Driving the PDCA cycle for growth

Before I joined FMI my impression was that my co-workers would be an older crowd and the atmosphere would be fairly buttoned-down. Once I joined, however, I realized that many of the people working here are around my age and the work environment makes it easy to approach co-workers and supervisors for advice. It’s a much more comfortable place to work than I’d expected. Most of all, FMI’s corporate culture of rolling up one’s sleeves and diving deep to serve client needs is perfect for achieving my goal of quickly learning upstream skills such as strategy framing. In fact, since joining FMI a year and a half ago I’ve had a hand in seven projects, varying widely in industry and business type as well as project content and duration. In content terms, I tackled essential business challenges such as business due diligence, feasibility evaluation and strategy-formation support, which were enormously satisfying experiences.

In particular, projects dealing with business due diligence and planning support in the service industry were an incredible experience. I was placed in charge of one of three projects and, with guidance from my supervisor, I handled a series of tasks from analysis and reference-material production to calculation of the effects of measures and facilitation through subcommittees. I felt that these duties really held me to grow professionally, because they taught me a lot about how projects advance overall and how to communicate with clients. At FMI, when projects are assigned, we discuss the value we expect to achieve, and when they wrap up, we hold meetings to exchange feedback. These meetings enable me to confirm the role expected of me and issues to address, and I can consult with highly experienced supervisors as I move the project forward. I’m able to drive a PDCA cycle that helps me to grow as a professional.