Internship Diaries #40

Pallav Angrulla

TATA International, Yangon  

                                                   

I got a golden opportunity to work with a renowned company TATA INTERNATIONAL, that too in a third world country like Myanmar. TATA INTERNATIONAL is a separate wing of TATA and they are into several businesses in Myanmar like agri trading, minerals trading and distributors of heavy construction vehicles etc. As Myanmar’s economy has just opened up and there are a lot of foreign investments going on from countries like Japan, China and US, it was a great chance for me to work in there with TATA INTERNATIONAL. I was mentored by country head of TATA INTERNATIONAL Myanmar, Mr. Sunil Seth.  I got an opportunity to understand their distribution business and to work in a unique project of doing market research to analyze their business model, prepare a feasibility report and also do comparative analysis of their distribution business and to understand customer perception and expectations towards TATA’s products.

As most of our market research was based on primary research, where we meet loads of people from different origin like Chinese, Americans, Burmese, and Japanese etc, so communication barrier was one of the main hurdles that I faced there, but it turned out of be a beautiful experience as I was able to tackle it every time and extract all the relevant data for my project. Our research was not only restricted to Yangon but also to some of the remote places like SEZ Thilawa and many other villages. In my tenure I not only was able to understand their business but I also meet hundreds of people from a construction labor to project managers to MD’s and CEO’s of big companies. This gave me a holistic picture of how work is carried on in private corporations.

Working in a totally different environment different culture and with different people was a great experience for me; it not only gave me immense working experience but also made me a much improved person in terms of temperament.

Internship Diaries #39

KAPIL GUPTA
WRS Info India Pvt. Ltd.

I have always enjoyed writing. Expressing my self through written words is something that comes naturally to me. I recently stepped into the world of website content writing with my internship at WRS Info India Pvt. Ltd. My work profile included developing content and designing social media marketing campaigns for their website deal4loans.com.

Thanks to a pool of articles that I did over my internship and my super co-operative colleagues, I was slowly able to adapt myself to the methods of how online content writing and content marketing is done. Website content writing is not an easy job. It requires loads of creativity, patience and devotion to learn. At the same time, flunking deadlines is not an option. Further, the finished job needs to be crisp, informative and interesting. So, content writing is a gigantic job but is extremely fulfilling if you enjoy what you write.

If you are serious about what you do, there is a lot to learn. I learned a lot about SEO (Search Engine Optimization), SMO (Social Media Optimization), blogging and Content marketing.

It is to be understood as doing business is becoming easier thanks to the Internet, online copy-writing has a very important role to play. However a word of caution- copy-writing is not facile and at times can also get really boring, especially when the products/services you write about are very dry, like in my case: loans and insurance policies. In advertising convincingly about all these services through your content, lie the skills of a good copywriter.

It is to be understood that the road to content writing is no easy path. It requires a lot of brainstorming. A lot of research needs to be done on the company and business markets. But, the most difficult part is coming up with ideas. It takes a toll on your grey cells to come up with good ideas worth writing for and that are in sync with your company's mission and strategy. Anyone can write but not all can come up with ideas. Now that is what distinguishes other writers from copywriters.

In my short time as a content writer, I realized a few important things that a good content marketer should always follow:

1. Play around with the words: Avoid using everyday words; show a little knowledge of the English dictionary.

2. Emphasize on certain keywords: This along with catching the reader's attention will also help in search engine optimization (SEO) which will maximize the volume or quality of traffic to your web site from search engines.

3. Be Concise and Clear: Do not beat around the bush. Don't make the work ambiguous, it will lead to you losing the customer. Your idea should easily reach consumer's head. Provide attractive material in a short span which stimulates the consumer to do more research.

4. Stick to one Chief component: It is very easy to overthink the process and make your work useless. Too many ideas in one article will blemish your work. Let the reader follow one theme at a time. Do not confuse him.

5. Proofread: Double check what you have written. Be sure of the grammar and language used. Business jargons may not be effective as your customers will not understand them.

Other Project: Apart from all the content writing, in my last week I developed a calculator on excel as a part of my project. This calculator can be called a future loan eligibility calculator and provides estimation based on your current career path, as to when you’ll be able to fulfil your dreams of owning your dream house, car etc.

In all my internship was a great learning experience. I learned a lot about loan and insurance markets and developed some good quality content over the period of 2 months.

                                                                                                                                                                           

Internship Diaries #38

Karishma Manik

Central Bank of India

I was fortunate enough to do my Summer Internship from Central Bank of India, which is one of the oldest and largest commercial banks in India.

Central Bank of India was established in year 1911 and was the first Indian Commercial bank which was wholly owned and managed by Indians. Working with such a historic and renowned organisation was a huge learning experience. My objective during the internship was to understand the whole concept of “Customer Intelligence and Bank Marketing”.

My work was mainly to understand how Marketing Strategies are made and carried out in the bank to provide excellent customer experience and overall profit to the bank. I worked as a part of the Regional Marketing Team at the Regional Office of Delhi (North). The main objectives of the Team were to co-ordinate with the Zonal Marketing Team and the Branches under its jurisdiction for various marketing activities and Business Development.

During my tenure, I worked on various assignments in the Marketing Department. First one was the Customer Intelligence exercise, where I worked on determining top 50 customers under Current, Savings and Advances portfolio for each Branch; and top 100 Customers under Advances and Savings portfolio for the entire North Delhi Region. This was done to understand the Branch portfolio and clientele. Also, I along with another Intern, worked on the “Family Tree” concept where we worked on the strategy for getting business from these customer’s relatives, friends, acquaintances etc.

Then, I worked on identifying the weak branches of the region by assessing their growth during the quarter and worked on strategies for their Business Development. During this, I performed Mapping of ‘A’ rated Universities/colleges/Institutions in the region with their nearby branches so that they can act as nodal branches for providing education loan to students of these institutes so that students getting admission to these institutions are able to avail the education loan in a hassle free manner in the current academic year. A similar Mapping exercise was performed for Government Institutions as well, in which I worked on identifying 120 Central/State Government Offices and PSUs across Delhi, and prepared a report consisting of the existing business canvassed by different branches with these Government Institutes as well as the strategy for forming new business alliance with these institutes.

In addition to this, I worked on developing Publicity Campaigns for Marketing of Retail Lending Schemes and PM Social Security Schemes; and I also got an opportunity to organise different marketing events like Townhall Meeting, Marketing Executive Meet and Customers Meet for the Bank.

I was lucky enough to have a wonderful mentor whose encouragement, guidance and support enabled me to learn the nitty-gritty’s of Marketing as well as the entire Banking Industry. Also, the excellent working environment and group commitment of the Bank made my internship experience worthwhile.

Internship Diaries #37

Mohit Gupta

EduExcellence

This internship with EduExcellence gave me an excellent opportunity to learn new and emerging technologies, feel, understand and appreciate the startup culture and work with a bunch of amazing people. I was very happy to see the enthusiasm of my mentors and my colleagues which motivated me to perform and give a best shot in every task. Mentors were found to be very creative and always asked to give inputs in all the live projects. Sometimes they appreciated, sometimes they told to dig in more, during the times when I couldn’t think of the idea or approach for the problem, they never criticized in-fact they boosted to go out of the box and think something I never thought of.

We worked closely with the Lead Generation team in analyzing new business opportunities. Our main roles and responsibilities include – Managing CRM activities, Lead generation for new clients.

The project involved a lot of traveling and a hectic schedule and understanding the market and client of a product that was more of a B2B type. I was able to see a clear difference between it and a B2C product with respect to Branding, Advertising, Promotion and the Marketing Strategy as a whole. 

Again, I was fortunate enough to have an IIT Roorkee alumnus as my mentor during the period, who guided me right from the start and took utmost interest into the project. He made sure that I was provided with all the necessary resources during my association with them.

Internship Diaries #36

Mahender Singh

Ordnance Factory Muradnagar, Ministry of Defence

First and foremost I will like to express my heartily thanks to Mr. Ram Prakash (HOS/WO and IED) for their kind guidance in my summer internship. My summer internship helps me to learn about Production Planning, Material Management, Cost Accounting and 5S. Ordnance factory Muradnagar is a metallurgical factory under the Ordnance Factory Board, Kolkata (Ministry of Defence) came into existence as a Transplantation Project during the Second World War with effect from 1.3.1943. Initially, production started with one Heavy Steel Foundry having one Electric Arc Furnace of 7 M.T. Capacity, 2 machining sections. The factory is a premium casting and forging unit among family of 40 ordnance factories in India.

I was part of Planning and Progressing Division which comprises-

•       Production, Planning and Progressing Section
•     Works Office
•      Industrial Engineering Department.

These Sections look after the Production Planning/Reporting, Liaisoning with other Factories/Establishments, Contract review, Customer complaints, Budget, Audit and Financial Monitoring activities of the Factory.

OFM has the specialization in Alloy and Steel Castings- Armoured as well as Non-Armoured, Ammunition Hardware, Grey Iron Castings for Ammunition Hardware and Moulds and open die steel forgings for Hot die Steel and other tool steel. OFM main products are Aerial Bombs, Ammunition Hardware (Steel), Ammunition Hardware (Grey Iron), Forging Products.

I was given an opportunity to study on the Project “Overview of Production, estimate revision and its impact on cost”. In this project I worked with Planning section, Works office, Material Management section and Account section. First production is estimated for next month. Exercise of control over expenditure in a manufacturing business is the main function of the Production Manager. Production management is an integral part of all good management. The ascertainment of production costs is not an end in itself, but the object is to provide means whereby costs can be controlled. Time to time target was revised to attain minimum cost.

It is necessary for a Works Manager to be an expert in the Mechanical processes. His works involves and possess the ability to control men, but these abilities do not complete the requisites for the successful performance of his function. He must also possess a cost sense, or ability to analyse the cost of operations, materials and expenses under his control with a view to carrying out manufacture at the minimum cost. He is engaged to produce at or below a predetermined cost, or in the absence of budgeted cost, at the minimum practicable cost. A costing system must be adopted to suit the nature of the work it deals with, and this can only be achieved by the fullest collaboration between the Works Manager and the accounting department. At last I must say that it was a fantastic experience to work with Ordnance Factory Muradnagar.

Internship Diaries #35

Nikhil Dhamija

Foodpanda

Foodpanda is the global name in mobile food delivery business serving 40 countries across the world. Their service allows customers to find a restaurant near to your location and order food online directly from that restaurant. Foodpanda has a global base of more than 58000 restaurants, which includes 13000 only in India.

Though being offered a profile of Lead Generation, company being a start-up was open to give all sorts of experience and giving chance to interns to prove their metal. The 2 months of experience can be broadly classified as:

•          Customer Mapping
•         Restaurant Classification
•          Lead Generation
•          Inbound Leads Processing
•          Area clustering for on-field sales
•          Business model to bring kitchens on-board

Customer Mapping:

With the extracted data from a business analysis report, find the number of hits for restaurants in particular area, number of order selection and number of converts. The ratio of number of order selection to the number of hits for restaurants gives us the satisfaction level of customers with number of restaurants in those areas. If the ratio  is less, all the restaurants that are in those area and are not on-board are the top-most priority and are termed as Sales Coverage Target Partners (SCTP). The ratio of number of converts to the number of order selection defines flawlessness of our online payment process and if the ratio goes less in some particular weeks raises red flags for the IT department. Mapping of areas on Google maps, checking overlapping of different areas and mapping of restaurants in those areas makes situation clearer to find SCTP restaurants.

Restaurant Classification:

Classifying restaurants by the area they fall in and number of hits they are expected to get before bring them on board

Lead Generation:

To find new leads for sales team from Zomato in a particular city. Developing leads with suitable fields on salesforce.

Inbound Leads Processing:

Leads that approach foodpanda to get registered, I use to collect their information, making them understand the policies, settling commission margins and finally contracting.

Area clustering for on-field sales:

Clustering Delhi NCR area in different clusters and assigning on field head counts for different days in different areas.

Business Model to bring Kitchens on-board:

Market research to understand the business structures of online kitchens in India and customizing foodpanda services to bring them on-board. Initiated daily changing menus in foodpanda which was must for contracting these Kitchens.

Overall Experience of working for Foodpanda was amazing and got a glimpse of how e-commerce industries are setup, their working models and the factors involved in better management and being Competitive in market.

Internship Diaries #34

Nikita Batra

Chrysal Technosysts Ventures Pvt. Ltd.

I had the opportunity to work at Chrysal Technosysts Ventures Pvt. Ltd.  which is a start-up set up in 2013. The company is from the ITeS sector and basically provides IT enabled HR solutions to industries. 

My role during the internship at Chrysal was of market research and lead generation in the NCR region. My major work involved ‘generating leads’ for their flagship product Abscontrack and other products as well in the B2B segment through various mediums viz. telephone, meetings, social media etc. This being my first experience at sales, the job seemed a little challenging initially and took me a couple of weeks to adapt to but later with the support and guidance of my mentor and colleagues I started to enjoy it. 

We used various mediums for lead generation like cold calling, linked In contacts and also walk-ins in the hot summer days but at the end it was all worth it. I also got the opportunity to interact with a number of prospective clients and pitch to them the concept of the products offered by them. My work there also included market research where in I had to analyze the response and acceptance ratio of various industries towards the concept of Abscontrack. I really enjoyed my internship duration at Chrysal Technosysts Ventures Pvt. Ltd. and feel that everyone should experience sales once in their marketing careers as it gives a platform to develop numerous skills enabling you to understand the customer sentiment.

Internship Diaries #33

Satadeep Biswas

Eduexcellence Education Society

I still remember the first day I stepped into the office space. I won’t lie, the first impression was not exactly what I expected or for that matter anyone else would expect, in my place. The office was setup in an apartment of sorts with small cubicles separated by plywood planks. People were looking into their laptop screens and were all busy in their respective work. I felt out of space and was looking for my mentor. I took my place before one such cubicle and waited patiently. Then I saw a few familiar faces of that of our seniors who are employed there. The butterflies in my stomach seemed to settle down. I met my mentor next and he was the perfect host. I was introduced to all those faces which were earlier buried deep into their laptop screens and I got a warm welcome from each one of them. The initial hospitality that I got touched me deep. I was no more a stranger; I fitted right into the space. The next few days were relatively free; I didn’t have much to do and again I started feeling restless. The lack of work made me feel tensed as I was of the opinion that the 2 months of internship are the most crucial and I was determined to gain as much exposure as possible but little did I know that the next few weeks will not only fulfill my expectations but exceed that as well.

I should mention here that although I joined office in the month of May like everyone else, my project started back in the month of February. I was well versed with the job in hand as I had to browse through lots of literature before joining office as an intern. This being said, one fine morning the CEO called me to his cabin and told me that based on the literature that I have studied I should design a product addressing the same, then I need to fetch sponsorship for the same and get clients on board as well. In a nutshell the whole project right from design to implementation was up to me. It was challenging but rather than being intimidated by the same I relished the opportunity. I spoke in length with my mentor and after a week of brainstorming we came up with a product layout, a conference of sorts. In the mean time I was laden with loads of operational duties and was also handed over a Market Research project for an upcoming product. Each piece of work was challenging and needless to say was a huge learning experience.

Coming back to the main project I was part of, the next task was to secure sponsorship and with my mentor’s help we fetched a handsome amount. But the real test was laying ahead, the task of selling. I realized why Sales is the buzzword in the industry. Designing and strategizing seemed a piece of cake; I realized how apprehensive people can be to part with their time and money. But once again with the invaluable support of my mentor I met the target set for me and that was the moment I realized what true satisfaction feels like.

In the midst of all these little did I realize that 2.5 months had passed and it all seemed like only yesterday.  Don’t get me wrong it was not all work. The culture at the organization was homely. There was a character for every occasion. The last day of the internship the CEO took us all out on a perfect outing and I was overwhelmed with the kind of farewell that I received. I cherish every moment of my time that I spent there.

Internship Diaries #32

Abhijeet Doshi

SBI Capital Markets

It had been a great and enriching experience working at industry leader in investment banking. It actually gave me sense of working methodology and practical knowledge to implement what I had learned so far in the course. Work ethics and intensity with which employees work here had a great impact on my professional being. Being part of team discussions and conference call with clients helped develop business acumen and technical competency. Working under deadlines and coming out with spontaneous solutions were part of daily activity.

Internship started in second week of May. I was the last one amongst the interns to join and felt nervous about being a good mix. But as days passed the entire group became integral part of internship. I was allotted project on the very first day and after a brief induction directed towards my desk at the centre of infrastructure and telecom team surrounded by CA’s, MBA’s and investment bankers. At first it all felt intimidating but after showing inclination and curiosity towards the field everyone assisted in providing friendly and habitable environment.

The internship program lasted for 2 months that consisted of rigorous research and application of financial fundamentals (lot of jargons) that provided me with an opportunity to decipher my abilities that may be applied to come up with solutions and further identified ones I need to improve upon. I was working on a business model and financial viability of specific project initiated by RBI to further financial inclusion that included financial modeling and cost-revenue analysis of the same. Apart from providing the technical exposure, it flexed my research and writing skills that would go a long way in my professional career. Excel sheets and powerpoint presentations were all over and nothing but the best was expected that made me deal with pressure and deadlines with a strode. I was not restricted to the project assigned to me and could ask for being part of internal meetings and discussions (though I had to take notes which I didn’t knew before).

After a month spent there, monsoon season started and Mumbai is the place to be at that time. I thoroughly enjoyed my stay with spectacular views and legion of places to visit. Weekends were well spent over with other interns sharing college memories and relishing street food. By God’s grace the quarter ended very well for SBI Caps and a grand party was organized to celebrate the occasion. I think interns were the most excited among all and had a great fun evening.

Internship acted as bridge between academic learning and practical implementation. This professional apprenticeship program not only added technical experience to my candidature but gave me exposure to one of the most sought after field in finance from varied angles. Networking was an added advantage that came as frill with the internship. I used to dream working at an investment bank and that was what I got. 

All the efforts and hard work was worthwhile and paid in terms of rich experience. It sometimes became difficult to keep up with the pace but marine drive view from 19^th floor and black coffee kept me going. It’s time to head back to college but the lessons learnt and amazing company of some of the brightest minds in the field will hold a place in my memory forever.

Internship Diaries #31

Bratati Roy

Hindustan Copper Limited

I got the grand opportunity of doing my internship from Hindustan Copper Limited (HCL), Kolkata, a public sector undertaking under the administrative control of the Ministry of Mines, is the nation’s only vertically integrated copper producing company.

I worked on the project which pertained to build up the Marketing Strategy for Nickel. HCL, being known for manufacturing Copper from the stage of mining to converting to commercial products, decided to manufacture a new metal, Nickel, by recycling their by-products. I handled the responsibility of analyzing market of nickel, its usage in industries and strategic approach of its competitors in India.

I was mentored by two esteem personalities, Mr. Jayanata Mukherjee, Chief Manager, Marketing, HCL and Mr. Saurabh Chaturbedi, Asst. Manager, Marketing, HCL. I feel myself extreme fortunate to get the guidance of them. I was factually treated to be the business analyst of HCL instead of just an intern. I got break of attending meetings with the production managers and team, discussing with managers about  the approaches to make the effective strategy so that HCL can have the benefit of penetrating the existing market of Nickel in India.

This internship at HCL has given me hands-on experience of working as a business analyst in real time business environment. By and large experience was incredibly elevating and gave me immense buoyancy by the end of 2 months at HCL.

Internship Diaries #30

Azim Najam
Chrysal Technosysts Ventures Pvt. Ltd

I did my summer internship in a start-up named Chrysal Technosysts Ventures Pvt. Ltd . It is an IT based organisation in Mumbai. However, my location for internship was in Kolkata. Recently, they have launched few IT solutions for HR named Abscontrack, Campustrack, Videotrack and Exitrack. My role in the organisation was of market research and lead generation.

I started working from 10^th May, 2015 onwards. My team lead was Abhishek who was very encouraging and helpful leader. On the very first day, I was given the demo about the product Abscontrack, Campustrack and Videotrack which I had to pitch in the market. And on that day only I was given the roles and responsibilities which included:

•  Market Research on different verticals
•  Lead Generation
•  B2B Marketing
• Business Development
• Negotiations

I was given the list of 200 companies which I had to pitch. In the later part, I took the help of fundodata and dataguru for data collection. I pitched for the product in different sectors and in different fields. I initially started with calling but later on did many door crashing which helped a lot. During my internship, I learned a lot as Kolkata is a completely different place to work as told by my head of sales Mr. Amit Sen Gupta on the very first day. I realised it as I progressed during my internship. After 2 months of rigorous hard work, I was able to convince few very good companies in which talks are going on in different stages. With all these experience, I am sure working in this part of the country will help me during the professional career in the future.

Internship Diaries #29

Ashutosh Puri

Reserve Bank of India

The internship at RBI, Lucknow was a lifetime experience. To work under the aegis of general manager and assistant general manager at the central bank was something through which my views on not only the monetary policies framework but also the working culture and the management as a whole got a broader perspective. The organization is a mecca for gaining knowledge about the financial intricacies of the country. The people were more than willing to explain every minutest detail and help in grooming and forming an opinion on various insights and steps taken by RBI.

I got the opportunity to do my internship in finding correlation between base rate and repo rate and their inter-connectivity with respect to various banks whether public, private or foreign. I gathered data since the inception of base rate (from 2009) and found fascinating results of the market movement that happens as the RBI changes the rates. The whole research work was aptly completed, only possible through the generosity and patience shown by my mentors who not only helped me with historical data and knowledge but also with the statistical tools like SAS and Excel analysis for regression modelling.

I was filled with gratitude for my mentors seeing their hard work and diligence they took to explain and also how they’re so much attached to the organization having a feeling of working for the country. The two month internship was not only all work, we enjoyed a lot during the period. The Lucknow branch has all the refreshment facilities and gaming areas where we spent some time during lunch hours. In all I would say my internship at RBI, Lucknow was the best one could get during the two month break in the course curriculum.

Internship Diaries #28

Ankit Gupta

Toshniwal Equity Services Private Limited

I did my internship with Toshniwal Equity Services which is a stock broking and investment consulting firm located right in the heart of Dalal Street and Bombay Stock Exchange. Internship started with a lot of expectations from our mentor. We were expected to work not only on financial aspects but also consult on minor but vital aspects of the company like operations and marketing.

The title of our project was Financial Statement analysis and Stock price movements. We started by understanding different faces of technical analysis and fundamental analysis under the guidance of Mr. Jay Toshniwal. He gave us insights on important entities that revolve around the fundamentals of a company such as taxation, royalty and more and where these concept did aroused. We were trained in Metastock Software, which is one of the major software that is being used at the firm for evaluating charts and patterns of BSE and NSE. Fundamental analysis was done of cement sector which included 6 major cement companies of India including ACC, Ambuja, Birla, Heidelberg and Ultratech. Additionally we worked on understanding the management discussions and their interpretation in financial terms. 

We also gained experience on core corporate operations of the company by attending Annual General Meetings of Reliance, SBI, and Hindustan Unilever. Our next task was analysis of Nifty Junior, Nifty 200 and Nifty from Feb ’15 to July’15 and to come out with stocks which were resistant to fluctuations in market. We also worked on updating client portfolios on moneycontrol.com which was an arduous task but this was also successfully updates by us. Our last assignment was revamping the website of the company, which included coordinating with the vendor on all aspects of the website including content and design.

Internship Diaries #27

Akash Rangari

Jabong.com

It was great learning experience with Jabong.com. Jabong is a popular brand for shopping among youngsters because of its world class service and quicker delivery time. I got opportunity to work as an Operations Intern in Order fulfilment Department at Gurgaon Office.

On the very first day I was done with all the formalities. I was extremely surprise to see their speed and enthusiasm of working. The environment was happening. In two months of internship I worked in multiple projects. Like COD, NPS improvement, and to reduce the departmental interaction count. I was under guidance of Ms. Khushboo, she helped me a lot in understanding E-commerce world. How they work, how they carry business in such competitive world. My mentee gives me full liberty to alter or improve any process of jabong.

Especially work culture of Jabong is fantastic. You can enjoy the freedom of work there. You just have to come up with new ideas and if your senior likes them, it will be implemented within no time. I saw people working more than 10 hours on their own will. I got opportunity to meet with top management and discuss about E-commerce in both formal and informal meetings.

Overall it was great learning experience with jabong.com, the perfect place to showcase your talent and creativity. 

Internship Diaries #26

Adarsh Kumar

EKO India Financial Services Pvt Ltd.

I did my internship with EKO India Financial Services Pvt. Ltd., which is an Indian financial service company, and India’s first Business Correspondent (BC) service company. It provides no-frills bank accounts and deposit, withdrawal and remittance services to customers (nearly 80% of whom are migrants or the unbanked section of the population) through mobile banking. With Bharti AXA Life Insurance Company, it provides Bharti AXA Life - Bachat Bima, micro-insurance policies. 

After acing the money remittance sector through business correspondent model EKO got the licence for PPI from RBI. Prepaid payment instruments are those which facilitate purchase of goods and services against the value stored on such instruments. The value stored on such instruments represents the value paid for by the holder, by cash, by debit to a bank account, or by credit card. 

As an intern at EKO, I was involved in doing market research and operations for my project which was defining new age customer experience. I had to make the process smooth for transactions resolve complaints registered from CSP(customer service point) of EKO. During this project I on-boarded help desk for EKO. During internship I analysed about E-value pattern of the csp and which gave me an idea how to increase transaction amount for each csp. I introduced target based e-value concept. As market research work I found that our csps were facing a lot of problem like status of transaction, customer care problem and e-value, for which I gave a solution that to include a status based tracking GUI in our portal.

Internship Diaries #20

Menka

Nsimpl Infolabs LLP  

Nsimpl Infolabs LLP offered me an opportunity to work in business development, market research and sales domain during my summer internship. Nsimple has launched a product ‘nTrackr’  which helps the hotels to enhance guest experience and revenue as well with the help of a Mobile Guest App. It also helps them to manage and track their workforce in a more efficient manner by keeping all stakeholders in a loop via real-time communication.

My internship was all about business development, market research and sales. Our target customers were 3, 4 and 5 star hotels. My work was to fix meetings with GMs of different hotels. After that, during meeting I used to brief about nTrackr and how it will help them to increases their guest experience and overall efficiency. Before going to the meeting I had to do a lot of research about the hotel and the GM so that I could talk to him in his reference and another benefit was that I could easily answer their doubts and queries effectively.

During the implementation phase I had to understand the complete work flow of hotels so that we may help them to use the system seamlessly. I had to do follow up with each and every person on a regular basis to ensure that system is helping them to reduce their mundane tasks. It was a great pride in itself to meet sophisticated managers of 4 or 5 star hotels which bestowed a lot to my personality and boosted my confidence. Knowledge sharing and feedback sessions by our founder (Mudit Khandelwal, a dynamic personality) summed up a lot to my knowledge. Overall internship was a great learning experience.

Internship Diaries #18

Debjyoti Das

Jakson Ltd., Kolkata

I would like to thank Mr. Subrata Ray-Vice President & Mr. Shib Shankar Bhattacharyya – Head (Sales & Marketing) - and to my Head of Department, IIT Roorkee Dr. Santosh N.Rangnekar for providing me this opportunity for this corporate exposure which is a great learning experience during my MBA.

I am extremely thankful to Jakson Ltd. for giving me the opportunity to undertake this project on Sales and Market Research for Diesel Generators in Kolkata, during my summer internship  I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my project guide Mr.Siddhartha Ghosh (Team Lead –Sales and Marketing) for his overall support, valuable guidance, astute judgments and an eye of perfection without which this project would not have been in the present shape.

The main objective of this project report is to perform a detailed survey of the current scenario of the Diesel Generator market for Jakson Ltd. in Kolkata. These surveying and the sample generation has been done during the Summer Internship from May 2015 to July 2015.The project have focused on the company profile, its goals and objectives.

The report also contains thorough analysis of the customer reviews which have been gathered from regular field survey and telephonic interviews in Kolkata region. The Sample size that has been taken is 500 and above which gives more accuracy to the researches that have been made. All the samples are from geographical locations of Kolkata, West Bengal.

Moreover, the report also gives a brief idea about the company marketing strategies and various branding and promotion techniques. It shows the expected growth rate of the Jakson Ltd. in the market. The 4P’s and SWOT analysis of the company is also shown in the report. This report is beneficial for market research of Jakson Ltd., Kolkata.

Internship Diaries #17

Sanjo Jose
L&T Constructions, Buildings & Factories IC

I did my summer internship at the most respected construction company of India, “Larsen & Toubro Constructions” from May 8th to July 27th. During my internship, I traveled across the country to different L&T sites in major cities like Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai and Patna, Bihar.

It was a life filled with moments of happiness, sadness, enthusiasm, learning, passion and a lot more. I worked under the guidance and mentorship of Mr. T.K. Prem Kumar, DGM- Training and Development at L&T Constructions, Buildings & Factories Independent Company. He is a faculty and facilitator, specialized in OD Intervention, who travels across the country to various sites of L&T Construction and conducts Training programs on behavioral aspects for the L&T staff at their sites.

The OD Intervention at different sites were conducted in 4 main steps:

1. Conducting Training Need Analysis, where we understand the major issues faced by the site staff.

2. Developing the Training Module based on the issues faced by the staff.

3. Executing the Training Module or Conducting the Training Program at the site.

4. Follow up and Action Plan of the employees based on the inputs they obtained from the training program.

This structured approach is adopted in L&T Constructions to conduct OD Intervention in their sites. We did OD Intervention at 10 sites of L&T over the 3 months duration. Some other events which we conducted in this duration were the GET Induction Program in the first week of July for the newly joined 243 GET’s (Graduate Engineering Trainee) of L&T Constructions, B&F Independent Company. Also, we conducted a 2-day session on Negotiation Skills to selected staff of various sites in Chennai at HQ.

This was my first experience of corporate life, which gave me many leanings, both technically and behaviorally. I got an in-depth knowledge about different psychometric tools, especially FIRO-B (Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation – Behavior) and how to apply them in various life situations. FIRO-B helps an individual to understand self and others so that it becomes easy for a person to modify their behavior as per the demand of the situation. Also, we developed tools like, Wheel of Life, Values & Ethics, Team Building based on Life Cycle of Groups, Push, Pull and Move away, and Negotiation Skills which helped me to understand various behavioral tools and their application in human life.

This internship developed my soft skills, especially for Taking up Initiatives, Improving my IP Skills, Communication and Public speaking and above all has been a super motivation to my Confidence to face any life situations. I’m glad that I could work at a world-class organization like L&T, and take home a basket full of lessons for life, which will become a powerful incentive to guide my future.

Guest Lecture on 'Mergers and Acquisition in a Global Scenario' by Mr. Niranjan Chintam

The changing global scenario has focused the need for change in policies of our country. It was globalization when the economic liberalization took place in 1991 during the tenure of Prime Minister Narasimha Rao with the help of Finance Minister Manmohan Singh. That was a big time change which can be counted as the most significant change in the Indian economy. From 1991 until now there were lots of promising changes brought by Indian government, unfortunately most of them are still left as a drop of ink on papers. It seems as if government is sitting on policies there are much important to be implemented for the success of the business world.

A wide view in all this challenges of need in change of business world was discussed on Saturday morning. On 12^th September, 2015, management students of IIT Roorkee had a wonderful opportunity to interact with one of the most important leader of corporate world, Mr. Niranjan Chintam – the Chairman & Co- Founder of Kellton Tech. With over 1000 member strong team, Mr. Niranjan Chintam led Kellton Tech to be the leading enterprise solution provider, serving the complete spectrum of IT needs. Under the leadership of Mr. Niranjan Chintam’s, Kellton tech was ranked 21^st among all the companies 'The Deloitte Technology Fast 50 India 2014'. He nourished Kellton Tech from 2009 and diversified it by his strategies to reach this feat. His deep understanding of technical and financial aspects of the business world was shared with the students with the help of well descriptive slides. He has also created and implemented strategies for different Fortune 500 companies and Government agencies in both US and India. Mr. Niranjan Chintam has received his MBA from Wharton Business School and holds an engineering degree from India. Over his years of experience, Mr. Niranjan Chintam has received many honors and awards, which includes government technical achievements award, leadership award and sales awards for his service. He has a wide experience in the real life challenges in merger and acquisition of different companies as a serial entrepreneur.

Mr. Niranjan Chintam’s visit to the management department of IIT Roorkee was a great opportunity for the management students to know about the real life challenges of the business world. The topic chosen for the day was ‘Mergers and Acquisition in a Global Scenario’. Mr. Niranjan Chintam started with the current global scenario, showing the process included in reality check of the market. The current state of Indian economic scenario was widely discussed. A realization took place, which made one thing clear that the changes in Indian Economy – policies of the Government towards the business world needs a vast change to keep up with the global scenario. How can the ‘Make in India’ campaign can succeed when it takes years of paper work to set up a business? Our India as of now is one the fastest growing nation of the world, is still ranked below countries like Pakistan and Nepal in ease of business ranking. The Guest lecture on ‘Merger and Acquisition in Global Scenario’ had put us in shock to know that, it takes 28 steps to complete a merger of two companies in India, as compared to a four step process in US. And this is obviously a big challenge as this counts in all those reasons which have put India at 142th rank in Ease of Doing Business list.

Mr. Niranjan Chintam also gave a brief detail of his tenure in Kellton Tech and shared his experiences and challenges faced during entrepreneurship tenure. He also gave students a view on the dangling nature and future of E-commerce industries. Due diligence was explained deeply with examples of real world. He also discussed cross-border transition and the advantages and challenges of it.

Management students of IIT Roorkee showed gratitude, for; the knowledge that they gained in just 2 hours of guest lecture, is worth a million times for their future career in business world. Students of Department of Management Studies of IIT Roorkee had shared a valuable time, with Mr. Niranjan Chintam, who had found space between his busy schedule and motivated and enlightened the students for achieving success in their career in business world.

Internship Diaries #14

Jiviteshpreet Singh Bawa

Trident Group

Trident Group is a USD 1 Billion Indian Business Conglomerate headquartered in Ludhiana (Punjab). The group operates in five major business segments: Yarn, Terry Towels, Paper, Chemical and Captive Power. Incorporated in 1990, the company continues to grow under the dynamic leadership of Chairman Mr. Rajinder Gupta: a first generation entrepreneur.

Internship experience at Trident was really exceptional. I got the opportunity to work with different people having experience in Sales, Marketing and Analytics. I was one of the 3 Research Interns that Trident hired from PAN India through their web portal. My Internship project was to identify strategies to increase market share of Trident Copier paper in Delhi NCR region. Working on Copier paper project gave me exposure to FMCG sector & Channel Sales via Distributor Retailer network. It was a great learning curve for me interning at Trident Group.

Internship Project learning's:

•  Market sizing strategies & Sales data analysis to identify market share of Trident Copier Paper. 
• Sales Trend analysis to evaluate Market Potential of different locations & dealers of Delhi NCR.  Product Portfolio analysis, Competitor pricing & Packaging strategies. 
• Need-based & Behavioral Segmentation, Porter 5 Forces to evaluate segment attractiveness.
• Product & Brand positioning based on Consumer & Dealer research.

I am glad that I got to work on Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) system. TPM is a system of maintaining and improving the integrity of production and quality systems through processes that add value to the organization. I was involved in Quality competitive analysis vis-à-vis R&D parameters. Detailed analysis on TPM process for identifying bottlenecks in increasing market share of Trident Copier included the following:

•  Fish Bone diagram analysis
•  Why Why analysis
•  Pareto analysis (80/20 rule)

Such in depth analysis helped me find insights about Copier paper market. Detailed analysis helped me define strategies for Sales, Distribution, Marketing, Branding and Packaging. I worked on Ansoff matrix to define strategies for Market Penetration, Product Development, Market Development and Diversification.

My project of identifying strategy to increase market share was appreciated by CMO – Mr. Naveet Jindal & my mentor Mr. Srikanth Markonda. They were pleased with the research and analysis done by me on the given subject. The strategies for increasing market share was categorized into the following:

• Share of Preference
• Share of Voice
• Share of Distribution.