Internship Diaries #5

Rahul Dogra

Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd.

This summer I interned with Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. at their Sothern Regional Office, Chennai. I worked on a project called ‘Beyond LPG Sales’ in the market research domain.

On the very first day of my internship, I reported at the Southern Regional Office (SRO) of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd.(BPCL) in Chennai. There were two more interns who were also assigned the same mentor as I was. After a general introduction, our mentor explained us what exactly is Beyond LPG programme of BPCL. Beyond LPG is an innovative concept of value added service according to which, not only LPG cylinder is delivered, along with it the products as per the customers’ preferences are delivered at their door steps. The products includes home appliances, geysers, water purifiers, kitchen wares, kitchen utensils, soaps, detergents, gas stove, etc. are delivered to the customers. After a detailed discussion, our mentor told us that we should first understand the whole business of LPG and Beyond LPG and then decide which part of the ‘Beyond LPG Sales’ we want to  work on.

The next day we went to the bottling plant of BPCL which is in the outskirts of Chennai. After a local train ride of about one and half hour, we reached the plant. At the plant, we were received by the Manager (Operations) who guided us into his office. There he explained us how the demand of LPG is met by their supplies and what kind of software tools they employ so as to make the flow of the process smooth. After this introductory talk, we went to visit the plant. There the process engineer explained us all the steps which are taken from unloading the empty cylinders from the Lorries, check the quality of the cylinders and then fill them again with LPG so as to load into other Lorries who delivered those cylinders to the distributor. With this our visit to LPG bottling plant concluded. The next day, I went to a BPCL distributor with one of the sales officer and understood the whole processes of the Beyond LPG business.

After these two visits, I went to SRO and after having a detailed discussion with my mentor, I decided that I will take a project in the market research domain of ‘Beyond LPG Sales’. My task was to conduct a market survey so as to gain insights into the aspects like what BPCL distributors were selling in ‘Beyond LPG’ segment, what kind of strategies they were using to sell the Beyond LPG products, what kind of problems they were facing, etc.

After developing a preliminary questionnaire and taking data of the distributors of Chennai, I started visiting the distributors. I visited a number of distributors, both in the city and in the outskirts of Chennai. Between these visits, I also used to report once or twice to the office and report my mentor about the progress. So after visiting a substantial number of distributors, I completed my survey and submitted the report to my mentor. I also had a discussion with my mentor about the ideas that could be employed so as to boost ‘Beyond LPG’ sales. This marked the completion of my project.

This was really a great learning experience in the sales and market research domain for me. The biggest challenge that I faced was of language but with immense support of my mentor, I was able to overcome this challenge and complete my project successfully.

Internship Diaries #4

Sheena Chaudhary

McCann Summer Intern

My summer internship was at McCann, Delhi along with my two batch mates Kartik Reddy & Vikrant Kanwar. McCann is an advertising firm headed by Parsoon Joshi, Asia-Pacific Head of McCann Erikson. 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. Indeed I did think of something extraordinary. McCann was not the typical 9-5 job; it was so much interesting that I worked on weekends if it was required. As a team of three, we were given individual and group tasks like doing market research, designing the field surveys to conducting it for the client. We also worked across various sectors like Aviation, Telecom, and Fertilizers which helped me to get better understanding of how marketing takes place in all these sectors in accordance with client’s needs.

My main area was on research and making strategic digital approach for projects. I have also worked on various social platforms and gained the knowledge of content marketing and various marketing campaigns companies conduct to rebrand or recreate its image by satisfying its vision statements. Apart from learning I have made various connections inside and outside the team, People were quite friendly over there, we used to discuss almost everything in no time. One of the guys used to give us free snacks when he saw us working late. It might seem as a small gesture but a very thoughtful of him. Working culture was truly an exception; you may wear a casual that was quite a big relief. We also worked with other interns from IIFT and IIMs, it was great knowing them and working where we used to help each other in given tasks.

Internships are great to know yourself in way if you fit in that particular sector or you want to choose something else.  My internship made me sure of my decision over taking marketing as my specialization and to grow and excel in this wonderful field. Marketing is not just STP+ 5P (Packaging is recently added), It is what everyone knows but yet can’t put in words, it is somewhat intangible but with means of tangible resources we can reach out to our target audience before our competitors do. My advice is that always keep your peers and learning hand in hand so that you won’t compromise over the whole experience of internship.

Internship Diaries #3

Nishu Saini

Reserve Bank of India, Lucknow

One cannot be luckier if he/she gets to do internship at Reserve bank of India, the bank that regulates the monetary policy of our nation. There I got an opportunity to work in the field of finance to small enterprises and hence I did a project on the topic “MSMEs in India vs. BRICS nations: Problems and Challenges”. My internship gave me much more than technical knowledge. There I got to meet so many knowledgeable persons who are not only knowledge rich but also down to earth. We used to have discussions about myriad topics from US economy to problems faced by the poor people of India with General Managers and Advisors of RBI.

The best part was to see live monetary policy review on 2nd of June by Governors and Deputy Governors in which they cut the repo rate by 25 bps to 7.25%. My internship gave me an opportunity to know the ground realities of problems faced by bank and government policies. As my project was related to MSMEs, I got to attend the Empowered committee meeting (ECMs are the meetings held at regional offices to improve the credit to MSMEs). Sitting among all top managers from banks and other institutions in ECM was very different and great experience. One very interesting thing I noticed there was the inclination of high authorities towards supporting the poor and financially excluded people. Every employee was keen to help and good natured.

So my overall experience was very enriching and will always be there in my memories as my very special moments.

Internship Diaries #2

Shuchita Sharva

Bloomberg TV India

During the scheduled summer break from college I interned for sales department of Bloomberg TV India which is a business news channel and believes in delivering economy driven news. I was thrilled to work in a news channel which delivers the first fastest factual news and has a profound impact on decision making of CXOs/CMOs/CFOs community.

I assisted sales team in their daily operations by reaching out to new clients, fixing up meetings and preparing sales pitches. My role had given me an immense opportunity to learn nuances of media industry, which was quite new and different to me as I was a software developer before coming to DoMS IIT Roorkee for MBA and only knew about an IT industry. Certainly my role of “Marketing and advertising sales” in a media industry has added diversity to my profile which I wanted.

I gained tremendous insights about roles and responsibilities of a sales team, that is how sales team gets assistance from marketing wing for clients details, how they tap them by taking appointments, how sales team has to prepare the proposals.

It’s easier said than done. My key takeaways are that to work in a sales department a person should be extremely optimistic as a salesperson often has to face rejections, he should be equipped with good communication and interpersonal skills, he should have good telephone manners, he should know how to make a long lasting and symbiotic relationship while branding and selling proposals, and last but mot the least the technical know-how of the product.

Moreover the media industry which is extremely enticing to the people is known by it’s on the move characteristic. There is always something astonishing taking place in every hour of the day. On one side of the beautiful office, torch taker editorial team sits in one large transparent cubicle always busy in creating and editing content and on the other side in the office studio, live shows’ shooting are being recorded. This organization in media industry is particularly known for its omnipotent transparency in functioning and therefore employees always sit in transparent cubicles. Not only TV, I also got an opportunity to observe functioning of Big FM radio and thus this varied experience has given me immense knowledge about every industry segment of media.

Working in such an organization has many advantages like I was able to observe closely working of editorial department and how the whole supply chain worked in an organization. So I was not restricted to one vertical and was lucky enough to gain a broad perspective about the whole business

.

Definitely an unparalleled internship experience which has given me a lot of insights and has helped me to grow more professionally.

Internship Diaries #1

Hiteshwar Marhariya

IBM

It was indeed a great opportunity for me to get selected amongst the top MBA students across the country for the reputed “IBM Extreme Blue” internship program which is ranked amongst the top 20 internship program all over the world.

Being a part of IBM for 11 weeks, I worked on the project “Automatically detect vulnerabilities and secure systems in a cloud environment”. I was handed over the task to prepare a detailed business case for the project and to perform exhaustive market analysis for IBM tools by researching multiple available products in the market and their approach towards patching the systems. 

I was also interfaced with current product clientele to understand product usage and challenges faced with patching the systems. During the internship I also performed feasibility study for IBM’s top leadership by modeling differential pricing strategy to ensure project viability and competitiveness. 

This internship has given me a hands-on experience to practically use the tactics of marketing research. Also, Bangalore as a city offered various places to visit and explore, thus it was a very enriching experience.