Laura West Email and Phone Number

Academic Tutor: PHYS 5031 Ecological Economics and Sustainability Analysis

I am following my passion to support a change to a more sustainable world, with my focus on the architectural and design sectors. My studies have been providing me with the skills to create efficient and environmentally responsive buildings, and retrofitting existing buildings to meet today's environmental demands.

BFS is an outdoor garden centre located in the heart of Battersea, London. I had a broad range of responsibilities including retail, inventory management, and design. Working at BFS instilled an understanding of the different seasons and how to design gardens to exhibit these natural changes. This is where my interest in sustainable design was established.

The postgraduate diploma of interior design provided me with skills to be a directional designer with a creative vision and commercial realism for the interior sector. We endeavored to create functional and appealing spaces where people can live, work, and play.

Implementing and establishing a new Salesforce. Responsible for creating and driving a new Sales strategy, Customer Strategies, KPI and objectives. Being given an indicative budget, my main direction was to get the team focused on the right channels to try and achieve that budget. We extensively used a CRM tool for Sales Management and Customer Relationship, which was imperative to our ability to achieve our budget. Just before leaving the role, was responsible for adjusting the Sales Incentive scheme to drive and get the Sales reps aggressively targeting new customers.

Responsible for managing Global Key Clients and Major Forwarders in Australia. Responsibilities included building strong relationships; solving daily queries and working with the client to find the best solution; resolve outstanding payments (in particular was able to resolve $1m debt with one major client by working closely with them); tender negotiations and contract management.

With the integration of Maersk and P&O Nedlloyd, there was an opportunity to train the Customer Service Centre on Maersk's systems and procedures. For 3 months, I was responsible for training around 100 P&O staff, so that when we went live, they were prepared to use the systems confidently and competently. This was an exciting challenge, and allowed me to become involved in Change Management and appreciate the importance of change in an organisation.

Starting as a Freight Cashier, moving to Documentation and then Bookings, I gained experience in all aspects of Customer Service. I became responsible for working with the major accounts dealing with their bookings and documentation, which is where I realised the importance of customer relationships and how to build them. I was also responsible for clearing vessels, approving documentation, and clearing Delivery Orders. I was also involved in implementing a new system for bookings.

Working on the M7 freeway project, I was primarily involved in contract management. My responsibilities also included liaising with the major stakeholders and determine what project diagrams were relevant, and distribute accordingly. Gained experience working with stakeholders and building relationships.

As the representative of the resort, our role was to relate with the guests, and ensure that their stay in the resort was everything they desired. We would organise events of an evening with a banquet and entertainment for the guests. During the day we were responsible for organising sporting events that would get the guests involved and having fun. It was an extremely multi-cultural environment, with all 14 staff being from different countries, and learning how to work together.