"A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well."

They say that all good things come to an end – such an apt description to describe the end to my summer internship. Now that my final presentation’s done and dusted, I’m currently wrapping up my other white paper (yes, overachieving interns work on two projects) and basically tying up loose ends in my final week at Amazon. It’s been an intense two weeks reviewing and revising the white paper that was up for presentation to my VP; I’m sure I’ve got 90% of the content indelibly burnt into my brain now.

Nonetheless, it’s over and now I’ve got a few weeks of downtime to get my belongings shipped back to Ann Arbor and travel back home to catch up with family and friends before semester starts afresh. While I’m looking forward to the rest, it’s a bittersweet moment as everyone heads off in their separate directions at the end of the internship period. I’ve made great friends from different schools and have truly enjoyed being able to discover Amazon and Seattle with such an amazing crew. Even now, plans are afoot to organize a catch-up session down the road in a better place. I hear Miami is really nice in the spring…

You might ask at this point, how have you been spending your last few weeks in Seattle? Well, glad you asked! It’s been a whirlwind of good Seattle food, hiking up Mount Rainier, pigging out on dim sum in Vancouver, gawking at supercars at the local Cars & Coffee gathering, grilling burgers on the rooftop on a balmy summer evening, hunting down the best dessert in Seattle (El Diablo, Tango Restaurant & Lounge), getting strafed by F-18s while working, watching dogs leap 20 feet into a pool and listening to the British rock band The Fixx play during my lunch hour. So yes, it’s been a REALLY boring summer.

Reflecting back on my Amazon experience, I can say that I’ve been very fortunate to be given the opportunity to work with a truly great firm and some amazing colleagues. We’ve all been assigned business-impacting projects with ownership over our work whilst being given lots of support throughout the summer. This truly exemplifies the entrepreneurial and fast-growing nature of the firm and shows how Amazon stands apart from its rivals. It’s been a great learning experience over the past 11 weeks and I have renewed faith in Bezos’ vision in the firm.

Finally, before I bid you all farewell, do check out the Kindle Fire if you’re in the market for a well-priced tablet with an excellent supporting ecosystem of content and apps. It offers more than 18 million movies, TV shows, songs, books, magazines, apps and games, as well as free storage of Amazon digital content in the Amazon Cloud, Whispersync for books and movies, a 14.6 ounce design that's easy to hold with one hand, a vibrant color touch screen, a powerful dual-core processor – all for only $199. To learn more about Kindle Fire, visit www.amazon.com/kindlefire.

Till next time, ciao.

This is what $30 million looks like (250 GTO)

This is what a British rock band looks like (The Fixx)

This is what the best dessert in Seattle looks like (El Diablo)

This is what the Sound of Music looks like (Mt. Rainier hike)

This is what a heart attack looks like (Fried Snickers)

This is what... ah, if you don't get this, then you're just not techie enough.

"We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts."

A few days ago, I realized that I'd passed the halfway point of my internship, leaving myself with not a whole lot of time to finish up the remainder of my projects. Sure, Amazon sets stretch goals so timelines and targets can be a little on the ambitious side, but wouldn’t you rather be at a firm that challenges you rather than settling for ‘just good enough’? To be honest, I’m actually pretty surprised at the work-life balance at AMZN having come from my previous stint as a consultant – people work hard to get things done, but you’ll not find people staying late just to ‘show face’ to their bosses. As long as you get your job done, it’s all good. That’s the Amazon way.

One thing I’ve really enjoyed at Amazon thus far is the level of access we’ve had to senior levels of leadership. I know I’ve touched on this previously, but we just had an intern dinner yesterday where we were free to mingle around with directors and VPs. Of course, by mingle, I meant “ask strategic questions so that I know where the firm will be in 5-7 years”. Trust me when I say that the senior leadership here is smart and sharp, yet they remain very approachable and are eager to answer whatever difficult questions that get lobbed their way. Apart from Kindle-specific questions, which are under the usual ‘I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you’ levels of secrecy. In fact, the Kindle VP told me that if I had a great idea, all I had to do was to write up a one-page document and send it directly to him and he’d review it for consideration. How many firms have the resources, openness and flexibility to make that happen?

Another great thing about Amazon is the number of MBA interns we have here. With more than 150 of us here, there’s no shortage of people to meet and beers to chug. It’s always interesting to get different perspectives from the other interns, with everybody having their own war stories to share over a good time at the bar. After all, there’s nothing like washing down a week of hard work with a frothy pint of Weissbier. Mmm, beer.

It’s also worth mentioning that the weather has truly turned for the better – the real summer has finally arrived, albeit a good month later than what I’d been led to believe. What that means is that short sleeves and shorts (well, not for the manager interns anyway – we’re too classy for that) are back in season. Hopefully that’ll hold till the end of my stay here as I still need to check the ‘hike up Mount Rainier’ box off my summer checklist.

Finally, if you’re an avid mobile gamer with a Kindle Fire, keep your eyes peeled for GameCircle, an all-new gaming experience that enables achievements, leaderboards and game synchronization to add an additional layer of fun and socialization to your favorite mobile games on the Kindle Fire. If you are a mobile game developer, hop on over to http://amazon.com/gamecircle to learn how you can build these exciting new features into your games today.

Yes, I had the snake and it was tasty.

 

 Some seafood, yesterday. 

Meals on wheels.

Expecting the Unexpected!!

The Valley is reputed to be one of those places where “creative destruction” takes place @ a faster rate than anywhere else on earth. Words that come to your mind are:

Innovation

Disruption

Computers

Ideas

Progress

New

The tech industry based in Silicon Valley employs some of the smartest people I’ve met.  My internship experience leads me to believe that most engineers and managers in the Valley in general come from top schools world-wide. They represent over 100 different nationalities from across the globe. This reminds me of the ancient Indian (Sanskrit) saying:   

वसुधैव कुटुम्बक  - Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam – The whole world is one family!

There are however no pre-set qualifications, smart people from across the globe with no formal qualifications other than an undergrad are successful here . The incredible magnet that Silicon Valley is you would think that it’s “an all work, no play lifestyle”. Right? Wrong!!!!!

Here’s what you probably never expected: most companies in the Tech industry offer great life styles -  plenty of freebies (perks) such as free meals, free snacks etc, half day work on Fridays  and  a work –life balance that is un-paralleled in most professions world-wide.

So how does my internship experience compare (from someone with first-hand experience)?

No standard work hours – just get your work done, show initiative, drive performance and results!

Thank God it’s Friday – carnivals, shows, concerts, bands etc

Cafes – plenty to choose from and an array of choices! 

Snack Bars!

WFH -Work from Home is not frowned upong (as long as you get the work done, attend meetings!)

A few notes below that will give prospective international students a greater feel for the tech industry:

Job Hopping:

A key driver for rapid innovation in the Silicon Valley as AnnaLee Saxenian, author of Regional Advantage: Culture and Competition in Silicon Valley and Route 128, puts it is

"Job-hopping, rather than climbing the career ladder within a corporation, facilitates flows of information and know-how between individuals, firms, and industries. When combined with venture capital, it supports unanticipated recombinations of technologies and skill.

Old vs New , Consulting vs Tech:

While consulting firms and consultants focuses on old age economies and traditional business models and processes, the valley focuses on start-ups, developing new processes and innovative business models.

Many Careers:

You don’t program all your life, neither are you into sales all your life in the Tech Industry.

In this video (click here), Tim Draper, managing director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, talks about the California's Silicon Valleyand about many careers in the tech industry! 

In my next post, I shall talk about enjoying the internship experience - it is such a fleeting moment!

"What we want to be is something completely new. There is no physical analog for what Amazon.com is becoming"

So I’ve hit the halfway point of my internship and that means the dreaded midpoint review comes into the picture. At Amazon, that means that the culmination of your weeks of intense work to that point get compressed into a single white paper that gets scrutinized by your boss, your boss’ boss and occasionally his boss too. In my case, that was two white papers thanks to the two projects I was working on. To be fair, they did put the “work hard” bit before “have fun” in the company tagline.

I’m continually astounded at the effectiveness of meetings here at AMZN. Having been exposed to working environments where hour-long meetings resulted in little in the way of a productive outcome, I’ve found that Amazon meetings are short and to the point with decisions made and feedback given all within the space of 15-30 minutes. It’s a far more effective use of time and it means that I fit more productive hours into a working day. Maybe there’s something to be said about the no-PowerPoint policy…

As far as the project work itself, it’s been challenging yet fulfilling. You really feel that you get to take ownership of meaningful, difference-making projects. Colleagues have all been very supportive and have made a big impact on my ability to get so much done in so little time. Of course, my projects have been focused on the area of <<content redacted>> so it’s clear how this will impact the future of the Kindle organization.

Outside of work, Seattle’s been an awesome place to spend the summer. The much-lauded summer has finally kicked in and I no longer have to pull on a sweater before heading to work in the morning. Having said that, I’ve probably jinxed myself and it’ll end up drizzling for the rest of the week. Sorry Seattle.

For entertainment, I've occupied myself with a Seattle Sounders match (I discovered why Fulham dropped Eddie Johnson from their squad), oyster happy hours, balsamic strawberry ice cream, rally school, ordering coffee at the first Starbucks store, jellyfish gazing at the aquarium and exploring the less traveled bits of the city. I’ve not been as enamored with the appalling road conditions and the unbelievably high price of gas, though the number of more interesting cars on the roads make up for it somewhat.

Before I forget, I should remind everyone that even more content is now available on the Prime Instant Video catalog. Hundreds of classic movies and hit TV episodes have been added to the library, which is open to all customers who have a Prime membership. Prime customers can access Instant Video on numerous platforms, including the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 gaming consoles as well as the Kindle Fire tablet. Customers who are not Prime members can enjoy a 1-month free trial of Prime. To find out more about how you can watch Prime Instant Video, visit www.amazon.com/PIV.

Typical Seattle lunch

Typical Seattle car

 Typical Seattle weekend driver

"There are two kinds of companies, those that work to try to charge more and those that work to charge less. We will be the second."

So, another fortnight has passed and I find myself becoming more and more integrated into what Amazon calls their 'peculiar' ways. The customer obsession that I mentioned in my previous post is truly something that all Amazonians learn to live by; I constantly get reminded that the focus is never to get too hung up on besting the competition, for if you can truly show that you care for your customers, they will come back to you instead of your rivals. Though this strategy seems to run contrary to what’s preached in most bschool textbooks, AMZN’s care for its customers seems to have paid off big time.

Another thing you will find at Amazon is that for meetings, PowerPoint slides are considered taboo. You got that right – all my deck-crafting skills built up over client meeting after client meeting at Accenture are completely worthless here. Instead, meetings are conducted with the presenter creating a white paper which is then distributed to all the members to read during the meeting. After everyone is done reading, there is a Q&A session to address any open topics up for discussion. The goal of this is to prevent bad content from hiding behind fancy slides and to ensure that the presenter has all the content prepared in a concise and readable format. While it initially seems a little unnerving to have such meetings where everyone is silently scrutinizing your every written word, it serves its purpose to ensure that meetings do not take overly long and keeps discussions on topic. It’s another AMZN peculiarity that gives Amazon its own unique culture.

One nice thing that Amazon does for its MBA interns is to organize executive speaker sessions over lunch (BYO food, naturally – the savings go to bringing all you customers lower prices, etc.) where senior VPs talk about their work at AMZN and give us a chance to pick their brains over various topics. I mean, how often do you get to ask Amazon’s CFO about his thoughts on investor relations? Now all they need is to convince Jeff B to give us a talk too.

Oh yes, I did promise to talk about the elevator art. Basically, the elevator wall panels are whiteboards with markers made available for talented (and not-so-talented) Amazonians to contribute a little ‘art’ on their daily elevator rides. I must admit to being impressed by some pieces, which I’ve shared with you below. It’s a cool touch, though in a building with only 6 floors, these budding Michelangelos have to possess some of the fastest drawing skills on the block.

“My Pokemans, let me show you them”

To round things off, I’d like to remind all avid readers that Amazon is offering a great selection of Kindle titles in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library. All you need is an Amazon Prime membership (great value at only $79 annually) and a Kindle device to get started. More than 100,000 titles are available to be borrowed for free, including New York Times bestsellers like the Hunger Games trilogy and all 7 Harry Potter books. Unlike traditional lending, there are no limits on the number of copies available and readers never have to wait in line for the book they want. To learn more about the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, visit www.amazon.com/kindleownerslendinglibrary.

"Problem?" - Trollface

"If you build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful."

Okay, so this latest blog entry sees me posting from the wonderful city of Seattle where my stomach has been treated to the gastronomical wonders of 99-cent oysters (self-shucked), geoduck sashimi, fresh salmon and awesome Chinese food. As you can tell from my incessant focus on food after having spent too many months in Ann Arbor, I am truly a Singaporean at heart. Ironically, I don’t recall drinking more than two cups of Starbucks since I got here so that’s one prediction I got wrong.

What I did get right was the dynamic, fast-paced and innovative can-do culture that permeates the workplace here at Amazon’s main offices in the South Lake Union district of Seattle. While most people see the firm as an e-commerce giant who offers everything from cell phones and Kindle devices to streaming video and fresh groceries, it really feels like a big startup where everybody works hard to deliver the best possible experience to the customer. The excitement and energy in this place is simply astounding, something you would not expect from an industry giant with a market cap of $100B.

And when it comes to Amazon, the customer is truly king. Other firms may pay lip service to the notion of customer care, but here at AMZN, it’s not just a customer focus – it’s a customer obsession. You see it everywhere, from top-level managerial decisions down to the way the call centers handle inquiries. It truly makes a difference in the way the company works and it is this that differentiates Amazon from all the other companies out there.

For all my misconceptions of Amazon being an exceptionally frugal company – door-desks come to mind –  I found myself surprised to be given a keychain, water bottle and Kindle Touch on my first few days at work. In fact, everyone got brand new Lenovo Thinkpads, which might have more to do with the firm’s rapidly expanding headcount than actual employee pampering, but it feels good to have a new laptop to work on. So for those of you out there who were concerned about that whole frugality thing, fear not.

Random AMZN fact: One of the buildings here is named Rufus after a dog belonging to Amazon’s former editor-in-chief. Thanks to his pioneering efforts, everyone’s four-legged best friends are welcome in the majority of Amazon’s buildings.

To sum it up, my first few weeks here at AMZN have been a blast with a high-energy workplace, enthusiastic colleagues, brand new buildings, great (albeit expensive) cafeteria food and high-impact projects. I look forward to updating everyone on the wonders of elevators with whiteboard walls in my next post.

In the meantime, if you love your music, check out the Amazon Cloud Player (now available for the iPhone and iPod Touch) which allows you to access all of your music, wherever you are, on all the devices you use. Buy once and enjoy your music everywhere without worrying about storage on your devices. You get 5GB of free storage for starters and can upgrade it starting at a mere $1.75 per month. Visit www.amazon.com for more details.

Some of my new colleagues on the third floor.

Amazon.com - and you're done

Greetings, one and all! Welcome to the first of what promises to be a series of entertaining and enlightening blog posts covering my summer internship. If you enjoy reading about life as a MBA intern in the U.S., you’ve come to the right place.

Perhaps some introductions are in order. I’m a first-year Ross MBA student (the school endearingly refers to us as “rising MBA2s”) from Singapore who will be interning at Amazon this summer as a product manager with the Kindle division. While I do know the general scope of work, the full details will only be revealed to me once I get to Seattle due to the relatively sensitive – some might call it secretive – nature of the product.

Having come off a demanding MAP (Multidisciplinary Action Project) with Chrysler, I’ve gotten reacquainted with regular working hours for the past 7 weeks or so and am expecting myself to be able to hit the ground running when I start in Seattle at the end of this month. If you’re reading this and thinking about applying to Ross, make sure you stick in references to MAP no fewer than 15 times in your “Why Ross?” essay.

Amazon’s summer internships are known to be pretty intense, sink-or-swim affairs. While this may be a deal-breaker for some, I’d like to think that I’m ready for it having been thrown straight into the deep end many times in my previous career as a consultant. This really is an opportunity for me to explore the technology/e-commerce industry in-depth while working in one of the big four tech firms (Google, Apple and Facebook being the other three) that are set to define the future of the industry. In particular, Amazon’s Kindle is a key area of interest for me given its importance to the firm, with Bezos touting the Kindle Store in the company’s latest earnings report. Surely it can't get more exciting than that?

That wraps up my introductory post. Stay tuned for future episodes where I share more fascinating stories on Seattle, Amazon and what will likely turn out to be a burgeoning Starbucks addiction.

Finished MAP - ready for my internship!

Hello! I’m a Japanese MBA student in Ross, class of 2013. I just finished MAP, a 7-weeks project in the end of Winter B in the first year of MBA program. I really enjoyed the consulting project with a great sponsor in LA and 5 other Rossers. After taking a short vacation, I’m going to work for Amazon Japan for 10 weeks. In Amazon Japan, I’ll work for launching new business. I cannot describe the project in detail because it is not public yet, but it looks exciting! Launching business from scratch is always difficult because it’s hard to imagine what will be in future. I’m also excited about working people in the company – they are friendly, smart and passionate! I had been a consultant for 7 years before MBA, so I don’t have any experience in IT/retail industry, so I’m nervous about my lack of experience, but I believe I can use my knowledge and skill I developed in consulting.

What I didn’t do

(MBA, Amazon)

These days I was discussing with another Rosser what was the most valuable point of the internship. In doing so I had to go through an exercise of exploring all the positive points and picking only one. This is unfair with the other points but is a good exercise. Among the positive points I can highlight the city, the group of interns, the learning and the company itself. I have already mentioned the first couple points on a previous post so I’ll focus on the company and the main point.

It is very exciting to be part of a company that is making history. Amazon has now over $25bi in annual revenues and is still growing at over 40% a year. Not many other companies, if any, have done the same. It is definitely changing the face of the Retail. And being part of this transformation is an invaluable opportunity. There is yet a more propounding transformation Amazon is causing: the way we transfer knowledge, through e-books.

But among all, I believe that the most valuable point of my internship is this bad taste I now have in my mouth. I have now this inquietude for knowing what impact I’m going to cause in the world. Recently, I have seen the speech Jeff Bezos delivered to Princeton graduates . I learned a little bit more about his trajectory and I was profoundly uncomfortable to learn he started Amazon when he was 30. He speaks about choices and leaves us to think about what choices are we making. Jeff was able to able to impact the world twice (the face of retail and the e-books revolution) and who dares to doubt he could do it again?

If I can point out only one positive aspect of my internship, it’s definitely going to be the uneasiness I am left with. Yes, I have made new friends, yes I have enjoyed the city, yes I have learned a lot. All of this is very valid. But the best of all is what I haven’t done… yet!

E-Retail: is it Tech or Retail?

(MBA, Amazon)
Frugality: that is one of the core values at Amazon and door desks are an enduring reminder of that. Although you can see it across the company I think this is only a mean to a greater core value: customer obsession. Amazon is constantly seeking to satisfy its customers because it truly believes that happy customer equals more revenue in the future.
Amazon’s culture has been the most surprising part of the internship thus far. I’m positively impressed by seeing Jeff’s statement on maximizing long term FCF percolating through daily decisions. It is interesting to seeing a company maintaining that even after becoming a multi-billion-dollar organization. Some examples are: expansion to new regions where profits might not anytime soon, and discussions around making changes to the company’s current capabilities to accommodate a potential important customer at AWS.
Amazon is constantly classified as a Tech company that happens to be a retail company. I would argue it is a retail company that happens to sell products over the internet. I say that based on some aspects of its culture that I have seem, and I am totally biased by the fact that I am working at the more high-tech portion of the company (Amazon Web Services). Let’s go to the facts: Amazon is a low margin company (retail like), from this fact comes frugality; the company’s goal is to have the largest world’s selection (retail like), a high-tech company would probably have a goal related to its products; Jeff Bezos in its famous 1997 letter to the shareholders clearly states that the company is working to maximize future FCF (retail?, Tech?), although future FCF is definitely the ultimate component on any company’s valuation, I have never seen a high-tech firm completely ignoring quarterly results in favor of a greater good.
I believe it is important for Amazon’s success that it is a retail company. What is not (retail like) is probably the fast growth and innovation at Amazon. And this definitely distinguishes Amazon as a unique culture.

Summer time: make friends outside the campus

(MBA, Amazon)

The timing for talk about my lifestyle in Seattle could not be better. The summer has finally picked up. With it, several new outdoor opportunities arise. As I write this post I look outside my window at the high of the 15^th floor with a beautiful sunny view of the sea where several sailboats gently heels. I have to admit that Seattle is treating me well.

During the first half of my internship I had the chance to really enjoy Seattle and the surroundings. I went sailing, diving, hiking, kayaking and running. I went visiting Vancouver and I’m going to visit LA. But more important than it all, I accomplished one of my goals for the summer: expand my network and make new friends.

Seattle is probably not the city with the biggest MBA intern class (approximately 150), but is definitely unique in its setup. Pretty much all the MBA interns, mostly Amazon and Microsoft, live at the same apartment building complex. It happens because both companies subsidize the leasing. This uniqueness creates an atmosphere of cohesion and openness hard to find outside campi. Interns from 30 business schools interact with each other in several events organized by the companies and by us.

Only 6 weeks have gone by so far and I still have 6 weeks more to come. If it is true that after almost one year at Ross I keep meeting new people there, I can assume that my networking expansion here at Seattle is far from having fulfilled its potential. During the next 6 weeks I anticipate the life becoming a little bit more stressful with the approaching of final presentation. I also am aware that I was part of one of the last groups to begin their internship, therefore the group will get smaller every week from now on. I am confident that the foundations for an enjoyable 2^nd half have been laid down.

Learning, scoping, delivering!

MBA, Amazon

At this point, one third of the internship is done and with it comes an urge to see some work done. The first month is probably the most unproductive and hard (at least that’s what I have heard and what I expect), simply because you are flooding with new information. You have to learn the about the company’s culture and how to navigate it, the topic and industry you are working with, and the project objectives itself. Apart from it all you are still supposed to start delivering some results.

From the very beginning I have spent a considerable amount of time just scoping my project: what it will be and what it will not be. I believe this is probably the most important success factor of a good end product. Is by scoping, and discussing the scope with your manager, that you are able to set expectations and plan yourself to achieve a good result.

The first month would be the best phase of the internship if it wasn’t by one detail: you are supposed to start delivering something. Just by talking to other interns and former interns I have the feeling that pretty much everyone has some sort of frustration during this phase. The common sense is that either you don’t know exactly how or what you are supposed to deliver.

I guess that my consulting background helps me at this point. I feel much more confident simply because I have worked at many other 3-month-projects before. I’m also lucky to have a very concrete end product to produce: an excel model. And the success of my work will be easily accessed at the end by checking the website: the model is there or not. At this point I have a mock-up and I can start showing it around. That was my strategy to manage internal and external expectations.

Working for the "other"

Summer internship has started and I see myself working for the other: other country, other industry, other coast, and other business.

My internship experience starts 2.400 mi from Seattle. I decided to take the opportunity to get to know US a little bit better and I chose to drive from Ann Arbor to Seattle.

RoadTrip Stats:

Duration: 6 days;

Distance: 2650 mi;

Consumption: 125 gal of gas;

States visited: 9;

Pictures taken: 7940

View Larger Map

Yes, this country is really huge and driving all the way to Seattle prepared me to the changes to come. I've seen beautiful landscapes changing from the absence of hills in Michigan to the absence of pretty much everything Wyoming; from the cosmopolitan Chicago to the far-west little cities on the way to Yellowstone national park; from 85F at Ann Arbor to a snow storm 10000ft above see level at the top of Wyoming Creek; and obviously... people were changing too. But that was just the beginning.

Working in US is considerably different than working in South America. Americans tend to be much more focused on their work than I was used to. In Brazil it is not uncommon to have little “social breaks” during the workday. I would not say it is a complete waist of time. It is during those breaks, with the excuse to have a coffee that a lot of social interaction happens and you end up getting to know your coworker better. Ultimately, a lot is accomplished because the social networks formed this way are a very powerful shortcut to the natural processes. It is also not natural for me to see most of the people having lunch at their desks. I guess that Latinos tend to value the lunchtime much more. The counterpart is that one is actually able to manage the work-life balance much better.

Coming back to the industry after 2 years working as a consultant has been very interesting. I am adapting myself to once more navigate within an organization. The biggest challenge here is to work bottom-up rather than top-down. As a consultant you can move much quicker past the obstacles just because you have the sponsorship of a VP or a CXO. On the other hand, as an MBA intern you are typically on the bottom of the pyramid and you have to exercise negotiation and influence skills much more. Probably, the most noticeable difference between consulting and Amazon is that the first targets the short term profit and the later long term free cash flow.

Finally, I’m working on the “other” business: at least according to the Amazon’s annual financial report. I’m working for a group within Amazon that probably shares only the name and the culture. AWS is a cloud-computing provider and as such has a completely different business model than the e-retail. It grows even faster than Amazon and is a very dynamic environment. The “not so good” side of it is that I’m really far from Amazon’s core business.

Taking the most out of it!

Hi all,

I would like to introduce myself. I'm Douglas Storf, a rising MBA2 and will be spending my summer at Amazon in Seattle where I'll be managing a product called S3 at the Amazon Web Services group. I'm really excited about the opportunity. One of my goals when I came Ross was to have an working experience with marketing at a High-tech company, preferably outside Brazil (my home country). I can say it is mission accomplished: not only I got a Marketing position at Amazon in Seattle, I only got a MAP project at Google in London!

After spending the last 6 weeks working and living in London, getting back to Ann Arbor had a contrasting impact on me: I'm happy to be back to where I now call home, but I know I'll miss Europe.

This week is the last week of the first year and is definitely a time for reflections. We are just getting ready for our internship experiences while our friends from the second year are getting ready for their full time experiences. "It will go fast" That is what I was told before coming to B-School. "It went too fast" That is what our MBA2 colleagues are saying now and I second their voice! I'm doing my best to take the most out of this experience but I find it inevitable to have a taste in my mouth that I am still missing a lot!

The internship is not going to be any different: it will go supper fast, I'll do my best to take the most out of it, I'll still get the feeling I'm leaving a lot behind! I guess I'm getting used to that!