"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.

Full Steam Ahead (MBA, Amazon)

The last two weeks at Amazon have gone by very quickly. I presented my research to 12 technical managers last week and delivered two reports this week. I am certainly kept on my toes and love it. Working with supervisors is interesting, because I have been given so much freedom to run my project. I chat with my manager once or twice a week to bounce my ideas off him. I work closely with two other managers, and I took up a tiny side project for one of them. I also meet weekly with my mentor, who is incredibly helpful when I am stuck on an issue.

My summer project evolved quite a bit in the first two weeks. It was quite exciting to turn a broad business idea and problem into a structured 3-month plan. My MAP project really helped with that. My manager had presented me with a set of projects/issues I could help with, and I thought through them to pick the ones I would work on this Summer. My decision was based on my potential impact on the project, my interests, skills and learning objectives. I communicated these with my manager, and together we came up with a set of goals for me. I broke down those goals into actionable items, and talked to my mentor about what was achievable.

I also learned that setting hard deadlines for myself, and communicating those with the rest of the team helps me focus and push forward on my work. I try to deliver a document every week, so that I time-box myself. Documenting my findings also helps me when a question is asked of me, or when I am trying to drive towards solutions. So it’s a tactic I recommend to everyone. Besides, it improves writing and presentation skills.
Here’s yet another video of Jeff Bezos, this one is more current, from the Princeton graduation:

First few days at Dell!

Hi there readers!

Well, this has been a fun and adventurous ordeal. After a month of working for a local Ann Arbor startup as a first internship, I packed my bags and moved to Austin, Texas for my second internship with Dell. I also packed a cat. My cat was not happy about being packed, but it had no choice.

My first impression of Austin, Texas? It is hot. My second impression? Most fun city on the planet. It is chock full of bars, dance venues, and live music. It also features what must be the best people watching environment in Northern America.

So - having settled into my new apartment with my new roommate - I went to the first day of Dell: Orientation.

For those of you who have not been to a corporate orientation - here is what it looks like: About 50 new interns sitting in a room - watching inspirational videos about ethics and hearing talks about the corporate rulebook.

Corporations have big rule books.

After that we were given our badge, and were sent off to talk to our managers. I was given a laptop - a list of people to talk to, a pat on the shoulder, and a hearty "good luck". I am going to love it here.

The next day we had the first talk from the "executive" series : Dell's CMO gave us a presentation about the challenges the company faces, strategy, and more. It was really quite interesting, and despite the early morning hour I managed to stay up (Note to future students: School is easier than work. Trust me on this.); it was also a very humbling experience. It is the first time I have seen an executive of a billion dollar company discuss so frankly and candidly how the company was doing, what the management believes are its shortcomings and how they intend to fix them.

So - armed with a laptop in hand, a borrowed cubicle as my fortress, I set out to conquer my project. It seems like the first few weeks will mostly involve me setting appointments with a multitude of people and getting the lay of the land. Wish me luck.

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)

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)

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.