An Evaluation of the Quality of Corporate Governance Within

PART ONE: LESSONS FROM MEETINGS WITH PROJECT MENTOR

1.0 INTRODUCTION

In this part I have explained the experiences I had during the three meetings with my project mentor.

1.1 FIRST MEETING

It was clear from the first meeting that I had not read extensively around the research topic I choice in order to arrive at the proposed objectives. During this meeting I realised that it is important to have an agenda for meetings. I forgot most of the things I intended to discuss with my mentor because I did not have an agenda. I also learned that it was important to come up with a realistic timetable that would help me meet deadlines if I were to succeed. My project mentor explained that the timetable was important because it would help me to know what I should be doing at any given time before the research report and the skills and learning statement are completed and submitted. I, therefore, came up with a realistic timetable which I followed.

Furthermore, my mentor helped me realise that the time which was remaining before submitting the research work was not enough for me to collect adequate primary data for the research project. So I decided to use secondary data for my research work. I also choose the company that had been listed on the Lusaka Stock Exchange as it would help me gather information from its publications.

Finally, I learned from this meeting that I needed to recognize the work of different authors by referencing due to legal implications and to differentiate my work from others. This made me realise I needed to read widely.

1.2 SECOND MEETING

Before this meeting I had done two parts of the Research Report and I sent a copy to my mentor. Thereafter, the feedback was given to me about the work I had done up to then. My mentor told me I had written too much on these parts and advised that I stick to the word count recommended by Oxford Brooks University on all the three parts of the Research Report. My mentor further advised me to demonstrate wider reading on the accounting and business models. This provided me a lesson that I needed to show that I had accessed various websites and read various books on the accounting and business models by citing all the sources of information of this research.

1.3 THIRD MEETING

During the third and final meeting with my project mentor, I made a PowerPoint presentation (see the PowerPoint slides) on my research report. Prior to the meeting, I concentrated much on reducing the number of slides and forgot to practice the presentation before the actual presentation. My presentation therefore revealed several weaknesses that my project mentor brought to my attention. He advised me