Madame Hortense is what almost everyone in the firm calls her. She has been the head of the project department at Target since 2011. She is one of the people who best convey the Target spirit: professionalism, rigor, and maturity. Today, a day with Hortense Mbumba.
In her position, Ms. Hortense has trained several people on the basics of market research. Almost all of Target's interns and consultants have passed through her hands. Today, she still pursues this part of her work with passion. In the emails she reads in the morning, she lingers on one containing the work of a Target consultant still under her wing. She dissects the work, finds a few imperfections, and puts time in her schedule for the day to talk with the consultant. For this day alone, Mrs. Hortense's schedule includes three sharing moments.
The one with the consultant, another with a trainee who has just spent a week in her department, and the last one with the whole staff on the values within Target.
She invites Natacha, the consultant, into her office, and together they revisit the work she has produced. Incorrect details and inconsistencies are identified and corrected. After the correction, she has a telephone meeting with Benjamin, who is on assignment in Brazzaville. Ms. Hortense closely follows the progress of the study that Benjamin is supervising in Brazzaville. She takes excellent care of it. Still, in Brazzaville, Ms. Hortense is also following a survey conducted for a client with an Itcha consultant. After this phone call, Ms. Hortense takes a few minutes to follow up on the projects in progress. She then talks with each department member, who gives her a summary report of the activities in progress.
Target begins a large-scale study in collaboration with a local company in a few days. The investigators who are going to work on this project are in a briefing meeting with Manon. Mrs. Hortense goes around the meeting room to talk with the team about professionalism in the work. Before going to the interview with the investigators, she talks for a few minutes with Divine. Divine has brought her computer with her. Together, they must analyze the budgets allocated to certain studies. What to prune, what to keep, everything is studied meticulously according to the objectives assigned to the study.
Several factors, including the amount of work, determine the length of Mrs. Hortense's break. When she has several tasks to complete, she takes a short 30-minute break and then returns to work. But, when she is more or less accessible, she can take 45 minutes or even an hour break. Just after her break, she talks for a few minutes with Ange, who has been interning in the project department for a week. They discuss Ange's projection, find it together, and agree on when Ange will come for a simulation. The purpose of this exercise is that Ange, although in training, finds herself in an actual work situation. Today, she has an interview with the whole staff at about 3 pm, which justifies that her break is shortened. She has to prepare her communication, reread her PowerPoint and prune the last typos.
The 7th level meeting room is full an hour after returning from break. The Target office is complete for a moment of sharing led by Ms. Hortense. She articulates her remarks on the values advocated by Target internally and externally. She presents the 5 fundamental values of the company and the procedures in force when someone sins against a value advocated by the company.