Strategic thinking is helping SEEK's Aimee Jellett challenge the status quo
"With the competitive market that SEEK operates in, speed and learning from your mistakes early on is key," says Aimee Jellett.
Aimee is a Senior Marketing Manager at SEEK, a role she secured earlier this year after cutting her teeth in a variety of communications and marketing roles across the company.
Given the new position's broader remit for strategy, Aimee enrolled in the five-day Developing Strategic Thinking and Action program at Melbourne Business School.
"The new role meant I had to shift from quickly setting and communicating strategy to taking a longer-term view," she says.
"I needed to reset my thinking in how I demonstrated strategic thinking, which is why I wanted to enrol in the course."
As with all marketing roles, Aimee's new position requires a unique mix of creativity, strategy and business acumen – as well as the ability to communicate ideas.
"I genuinely find myself at a whiteboard on a regular basis working out what question we're trying to answer," she says.
"What I find is that by better understanding what's driving the conversation in a room and then unpacking it as a group, we can get to an outcome much faster."
Delivered by organisational strategy specialist Professor Brandon Lee, Developing Strategic Thinking and Action shows professionals how to expand the way they think and approach strategy at an executive level.
"A key takeaway from the course was that it really challenged me to broaden how I think about strategy and how I put it into action," Aimee says.
"It gave me a set of tools and frameworks to help reframe how to approach strategic thinking to ensure myself and my team are focusing on the right things."
One of the highlights of the program for Aimee was collaborating with her classmates from a variety of industries on how they approached similar business challenges.
"It was incredibly beneficial being surrounded by other professionals from different organisational backgrounds. It really enriched the experience on campus," she says.
"I recommended the course to many of my friends and colleagues. It is one of the best professional development courses I've undertaken."
Aimee walked away feeling more confident in communicating her strategic choices at work, which she's now putting into practice.
"What I learned assists me in delivering on our purpose to help people live more fulfilling and productive working lives, and help organisations succeed," she says.
"I'm really excited to continue to learn in my new role and look for opportunities to challenge the status quo."
Since we originally published this story, Aimee was appointed to another new role at SEEK as Head of Customer Insights & Strategy in November 2022.
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