Last challenge

Hi all,

As I told you last time, my new endeavor in my summer internship is to outline the strategy for commercial cooperation between us and our partner company in Mexico. From all the projects that I have been involved within through the summer, this might be the most demanding one. We need to come out with a good proposal for our friends in Mexico and to be honest, this is will be a very hard task considering how well they are doing already in the market. Still, we have some things to offer and we have started conversations with several parties in the country to be able to overcome difficulties.

For now, the trip to Mexico has been postponed until the end of July, when a meeting will take place with our future clients. This is going to be our first opportunity to introduce our company and the things that we can bring to the table. As a team, we are putting a lot of effort in coming up with great ideas for that meeting because that first impression is going to be crucial for the future success of the project.

Also, we are working on preparing a kick-off event for the Mexican market, where we are launching the brand to all parties in the country. We are managing two options to do this, one in mid-August and the other one by the end of the same month. As in past events, we want to get important players from all parties in the business environment where we will work at to join us in one single event, so that everybody can know the faces behind our brand and they have a personalized feeling about the company instead of just a name. Once again, putting everything together will be a big challenge but I’m confident that with the team that I’m working, success will be assured.

The Worls Soccer Masters Tour

Hello everyone,

I just landed back in Michigan after a demanding weekend in Miami. As I wrote before, we had an event last weekend with several goals at the same time. We were inviting two groups of clients, who had to be managed separately, and also had to manage two mini-events outside of the stadium to reach the public. As I’m sure everybody knows, managing four things at the same time can become an impossible task and this was not the exception. Several problems appeared along the way and a lot of “on the spot” decisions were taken. It’s not really important to get into the details; the important thing is that the final outcome satisfied all the people involved. The worldwide CEO of the Aftermarket Division was present at the event, as well as the Director of the Aftermarket Division for Argentina and the Vice-President of the Aftermarket Division for the US. They all approached me on Sunday to express their satisfaction with the final outcome of the event. If I have to make any recommendation to everybody who is reading, that would be to make your team like you as a person and not just as a co-worker, you will be amazed of the results you will get from them when you achieve this. By the way, the soccer game was also amazing and I’m attaching two pictures, one of the press conference and another one of the match. Let’s see who recognizes the players at the press conference.

Now is Monday and the event is over so we need to look forward towards the next challenges. The strategy for commercial cooperation in Mexico has to be outlined and that’s why I will be flying shortly to Ciudad de Mexico to start the initial meetings with our colleagues over there. I’ll let you guys know how that journey ends; I hope that with a good ending as well.

Formula 1

Hi again,

So, Argentina is over. As I told you before, soccer is a big deal and I’m attaching a little video I took in the stadium while watching the last game the national team played in Buenos Aires. But well, I’m back in the US but this doesn’t mean excitement is over. Before leaving for Argentina a month ago, I started preparing a kick-off trip to the Formula 1 race in Montreal for the cooperation between Magneti Marelli and Mopar in Canada. Time is flying by and as soon as I got back from South America I had to go to Canada.

Gladly, after a busy week working with planning and logistics, everything worked perfectly during the weekend and the attendants went back home extremely confident on the future of the joint venture between both companies. But the trip was not all work. The main event of the weekend was the Formula 1 race, which happened to be extremely exciting. Formula 1 fans reading won’t let me lie when I say that the way in which the race developed made it one of the most exciting ones in the season so far. Attached, you will be able to find a video of the first competitors on the last lap of the race, with Lewis Hamilton leading.

Continuing with the kick-offs, now I’m on the planning of a trip to Miami in a couple of weekends with people from Mopar Mexico. Hopefully, the success of this event would be as good as the ones before and the relation between professionals of both companies start with the right foot. On my next post, I will talk more about how the event went and my future plans for the internship.

Argentina, done!

Hello everyone,

If you are following the blog, you will remember I was in Argentina for the creation and implementation of a cooperation plan between two companies. We are entering the final phase of the project, when all the field work is almost done and we are just cleaning up details so that everything runs smoothly. Orders are already coming in and the cooperation between both companies has already started. As always, some problems will appear on the road but hopefully these would not be major and we will be able to solve everything quickly and on the best interest of everybody.

About Buenos Aires, I can say it’s an awesome place to visit. After a month, I’ve been able to do a lot of stuff around here and it’s hard to get bored. Good food, active nightlife, lots of sports and several tourist attractions complete the agenda for anybody who visits the city. Sadly, my stay over here is over and now I’m heading back to the US.

Once I’m back, I still have to keep an eye on Argentina but my main focus will concentrate more on Canada now. We have an event as soon as I arrive to the US with who are going to be our main dealers in Canada so I’ll be heading to the Formula 1 race in Montreal. Even though it sounds as a lot of fun to go to a F1 race, I will be there for work so I’m not sure I will have much time to enjoy it as much as someone that goes just for fun. I’ll see how it goes and let everybody know about it.

Well, I think I don’t have much more for now so this is it, I’ll keep posting on how my internship advances, I’m sure there is going to be much more work and excitement in the future.

First stop, Buenos Aires

Hi everybody,

I think I’m one of the few that has already started his internship and I’m already on the road. As I mentioned before, as a part of my summer endeavor, I’m involved in the creation and implementation of a cooperation plan between two companies for three countries, being Argentina one of them. I arrived to Buenos Aires a couple of days ago and started my work with Magneti Marelli’s local team almost immediately. Being Peruvian, the cultural change is not that big with Argentinians, but there are still some differences. Just as a reference, soccer and BBQ are great topics to start conversations over here.

My stay in Buenos Aires will last for a month and by the end of May, I should have been able to define what the plan over here is going to be and implemented everything so that cooperation runs smoothly from the first day of June. It’s a tough assignment, but the local team has been highly supportive and I’m sure that we will be able to achieve our goals.

On the other side, being in Buenos Aires for a month is amazing. I had the opportunity to walk around the center of the city yesterday night and there are some great places. I was close to a place called Puerto Madero, which is a river walk with a lot of bars and restaurants. Food is incredibly good in all of the restaurants and I’m guessing night life is good as well – yesterday was a weekday so I have not been able to explore it yet.

I’ve only been here for a couple of days and until now, it has been great but I’m sure after a month here I will have much more to talk about the city. My first weekend here is coming up and I’m lucky enough to have some MBA friends who are here on vacation, so I’m sure that it’s going to be fun.

Automotive industry

Hi all,

My name is Clive Ramsey and I’m a first year MBA. From my MAP experience, I received an offer to intern for an Italian company named Magneti Marelli, which is part of the Fiat group. The company is one of the most renowned organizations worldwide in the auto parts world. Among other things, Magneti Marelli is an official supplier for several teams in world competitions such as Formula 1, World Rally Championship. Because of the joint venture that occurred between Fiat and Chrysler, several opportunities have appeared for Magneti Marelli worldwide. One of their biggest priorities at the moment is to expand internationally, and there is where I come in. My role during the summer is to prepare what are the best ways to cooperate between Magneti Marelli and its par for Chrysler (Mopar) for three countries: Canada, Mexico and Argentina.

As you can see, my internship would be a very exciting experience with a lot of learning opportunities. I will be working directly with the leaders of each country, including the one in the US and the CEO of the aftermarket division worldwide. Also, there is a lot of responsibility, which is scary and exciting at the same time.

New York, New York!!!

Hi,
I am Shila Arias, first year MBA from Peru. I am going to be in NY for the summer working in Citibank in the Consumer Banking Program. This is a 12 weeks program developed for MBAs interested in Consumer Banking, thus they have projects in different divisions such as Retail Bank, Citi Cards, Commercial Banking, Consumer Marketing and Internet Office and Small Business.

We are a group of 15 interns and the program is divided in two parts: an individual project and a group project. I will spend the first 8 weeks working in my project, which I don’t know yet as Citi has just sent the list of projects to be ranked and we are going to be assigned to one of our top choices. I hope I got the one I want!!! Then, we will be assigned to groups of 4 or 5 to work the remaining 4 weeks on different projects, makes me remember MAP!!!

I have been born and raised in Peru, so this is the first time I will work outside my country. I am really excited about this experience as I know I will learn tons of things about consumer banking. Obviously, I am also excited to be in NY for the summer, I think that I will have a lot of things to do, see and shop :)

My first Strat 425 post...

So, I am an MBA who just finished his first year and will be spending the summer in Seattle, interning at Microsoft.

So far, I have limited information on my project, but I know I will be a Product Manager at the Windows Live business unit.

I hope this internship will help understand the High Tech industry and at the same time allow me to work in product development with tech engineers. The internship will give me the chance to work in a different environment with a widely different culture, hopefully giving me a better understanding of people.

I am really excited about spending the summer in Seattle, a city with so many options and things to do during the summer and being a part of one of the biggest Tech companies in the world which was also named one of the best places to work in the US. Working in developing a software product should be a great complement for my CPG experience.

I am a bit concerned about language problems especially keeping up with the speed with which some Americans talk and also getting used to the different way of doing things when working with different cultures.

But, no matter what... I am really looking forward to this opportunity!