Finance for Jewelry Retail

Hi all,

Glad to be writing in again! It has been a very exciting and challenging couple of weeks. I am close to the end of the 1st project and am gearing up toward the finishing stretch. Just to remind you, I am interning in Finance at Sears and am working to squeeze in as much as possible over the next six weeks as I have a baby coming at the end of the internship, and not much say in when she decides that will be! I have been putting in an average of two hours overtime everyday as contingency against losing time in the last couple of weeks of the internship. My team, especially the business finance manager that I immediately report to, has been extremely understanding of my need to take time off for doctor’s appointments. All in all it is shaping up to be a productive summer!

Let me tell you a little bit about my project. I work with the Jewelry business unit and one of the most important things the merchants/buyers do every year is to go into negotiations with their supplying vendors to determine fair costs of products, negotiate returns of unsold or defective merchandise and negotiate support for things like marketing, volume discounts, margin support, clearance sales etc. It is critical for them to have all the numbers relating to these items for the previous two years in order to be effective in their negotiations. My task is to figure out what metrics are most relevant to them (through conversations with all of the buying team and their leadership) and develop a comprehensive scorecard that they can refer to during negotiations. Up till now, this sort of elaborately detailed information had never been available to them in one comprehensive data source, due to the existence of multiple data entry and pull systems. While the move to better IT is something the company is working on, much of the collation of data has to currently be done by individuals like myself, in order to be useful on the ground.

I made a presentation of my work to the Senior Vice President (SVP) on Thursday in the presence of the merchant and finance Divisional Vice Presidents (DVP’s) and my Business Finance Manager (BFM). The SVP and merchant DVP were extremely appreciative of the work I have done and are very excited about taking the scorecard to market in a week, where they will finally be armed with as much or more information than their negotiating counterparts on the vendor side.

The role of the finance team in a retail set-up is to support the functioning of the business unit using financial metrics, and I think this project has definitely delivered value to the business unit in a way that they would not have been able to access on their own. I am pleased with the opportunity to create value for my team and for the fact that I have made an impression of thorough groundwork and meticulous attention to detail with my senior leadership.

Looking forward to the next project!

Deadlines looms large

Talking to experts, researching fertilizers and learning about farming has been really interesting! However, it was week 4 and I had the final deliverable looming ahead of me. I was starting to feel knowledgable about nitrogen fertilizers, cropping patterns, environmental impacts of nitrogen pollution and had not given a thought to how to translate this information into recommendations that I could pass onto EDF. The biggest difficulty I faced was obtaining enough high quality information that was peer reviewed and published as opposed to internet published data from practioners who may have biased opinions. Furthermore this information was scattered and much of it resided with the experts and academics. How was the average farmer supposed to make any informed decisions on fertilizer choice if the information was this hard to find? This thought spurred a couple of recommendations for EDF and I discussed this difficulty with my boss - could there be a niche that EDF could fill here? He was defnitely interested in hearing more!

The pressure was however definitely building as I was down to my last two weeks. I started to build a ‘strawman deck’ which is consulting speak for a partially completed PowerPoint presentation that defines a detailed outline without providing all the answers. This is crucial to give your client an idea of what to expect and how much work is remaining to be done before the final presentation is ready. There are pros and cons to this approach and although I would highly recommend doing this, one should be prepared to push back against last minute scope additions. In my case, the strawman was very helpful in getting the end deliverable to a quality that was acceptable to EDF, but it also meant additional work and data gathering at the last minute. I was working feverishly to plug the gaps in my analysis so that I could defend my recommendations. Things were starting to come together and I had some clear recommendations for EDF to pursue. I just needed to figure out how best to present it! ...It was going to be a tough week ahead.

First Weeks at Fox!

(BBA, Fox Broadcasting)

Hey, it's Alyssa Fried again. The last time I wrote I was just days away from starting my internship at Fox Broadcasting, and here I am now almost two weeks into it! Things kind of got off to a crazy, hectic start. I traveled from Michigan to New York on Friday April 30th, and started orientation as a Sales Planning intern on Monday May 3rd. I was very nervous as I got off the train in Grand Central because even though I had been born and raised in a suburb of New York, close to the city, I was not very familiar with how to navigate the city alone. Despite my nerves, I arrived at the office on time and with no outside help. I already felt accomplished.

Orientation was very informative. I met individually with all of the people I would be working with and they showed me everything that they do for Fox, and gave me some background information about the company. I received tutorials, and I even got an assignment of my own, under supervision of course. The orientation lasted for two days, and on Thursday May 6th, I got on another plane to travel to Israel (personal travel). I arrived back in New York on Monday May 17th and had a day of rest before I returned to Fox that Wednesday. I was still a little jet-lagged but I was very excited for my first real day as an intern!

I arrived at the office at 9 AM and went straight to my supervisor's office. She set me up with a cubicle and a laptop and showed me all of the programs I would be using. This time is one of the busiest times of the year for Fox and other cable networks as it is the time of the Upfront. My job in helping with the Upfront is to utilize Excel and other programs to enter estimates and create spreadsheets for my supervisor to use. I felt very comfortable using Excel, and was excited to have my first project at hand. This internship will be giving me real experience in Finance as I will soon be working with media math.

Working at Fox has been a great experience so far. I love being in the city and feeling like a real business woman as I commute to work on the train. The environment in the office is so friendly and welcoming. All of the people that I work with make me feel very comfortable and are always available for questions. They all take their work very seriously, and are proud of what they do. Because of the working environment, and the people that have helped to create it, I am very proud to be working as an intern for Fox.

1.2 Week at Eli Lilly

(MBA, Eli Lilly) Time flies so fast before I realized it. After helping the nice sponsor identify and validate the most reasonable acquisition strategy in MAP, I flew to Yellowstone National Park with friends and drove over 6 hours in the park every day for a week. The scenic view is really amazing and phenomenal. Bisons, Elks, Bears, and the geysers...
It seems like a nonstop journey for me after that. I flew back to Ann Arbor in the afternoon on May 16 and drove another 5 hours down to Indianapolis on May 17. The next day, I got up at 6 am and it took me a while to find the right way to the building where we were going to have the orientation. The first interesting I found about Lilly is that the streets in their campus cannot be located by GPS.
But the decoration in the building is pretty impressive. And, the orientation took half of the day, going through company culture, code of conduct, logistics and etc. During the orientation, the interns had chance to chat with each other. I came to know some interns with very interesting background. In the afternoon, my internship supervisor came into the lecture hall and picked up me.
At first glance, she had no smile on her face. A little bit seriousness to me though. But I tried to crack the iceberg and found some topics to schmooze with her. It did not work well but at least made me less embarrassed. So the US office culture is going to be the first lesson to learn here!
My supervisor walked me around the office and introduced me to Treasury team. People are nice to me. Then we set down to discuss my internship project. The project is to help Lilly Treasury build a new tool which is used to assess the trade credit risk of its customers and calculate the credit limit accordingly. This is related to all affiliates in the world. Obviously, she has set a pretty high expectation on me.
So far, I am clear about what I am going to deliver at the end of the day and leveraging sources, i.e. talk to process owners to understand current situation and seek their advice on the project. Meanwhile, I have to read through many documents to understand the credit policy and the change the team would like to vision in the near future. It is a bit challenging for me because it is my first time to work in a US office environment – the etiquette, the small talks, unwritten rules and jargons and so on are pretty new to me. Thus, I have to deepen my learning curve quickly to catch up with the fast-passing timeline. Lots of things to do, lots of fun to have but definitely hard work is the pre-requisite.
Indianapolis is a nice city, bigger than Ann Arbor. I had no time to wander around in downtown but plan to explore the area later. Also, Indy 500 is coming at the corner. There are going to be a lot of roaring at this weekend. I would be very excited to see the match then!

Week 1 at Microsoft

Since my last post, I finished my MAP presentations, drove to 3 national parks in Arizona, Utah and California, hiked in 2 of them, packed for 12 straight hours at Ann Arbor and finally moved to Seattle. It was a whirlwind 17 days but well worth it. My friend had a Michigan hat on all the time, and the number of “Go Blue’s” the hat drew was surprising. Be it on a hike in Utah or at a fast food joint in Las Vegas, those words usher in a bon homie. It really reaffirms my decision of choosing to join Ross.

We had a very well organized orientation the first day where we got to meet the other interns and were detailed about the social activities organized for the interns during the summer. The highlights include a lunch talk by Steve Ballmer, a private show by Cirque de Soleil and a boat treasure hunt on Lake Washington. I am an intern with Microsoft's online advertising strategy group. My project is related to paid search and display advertising. Being an internal strategy project, the work is very challenging and I am learning a lot. People here are very helpful, always ready to spend time coaching you and have a casual intensity about them. In addition to that, we have a strong alumni presence and I have already met two Ross alums in my group.

The bonus we got is that there are about 25 Ross interns in Seattle and most of us are staying in the same apartment complex in downtown Seattle. We keep bumping into each other in the apartment lobby and have been hanging out over the weekends. It looks like the ideal setting for a great summer ahead. I will update you about all my "adventures" in the upcoming posts. Stay tuned!

First week - training

(MBA,Booz) So my first week in Booz & Co was spent in a nice hotel in New Brunswick - NJ, it was a very busy week in which we gained tools to help us succeed in our assignments.

Topics included Excel and Power Point training, team work assignment that imitated the real world in which few work streams have to coordinate between themselves to achieve a common goal, additional topics included legal and technical issues and IT systems used by Booz & Co , it was the first time for me to meet the tools used by a consulting firm to run its operations and I must admit I was impressed, specifically by an office plug in that make presentation making much easier and effective and saves a lot of precious time - a critical tool when it comes to working on super tight schedules.

In parallel it was a great opportunity to have a lot of fun with our fellows from the class of summer 2010, each night after dinner a bar tab was open till late night and at the last night together we all went to have dinner in a fancy NY restaurant! to make the whole experience even better we had the opportunity to demonstrate our artistic abilities by performing self written skits about our future life as consultants.

Last but not least – we got our assignments, mine is in Oklahoma, I don’t know yet which parts are confidential so I won’t specify much, but I can say that I couldn’t have asked for a better assignment, it seems that it will be a great learning opportunity in a field I’m eager to study!

Friday was suppose to be our first day at the office, though we were lucky to have the opportunity to take part in Booz day and celebrate Booz’s 2^nd anniversary after the separation from Booz Allen Hamilton, it was a great opportunity for me to meet almost all of the Dallas office in one place and to learn more about the office’s and Booz’s culture and aspirations for the coming year. And then came the reason I’m here for – becoming a consultant, I met some of my team mates and participated on my first team conference call, later on I scheduled my flights and hotels for the next two weeks and took a deep dive into reading relevant articles for my assignment.

Next week will be my first week on site, I am sure that it will be very challenging and demanding and I can’t wait to start it, wish me luck!

The work begins...

I'm really in the thick of things now! - Once I had my scope nailed down, I quickly settled into a routine. I would identify experts, perform research and send request for interviews between Monday – Wednesday. Thursdays and Fridays would be interview days and my boss would join me for some of the more important calls. Initially, I would just listen and learn about how to manage interviews and how I should position myself as an independent third party. By the third week, I was leading calls and managing my own interviews. This was then the real fun started – nothing prepared me for the diversity of individuals I would be talking with. I spoke with farmers and crop consultants early in the morning, most of them were on the road in their trucks and had quite obviously never spoken with an Indian sounding person before! It was my first time talking with ‘southern’ folk and I quickly warmed up to being addressed as ‘Ma’am’ – this job was turning into quite a cultural education. I also quickly realized that I would have to adapt to the working style of farmers and researchers. Professionalism meant different things in this new environment and I realized that I could just pick up the phone and call a stranger based on a referral without having to pre-arrange a meeting time or block off their calendar. This too was quite refreshing! The willingness with which people spoke with me and the way they freely shared knowledge, information and perspectives too was quite eye-opening – a far cry from the corporate world that I was so familiar with. In this world of farmers, researchers and crop experts the only way to earn credibility was to be a practitioner with years of experience and scientific know-how. Being a graduate student affiliated with EDF got me a lot of mileage and I milked it for all it was worth!

PS: Here's a great report that i came across during my research

Week 1 at Sears Holding Corporation

Hi Readers,

Last time I wrote, I was preparing for my summer internship in Chicago at Sears. There’s been a lot happening since and I am already into my second week of work as a Finance Senior Analyst intern. I have been assigned five projects within the Jewelry business unit. It is a unique and fresh experience working in retail

With my architecture background I find the work experience very different in lots of ways. What I am most impressed by is the volume of data that is processed through the company systems every day and the level of complexity of thought, skill and experience that is required to maintain the smooth running of the companies thousands of stores.

I spent the early part of my first week getting oriented – both at the organizational level and in greater detail within the Jewelry business that I am supporting. I met many of the senior leadership within the Jewelry business unit. I met both my project manager and divisional VP to discuss goals and expectation for the 10 weeks I will be interning. I attended ongoing lectures on the Jewelry business. I caught a glimpse of our CEO while walking past him in the corridor. I attended a lecture / Q&A with the chairman of McDonalds who is visiting. I also spent a good amount of time investigating the different aspects of operation of the Jewelry business. I spoke to the VP of inventory and the business unit Controller to learn about the accouning methods employed. I also sat down with the systems expert to understand the various data systems used to organize the massive amount of complex data used by the finance team on a daily basis. I also met the entire team of Jewelry buyers to gain an understanding of their product lines, vendors, the various aspects of their role and what was working well for them and what their areas of challenge were.

My goal is to pinpoint various areas of improvement for the Jewelry business unit, where financial analysis can help quantify and validate these improvements. I am looking forward to providing valuable input to my team from a fresh perspective that my non-finance background allows me.

I am also juggling running a home and eating right as I anticipate the end of my pregnancy alongside the end of my internship. I make up for lost time spent at doctor appointments by working through lunch hour and staying an extra hour or two late each day. I’d encourage anyone in the position of having to do more that one large task at a time to take it on and rise to the challenge. The achievement of finding you can do more than most people would think is a reward in itself!

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)

Old Ice Cream Parlors, Projects and Bananas!

Hello again!, as you may remember in my last post I told you all that I was coming to Columbus Indiana to start my internship at Cummins, a leading diesel engine manufacturing company. But well I'm here, actually I been here for a little more than a week. My first week at Columbus (and Cummins) has been interesting. I moved from Ann Arbor without more complication than missing an exit at the highway and making an extra 30 min drive. But when I arrived I discovered that I had neither TV nor Internet at my summer house!. So I decided to go out an know a little more of the city. There I found some nice restaurants, a couple of interesting buildings and an Ice Cream Parlor call Zaharakos that date from the early 1900's.

But well, let's leave the city stories for later and go into what is more interesting, my summer internship. As I told you in my first posting I'm intering at Corporate Strategy at Cummins. My first day wasn't very interesting, just a lot of HR stuff; policies of the company, paperwork, receive laptop, learn how to use e-mail (really… they gave us training on that). But later, at the second day, I finally came to the area were I'm working and I meet a lot of the people that I'll be working with during the summer. They all seem to be nice. That same day I also learned about the project… or more precisely, projects, I'll be working this summer.

I cannot tell what are they about, but they look interesting and a little challenging. What I can tell you all is that they are intented to analyze the potential entry to some new businesses. I don't know if any of you are used to work in a strategy project based environment, but this type of projects are usually very abstract and require that one can be comfortable with huge amounts of ambiguity, because usually nobody really knows what the project should be about. Imagine a conversation like this one:

• You: Hello
  


• Manager: Hello (put your name here), you know, we want to know what the opportunity is for the company in the banana business. Wanna do that project?
  


• You: Yes, I like bananas, what kind of bananas are we talking about?
  


• Manager: There are different kinds?! Well… I think we want to explore what bananas are interesting for the company...




• You: Great, any idea where do we want to sell bananas?




• Manager: That's also a good question... and I don't know if we want to sell bananas probably there are other options...




• You: Ok, I'll figure it out

After this conversation you go to your desktop, work for a couple of hours to figure out what "bananas", "participate" and "options" possibly mean and then you are ready to start working on an initial approach to your project… obviously the definitions will change as long as you develop the project and talk to more people… but well, that is the fun part, right?

Personally, I like working in this kind of environment because it has endless possibilities of what you can do and also usually have a very flexible scheme; you manage your time, resources, etc. So as you can imagine I'm happy with my summer assignments and I hope to deliver a quality result for Cummins and probably read about the fruits of my work it in the newspapers in the near future.

Well I think I should go back to work, those… "bananas" are not going to analyze themselves! Haha. See you soon!

Setting the boundaries...

This is what water pollution actually looks like!


Before I even started the internship with EDF, I spent some time talking my reporting manager and setting expectations for the amount of time I had available and the type of work commitment I would be able to meet. We decided that 8-10 hours a week spread over 7 days was acceptable for both parties and once the expectations were set, we jumped into defining the scope of the project. Scoping is often the hardest part of any short-term project and the time it takes is often under-estimated. My project came defined with 4 research questions around enhanced efficiency fertilizers (EEFS):
a) The current state of the EEF technology
b) The industry landscape
c) The environmental impacts
d) The barriers and hurdles to adoption of EEFs.
I realized quickly that this was too broad and in order to be effective within my 6-week time frame I had to be far more specific. I went back to my boss and through further conversation clearly articulated questions for each of the above areas. We agreed that success for the internship would be defined by how successfully I was able to answer the research questions we formulated.

Now with my task cut out for me, I quickly designed a work plan and drew up a list of experts that I would need access to in order to execute my work. The first stage would be data gathering and I would spend the last couple of weeks synthesizing data collected for the final deliverable. EDF is a very well respected organization and I had no problem in getting access to experts or finding the right persons to connect with. I first identified experts within EDF to interview and most of them were able to connect me with colleagues and experts in the industry. I was excited at the opportunity to talk to a wide variety of individuals across a range of organizations, from farmers to research academics!

Fertilizers!

My part-time internship with the Environmental Defense Fund was structured so that I could complete the task assigned to me in approximately 6 weeks while simultaneously being enrolled in classes. The estimated workload was between 8-10 hours a week and because this was equivalent to a full course load, I decided to take on only 3 classes in Winter A. On hindsight this was the best decision I could have made! It required some adjustment in my weekly schedule and I had to plan my time so that I could dedicate an entire Friday to interviews, research and conference calls, while completing desk research during other days of the week. The work itself was to research the viability of using enhanced efficiency nitrogen fertilizers (EEF) to reduce the loss of nitrogen to the environment. The EDF Corporate Partnership Program prides itself on understanding the industry structure and key players in the ecosystem before they decide what interventions are appropriate. My research project would feed into their Nitrogen Management Initiative, a strategic focus on reducing the nitrogen pollution in US watersheds and rivers (particularly in the mid-west), which are heavily polluted with nitrogen run-off and other forms of fertilizers. My work would require Internet research and interviews with ecologists, farmers, consultants, businesses and academics. I had to quickly get up to speed on this extremely complex issue and then interview experts to understand what the barriers to adoption of more efficient farming practices were. This was a tall order to accomplish in 6 weeks! I was reporting to an experienced member of the Corporate Partnership Program and we arranged to have weekly/fortnightly check-ins via the phone and joint conference calls with a few experts. My deliverable at the end of the internship was a PowerPoint presentation to be made to the key members of the Nitrogen Management Initiative at EDF.

Impossible is Nothing!

MBA Intern @ Hill's Pet Nutrition in Kansas

Hello everyone! My name is Nikos Apostolidis and I come from Greece. I just completed my first year in the MBA program at the Ross School of Business, which I must admit was very challenging but looking back, I can see how beneficial it has been. Starting May 24, I will be interning with Hill's Pet Nutrition, a consumer goods company owned by Colgate-Palmolive. However, the path to securing this internship has been all but straight.

Prior to my MBA, my career evolved around sports. I played pro basketball in Greece for 3 years but a career-ending injury forced me to re-evaluate my plans. Leveraging my experience in the industry, I pursued a sports management career during which I led the basketball and business operations of two pro basketball organizations.

Moving to Ann Arbor, my goal was to go back to sports but quickly realized other exciting opportunities out there. Consulting, marketing, general management were all interesting options and the school is really strong in almost every area. Eventually, I sticked to marketing but not in sports; I decided to pursue a brand management career in the consumer goods industry (CPG).

As an international student, entering the CPG industry is more than a challenge but NOT impossible. After a couple of unsuccessful interviews, I figured I could use MAP as a way to get an offer. Thus, the majority of the projects I bid on was with companies I was interested in and knew they still had open positions. Finally, the project I was assigned to was with Hill's Pet Nutrition.

After a long two-month period of hard work with my team, we delivered exceptional results which helped me distinguish myself from other candidates and eventually get the offer. The Global Marketing Development Program at Hill's is the pipeline for full-time hires which makes it even more important. Even though I still don't know what I will be working on (got the offer a couple days ago), I'm very excited because I already know the company and the people which I think will be very helpful since there won't be any adjustment period. On the other hand, I can't say I'm nervous about it but I definitely think of the fact it is a new industry for me and have to be quick on my feet. Overall, this is what I wanted to do when I joined Ross and the fact that I accomplished it gives me great satisfaction and strength to continue working hard during the summer.

The next post will be early June and hopefully I will have more details on my project. Till then take care everybody.

The First Step to being a Social Venture Capitalist

Hi everyone! My name is Byung Lee from South Korea. I am a first year MBA student at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan pursuing a social venture capital career. I have diverse experiences as an industry researcher at a central bank, a high-tech engineer, and an oversea sales representative. Before I start writing, I want to let you know that I haven't secure the internship in social venture capital(SVC) YET, still on the process *sigh* : ) But I want to share some tips for future Ross international SVC pursuers.

1. What do you believe?

Do you believe that traditional philanthropy offered by public institutions and foundations is the solution for social problems? Do you believe the government has to take the role of being a main social impact driver? Then you have an inaccurate, I dare to say, belief. All theses will address the most immediate needs but these are not for long term solutions. You need to believe that in order to create long-lasting social impact, sustainable market-based approaches must be employed. And you need to believe SVC will be the key player.

2. Congratulation! You are in Ross

Do you know that Ross is one of the most prominent and respected MBA within a social sector? Thanks to Prof. C.K. Prahalad and Ted London. They are experts in the bottom of the pyramid, the concept prasied by many people. According to Bill Gates, it "offers an intriguing blueprint for how to fight poverty with profitability." The bottom of the pyramid is a new business models targeted at providing goods and services to the poorest people at the bottom of the pyramid in the world. You should read 'The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid' by C.K. Prahalad, the book inspired many social venture capitalists.

3. Social Venture Fund

Last year Social Venture Fund(SvF) was launched in Ross. It is a student led investment fund, which will 'target and invest in innovative companies that place the generation of a significant social impact at the heart of their mission and way of doing business'. SvF is great way to maximize Ross exprience, if you want to pursue SVC career. Contact a coordinator of SvF. write 'I am interested in getting into your radar and next year...'.

Next time, I'll share more about how real SVC life flows.

Musings on a train journey

Hello Everyone!

My name is Anshuk Gandhi. I am writing this post on board a train from Manchester to London. We just finished a very intense and rewarding MAP last week and I am treating myself to a short holiday in England. I came to Ross from India with 5 years of operations and technology consulting for large manufacturing companies. My first year at Ross has transformed the perspective with which I went in to solve business problems. Reflecting on my MAP experience, I was thrilled with my ability to quickly recognize strategic issues in a retail bank's business model and to lay out specific changes to their products, pricing, marketing techniques and customer relationships - all in six weeks. As I prepare to intern in IBM's strategy and transformation practice this summer, this experience gives me great confidence in my ability to do well and land a full-time offer.

Besides my love for consulting, one of the reasons for my choosing IBM over other offers was that it's based out of New York, which I like because of its pace and its vibrant arts and culture scene. Thankfully, IBM has arranged for subsidized housing in Manhattan for the summer. I do not know yet whether my client will be close to New York or I will be on the road Monday to Thursday, but I am looking forward to having some great weekends in the city.

Prior to the start of my IBM internship, I am going to spend a month in Bombay and intern for a month with GMR Infrastructure. This is a corporate finance internship and I hope to gain a deep understanding of project evaluation and financing models, which will be really useful in my consulting career. I will write on this blog about that experience and others during the summer. Until then, adios!

Preparations

(MBA,Booz) I believe that one of the questions that bother many of us is how to better prepare for the summer. As most of us, including me, are opting at a full time offer from the company we intern with, we all want to be as ready as possible to get the job done in the most impressive way.

Having that in mind, I spent some time throughout the past two months consulting with MBA2's and friends who work in consulting and tried to gain a better understanding of the challenges I will encounter as a consultant and more important - the things I can learn now that will improve my ability to well perform as a consultant.

As in many cases in life I have some good news and some bad news, the good news is that there is one important tool that all consultants must master which is Excel! The bad news are that there is not much you can do except for making sure you are good enough in Excel.

For those who wanted to spend some time learning SQL - all of the people I spoke to told me not to waste my time, and that in case it is needed there are specialists that do that. If you thought it's time to improve your calculator skills and learn to use these 30 buttons you never used by today - rethink it, Excel got you covered! In fact, any route I took to better prepare lead to Excel.

So although I do not want to sound like a Microsoft ad, the most important thing for you to do before you start your internship in consulting is to learn Excel, if you already speak it fluently – lucky you! Otherwise – BIT512 will be very helpful in learning the basics and experiencing some of the powerful tools Excel can offer you, if you feel brave you can jump into the deeper water of BIT513, it is a more focused class that takes a deep-dive into risk analysis and decision making, I found that class less helpful than BIT512 yet it still was an interesting class.

Well, that will be all for today, the next post will be written after the first week of my internship!

Summer In New York

Hi Everybody,

My name is Alex Kohn and I am a going into my junior year at Ross. I'm from Boca Raton Florida, and am going to be living in New York City for the summer. Starting June 8, I am going to be working at an Investment Bank called Thomas Weisel Partners, where I will be doing Equity Reserach. The research I will be doing will be mostly focused in Hardlines, and my internship is going to entail writing reports on specific companies of interest.

I'm really excited to start my internship, as I see it as an opportunity to become more familiar with Finance, and to apply what I have learned thus far at Ross. Also, I have always loved visiting Manhattan whenever possible, and I can't wait to learn more about what the city has to offer.

As for the internship, I expect to be challenged and inundated with work everyday of the week. I am a little nervous about initial couple weeks of the internship because I have little experience in Finance. I expect for there to be a period of confusion before I learn the in's and out's of what I will be doing at Weisel. All in all, I am looking forward to learning a lot, meeting new people, and finding out if Finance is where I want to focus my energy in school for my future career.

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)

Looking forward to an Amazing Summer

I am Upneet Bhatia. I was born in India, but I haven’t lived there since I was 7. I grew up in a small quiet country called Oman, and then moved to the U.S 10 years ago to go to school at UT, Austin. So, I consider myself a global citizen. This summer I will be interning at Amazon. I consider myself very fortunate to have gotten an internship with one of my top choices! I will be interning as a Product/Retail intern with the Website Application Platform team. I will be responsible for the marketing strategy for a new service by Amazon that will be launched in a few weeks. This project will also utilize some of my software engineering background. So I am glad that I will be able to leverage my past experience.

I am expecting to learn a lot about Amazon, and to work in cross-functional teams through this internship. I will also be able to build on my network by interacting with interns from other business schools. I am excited about living in the apartment complex with a 100 other MBAs and meeting new people. I look forward to building my business chops and working hard. Since I am a career switcher, I am nervous about whether I have the skills to succeed in my new role. However, I am confident that I will have plenty of support this summer.

Hopefully, the next time I blog, I will be able to reveal more about my project.

A peek into the real-world

It’s bitter-sweet seeing the second year MBAs graduating and leaving in order to re-enter the real world. It is hard to believe that a year from now, we will be in the same position. I am a Colombian first year MBA student (or at least I was until yesterday), coming straight from my home country to the US in order to begin my studies. I have an Industrial Engineering degree and a background of over 7 years in Operations, involved in Customer Service and Supply Planning roles. I have loved the experience of becoming a student again and Ross has proved to be all that I’ve expected and more.

One of my objectives was to get a taste of corporate America, so I was excited to accept the position as MBA Business Planner Intern for the FMC BioPolymer business at FMC Corporation. During my past experience, one of the things I enjoyed the most was the interaction with people from different parts of the world, both customers and affiliates. I have really liked my time in the chemical industry and now I am looking forward for challenging opportunities at a global leader in the market. I am also thrilled to have an opportunity in a more General Manager role, outside of my Operations comfort zone.

At Philly, the city in which I will be for the summer, I will be far from the safety of the classrooms and the place that has become my new home. Ann Arbor has now a familiar feel that I am afraid to lose once I start my internship. I hope to keep in touch with fellow classmates but it will be harder to see the friends that are so close now, once they disperse all over the world. On the other hand, I am eager to meet new people as well. At FMC I sense the same environment that first drew me to Ross: Smart, friendly and collaborative people. The kind of people that will help me challenged and energized so I can strive to contribute in this temporary peek into the real-world.

Indiana... here I come!

Hello everyone, I'm Edgar, and MBA 1 from Ross... well I guess now is MBA 2 as I already finished my first year at Ross and I'm heading towards my summer internship. To give you some background let me say that: I come from Mexico, I have an undergraduate degree in Mechatronic Engineering (sounds cool, huh) and 3 years experience as management consultant at the BCG.

But, ok, what I am doing this summer? Well, I'm going to intern at Cummins Inc. as Corporate Strategy intern. Cummins is a company with almost 100 years of historty; they are one of the leading diesel engine manufatures in the world. But that's not all; they are also leaders in design and innovation. I wish I could tell you more about the work I'll be doing during the summer, but the true is that I have no idea!, haha. I guess we both should wait till May 10th (my start date) to know. I'll keep you informed.

This summer internship is a great opportunity, because I will be working with a Fortune 500 company at a position that usually is reserved for people with more experience and therefore you don't see at an MBA 1... err... MBA2 resume that often. I'm sure that I'll do a great job, I'm looking forward to start so I can leverage all this experience to continue my professional and personal development.

As speaking of the personal side, the only thing that worries me a little is the town I'm moving to for the summer, Columbus, IN. This is the hometown for Cummins there they have their Corporate Offices. Nevertheless, Columbus is a very small town with little to do... but well, let's see what happens, good thing is that I'll live across the street from a golf course and that Indianapolis is just a short 40 min away ;)

Well, I have to go for now, time to start packing and to take the little MX-5 for an oil change before leaving for Indiana!

Another Rosser at Fox!

MBA, News Corp. Hi my name is Roy Hills, I am an American, and I am now at the midpoint of my MBA career. If I am being modest, I see myself as a rock star at the Ross School of Business. This summer I am working at News Corp in business development for their digital ad sales group. Basically, from what I understand, I am going to keep it real in midtown Manhattan and do a little sales strategy.

My background is such that I hail from the SF Bay Area and worked for a start-up company in Silicon Valley which designs tennis equipment. I made it out to Michigan on a whim and a prayer which landed me in the Big Apple for the summer. Additionally, I have worked for such sports industry giants as the Sacramento River Cats and Washington Wizards. When I am not working, I can be found taking long walks on the beach and following the San Francisco Giants – they are my squizzle.

Coming from the start-up world, my goals for the summer are to embrace corporate America and experience all New York has to offer. Most of my work will be with the Fox News Channel and I look forward to bringing you some insight into world of Fox News as I see it. Keep tuned for many exciting moments as I take you all on a little adventure!

First Post Before Fox!

(BBA, Fox Broadcasting)

Hi everyone,

My name is Alyssa Fried and I am an American who is a rising BBA junior. This summer I am working for Fox Broadcasting in New York City. I will be working in both the Pricing and Revenue Analysis departments during one of the busiest times of the year for the company. I will be working on the pricing and strategic placing of commercials broadcasted on the Fox network. This internship will give me a background in both marketing and finance, which is something I am very excited about because it is going to give me the opportunity to work with numbers as well as a little bit of advertising. I am nervous about my commute to the city from Westchester which will be a very large expense for an unpaid internship. I am also a little apprehensive about working with media math, which I have not yet had the chance to do. Although I have not taken any Finance or Marketing classes thus far at Ross, I will be able to use my knowledge in other aspects of business to help me succeed. Overall, I know that this will be a great learning experience and I can not wait to challenge myself outside of Ross and the University of Michigan, and in a real work environment. I look forward to updating everyone on my experiences at Fox!

Hello!

My name is Chang Lee and I am a first year MBA student at the Ross School of Business. This summer, I am having my internship at Apple which was my top choice among all the high-tech companies. I am very excited and looking forward to meeting the people there.

I am planned to get involved in an operation project, and so far there seems to be several projects that I will be working on this summer but I don't know the exact scope of the project. I am planning to contact Apple to get to know about my project in more detail.

As a person who worked at Samsung as a business strategist, I am willing to get some business experience at a more global setting. Also, since Apple has been at the forefront of leading innovation through technology, I think my understanding in high-tech industry will increase after my internship. It is also important that I can work at the center of Silicon Valley with lots of high-tech companies such as Google, Cisco being there. I will meet various people from diverse background and function, and form a broad and deep relation with them.

One worry that I have is about the language since I only have business experience in Korea. But I am pretty sure that I will get over those problems well after having finished my MAP project at Microsoft.C

Greetings!

Hello everyone -  My name is Amrita and I'm a dual degree MBA + MS student in my 2nd year at the University of Michigan. I'm a fellow of the Erb Institute of Global Sustainable Enterprise, and am focused on findings ways by which businesses can enable positive environmental and social change happen! In particular, I'm interested in for-profit market driven solutions to our natural resource problems and I'm keen to explore the ways this can be achieved via entrepreneurship in emerging markets. 
My blog posts will be slightly unconventional as I will be writing about my experience interning with the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) as a research associate with the Corporate Partnership Program. My internship was a part-time position that I was able to juggle my Winter A course load, so these posts will be based on my experiences interning during the semester. 
Environmental Defense Fund is a non profit that has a reputation of being one of the most effective organizations in engaging with businesses and corporations to make step changes in their environmental impact. I had heard about the Corporate Partnership PRogram for over a year and to finally have the opportunity to work with the group was very exciting. I was nervous about being able to perform up to expectations given my other academic and extra-curricular responsibilities, but I decided that this would be my priority for 5 weeks. I look forward to sharing my experiences!

Thomson Reuters Prologue

I am a BBA rising senior and will be working with the strategy group at Thomson Reuters in New York this summer. I have interned with the PGA Tour and Six Flags Inc. in the last two summers and am looking for a more strategic, well-rounded, and career building experience in my last summer before entering the workforce permenently. Having been in sports and entertainment thus far, Thomson Reuters seems like the perfect opportunity to round out my resume with a global media company with unlimited talent and resources at my disposal.

While I know that I will be working in strategy on the financial side of the company, I am not exactly certain of what the job entails. I am under the impression that I will do a lot of industry analyses, evaluate growth opportunities or areas for improvement, and work on a project of my own interests. There are supposed to be about 10 interns in the division, so I look forward to working with other college students on some of these assignments. I've also done a bit of investigating and notices that the majority of my superiors are ivy league alumni, which should be an interesting dynamic and excellent learning experience, as I find that I (like many others) strive when surrounded by smart people.

Overall I am expecting an exciting corporate environment, a unique learning experience, and an unbelievable networking opportunity that will help me wherever I choose to work in the future. It is too early to tell whether I have a future with Thomson Reuters after this summer, but I will certainly be working as hard as possible to land a full time offer out of the internship. I'm pretty excited to meet so many new and intelligent people, work on exciting new initiatives at such a globally relevant company, and for the second summer in a row, work in the heart of New York City's Times Square.