China market is attractive to many global industry leaders. However, during my internship, it became clear that not all customers in different regions can afford quality goods and services. So why is China market attractive to those multi-national companies? For example, the customers we visited in Beijing and Shanghai have a higher disposable income level, and the demand for high quality goods is strong, even the foreign brand products are expensive considering the costly R & D expense and all taxes during the import. We saw that the products purchased every day by the customers are in the mainstream catalog in the US market, keeping pace with the global technology update. Although it is still rare to observe cutting-edge products here, it is understandable considering those new technologies did not originate in local markets and the adoption will take some time. However, China market is huge and definitely segmented. When we visited the Tire 2 cities, things changed. The popular products are often one generation or two older. The customers are quite price-sensitive. The distributors are seeking not the best products, but cheap ones that can just do the same job. From our observation, it can be concluded that there are three types of markets co-existing in China. One is high-end, one is middle-end and the last is low-end. With a big population and great difference of social development between regions, business people can find in China market similar to developed countries, market of medium profit potentials and market of poor countries. Although only high-end market in Tier 1 cities are the targets for global players and they already penetrated these market quite well, the growing medium market is quite attractive to them as well. They can develop medium quality products with better price to explore the market now, and also build brand names and roll out high quality products when this market matures in the future. This promising medium market of high volume should be the shining point that attracts global companies.
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Final Presentations, Client Deliverables, Internal/External Networking
Hello all,
Coming up to my last 2 weeks I have 2 major items to complete to round out my internship experience. Each intern is expected to present a year end presentation to their peers, as well as other full time Booz employees from their local office on Friday August 3rd. Forutnately the presentation is a low pressure environment, and is meant to be fun. The most valuable take away I will enjoy from the presentations, is that I will get to see what my 12 other intern peers (from the chicago office) worked on their entire summer. The 2nd major item was highlighted in my year end assessment, which is I needed more analytical experience (I may expand more on this in the next post).
The presentation itself is 5-8 power point slides, highlights the key take aways, learnings, and my contirbutions to the team and project. It also highlights the fun take aways outside of the actual work experience that each person experienced (in my case my 5:50am golf match with a senior partner, and the night I hung out with Shaq in the hotel lobby).
After 8 weeks I feel like I have a strong handle on the company culture in regards to the Chicago and Boston offices. And the reason I specify the office, is that I feel the culture and community of your city will have a profound impact on the people.
Chicago: Is a large office with a small town feel. There are over 200+ employees, but within the office there are several "communities" based upon industry practices. Whether those practices be IT, Financial Services, Engineered Product Services, CPG, etc each group has it's own network. And if you are considering a consulting career, this is a significant differntiator at Booz. Booz does not offer the generalist approach to consulting. Rather it provides a soft alignment model that has it's pros and cons. If you feel already have an idea about your passions (i.e., you love SOAP!!! ..CPG), even if you don't have experience in that field, I highly encourage you to consider Booz & Co. By joining the CPG practice you can ensure that your early experiences will be focused on that practice, and thus devleop your expertise earlier in your career.
This accelerated development is reflected in culture of the organization. So back off my tangeant, back to Chicago. The people are extremely friendly, and helpful. On Friday's in the office I have never felt intimidated to introduce myself to a Partner, Principal or other senior member to learn more about their practice. The challenge is, they are quite busy, and you may need to schedule time with their admins.
As this business (Consulting) follows an apprenticeship model, that is reflected at all levels throughout the organization. Every consultant was once a junior person who didn't know how to write a slide, present to a client, or manage a Vlookup function. They all learned on the job, particularly through trial and error and the support of their peers/mentors. Without that support, and formal/informal training, this business does not work. Once you get into the firm (and likely any other firm), it is in the best interest of everyone involved to ensure you are succesful. And that has been apparent throughout my entire summer. A great example is my job manager, entered booz with little to no experience using Excel. 5 years later he is one of the Excel rock stars who leads begineer and advanced internal training. He did not take any formal courses, rather learned by trial and error and support of his mentors.
A last point on Chicago, I love the city. For a big city life, the prices are much cheaper than others (New York, London, Paris, Toronto (my home town), and the space is much larger. I've never seen a downtown with such wide streets. As such, people in general are happier. I feel there is less stress to life in Chicago. People afford a higher quality of life with less money and it's reflected in the smiles and attitude.
A few words on the culture in Boston. Awesome city, incredibly small considering it's history and successes (do they ever lose in sports?!?!). The office itself is very small. Less than 15 people at any time (15 is generous), and the office essentially revolves around 1 or 2 clients. I feel it's a great place to work and learn from a project perspective, but because it is so small I don't think I would learn as much from a Booz culture perspective. In addition my networking opportunities are limited versus a larger office.
The counter to that may be with less people, there is less competition to stand out? But that is a factor you need to consider when choosing your home office
That's all for now
Signing off
Omair
Coming up to my last 2 weeks I have 2 major items to complete to round out my internship experience. Each intern is expected to present a year end presentation to their peers, as well as other full time Booz employees from their local office on Friday August 3rd. Forutnately the presentation is a low pressure environment, and is meant to be fun. The most valuable take away I will enjoy from the presentations, is that I will get to see what my 12 other intern peers (from the chicago office) worked on their entire summer. The 2nd major item was highlighted in my year end assessment, which is I needed more analytical experience (I may expand more on this in the next post).
The presentation itself is 5-8 power point slides, highlights the key take aways, learnings, and my contirbutions to the team and project. It also highlights the fun take aways outside of the actual work experience that each person experienced (in my case my 5:50am golf match with a senior partner, and the night I hung out with Shaq in the hotel lobby).
After 8 weeks I feel like I have a strong handle on the company culture in regards to the Chicago and Boston offices. And the reason I specify the office, is that I feel the culture and community of your city will have a profound impact on the people.
Chicago: Is a large office with a small town feel. There are over 200+ employees, but within the office there are several "communities" based upon industry practices. Whether those practices be IT, Financial Services, Engineered Product Services, CPG, etc each group has it's own network. And if you are considering a consulting career, this is a significant differntiator at Booz. Booz does not offer the generalist approach to consulting. Rather it provides a soft alignment model that has it's pros and cons. If you feel already have an idea about your passions (i.e., you love SOAP!!! ..CPG), even if you don't have experience in that field, I highly encourage you to consider Booz & Co. By joining the CPG practice you can ensure that your early experiences will be focused on that practice, and thus devleop your expertise earlier in your career.
This accelerated development is reflected in culture of the organization. So back off my tangeant, back to Chicago. The people are extremely friendly, and helpful. On Friday's in the office I have never felt intimidated to introduce myself to a Partner, Principal or other senior member to learn more about their practice. The challenge is, they are quite busy, and you may need to schedule time with their admins.
As this business (Consulting) follows an apprenticeship model, that is reflected at all levels throughout the organization. Every consultant was once a junior person who didn't know how to write a slide, present to a client, or manage a Vlookup function. They all learned on the job, particularly through trial and error and the support of their peers/mentors. Without that support, and formal/informal training, this business does not work. Once you get into the firm (and likely any other firm), it is in the best interest of everyone involved to ensure you are succesful. And that has been apparent throughout my entire summer. A great example is my job manager, entered booz with little to no experience using Excel. 5 years later he is one of the Excel rock stars who leads begineer and advanced internal training. He did not take any formal courses, rather learned by trial and error and support of his mentors.
A last point on Chicago, I love the city. For a big city life, the prices are much cheaper than others (New York, London, Paris, Toronto (my home town), and the space is much larger. I've never seen a downtown with such wide streets. As such, people in general are happier. I feel there is less stress to life in Chicago. People afford a higher quality of life with less money and it's reflected in the smiles and attitude.
A few words on the culture in Boston. Awesome city, incredibly small considering it's history and successes (do they ever lose in sports?!?!). The office itself is very small. Less than 15 people at any time (15 is generous), and the office essentially revolves around 1 or 2 clients. I feel it's a great place to work and learn from a project perspective, but because it is so small I don't think I would learn as much from a Booz culture perspective. In addition my networking opportunities are limited versus a larger office.
The counter to that may be with less people, there is less competition to stand out? But that is a factor you need to consider when choosing your home office
That's all for now
Signing off
Omair
Labels:
booz,
Canada,
Canadian,
chicago,
Consulting,
Excel,
final presentation,
powerpoint,
spreadsheets,
toronto
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
"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.
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.
Powerpointing away..
Hey folks!
Time has just flown by- I'm already in week 10 of my internship- 2 more to go..
While the excitement of going back to Ann Arbor and seeing my friends is immense, I am also very sad- since I had such a great time here in Seattle, with the MBA interns from the other B-schools and at Microsoft. I am in the process of developing my final presentation(s) and writing out a white paper documenting all my work.
I will be presenting to three types of audiences:
1) Exec: CFO, GM and Directors
2) Revenue Finance Group consisting of analysts, managers and senior managers
3) Directors from other departments who are interested in the topic of my project
As I refine the individual slide decks for each of these presentations, I am extremely cautious about my audience, the key messages I want to leave with each group and the level of depth/ complexity I want to go into. My mentor has been extremely supportive in providing me feedback on my slides do far. One thing that has really helped me is that from the beginning of my internship, I used Powerpoint slides as a tool to run meetings and gather information. While it consumed a lot of time, it also helped me develop a story as my project progressed and now I am completely comfortable with the story-line for my final presentation.
Creation of the slide deck early helped me in another way as well- as I met with business partners and other team mates for their inputs on my project, I also got their views on the way I visualized the slides. Believe me, I have changed every slide in my deck atleast 7-8 times now. This makes me extremely comfortable now that any audience, no matter how different, will be able to understand the slides as they incorporate the feedback of so many people.
As you can tell, I am dreaming powerpoint right now...and am proud to be working for the company that developed this great tool- Powerpoint! I am also super excited about the new Office 2013- I have had a chance to test it (or dogfood it in Microsoft terms) and it was far beyond my expectations! So watch out for this great product! You can see the customer preview on the site:
http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/en
Now back to slide number......:)
Time has just flown by- I'm already in week 10 of my internship- 2 more to go..
While the excitement of going back to Ann Arbor and seeing my friends is immense, I am also very sad- since I had such a great time here in Seattle, with the MBA interns from the other B-schools and at Microsoft. I am in the process of developing my final presentation(s) and writing out a white paper documenting all my work.
I will be presenting to three types of audiences:
1) Exec: CFO, GM and Directors
2) Revenue Finance Group consisting of analysts, managers and senior managers
3) Directors from other departments who are interested in the topic of my project
As I refine the individual slide decks for each of these presentations, I am extremely cautious about my audience, the key messages I want to leave with each group and the level of depth/ complexity I want to go into. My mentor has been extremely supportive in providing me feedback on my slides do far. One thing that has really helped me is that from the beginning of my internship, I used Powerpoint slides as a tool to run meetings and gather information. While it consumed a lot of time, it also helped me develop a story as my project progressed and now I am completely comfortable with the story-line for my final presentation.
Creation of the slide deck early helped me in another way as well- as I met with business partners and other team mates for their inputs on my project, I also got their views on the way I visualized the slides. Believe me, I have changed every slide in my deck atleast 7-8 times now. This makes me extremely comfortable now that any audience, no matter how different, will be able to understand the slides as they incorporate the feedback of so many people.
As you can tell, I am dreaming powerpoint right now...and am proud to be working for the company that developed this great tool- Powerpoint! I am also super excited about the new Office 2013- I have had a chance to test it (or dogfood it in Microsoft terms) and it was far beyond my expectations! So watch out for this great product! You can see the customer preview on the site:
http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/en
Now back to slide number......:)
Labels:
Corporate Finance,
Corporate Strategy,
Microsoft,
Nupur,
Seattle
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Final Presentation
It is the second last week of my internship. And I just
finished my summer final presentation. It is not used to judge whether we could
get a return offer or not. It is just a way to showcase what we have done and
what we have learned. Each interns has 15 minutes to do the presentation and
followed by 5 minutes Q&A. Most interns only worked on 1 project, but I
have worked on 3 short ones. So I presentation went a bit longer. Even though I
didn’t have much time to practice my presentation, I still felt very confident
when I was standing in front of the group. I guess the business school life and
the consulting experience have really prepared me for thisJ. I also feel that it
is very helpful if you could make the presentation funny and interesting. It
will help the audience to concentrate to the presentation.
I did learn a lot from my summer experience. I learnt that consulting is about details.
Yes, you do need to solve the problem, but at the same time you should make
everything as perfect as you can. Consulting is about building your brand and
network. In a consulting firm, one is always looking for next project to work
on. You need to make yourself known to
others. You need to build you reputations in the project you worked on. There are always people willing to help you,
but you are your own master. Last but
not least, consulting is about expertise. Almost every project you work on is either
a new topic or even a new industry. To really solve clients’ problem, you will
need to do extensive researches on the topic even before working on the project
and continue improving you knowledge along the way.
Last week, final thoughts
It is a little crazy to think the last week of my internship is upon
me. Five days from now I’ll be on the other side of the world exploring the
mysteries of China with a group of my fellow MBAs. But before that a lot needs
to happen – my final presentation, wrapping up my projects, final lunches and
drinks with my team and fellow summer associate, cleaning, packing,… - the to
do list seems to go on and on.
The fact my summer is coming to a close means fall and full-time
recruiting are right around the corner. So it is reflection time. I used to
work and live in New York City before business school – the Greatest City in
the World as New Yorkers modestly call it. And I loved it! My goal was to go
back there for the summer but it didn’t quite work out. I gave Chicago a try
and I have to say that although I wasn’t very enthusiastic at the beginning I’ve
been really pleasantly surprised. It is a beautiful city – a greener, cleaner,
less packed version of New York. There are tons of great restaurants and a lot
of neighborhoods that have a unique character. And there are tons of outdoors events
– just this weekend the city is full of visitors from all over the country (and
even abroad) who are here for Lollapalooza (or Lola as the locals lovingly call
it) – an annual music festival that brings in performers from all over the
world. All in all, I have really enjoyed it here.
So I started asking myself – do I really want to go back to New York or
should I give Chicago a try full time. I have been thinking about that for the
past few weeks, I’ve passed through a couple of stages and the jury is still
not out on it. But I think this summer has once again made me realize how
important it is to be open to new experiences and try to make the best out of
any situation because when you do so previously unimagined possibilities open
for you.
So long and thanks for the fish tacos.
My last week was more hectic than I wanted it to be, with the final presentation just a couple of days before the end date which led to some serious late night, crunch time work. Less time to polish up my deliverables any further; I had to concentrate on documenting everything and wrap up my last initiatives on the job.
Some food for thought for future interns:
- Use the time to figure out whether the work-life balance is right for you.
- Start networking early.
- Allow yourself time to understand the culture, the people and the project.
So long and thanks for reading!
Last week
Last weekend in New York City, and last week of internship. Just this past week, all the interns gave our final presentation in front of 5 managing directors. We were given a specific company and had to make a pitch to the company based on what we think is the best strategy for them. The presentation actually turned out to be harder than I thought. Everyone in the intern pool was assigned into random groups, and that made meeting up really difficult. I work "early" hours compared to other interns who cover industries, and so, the other interns would tend to schedule meetings late at night and were prepared to stay till 4am since they could get in at 9am, while I have to get in at 7am. Aside from logistics, we also found out that not many interns have the technical knowledge needed. And it was extremely challenging to juggle the presentation with daily work demands; we could be meeting for 5 minutes and someone would get a call to work on something immediately. Overall, it was a mad scramble to pull the pitch together, but all of us managed to complete it and my group was pretty confident and proud of our pitch.
Looking back, every week was very different and very challenging. Everytime I start to get the hang of a certain project, a new project comes up and I have to pick up new skills and knowledge again. It was stressful at first, but I got use to having curve balls thrown at me constantly, and I stop getting all tensed up when something new comes up. It has been a very dynamic 9 weeks, lots of pressure to perform, lots of expectations, but that's what makes this industry so interesting. I definitely learned a lot about this industry - the culture, the work, the politics, etc. Even though it has been a very tough 9 weeks, I also like that I have been pushed to my limits and I've proved to myself that I could handle a high stress environment. I've met so many intelligent and extremely hard working individuals at work, and people that I meet in the industry never fails to impress me. The hours may be long, and I don't get much of a social life, but the dynamics of this industry never fail to attract me, and I will still choose to work in investment banking.
Labels:
Investment Banking,
New York City,
Priscilla,
Singaporean
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
8 weeks into internship
As my internship continues, I have started implementation of
my initiatives – this past couple of weeks have been quite insightful into how
to run effective meetings, get consensus, close feedback loops and tie loose
ends. As I continue implementation of my initiatives my final presentation date
too has been scheduled and it is in a couple of weeks – this is my moment to
shine and get visibility to the senior leaders within my group. I feel great
and at the same time, there is a huge adrenaline rush as I begin preparing for
the final presentation, creating slides, doing dry-runs. My team mates have
been quite supportive and I cannot believe that in less than 4 weeks, my
internship would have ended!
On a separate note, the intern group is having a lot of fun –
we have been doing several activities, both fun and educational but most
importantly, a great way to get immersed in the company’s culture. Yesterday, we organized a mini-Ross Googler
lunch and it was great meeting some Ross alumni who are now working at Google –
get to learn about their experiences and get tips on how to do really well in
the internship.
On the personal front, evenings have been great – meeting up
with friends, going to movies, planning trips – it has just been fantastic!
Ross interns in the bay area also have been getting together quite often
through events organized at people’s homes – a couple of weeks back we had a
potluck at a friend’s place and it was great reconnecting with fellow Rossers
who are working in different companies and connecting with interns from other
schools. Thanks to all the folks who have hosted events at their places.
As my internship comes to an end, I feel happy to have
created impact thus far and I am looking forward to starting school in
September.
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
7 weeks into internship
At the beginning of this summer, financial service industry was a
completely new area for me. In the past 7 weeks, through working and attending summer
speaker series, I have learned so much about the industry. Digitization and urbanization
are two of the biggest trends impacting people’s life. Financial service
industry has certainly evolved around these topics as well. The whole industry
has invested billions of dollars to develop technologies that provide better,
faster and cheaper financial services. Financial institutions will continue
making investments in technology in the future, and technology will continue
shaping the industry.
Few years ago, Citi redirect its strategy to promote responsible
finance and to focus on its core business. Through my work at Citi tax, I can
certainly feel these changes going through the whole organization. There were
many successful spin-off transactions during the last 2 years. They are part of
the execution of Citi’s strategy to get out of the areas that are not in line
with the company's strategy so that we can focus on customer and services related
business. These spin-off transactions are also a result of higher liquidation
and capital requirement in financial service industry after the 2007 financial
crisis. Banks started to act more conservatively, and authorities are trying to
figure out better ways to guide the industry.
In terms of company culture, Citi promotes diversity and encourage
employees to gain exposures by taking positions in different functions,
products and regions. I was amazed by the level of mobility and the amount of
transitions people could make within Citi. Lots of people that I have talked to
have taken advantage of Citi’s global representation by taking international
rotations. Their exposure to different circumstances and challenges not only
provide them the full-picture view of the organization, but also enable them to
bring the best practice together, and come up with innovative ideas.
Labels:
Canadian,
Citigroup,
Corporate Finance,
Financial Services,
New York City,
Pan
Sunday, July 29, 2012
It was an awesome experience!
Hey guys… here I come, for every beginning there must be an end. It was an awesome experience having this opportunity to learn what I couldn’t have learnt in the classroom regarding hi- tech industry. I was able to build on my existing skills while contributing globally to Dell’s growth.The feedback from my manager after my ten-minutes final presentation to the executives on my 11-weeks summer project, was a reflection of my performances, as I quote “solid impression…Patrick….good speed and tone…congrats…you grow under pressure”! Well I wouldn’t expect anything less than that from him because in last two weeks to the final presentation, the course of my project changed more than four times which put me under intensive pressure. This was no one’s fault but the complexity of the project and dynamic nature of the industry.
This summer project has offered me more than enough opportunities to learn beyond my imagination. I was able to leverage my interpersonal skill to grow my network within Dell and hi-tech industry at large. I have tremendously built on my ability to collaborate with team in order to get my assignment done at as when due. Working under pressure has been the order of the day for the past ten weeks, which has greatly informed my fast learning and growing ability. Also I have been able to take advantage of the fortnightly project update presentations to develop my power point knowledge and presentation skill.
I would love to mention what I would have done differently, considering the short period of summer project; probably I should have pushed my manager to narrow down my project scope from the beginning which could have given me ample time to be deeper in a particular area.
However, it was great working with awesome people at Dell.
A Great Learning Experience
After nearly one month of interning, I really learned a lot from it. Healthcare industry is a totally different area for me, although I am interested in it for a time. During the internship, I met the doctors and nurses in person, watch operations carried out in the operation rooms, and observed the patients during all the time. Hospital’s mysterious feeling was disappearing day by day when I watched all kinds of routine work happened in it. Surgeons, who I used to think were super smart and whose jobs were too complicated for common people to understand, became common too. Their work is comprised from detailed knowledge of human bodies, carefulness and attention, and long-time training for more accuracy and efficiency. However, I was still moved by their spirit of professionalism when they cared every small thing related to potential danger to the patients’ health. When you see them washing their hands so thoroughly before operation, or disinfecting patients’ body so carefully, you can feel the responsibility in their hearts. Through the internship experience in this summer, I witnessed something precious that people do not care for the sake of money.
Another knowledge I obtained from the project so far is a deeper understanding of market potentials. I used to put focus on the maturity level of a market, thinking that only developed market could afford high margin goods and hold great profit potentials. However, during market research and discussion, I found market growth rate can be another standard for evaluating a market, even though the market is relatively new. Considering the growth aspect of a market would provide a more comprehensive view of the market for a long time. I have met with real examples of such views these days. When two comparable competitors entered into the same market, one cultivated its brand and sales force early on even the market was a small one; the other was just unwilling to invest more resources than the profit the market could bring then. However, after around 10 years, the first player enjoyed a much more solid market share while the other one is working very hard to catch up.
The finale
12 weeks….it is indeed amazing
how time flies. In 12 weeks the sun has
risen and set 84 times, new friends have been made and colleagues have left the
company.
My final presentation to the team is on Tuesday. Here I will brief
my team on the three projects I completed, giving a synopsis and producing a
transition document. My presentation will
also include a list of thank yous to various individuals without whom I would not have been able to get up to speed.
As I reflect on my internship, I
feel this has been a very eventful journey – working in the tech industry has
made me appreciate the culture, the work –life balance and also the kinds of
work available if you are not a hardware/software engineer. Exposure to the job fluidity within the
industry is also a nice experience……a lot of Creative Destruction taking place
in the valley – exit opportunities and entry opportunities are many. I have
improved several skillsets – presentation and analytical among them.
Having more fun while it lasts….is
what I would encourage everyone to do so. You will not realize how time flies. I started
attending the bay area Ross Intern meet ups held every weekend and it was
fabulous. We all had similar experiences
across firms/companies. We are all also
hoping that we get offers for full time positions but getting full time offers
depends on several things at once – head count projections, internship
performance, reviews etc. I also
recommend building your network within the company and with fellow interns in
other companies as it will help improve your general knowledge about the tech
industry. Also it is important to
participate in intra company events, so that you are able to greater appreciate
the culture of the company.
My final notes: Work diligently,
Network Broadly and Appreciate fully!
Labels:
Australia,
Business School,
Corporate Finance,
High Tech,
Internet
Group project in New York
An important part of
our summer internship program at Citi is this two-week group project in New
York. All associates working for different business functions in commercial
banking are pre-assigned to groups of 6 to 8 people to solve a real business
case, come up with recommendations and present them to senior leaders at the
end. It’s essentially a five-day internal consulting project designed to evaluate
our performance in leadership, business acumen and teamwork spirits. It was an
intense and highly pressured project, which covers five markets in three
different continents, serving over 10 million potential customers.
After this group
project, my internship has only two weeks left. Apart from saying time flies,
all of the interns that I met in New York, including myself are anxiously
waiting to see if we will get return offers with Citibank. Therefore, every team
member is working really hard together, trying to come up with some brilliant
business ideas that can solve the real business cases for the bank. In earlier
this week, summer interns from all business functions and all study programs
were gathered at the Bank’s New York headquarter for the speech delivered by
Vikrum Pandit, the CEO of Citigroup. In his speech, Mr Pandit talked about the importance
of integrity in the world of finance and Citi’s transition to more transparent
and responsible lending since he took the helm during the global financial
crisis. The conference room was filled with over 600 summer interns, both
undergraduate and graduate students from all the top business schools around the
country. It was a great event in the summer.
Besides work, New York
is always a great place to be in terms of social life and nice food. Talking about
food, I arrived just in time for the New York restaurant week, which lasts for
three weeks with about 100 participating restaurants. I went out several times
with my fellow summer classmate to some nice restaurants in New York and had
some really good time there. Lastly, I just hope that our team presentation in
front of some very senior people in Citi goes well next week. Fingers crossed.
Labels:
Bin Ni,
Chinese,
Citibank,
Commerical Banking,
New Zealand
Friday, July 27, 2012
Diversity, Exposure, Cooperation and Work-life balance.. Loving NYC
Hello
friends. This was my 7th week , one more week down in my internship
at Citibank., so I have 3 more to go. This was a veeeeeery busy week, for me
that I really care about work life balance, I can say that the past days were
the only in which I really had to stay late. This week was about working in a
group project, which basically is solving a business issue for a division that
is not familiar to the team, and working with 7 people. It may sound easy but
it wasn’t. The big challenge was to deal with so many people in this team, so I
had to go back to my MO classes and take many useful tips.
Another thing that
happened this week, was our speaker series with Vikram Pandit Citi’s CEO.
Needless to say that it was great, very smart guy who was born in India, and
very down to earth, even charismatic. Which takes me to the first topic of
today, the company culture. Which has three major components. First, diversity across divisions and
business units. It is very natural to see people from everywhere interacting
with each other. Which make sense as they are know as the global bank. Citi is
not the biggest bank in US, nor in the world, but is the only bank that has
presence in more than 180 countries. Hence, diversity plays a critical role and
you see this in all different levels. A CEO who is from India, another who is
from Mexico, directors from UK,
Venezuela, Italy, China, and you name
it. For me it has worked very well, as being international student, you feel
that you are in a very open space where they are willing to promote and develop
people from outside of US.
Another important component of Citi’s culture, is it
openness with senior management. This
speaker series with our CEO is only a good example, but we’ve had had this type
of thing with other very senior leaders along the summer internship. Twice per
week to be more precise. This exposure
not only has helped to understand other areas of the organization, but also to
get worthwhile tips about personal and professional development. I found this
very relevant, as in my previous work someone told me once. “In a company it is
not only about delivering and working hard, you have to develop leadership
behaviors and get exposure from senior levels” The latter helps not only to learn,
but sometimes it may connect you with someone who share your background. Another aspect that I have enjoyed so far, is
the cooperative culture. It is important to note that I work in consumer
banking, whose culture may vary from Investment Banking and Sales & Trading.
Departments that are also part of Citi, but that require more daily hours,
which changes the dynamic of the work.
Well, as I was saying, in consumer
banking it is very common to work in cross-functional teams, and being
evaluated by your pers. This two things push the cooperation among team-members,
as you know that everyone needs from everyone, and that your rating or the
decision of hire or not hire will depend on the evaluation of your teammates. I
enjoy working and interacting with people, so it works for me. However, it may
be people who like more the individual work. But as I said, there is no good or
bad, the only important thing is to understand, and look for the right fit.
So
far, I have had a great experience at Citi, and I love that they foster these
three things on Citi’s culture: Diversity, openness with senior leaders, and
cooperative teamwork. And probably, I will add another component that creates a
good environment, good work-life balance. Here In NYC I ‘ve had the opportunity
to read, work out, work, and go out on a daily basis. Which at least for me, is
a great experience. This is it for now; I hope you have enjoyed my stories so
far; I will be posting soon my last one. See you until then.
Miguel
Labels:
Banking,
business development,
Citibank,
Consumer banking,
CPG,
Mexico,
Miguel,
Miguel Martinez,
New York City,
NYC
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