So the very creative title says it all, I'm almost done with my internship. These days, I'm working on tying up loose ends and organizing the mass of information generated during the internship. Also, I’m creating a presentation that can effectively sum up 3 months of work in 1 hour and yet not miss the important details. There is still some time to go (about 2.5 weeks) and I’m yet to enter the reflection mode fully, but since this is my last post, I will mention some of the key takeaways from the internship.
On the positive side I have been able to learn about many key aspects of the business. I started with evaluating some broad market segments for the company. And these days I'm creating pricing models which I hope would shortly be the basis for some price negotiations. More importantly, I have identified some channels the company could use to target those particular market segments. Also as short side projects looked at product certifications and some supply chain issues. Now that I think of it that’s a reasonable amount of work for 12 weeks. May be if I had interned for a larger company I might not have got the opportunity to touch so many aspects of the company business.
On the not so positive side, I got some pointers about dealing with investors when you are running a company in its initial stages. And saw some instances of how frustrating it can be some times to have to think continuously about cash flows or be in continuous dread of losing the only advantage that the young company has – intellectual property. Having seen the amount of uncertainty all these can bring to even a well funded early stage company, I could see that there are some definite advantages of being in a larger company.
It has been a great two and a half months and I have learnt quite a lot and I’m pretty sure come full time recruitment it will help me make a well informed choice.
(341 words)
Showing posts with label Manu Bharadwaj. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Manu Bharadwaj. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Learning and Unlearning
"Are you having fun ? What did you learn ?" the CEO asked, even before I could start my midway presentation.
I'm more than half way through my internship and often during these 7 weeks I have got the urge to do more analytical 'MBA type' stuff. The need to give business issues the form of a well laid out case and then provide an elegant solution. However, in the real world facts have a way of hiding until right after you have made the decision and then in hindsight they are all there. And more than that, although something like a conjoint analysis might be very valuable and look even better on a report, business needs might be more effectively served by a quick calculation delivered with perfect timing.
Even though picturing yourself making that all convincing strategy argument supported by incontestable facts is very satisfying, but almost never achievable in a real business scenario. As I start the last month of my internship I'm convinced the increased comfort with business ambiguity will help me propose more practical solutions to the problems I'm handling.
I would say the most important learning in this internship has been to know better when to keep the MBA in me reined in and let common sense make the call...and yes it has been fun learning that and more. A bit unsettling, but fun none the less.
Finally, as posting on this blog has also been part of the summer experience, I would use this comment to say something about the blogging assignment. When I opted for this exercise at the onset of summer I felt that this may be useful. But now I’m coming round to the view that it may be better to discontinue this exercise from the next year or make some changes at the very least. Blogging is essentially about free sharing of ideas and the less boundaries we put around it the better. Also in my view in its present form this assignment has been a distraction from what students should primarily be concentrating on - which is their internship. It may be minor but it’s a distraction none the less. More important, the internet is much too powerful a medium to waste on saying something just because you have to meet a word limit. Just my two cents… (390 words)
I'm more than half way through my internship and often during these 7 weeks I have got the urge to do more analytical 'MBA type' stuff. The need to give business issues the form of a well laid out case and then provide an elegant solution. However, in the real world facts have a way of hiding until right after you have made the decision and then in hindsight they are all there. And more than that, although something like a conjoint analysis might be very valuable and look even better on a report, business needs might be more effectively served by a quick calculation delivered with perfect timing.
Even though picturing yourself making that all convincing strategy argument supported by incontestable facts is very satisfying, but almost never achievable in a real business scenario. As I start the last month of my internship I'm convinced the increased comfort with business ambiguity will help me propose more practical solutions to the problems I'm handling.
I would say the most important learning in this internship has been to know better when to keep the MBA in me reined in and let common sense make the call...and yes it has been fun learning that and more. A bit unsettling, but fun none the less.
Finally, as posting on this blog has also been part of the summer experience, I would use this comment to say something about the blogging assignment. When I opted for this exercise at the onset of summer I felt that this may be useful. But now I’m coming round to the view that it may be better to discontinue this exercise from the next year or make some changes at the very least. Blogging is essentially about free sharing of ideas and the less boundaries we put around it the better. Also in my view in its present form this assignment has been a distraction from what students should primarily be concentrating on - which is their internship. It may be minor but it’s a distraction none the less. More important, the internet is much too powerful a medium to waste on saying something just because you have to meet a word limit. Just my two cents… (390 words)
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Half way mark and lots of talk
As I write this I realize that for a small 20 person company I have done an inordinate amount of talking and writing in the past 5 weeks. Between presentations, phone calls, spreadsheets and emails I must have surely broken my previous record for 5 week word wizardry (posts to this blog count too). And what makes it even more remarkable is the fact that this has been done under a veritable oath of secrecy where you are not supposed to talk about the real thing-the company's technology.
All this writing, talking, spreadsheet trickery and industry report browsing has resulted in huge amount of data. Almost six weeks gone and with the deadline for mid way presentation looming large, I'm at a point where all the data better make some sense. Guess it is high time for some real MBA magic. I better take out all the P's and C's to throw at the data. And muster all the forces that Porter has vested in me to whip this data into shape, for not much time is left.
One thing that I learned from the experience so far is a fair amount of time spent in scoping out the project in the beginning can be the most important factor in how successfully you can execute the assignment. So, although the pressure to show results and please immediately is high in an internship, but spending some time to define the project well might be a good idea.
There is lots of information to organize and models to develop, but there definitely is more clarity now about things that looked impossibly vague at the onset. And although it’s fun to joke about Ps and Cs, quite a bit of that understanding is due to those little lessons from marketing or operations or accounting- the bits that cling to some corner of your mind even after everything else in the class is long forgotten.
I’m reasonably sure that the strategy that will come out of this project will be logical. Is it going to be business class case worthy? Well... that is a different matter.
(359 words)
All this writing, talking, spreadsheet trickery and industry report browsing has resulted in huge amount of data. Almost six weeks gone and with the deadline for mid way presentation looming large, I'm at a point where all the data better make some sense. Guess it is high time for some real MBA magic. I better take out all the P's and C's to throw at the data. And muster all the forces that Porter has vested in me to whip this data into shape, for not much time is left.
One thing that I learned from the experience so far is a fair amount of time spent in scoping out the project in the beginning can be the most important factor in how successfully you can execute the assignment. So, although the pressure to show results and please immediately is high in an internship, but spending some time to define the project well might be a good idea.
There is lots of information to organize and models to develop, but there definitely is more clarity now about things that looked impossibly vague at the onset. And although it’s fun to joke about Ps and Cs, quite a bit of that understanding is due to those little lessons from marketing or operations or accounting- the bits that cling to some corner of your mind even after everything else in the class is long forgotten.
I’m reasonably sure that the strategy that will come out of this project will be logical. Is it going to be business class case worthy? Well... that is a different matter.
(359 words)
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Quarter one of internship
If the internship was equivalent to a company's financial year, this would be about time I would be reporting the Q1 performance. Yikes!!! what a scary thought. Three weeks...and no sign of the killer insights I'm supposed to deliver at the end of my internship. Three weeks and no economic value added. I'm sure my managerial accounting Prof. would be so disappointed.
However, over the past weeks I have been able to better formulate the questions that I'm seeking answers to and identify the people outside and inside the company who can help me answer them. Initially the problem to be solved didn't seem that difficult. I was confident that either the precision weaponry of Operations or mass destruction capability of corporate strategy would be enough to slay these demons. After all, how big can the problems of a small company be? But I guess the real complexity is in how and where to get the facts that define the problem.
The good thing about interning with an early stage company, I believe is that there is lot of room for contributing your own ideas. At the same time as there is little to no past data that you can base your decisions on, there is constant need to find information from outside sources. And if you are coming from a background where you have worked for large corporations in the past it takes a change of mindset to get used to the new way of getting things done. However, so far I have liked the freedom of being able to not only decide how to execute the project but also to decide the sources that I will use to come to the project conclusions.
So, I spent three weeks understanding the problem and may be formulating a vague strategy to solve it. Does that mean I added any value to the company? Wish there was a way to report that on a quarterly statement.
(325 words)
However, over the past weeks I have been able to better formulate the questions that I'm seeking answers to and identify the people outside and inside the company who can help me answer them. Initially the problem to be solved didn't seem that difficult. I was confident that either the precision weaponry of Operations or mass destruction capability of corporate strategy would be enough to slay these demons. After all, how big can the problems of a small company be? But I guess the real complexity is in how and where to get the facts that define the problem.
The good thing about interning with an early stage company, I believe is that there is lot of room for contributing your own ideas. At the same time as there is little to no past data that you can base your decisions on, there is constant need to find information from outside sources. And if you are coming from a background where you have worked for large corporations in the past it takes a change of mindset to get used to the new way of getting things done. However, so far I have liked the freedom of being able to not only decide how to execute the project but also to decide the sources that I will use to come to the project conclusions.
So, I spent three weeks understanding the problem and may be formulating a vague strategy to solve it. Does that mean I added any value to the company? Wish there was a way to report that on a quarterly statement.
(325 words)
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
If doors don't open...
then you break through the window, even if that means taking part of the wall down. This is the rule by which most startups compete. Can't believe it has just been a week into my internship, I learnt more about advanced batteries during this week than would have in a term course. These days when I see an iPhone the first thought is no longer the cool user interface or the marketing genius of Steve Jobs, but why on earth does it have such a lousy battery. Sorry, iPhone fans...
And still the task I have been given doesn't seem any less challenging. The task is essentially to get a product (that i know little about) into a market (that I know something about...I think). And whatever "brilliant" ideas I come up with, better work in 3-4 months, as that is the time frame for implementation. Can't just wax eloquent on some vague ideas and leave the gory details of implementation to some poor soul. However, I’m looking forward to the prospect of seeing how my proposals work in real time. And a small company might be the best platform to measure the impact as the number of variables affecting the outcomes is much less.
It is a totally different environment than a big company there are no well defined silos which generally one doesn't get out of. In the first week itself I have already dabbled in engineering, company strategy, competitive intelligence and operations apart from my assigned project. In fact, I spent almost the same amount of time on all these as my assigned project.
And finally, the absolute stress on intellectual property secrecy gives a new meaning to the word paranoid. However, If you are a small company looking to break through windows into the territory of industry leaders, you better do that with as little noise as possible.
(312 words)
And still the task I have been given doesn't seem any less challenging. The task is essentially to get a product (that i know little about) into a market (that I know something about...I think). And whatever "brilliant" ideas I come up with, better work in 3-4 months, as that is the time frame for implementation. Can't just wax eloquent on some vague ideas and leave the gory details of implementation to some poor soul. However, I’m looking forward to the prospect of seeing how my proposals work in real time. And a small company might be the best platform to measure the impact as the number of variables affecting the outcomes is much less.
It is a totally different environment than a big company there are no well defined silos which generally one doesn't get out of. In the first week itself I have already dabbled in engineering, company strategy, competitive intelligence and operations apart from my assigned project. In fact, I spent almost the same amount of time on all these as my assigned project.
And finally, the absolute stress on intellectual property secrecy gives a new meaning to the word paranoid. However, If you are a small company looking to break through windows into the territory of industry leaders, you better do that with as little noise as possible.
(312 words)
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Of smartphones, energy and VC funded startups
Hi, I'm Manu Bharadwaj 1st year MBA (insist on not giving up the 1st year tag until second year truly gets underway :-)) and an international student from India. The title of the post kind of sums up what I expect to be doing this summer. I would be working on strategy for an Ann Arbor based next generation battery startup, Sakti3. It's kind of difficult to write without revealing too much especially when I'm still learning where the boundaries of proprietary information start. I'm pretty psyched up by this opportunity as it touches three domains I'm very passionate about - smartphones, VC funded startups and energy. Also as the company is at a stage of its development where they need to execute quickly there most probably will be very little time lag between planning and execution.
As I see it this internship can be the start of something truly amazing or...let's not even go there. And may be, that's what is most exciting about this internship. We will see how the story plays out ultimately. However, one thing is sure, will do all I can to make the story as exciting as the headline grabbing stuff Sakti3 has been coming up with in the short span of its existence.
(210 words)
As I see it this internship can be the start of something truly amazing or...let's not even go there. And may be, that's what is most exciting about this internship. We will see how the story plays out ultimately. However, one thing is sure, will do all I can to make the story as exciting as the headline grabbing stuff Sakti3 has been coming up with in the short span of its existence.
(210 words)
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