My BJ’s intern journal, week 9

There is still 3 weeks left, but I have started missing the people already, the city and the summer. Though everyday I spent 80 minutes on subway, commuting between my appartment and the office, being squeezed like a sardine, was pissed off by pedestrian easily……I do feel part of the city. I really enjoy walking in the narrow hutong, watching neighbors chatting at the doors.

Here are some project updates. For my sugarcane project, I finally got sufficient data to size the potential market for our baby machine. The whole thinking process is more like a try and error. You may spend one day to take every factor into consideration, looking for proper assumption and supporting data and still keep changing the model until last minute. Then, the tillage project is more complicated than I understood at the first beginning. I contacted Mexican factory, tax and law to figure out how to import the equipment to China. I also got an opportunity to talk about the demonstration they’ve done in India. There are a lot practice and planning I can leverage after some proper modification for China. As I only have little time for the corn storage project, there is actually learning curve developed! I spent a lot of time in understanding the structure of market opportunity at the sugarcane one and now see how it pays back.

People said that internship is a perfect opportunity to give it a try. It is especially true for career switcher, just like me. I found myself has the interests in marketing while I applied to business school because I like to understand people so much! I like communicate with people and I believe my communication skills help me a lot in asking the right questions and understanding their answers. However, during on campus internship searching I focused mainly on corporate finance, where I had previous working experience simply we were told it is easier for international students to get a job in the US. Fate brought me here! During the past two months of “trial,” I am now so sure that “Marketing,” especially “Strategic marketing” is the right place for me! The whole market opportunity exploration is so exciting and unknown at the first beginning that I enjoy it just like I used to spend hours on Sherlock Holmes’s novels. The more you dig, the more you addition you got. Thanks for this great opportunity this summer and the people I met in John Deere. My final presentation is already in the way. I will my best to make it a perfect ending!

My BJ’s intern journal, week 7

There are so many to say during the past two weeks….
First of all, I finished a great sugarcane visits in both Yunnan and Guangxi provinces. We met farmers, sugar mills, experts in the research institute and government authorities. By interviewing people and going to the field to check out the real planting situation, we gathered valuable information in terms of variety, labor rate, and customers’ expectations in mechanization. I was so excited when seeing the cane field the first time. Beautiful color combination of green and yellow on the flat field, so lively and shining!

During this trip, we not only gathered an overview of Yunnan province, we also got latest customers; movement from the past harvesting season. It is so surprising that both farmers and sugar mills changed their mentality so fast. Just a year before, the mills still complain about how high the trash content from machine harvested canes are and how easily the billets lose the sugar. But what we heard from today, is how they are willing to change the row spacing to be prepared for larger scale of mechanization! The locals and aboriginals are so hospitable that they took us for dinner every night (also drinking!!!). Thanks that I earned some tricks so that I could “pretend” that I drank a lot.

Except from the business trip and the hiking on the wild great wall (which is funny like crazy!), I got some bad luck for keep losing stuff……..When I got back from the South, I found my roommate tossed my laptop in the trash accidently a week ago….Though I went back to the neighborhood for searching and posted some notice, seeking there is still hope, so far I haven’t heard anything yet. Another is that I lost my travel certificate and passport with the US VISA in it. The tedious process to reapply those documents almost drove me nuts. This is the first time I felt the loneness and hopeless in this country. Though we speak the same language but the cultural background and working attitude are so different that make me depressed by the officers so easily. What’s worse, even the driver also lied to me the forbidden city is closed a couple days ago so that h can drive us to a further place from downtown. Sometime I am wondering: “It’s because of my Taiwanese accent or it’s just the way the dealt with others?” Okay….just wish me good luck on my ID application process!

My schedule for the following weeks would include some factory visits within China and potential seminar about my project. As two-third of my internship is done, I would start preparing my final presentation. Let’s go for it!

My BJ’s intern journal, week 5

The past two weeks are a lot of fun! As China market is booming right now, some interns who are based in the US or Singapore came to Beijing to meet people and gather information. I led colleagues from Kellogg, Tuck and China Europe international business school to try the Beijing duck and traditional massage.

Luckily, I joined the bi-annual employee meeting last week. This event helped me better understand JD China’s overall performance and outlook. During the Q&A session, I threw a question to our head of business unit. “As a foreign company which has been in China for a while what’s JD’s biggest obstacle so far? He answered “Talent acquisition,” as there are more and more international companies coming to China, don’t know how to let the China talents know how good John Deere is. During the reception later, I introduced myself to the VP level management team and happened to know one of them is from Ohio….ohhhhhhhh!

One disadvantage of living in a big city is the bad traffic, especially in the rainy days!!!
I got my memorable Beijing experience the day after. It rained heavily from early morning. When I finally arrived in the office building around 8:15 am, I found thousands of people waiting at the lobby and escalators.

Later I found we had a terrible power off because of the bad weather. People just chatted with each other aloud, making the building like a real market. I finally climbed the stairs to 5th floor where our office is, working for 2 hours with my NB’s remaining electricity. Finally, HR announced the IT has to shut down the server so everyone can have an early weekend.

Another cons is that the housing problem is also getting worse in Beijing. A three-bedroom apartment 15 minutes away from work costs $1250 USD per month, while the average salary for a fresh graduate is only $650 USD. So after all my roommates decided going back to Taiwan, I am moving out again during the three month period……

Yea, here is some update about the projects I am working on. I am going to the field next week, visiting Yunnan, Guangxi and Guangdong these three major provinces accounting for 90% of the sugarcane output. The main purpose for the trip is to eliminate the understanding gaps in some major areas and potential customers. I planned the whole trip from scratch, from finding locations in the map, contacting the officials and booking tickets. From my communication experiences, sometimes you really need to insist on things you are not willing to let go or people would fool you around and find an easier way to do things. Wish me a good trip and I will share more interesting stuff next time!

Getting to know the company and the people

I have spent 2 weeks with this engine maker in the very center of USA. At this point of time, I really want to say that it is a great company. 2 speeches by the CEO and president of the company really impressed me by their honesty and open mind.
First, I never believe that any single company is perfect while many of company leaders would say the good things about the company and minimize the part that should be taken care of. This time, it is not the same, the good part of the company is backed by solid facts. The hard time it experienced is reinforced and recorded for future reference.
Second, it is a US company. I did not see many US companies that believe in foreign leaders. I think I can understand it. I probably do the same if I were a leader of a Chinese company operating in China. It is different again. Talents from any counties are appreciated here simply because they are equally treated. Shortcomings and advantages are both recognized.

Out of the work, I hung out with the interns here. Most of the people are great while I can see some biased attitude towards individuals. I hope this internship experienced can change people's mind and attitude.
Although it is a little boring in such a small town/village, the interns are trying their best to have a good summer. Yesterday, we planned to go bawling, but it closed at 9:00PM. We then decided to go to the most popular place for hanging out, Walmart.................. Although it was pretty interesting an experience, I do not want any of my friends in Shanghai know that I did spend my leisure time in Walmart. I hope that I can find something good to do this weekend. Probably I will check out Indy. At least, it is a city.

My BJ's Intern Journal, week 3

Time flies! As my third week ended, I already finished 25% of my internship.

I have been working on my first assignment, the market opportunity in sugarcane harvester project for the past three weeks. During the first week, I read through all the existing materials the company had so far, including the reports about sugarcane industry done by outside consulting firm and the field visits conducted internally. With the valuable data, I got an overview about the crop type and the reason why farmers are turning to other crops. I also got an impression that the company is planing to introduce one existing model to China while it requires most of the farmers to change their current growing habbit to make it a more effective solution. However when I first reviewed this project with my manager, he said what we marketing people do is not asking customers to change to fit our machines. Instead, we should ask "who are our customers?" "what customers really need?" then analyze is it feasible for the company to design products/solutions to fulfill the unsatisfied demands later. Though that is exactly the same concept I learned from our marketing core course, I still very extremely excited to see how customer-oriented a manufacture company is. With that reminder in mind, I feel like I am acting more like an internal consultant or detactive responsible for figuring out the obvious but facts haven't been mentioned! So far I really enjoy trying anyway just to get to know our customers more and is confident about what might lead to the conclusion. Hopefully I will be traveling to collect more data to eliminate the information gaps soon.

Other than working hard, I also played hard during the weekends. Ivisited Beijing University and the great wall this weekend. The great wall is so grand and impressive that people can hardly see the end of it. Merly standing in front of them can make you touched for a long time. I really feel beloved and lucky by living in this ancient city and be surrounded by numerous historical spots.

My BJ's Intern Journal, week 1

My summer adventure was actually started right after I got on my flight to Beijing. I was asked twice by Delta in Seattle and Tokyo about my travel certificate to China. Although I told them it is okay to renew my expired certificate at the BJ airport with my photo, Taiwanese ID , they all insisted on double checking with the China embassy before issuing me the boarding pass. Moreover, the immigration officer who issued me the new certificate wrongly typed my gender as “Male” and the Customs let me pass without pointing out the mistake. I firstly noticed this is a big issue when I was rejected by the bank teller saying that I can’t open an account there if there is such obvious mistake in my ID. Later, the company helps me apply the work permit also told me the medical checkup report shows me as a man, then I realized things is getting worse and I have to solve it soon. Luckily, the immigration officer I contacted showed much kindness and promised to assist my reapplication process. With his kind help, I save several tedious steps and received my “correct” certificate within 2 days. Sounds like the end? No, to collect all the required documents for my work permit, I went to the police office to get the “registration form of temporary residence” and reserved another medical checkup which is requested by the labor bureau. Hopefully, with all the efforts and hard work I have done, I can receive my work permit soon!
Let’s go back to work! I met my direct manager the first day of work. He is a very attractive gentleman who was relocated to China from Ohio only 6 months before. We talked over my summer projects and walked through what has been already done and what can I contribute to. As a project manager under strategic marketing department, the first project I would be working on is to evaluate the potential Chinese market for existing farming machinery currently used in South America. The other one is to understand the value chain of sugarcane and introduce the right product to reduce customers’ burden of increasing labor rate. I am so excited about the chance to leverage the analytical capabilities from my previous working experience and implement the framework from class to develop marketing strategy in the real world. For my first week, I read through a stack of valuable materials, extracted the relevant information and came out with a rough project plan during my manager’s absence. I will update you guys the project process and my Beijing experience next time!

Go to Beijing! Exploring old and new!

Hi Everyone,

My name is Wendy, a will-be second year MBA student from Taiwan. This summer I will be interning in John Deere Beijing as a project manager. As far as I know, this job is based in Beijing but there will be also local travels requirements project by project. I will be visiting different parts of China and interviewing not only the dealers but also our end customers, the local farmers! The objective of this position is to collect the voice of customers and analyze the data gathered. Hopefully the analysis can help John Deere, a foreign company become more localized to provide the products meeting local needs.
I am so excited about working in China, especially in Beijing: the city of old and new! I would like to visit the hutongs to experience folk's everyday life and the "Bird's nest" that shows the most fashionable architecture. However, I also concerned about how to have myself adjusted into the Chinese working environment. The terms used at work, the joke we laugh at and the chat contents may all differ from I was used to when working in Taiwan though we speak the same language and share the same culture.
Anyway, this summer would definately be a colorful and adventurous journey!