ABOUT WATATAWA
WATATAWA is a Singapore-based management and communications consultancy. Our senior
team brings decades of experience in helping governments, financial institutions and other private sector organizations respond to issues and seize opportunities.
In addition to WATATAWA’s own presence in key Asian markets, as a WE Communications company we can also draw upon its international reach and resources in North America, Asia-Pacific and EMEA. WE is an award-winning communications firm that delivers integrated marketing capabilities spanning the entire media ecosystem, including earned, paid, owned, social, experiential, and search.
Our people have counseled CEOs, advised Asian heads of state, ministers, executives and officials in the public and private sectors on a diverse range of complex and challenging assignments. We have run local and multi-national businesses in and across China, Korea, Japan, Singapore, India and other Asian markets. Our team includes former regional CEOs, country managers, managing directors, practice heads, news bureau chiefs, and business journalists.
Our collective experience is unique in both its diversity – working across cultures, issues and industries
-- and the success we have had in assisting clients in responding to some of the most significant communications challenges and developments in Asia’s recent history.
Ultimately, our firm is defined by the quality of people within it. Our goal is to do better work than competitors and that requires that we are uncompromising in the expectations we have of our team.
THE WATATAWA INTERN
We hire only those people who we know will ultimately bring knowledge and strategic excellence to our discussions with clients and our contribution to clients’ business growth. “Executive” is our entry-level position and with it comes certain duties and responsibilities commensurate with that role. We expect people to roll up their sleeves and work hard – and there are plenty of “duties” that come with being a WATATAWA Consultant. But we do not hire anyone unless we believe they can ultimately bring their own strategic perspective to our organization. From the outset, we expect them to make a credible, earnest and thoughtful contribution to any internal or external interaction.
WATATAWA generally works with clients in the C-Suite and our Consultants will at some stage be asked to join Partners there – at first to listen, observe and learn but ultimately to contribute to the strategic appraisal we make of a client situation and the solutions we recommend.
The WATATAWA Intern must have the potential to work with clients at the highest strategic level because there is no growth potential for the firm – indeed no interest from us – in being perceived as competing in the lower-end PR/marketing communications sector.
That said, as a company, we recognize that some of the valuable deliverables that form part of our broader strategic programmes for clients require excellent implementation of core communications services and from the outset our Consultants should be integral to us delivering those services at above the industry standard.
THE WATATAWA MODEL
Our Stakeholder Engagement offering is principally targeted at corporate or governmental clients with challenging issues to address or with the need for a smart and effective strategy to seize emerging opportunities related to
- Strategic counseling to assist clients in engaging with key stakeholders in support of market positioning, client relationships, and significant financial transactions.
- Public affairs and issues consulting – focused on clients facing governmental and NGO issues.
- Government relations and international positioning programmes – in support of Asian government agencies or quasi-government initiatives.
- Market entry and re-positioning strategies.
- Corporate positioning – in support of clients who recognize the need to better market their intangible assets and increase the perceived value of those assets.
- Financial communications and related specialist support on IPOs, M&As, IR and other transactions and related activities.
- Employee relations, internal communications, change management
We look at client issues in a discipline-neutral, solutions-focused way and we apply proprietary methodologies to addressing client needs. Our strategic recommendations – and the tactics that support them -- are always client-calibrated rather than drawn from a pre-conceived toolbox. This is a critical element of our differentiation in a highly commoditized communications sector. We bring an external perspective, objectivity and integrity to bear in asking clients challenging questions and creating the strategies and stories that will resonate with stakeholders.
Ours is a customized consulting service to genuinely reflect client needs. What is also critical to the WATATAWA offering – and what creates the crucial bridge between our management consulting services and our communications services -- is that our client work is about thinking and doing. We are not satisfied with providing strategy unless we can be integral to its successful implementation. As a firm, we cannot advocate to clients that they walk the talk and talk the walk unless we are committed to doing the same.
***
Website: www.watatawa.asia
Intern -- OVERALL ROLE & RESPONSIBILITIES:
SUMMARY
A core expectation of any Executive is that he/she should:
- Learn quickly through self-driven involvement in issues research, programme development, project implementation and observation of the behaviour and consulting skills of colleagues at all levels.
- Develop knowledge of client-specific issues to allow informed and active participation in discussions with colleagues and clients.
- Become familiar and articulate concerning WATATAWA’s strategic offering and differentiation and our positioning in the management and communications consulting space, in particular our “Real Wheel” consulting protocol.
- Understand and embrace our commitment to creating best-practice solutions tailored to individual client situations with no bias towards pre-conceived strategy or a single communications discipline.
- Develop an understanding of the media and communications landscape relevant to each client upon which he/she is working; including the influence and impact of social media
- Try to identify business prospects from your own networking and monitoring of issues within the corporate, financial and public sectors. Work with Partners or other supervisors to assess and approach potential clients.
- Be a passionate advocate of the values of the company and bring ideas on potential clients or recruits to the team to the attention of supervisors.
SPECIFIC DUTIES
- Work under the supervision of the WATATAWA leadership team to contribute to the development of stakeholder engagement programmes for clients.
- After an initial supervised familiarisation period, assume day-to-day responsibilities for certain elements of client account management and corporate issues including:
- Media monitoring of client issues and development of monitoring/analysis reports (daily, weekly or monthly as required)
- Research on client or new business-related issues – either at the specific request of a supervisor or at the Executive’s own initiative.
- Basic media relations including maintenance of media contact lists for each assigned client; support for the team in building/maintaining personal relationships with key journalists or social media influencers – based on building respect among media for WATATAWA’s commitment to substance over “spin”; drafting of basic media releases.
- Assigned roles in event or client roadshow coordination and implementation.
- Attendance at client meetings and development of client meeting reports.
- On certain programmes – and with supervisor oversight and support – coordination of certain aspects of agreed client workflow and programme delivery; coordination/liaison with partner firms on client assignments and programme execution.
- Take responsibility for certain assigned internal administrative and planning duties – WATATAWA corporate or client-related.
- Assist in maintaining WATATAWA’s internet presence – website, blog posts, Social Media by contributing content, ideas and opinion.
- Support other marketing outreach as requested e.g. research for speeches; updating of credentials and case studies.
Related Job Searches:
- Company:
Watatawa Consulting Pte Ltd - Designation:
Intern - Client Servicing - Profession:
Marketing / Public Relations - Industry:
Consultancy - Location:
Downtown Core