key Learning: As a big developing organization, we need to define new and better spring boards to better the organization and to scale up our achievements. With the growth of the organization we needed faster and smarter system to support our productivity which led to having EXPA and the new GIS OP where every system is integrated guided by a customer centric approach. Redefining GIP might be a better solution to perform more in terms of the program.

10. What should be the direction of our next mid-term ambition?

I think until now we have been too much focused on our exchange numbers. I think this has been due to the way the Midterm ambition was communicated being a bit misunderstood by most members. So now I believe the midterm ambition should be in giving quality of experiences or a 100NPS.

11. What key learnings should we take from AIESEC 2015 for our next mid-term ambition (AIESEC 2020)

1- Redefining our program GIP which is actually the opportunity in the room rather than the el-ephant we thought it was. The program being shortened and suited to customer demand is a smart way of achieving our GIP numbers. In 2020 we have to have a new GIP goal and I think we can achieve it if we redefine the product.2- Telling our stories grows our promoter numbers. Our NPS is lower for an organization that wants to be customer centric. We provide the platform for the youth to develop their leadership skills, spe-cifically entrepreneurial leadership skills. I believe this should be communicated to all members and drive youth development through our 4 programs. Plus NPS is not a focus for TXP but I think that our members are our main customers, so NPS should start mainly with members. It should be given emphasis for members to fill it so that we learn how to develop them. If we show our care towards our members then our members will definitely show care towards other customers they are handling. Focus on both quality and quantity. Both can be achieved.

Personal Q&A contd

12. What will be your contribution to the next mid-term Ambition?

I will contribute to the next midterm ambition by making sure my entity becomes purposeful, action oriented and collaborative starting from the internal network. But most of all I will find every possible way to make sure those behaviors of consideration of others is tattooed on the heart of the members. I will do my best in leading a more customer centric entity with 100NPS being our goal. Our focus programs will always think of their customers; starting from the members, to our EPs and companies or institutions we work with.

13. Analyse the Leadership Development Model (LDM) in the context of AIESEC in Ethiopia.

considering the elements of LDM – Self aware, Effective communication and Responsible to the world

Self awareness [I and myself]: Honestly speaking in my opinion, there are few numbered AIESEC in Ethiopia members who are aware of who they are and what they want. And less than these few members work towards what they want through AIESEC. That’s why we have low retention rate and low talent capacity for successions. Every year we recruit new members for leadership positions. Self-awareness enables leaders to stay composed and balanced, particularly when under pressure or in a crisis. It is about being aware of strengths and weaknesses; Know personal values and purpose in life. I think this is the most important element we should start with.

Effective communication [I and others] : Even though on the national level and some LCs’ EB lev-el, there is a better understanding and motivation to engage others with personal purpose and values. These members can communicate effectively and build networks. Since there are other members who aren’t self aware, it is very tough to decide that all AIESEC in Ethiopia has effective communica-tion. The moment members start figuring out their strength, weakness and define their purpose in life, I believe effective communication will build up easily through the entity.

Responsible to the world [I and the world] :Most members are aware of the world’s issues. We try to take ownership for it and act through AIESEC. But it still needs some work from personal purpose and connecting personal purpose with the world’s and then the organization.

Personal Q&A contd

14. What is our role as an organization in Ethiopia? What in your opinion should we do to make AIESEC more relevant in Ethiopia?

We have to use our every resource possible to be action oriented towards our purpose, providing a platform for the youth to develop themselves as organization in Ethiopia we should be able to really understand the youth in Ethiopia and come up with ways to collaborate with other institutes to provide them a development patform.

15. Draw a SWOT (or any other) analysis of AIESEC in Ethiopia.

a. Based on your results estimate how we can capitalize on our strengths to improve short and long term goal results.

Being one of AI’s focus entities : We should capitalize as much as possible the fact that we are one of AI’s focus entities in terms of oGCDP. We have to learn more and find better GCPs and strategies in assistance with AI to grow our program exponentially. We should also learn from AI about GIP and marketing. Knowledge in these areas will help us have results in time.

Encouraging more Ethiopians to apply for leadership positions in the organization so that we have better understanding of the organization in that specific context.

b. What must be done to strengthen our weakest areas and how can we prevent them from affecting our operations?

Revolutionary marketing educational and strategical change: I think that members should at least get a clear idea of what marketing is and how it is supposed to be done. And from the national side we should start changing our strategies. Start meeting p with higher govermental institutions [ministries] instead of small businesses or enterprises to grow our image first. This will help with legal status of organization as well.

Start with member development: be aware and follow up on the clarity of why of members them-selves.

General Q&A

Strengths- uniques projects which are focused on impact- One of AI’s focus entities since fast one of fast growing entties in oGCDP- Untapped market for iGIP- Good understanding of marketing role and function on the entity- involvement of Ethiopian AIESECers taking owner-ship of the organization

Weaknesses- less Marketing talent for promoting our project opportuni-ties- Weak Team structuring in iGCDP/ un even talent dis-tribution to encourage realization in both iGCDP and oGCDP- Talent capacity and lack of interest of members to sell iGIP- not enough pipe line from within the LCs for succession. - Members are not clear with their own why.- Low technical knowledge of how marketing is done

Opportunities- The partnership of Ethiopia as a country to differ-ent other countries which has create international investement companies for GIP -For example Ethio-turkish- Unique and impactful product - Great opportunities in new businesses and enter-prises to drive marketing of the organization

Threat- Immigration bureaucracy for GIP interns - VISA restric-tions- Legal status of the organization

16. How can AIESEC in Ethiopia engage and utilize the global network to ensure we increase our stra-tegic development and result?

We should be humble enough to ask for advice and feedback on our performance from other top per-forming entities. We should also increase our contribution and activities in the global network to bring in shared experiences, learn from other entities’ mistakes and customize GCPs to our entity’s case and increase our productivity. Also we have to have our own GCPs and publish them to the global network for others to learn from us.

17. What will AIESEC in Ethiopia be remembered for after the 15.16 term (your vision)?

Awards, GCPs, Relative and absolute growth, Focused members development, well known and endorsed organization, first choice for youth development organization, collaborative entity specially with the sub region. Rushed growth but base set up for a sustainable and strong AIESEC Ethiopia

a. Describe what the key milestones you would want to strive for during your term.(INCLUDE BUT NOT LIMITED TO ORGANIZATIONAL GOALS)

1st key milestone: Creating a trust worthy environment for members –introduce with Members’ personal developments follow up system – presenting and encouraging members with personal find-ing and development process. Follow up on the clarity of why of each member and create coaching and mentoring system. Partner with personal development training centres to support us in this. Then add also AIESEC knowledge bit by bit to get members motivated and ready to work.

2nd key milestone: Creating a trust worthy environment for others to work with us - Meet up and create a mutual relationship with Governmental higher institutions to add up image of the organi-zation – ministries, embassies ...etc – After this get endorsement from each mutual partnerships even if there support was in kind. Make sure members also get benefited from these partnerships.

3rd key milestone: Be one of the top performing entities in the network. The above milestones will be paving a base for this final one to happen easily. Creating new GCPs and sharing to the net-work. Getting awards for best performance.

Strategic Q&A

Creating a trust worthy environment for members

Creating a trust worthy environ-ment for others to work with us

AIESEC in Ethiopia as One Top perfom-ing entities in the network

Key milestones

18. Create a National Strategy to ensure AIESEC in Ethiopia grows in the framework of 15.16. National Strategy to ensure AIESEC in Ethiopia grows in the framework of 15.16. What should be the role of AIESEC in Ethiopia to contribute towards the growth of the East Africa sub-region?

I strongly believe that we need to Grow East Africa together, because we have many of the same is-sues both inside AIESEC and externally and by collaborating we can develop people who understand these challenges we face and learn from each other to come up with the solutions we need today. Fortunately, at Pioneers sub regional Congress 2014 held in Arusha, Tanzania, I had an amazing chance of being part of the consolidation team for the GROW East Africa sub regional initiative. And AIESEC in Ethiopia should be able to contribute in the following ways

a. Having members be part of the EA support team [or any other future driving teams and campaigns] to drive and track our membership to make sure we deliver on the commitments the entity made to the sub-region during the Congress.

b. Shown in my 3rd strategy I belive that we should focus only on our sub regional collaboration more on 15/16 term. This will contribute to our exchange growth since we will have predictable matching optimized process. Plus having the sub regional entities as co delivering entities for exchange and TXP we will have a growth in terms of our entity and the sub region as a whole.

II) The Accredited AIESEC in Ehiopia – locally or globally – our image can be changed by being endorsed by bigger institutes plus the government – change focus of in returns which not on money only, also to in kind

a. Mutual relationships with big governmental institutions for endorsements - Ministry of Education, Ministry of Youth, Minis-try of Culture and tourism, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Women...etc

b. Telling our stories - using social and mini / mass media

III) The synergic AIESEC in Ethiopia – collaboration internally and sub regionally - a. Take active part in Grow East Africa – GEA – partnership with only the sub region

I) The I in AIESEC – Members development – every member mat-ters. The main challenge facing our entity is that members’ minset. They aren’t empowered enough to even have their own goals. I would want to empower members first to have self reflection and bring out their main life goals and feel eager to accomplish it. How to do that?

a.Integrated Expereince – co delivery including TXP/ CEEDerships and global learning environments for members

b. partnerships with Personal Development training centers - to engage and empower members to find out why they are in the organization and how AIESEC will help them

Strategic Q&A contd

Synergetic AIESEC in ethiopia

accreditedAIESEC in Ethiopia

The I in AIESEC in Ethiopia

19. Critically evaluate the national organizational evolution from 2011 through to 2014. For this consider;a. The Global Direction, b. The role of the MC and the national plenary (LCPs), c. Organizational alignment & performance, d. Key learning from each term.

Strategic Q&A contd

Terms The Global Direction The role of the MC and the national plenary (LCPs)

Organizational align-ment & performance

Key learning from the term.

2011/12 Global direction – AIESEC 2015 was known by MC and LC EB only. But no clear vision of the entity to achieve it as the entity was mainly focused on survival.

The MC was mainly focused in putting AIESEC in Ethiopia on map and set-ting AIESEC with the international mandates

Members were driven to keep AIESEC in Ethiopia in addition to the international team which arrived to support and sustain membership of AIESEC in Ethiopia in the global network

International team had a big role to play in adding up knowledge and sharing their own GCPs to add on the development of the entity

2012/13Better understanding of AIESEC 2015

MC was doing both strategic and opera-tional functionsMC was trying to gradually give own-ership of AIESEC Ethiopia to Ethio-pians- One LC repre-sentation in global conferences

The organization was mostly driven by the MC’s push since the MC was mostly opera-tional

Gradually international team give ownership of AIESEC Ethiopia to Ethiopians

2013/14 Better than the previous years in terms of understanding of global direction and a working with AIESEC international

MC –strategic man-agement towards financial sustain-abilityThe national ple-nary was mainly focused on opera-tions. - Less representa-tion in global con-ferences

This year has set a very good foundation in terms of understanding what strategic manage-ment is. Members were motivated.

Organizing different events to bring about Financial sustainabil-ity of the organization. There were 3 Ethiopians in the national team.

2014/15 2014/15 – has a better under-standing of AIESEC 2015 by MC, LC EB and Team leaders but not team members. Have a clear vision towards achieving the re-gional contribution for AIESEC 2015. But still numbers in the LC level are still not considering the global direction and not that much enthusiastic about it.

MC mainly strategic management

2014 has shown a better performance. LCPs being part of sub regional and international con-ference

Better than previous years, the MC has pre-pared different plat-forms such as strategic meetings to come up with national plans and work towards that. This shows me a better or-ganizational alignment.- There is a better per-formance in oGCDP and we are one of AI’s focus entities on this year

The national team should commu-nicate well and collaborate with the plenary for a better perfor-mance. And there were more Ethiopians in the national team.

20. What will be the changes that will leverage the volume of AIESEC in Ethiopia ELD realizations during the 15.16 term? How are these connected with the external environment? Do capitalize on the growth and relevance to society.

a. TXP – members’ development leading to ELD realization- All members will be required to have an international experience – IXP, conferences, CEEDerships or virtual TXP engagement- Partnership with Personal development training centers – members will be in kind training beneficiary. AIESEC in Ethiopia will not only look for money but will capitalize on learning partners for its members. This will encourage members’ trust towards the entity and they will start giving their all. This will grow the numbers of the entity under each portfolio. - Co-delivery with sub regional entities in both exchange and TXP- Structural change in the national and local level. Emphasis given to members’ development

b. Incoming exchange – sub regional collaboration and recognitions leading to ELD realization- EXPA playing a greater role for matching process optimization - Collaboration with the sub region – predictable supplies- Co delivery in exchange to encourage promoter customers - Co-delivery towards TXP – giving CEED opportunities to the sub regional and global entities members. This will really help us share experiences with the other entities and learn from each other. - Collect endorsements from different governmental institutes – this will grow our image inside the country- Be part of Local events other than AIESEC events – to grow the network of the entity

C. outgoing exchange – members’ development, sub regional collaboration and recognitions leading to ELD realization- EXPA playing a greater role for matching process optimization - Collaboration with the sub region – predictable demands- Co delivery in exchange to encourage promoter customers - IXP – members going on exchange and adding CEED xp- Co delivery towards TXP – giving CEED opportunities to the sub regional and global entities members. This will really help us share experiences with the other entities and learn from each other. - Collect endorsements from different governmental institutes – this will grow our image inside the country – ministry of education to make exchange as part of the curriculum and Ministry of youth for supporting us in promoting entrepreneurial leadership to the youth.

21. What kind of culture would you like to see in AIESEC in Ethiopia next year? What steps will you take to foster that kind of culture in our organization

Trust worthy and Caring organization – I would like to have members who trust the organization. Or better the organization first being trust worthy towards the members. If we start caring about our members, our mem-bers will in return care about their customers. Investing on our members

Purposefulness - I would love to see each member having a purpose in the organization and the clear pur-pose of the entity and AIESEC as a whole clearly communicated with the members

Collaborative – I want to see a collaborative AIESEC in Ethiopia starting from the LC level to the global level. Especially I want my entity to grow a deep love and collaborative urge towards the sub regional and regional entities. Creating sharing and learning platforms within the network.

Creative and Practical – I would love to see an entity which is always eager to rush towards achieving their goal and is creative towards their performance

22. What needs to be in place to be more of an LC driven entity? How do we implement it?

Strategic Q&A contd

- Empowering the LCs – starts from the individual member empowerment – motivational events and making them be part of other events. Investing on members. Empower them to take ownership of the national and lo-cal plans and specific goals- Coaching LCs- coaching visits + coaching calls will help in case of LCs in or outside the city- Follow up and tracking systems to track the implementation of their goals.

23. Define the structure of your MC team for the 15.16 term. What impact do you think it would make on the key programmes?

Having OGX and Expansions together will impact the entity to perform more on OGX by capitalizing on expan-sions. Separating Marketing and IM and Comm is important because I believe it is a lot of work for one person, and that marketing is a very important portfolio is we want to achieve a better branding for our entity. I want to have different managers in the national team as support team. For example I need to have members’ develop-ment manager since I will want to focus on members’ development if I get selected. I also see the relevance of Entity Control board to keep the quality of the national team performance in check.

24. Evaluate this year’s strategic direction of AIESEC International. How successfully has it been implemented in AIESEC in Ethiopia and why?

What I love about this year’s strategic direction is because the AI team started with redefining and communicat-ing clearly the why of the organization. Plus this year AI has also been focusing on the core of AIESEC pro-grams. The aim of the organization as being for leadership development.

25. In your opinion what should be the top three (3) priorities for AIESEC in Ethiopia for the 15.16 term? Why do you think these 3 are the crucial ones?

a. Members development – to change members mind set.

b. Branding AIESEC in Ethiopia – if we have a better brand and good image inside the country, it is very easy to get more recommendation with partners. This will help us get more partners and in return solves the chal-lenges of financial sustainability.

c. Sub regional collaboration - This because it will get us to focus and do more exchange with the sub region

For more info: please contact hiwote.negash@aiesec.net or call +251-912079077

Strategic Q&A contd

MCP

MC VP TM

MD manager

MC VP IM and Comm

PR manager

MC VP F&L

Alumni Relations manager

MC VP OGX and Expansions

Expansions manager

MC VP iGCDP

Sales manager

MC VP BD and iGIP

BD manager

MC VP Marketing

Events manager

ECB