My first two weeks in New York Citi- Part 2 of "from CPG to Banking"

Hello everyone,
Has been a while since I posted my first blog. You may think that the title of this  second one is a miss spelling, however it is not. I just didn't want to be one more person talking about Citibank, as I just saw that my intern classmates have been very active.
The ver first week went by very quickly. We had a trainning during the whole week, along with some networking events and an speech of the CEO of Citibank consumer banking division, Manuel Medina Mora, who happens to be a mexican that has a long career in the banking industry. This conference, was just the cherry on the cake that confirmed the things that I am enjoying at Citibank. First. Diversity of backgrounds, and second,  approachable senior management. As I consider both relevant elements when it comes to build a strong organizational culture. Also, they come very useful when evaluating whether I see myself  working for Citi in the future, because, from an international student perspective, I would not like to be working in a place in which thediversity in background is not appreciated. Another thing that I have enjoyed from the program so far, is the caliber of the interns. I can tell that I've had interactions with people from all of the  top 15 business schools. Which has been a great opportunity not only to expand my network, but also to realize that The University of Michigan, Ross Business School, is very well positioned in the MBA market. Now, starting my second week, I have to confess that  going back to work after eleven months, is like working out, you need to keep up with your condition! It is not a big deal, but it is something that needs to be practiced again. Additionally, as it has been for other classmates, when  defining deliverables, it is not as easy as I had thought. I realized that my project is more ambiguous than I though, as it has to do with launching a new business model, which deals with increasing revenues, strategy and marketing. As a result, there are some roles that are still unclear in my team, but, the upside of this is that I am having the opportunity to work in something entrepreneurial, something very rare in a big organization like Citi. (You may have seen that also Citi just turned 200 years, and it is just  starting the 3th century of life ). The project has been great to leverage on my previous MAP experience as a team-member and on my Strategy classes. So far, I can tell that the project has exceeded my expectations, even though I still have to figure things out and develop many frameworks to deal with the unknown of a new business model.
I will keep you posted.
Miguel

Box Checked!

Literally posting this 32 minutes after I delivered my final presentation to senior management and with one week to go, it's really impossible for me to realize how time has flown by. I guess just by looking at my presentation, I can see the time I've spent on strategies and executions from day 1 till this morning. And it ended with a lot of drama as the presentation has been rescheduled 5 times (3 times today).

Since it's time for me to wrap up my internship and start thinking about vacation before returning for my final year, I feel blessed for the experience I've had business-wise. Developing a promotional strategy for two top products, leading subsets of programs that are actually being executed, and gaining exposure to business planning processes as a marketing intern is more than I'd ever expect. Of course it all came with a lot of hard work and long working hours but the feeling at the end is that I did my best.

Something I really wanted to stress and there's not enough to say about its importance especially for international students coming is the MAP project. As I mentioned in my early posts, because of that I got a shot at interviewing with Hill's Pet Nutrition and ended up working for and impressing them. If it wasn't for that I would still have a job but not something that I would like or get paid for. Yes it would be a free internship! Times are hard and coming from a different country to start a new career requires sacrifices and strong will. Everyone was telling me that it was impossible to get consumer goods internship because I didn't have the proper experience. And yes people got jobs on campus while I was struggling to even get an interview. But in my opinion, that doesn't mean anything. Work hard and go after your dreams, and you will succeed. MAP was my shot at succeeding and I made sure I took full advantage of it. If you think about it, I ended up having a 5 month internship... 2 months working on the MAP project and 3 months working as an intern.

So for all you incoming MBA's out there consider my point of view and see how you can leverage it because time flies and before you know it you will be at the end of your first year still trying to figure out what's going on.

Take care everyone! Enjoy the summer and see you in September.

Fun times in Kansas!

In my last two posts I mainly described all the hard work I've been through to understand the business and ensure my projects add value to the company. Having been with Hill's Pet Nutrition for 5 weeks now, the only thing that haven't changed is the amount of work. What have changed though is the amount of fun!

When I first started I didn't know too many people in the state of Kansas (actually I knew only one from work) so fun wasn't part of my everyday life. It got even worse when I had to deal with flooded roads and storms (picture was taken at 3pm). If you add to that tornado warnings every other day, there you have a whole bad situation in terms of lifestyle.

However, things started to turn around as the HR department had organized some activities for all the interns. Since we are only two MBA interns, it was great to get a chance and meet others from packaging, engineering, procurement etc. After a picnic at Lake Shawnee, which was extremely fun, we all started to hang out and arrange different kind of activities with the best of it being the get-together in my apartment to watch USA against Ghana for the World Cup. If only USA had won our afternoon would have been even better but you can't have it all! To fight the pain from the devastating loss my American counterparts suggested we go for a beer which took me some time to drink. Look at the glass size in the picture...

Overall, the World Cup has dominated, not only discussions but also our time. Being part of a truly global company gave me the opportunity to watch the Greece-Nigeria game with a couple of Nigerians that work for Hill's. Also, based on my initiative, there are several brackets flowing around but so far mine is the most accurate. I guess soccer is not an American sport yet. Good times... Hopefully it will be even better during the second half of my stay...

First Quarter Done!

Hey everybody from the full-of-tornado-warnings Kansas!

I am officially done with my first 3 weeks at Hill's Pet Nutrition and I must admit they went by pretty fast. Several meetings, cross-functional teamwork, research, insight analysis, and number-crunching is the story of my first quarter. My project list keeps getting longer and the day-to-day tasks make things more hectic but no complaints. By the way, keep in mind that all the unpredictable and urgent tasks always end up on the intern's desk!

Basically, the last couple of weeks I spend the majority of my time working in Excel, pulling up shipment and consumption data from different retailers and trying to identify the implications moving forward. This is called the Colgate Business Planning which essentially is a tool to keep track of where the company stands on a monthly basis and figuring out ways to counter possible drawbacks or unexpected downfalls. It may sound like a heavy process but I was glad to be part of it because one of my goals for the summer was to gain exposure to this type of data in order to enhance my analytical and decision-making skills.

Apart from the planning process, I also spent time on the core of my project which is to develop promotional strategies for different lines of products including online, in-store and misc. The fact that it needs to be customized by retail environment and product makes the need for insights greater which is why I've been going over several studies. Currently, I am leading the development of in-store signage and displays based on some ideas I had working with people from supply chain, sales, and packaging engineering which is a great experience.

Overall, my colleagues are more than willing to help me and answer all the "stupid" questions a newbie has. The HR dept has arranged several activities like teleconferencing with parent company Colgate and lunch with all the VPs but the most fun will be this Friday at the picnic all the interns have with the managers and coworkers at Shawnee Lake. It is another advantage of the summer hours at Colgate (Friday is a half workday)...

Take care!

First couple of weeks at Hill's Pet Nutrition!

Hello everybody from Kansas! Certainly not the greatest place on earth but this is where I'm spending my summer so I'll have to find a way to like it...

Since my last post, the main difference is that I have moved to Lawrence, KS and been here for two weeks. Lawrence is a college town, very similar to Ann Arbor, but it's a half-hour drive to Topeka to get to work. I would love to give you more info on the location but unfortunately things have been pretty hectic at work and haven't had the chance to move around as much as I wanted.

I got my project(s) description and was given a cubicle (which as you can see I have decorated accordingly) the very first day. I was assigned to the Science Diet cat nutrition team for the summer. Basically, I will develop a promotional strategy for the special needs line, design the brand action plan for the life-stage line, and lead the monthly volume tracking to understand our sales activity, make recommendations on corrective actions, and comply with Colgate Business Planning.

In addition to my project, there are several daily "mini-projects" coming my way which reminds me what the real world looks like. However, I am fortunate enough to report to a Michigan alum who, along with other recent MBA grads from other schools, has been very helpful. Most of the people here are more than willing to help me get a better understanding of the business and daily tasks.

Yeah I know it sounds like a busy summer! Just by looking at my deliverables I feel some pressure but every day has been a learning experience, even during lunch with directors and VPs. This is the kind of company Hill's is-everyone is accesible.

If I had to point out my major difficulty so far, that would be the acronyms! They use more acronyms than full words which makes my communication a little bit harder. Until my next post, hopefully I will have figured most of them out...

Enjoy summertime!

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.