Amidst the flashing lights, enormous billboards, and crowds of tourists in the heart of New York City's Times Square rests the Reuters building, the setting of my summer internship at Thomson Reuters. I knew relatively little about the company before starting there, and from my conversations with peers, it seems as if I was not alone. Thomson Reuters was formed in 2008 with the merger of Thomson (known for its footprint in financial services, market data, educational tools, among other things) and Reuters (known for its global, unbiased news coverage). While the companies shared a common bond in their passion for disseminating vital information to the world's professionals, there were a lot of synergies to be made before Thomson Reuters would truly come together as one entity. Even today, the growing pains are still visible, with many aspects of the company still not fully integrated. That said, Thomson Reuters is now arguably the largest information provider in the world, rivaling Bloomberg in the financial markets and the Associated Press in the media space.
My internship is in the Strategy group, which I also knew nothing about as I entered the building on June 1st. I now know that the Strategy division is a small thinktank that reports directly to the CFO, evaluating growth opportunities, acquisition targets, and overall company strategy for each year. And it's definitely exciting work. I was very pleasantly surprised to be working on such "big picture" assignments as a mere undergraduate intern. In fact, I can't even get into detail about my work because most of it involves initiatives that 99% of Thomson Reuters employees know nothing about, pretty cool in my opinion.
But what surprised me most about my first few days as an intern were the people. When I found out that 3 of my bosses went to Yale, Stanford, and Harvard respectively, and my fellow strategy interns were undergrads at Duke, Brown, and Yale, I was pretty intimidated. But I was immediately amazed to find how cool, friendly, helpful, and down to earth everyone was without exception. All working in a big open conference room together, the interns have formed a pretty close-knit group, and each day we have grown closer as we work together on assignments, ideas, and even pranks. After work on Tuesday, the entire strategy team was treated to the ultimate team building exercise, a night out at New York's ultimate ping pong lounge, SPIN. That is a must see for any ping ping fan/player.
Thus far the company has certainly lived up to my expectations. Overall, my assignments have been pretty interesting as well. Without getting into detail, I've been doing a lot of PowerPoint work, which seems to be a theme in strategy, to create slide decks as part of presentations that will eventualy reach the CEO's desk. However interesting or boring the subject matter, it's exciting to create such meaningful work at this stage in the game. In the coming weeks, I have a few more goals:
1) To meet as many influential people as possible and develop a large company-wide network
2) To get involved in the Reuters Media side of the company, especially in such a dynamic media landscape as we see now
I look forward to keeping you posted.
Alex Weiss, BBA
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Sales Planning and Planning Sales
(BBA, Fox Broadcasting)
Hey it's Alyssa Fried! Last time I wrote I was still getting adjusted to being in the work place after a crazy few weeks of travel. Now that I am settled into my daily routine, everything is so much easier and I can focus fully on my internship. As the weeks have passed, I have found that I have finally got a routine down. I get on the train at 7:43 in Pleasantville, get off at Grand Central and walk the couple of blocks to 1211 Avenue of the Americas (or 47th and 6th). I ride the elevator to the twentieth floor and head right for my cubicle.
Although my cubicle is far from my supervisors and other people that I work with, at least one of them stops by my cubicle to check in and see how I am doing or if I have any questions. They are extremely helpful. There is an entire team of people who are so supportive and intent on teaching me the ways of their work. I have sat with every person while they did their work, and instead of getting annoyed by my presence, they have turned to me and explained every step of whatever they are doing. They encourage me to ask questions, and honestly I can say I have learned so much in these past three weeks.
My summer project is to help the Sales Planning and Revenue Analysis departments forecast revenues, analyze reports for optimal ways to make revenue, and enter estimates into report generating computer programs. One of the shows that I have been looking at is Glee. Last night, the finale aired, and according to Hollywood Insider, finished the year as the highest-rated season-ender for all freshman series! This is very exciting news. See here! http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/2010/06/09/glee-finale-watched-by-nearly-11-million-viewers/
I love that this internship involves finance as well as entertainment, and I thoroughly enjoy doing my work and learning what my supervisors do. I'd say one of the hardest parts of the internship to date is getting my work done on time. It's not that I can't do the work, or it's too much to handle. It is that I am so nervous to make a mistake, and want all of work to be neat, perfect, and correct that I spend hours checking and rechecking. Everyone keeps telling me to take my time, but I can't help but feeling that I am not doing the projects fast enough. Hopefully I will become more confident in my work, and feel that I am attentive enough to not have to check my work 5-10 times. If all goes according to plan, I will be more confident in my work by the next post!
Hey it's Alyssa Fried! Last time I wrote I was still getting adjusted to being in the work place after a crazy few weeks of travel. Now that I am settled into my daily routine, everything is so much easier and I can focus fully on my internship. As the weeks have passed, I have found that I have finally got a routine down. I get on the train at 7:43 in Pleasantville, get off at Grand Central and walk the couple of blocks to 1211 Avenue of the Americas (or 47th and 6th). I ride the elevator to the twentieth floor and head right for my cubicle.
Although my cubicle is far from my supervisors and other people that I work with, at least one of them stops by my cubicle to check in and see how I am doing or if I have any questions. They are extremely helpful. There is an entire team of people who are so supportive and intent on teaching me the ways of their work. I have sat with every person while they did their work, and instead of getting annoyed by my presence, they have turned to me and explained every step of whatever they are doing. They encourage me to ask questions, and honestly I can say I have learned so much in these past three weeks.
My summer project is to help the Sales Planning and Revenue Analysis departments forecast revenues, analyze reports for optimal ways to make revenue, and enter estimates into report generating computer programs. One of the shows that I have been looking at is Glee. Last night, the finale aired, and according to Hollywood Insider, finished the year as the highest-rated season-ender for all freshman series! This is very exciting news. See here! http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/2010/06/09/glee-finale-watched-by-nearly-11-million-viewers/
I love that this internship involves finance as well as entertainment, and I thoroughly enjoy doing my work and learning what my supervisors do. I'd say one of the hardest parts of the internship to date is getting my work done on time. It's not that I can't do the work, or it's too much to handle. It is that I am so nervous to make a mistake, and want all of work to be neat, perfect, and correct that I spend hours checking and rechecking. Everyone keeps telling me to take my time, but I can't help but feeling that I am not doing the projects fast enough. Hopefully I will become more confident in my work, and feel that I am attentive enough to not have to check my work 5-10 times. If all goes according to plan, I will be more confident in my work by the next post!
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Season 2: Deep diving in the work: gear up, man
(MBA, Eli Lilly) The first week was almost about learning the background information about the project, getting familiar with the team members and the facilities. Lilly has many campuses in Indianapolis and I am sitting in the most magnificent building called Lilly Corporate Center. Inside there are lots of facilities such as cafeteria, food court, lecture halls, employee clinic, gyms, laundry, and credit union (yes, they indeed have credit union…). At Each noon, I always try different cuisines and enjoy the wide range of choices from Asian food to Mexico food.
Now I have clear understanding about the project: I am going to create a model to assess the global credit risk and generate credit limit recommendation, involving enormous stats testing and data matrix calibration. It is challenging as it aims to standardize the credit risk assessment practice all over the world where there are currently over 100 different practices among countries. My supervisor apparently has set a very high expectation on my project: tight schedule, many milestones, and plenty of small projects. She is a straightforward supervisor who is aggressive and tough, quite different from my ex bosses. It actually posted a challenge to me as I have to manage well the relationship with her and make sure she will buy in my project results at the end of the day. To make the situation more complicated, she is expecting me to work closely with another analyst who has worked in credit team for around two years. And the feedback of the analyst is having a big influence on my supervisor’s comment for my final performance. Albeit these challenges, I am pursuing a strategy to align the analyst and indirectly my supervisor, i.e. keeping close communication with the analyst and working hard to win her respect and coordination. Once I get her on board, it is certain my supervisor will recognize.
As it is closer to the project deadline, my calendar is becoming more and more occupied. Usually I get up at 6:30AM and arrive in office at 7:30AM. Attend averagely three meetings and have a 30min talk with two new people respectively per day. It is quite helpful to talk with people from different departments, as they can give me introduction to the business they are doing, suggestions on my project and why they like to work in Lilly. Then I will spend the rest of time on the project… At around 6:30PM, I will leave office.
In all, the working style is a little different from what I perceived in Lilly’s on campus presentation but it is good to deeply dive into my colleagues daily work life in Lilly. Yes, it is a tough project, far more challenging than MAP. But it is also a good opportunity to test my competence out of my comfort zone. Let’s cross figures and best luck. Gear up, man!
P.S. Today I went to a “How we make the drug” lunch and learn presentation hosted by the EVP of Research in Lilly. Very interesting topic…
Now I have clear understanding about the project: I am going to create a model to assess the global credit risk and generate credit limit recommendation, involving enormous stats testing and data matrix calibration. It is challenging as it aims to standardize the credit risk assessment practice all over the world where there are currently over 100 different practices among countries. My supervisor apparently has set a very high expectation on my project: tight schedule, many milestones, and plenty of small projects. She is a straightforward supervisor who is aggressive and tough, quite different from my ex bosses. It actually posted a challenge to me as I have to manage well the relationship with her and make sure she will buy in my project results at the end of the day. To make the situation more complicated, she is expecting me to work closely with another analyst who has worked in credit team for around two years. And the feedback of the analyst is having a big influence on my supervisor’s comment for my final performance. Albeit these challenges, I am pursuing a strategy to align the analyst and indirectly my supervisor, i.e. keeping close communication with the analyst and working hard to win her respect and coordination. Once I get her on board, it is certain my supervisor will recognize.
As it is closer to the project deadline, my calendar is becoming more and more occupied. Usually I get up at 6:30AM and arrive in office at 7:30AM. Attend averagely three meetings and have a 30min talk with two new people respectively per day. It is quite helpful to talk with people from different departments, as they can give me introduction to the business they are doing, suggestions on my project and why they like to work in Lilly. Then I will spend the rest of time on the project… At around 6:30PM, I will leave office.
In all, the working style is a little different from what I perceived in Lilly’s on campus presentation but it is good to deeply dive into my colleagues daily work life in Lilly. Yes, it is a tough project, far more challenging than MAP. But it is also a good opportunity to test my competence out of my comfort zone. Let’s cross figures and best luck. Gear up, man!
P.S. Today I went to a “How we make the drug” lunch and learn presentation hosted by the EVP of Research in Lilly. Very interesting topic…
Job flexibility
Howdy readers!,
Hope you are doing great, last time I wrote here I talked you a little bit about Columbus and what is my work. Today I'm going to update a little bit on that. After a couple more weeks in the job I found that this is an interesting job with nice people. Everyone is very relaxed and there is not much rush around… at least is what I feel. Probably this will sound weird, but this is new for me. Given my previous experience as management consultant I feel this urge to "run" with all the work I have to do and to "react" immediately to every new fact or meeting, regardless the time of the day. Apparently, here people take it a little more relaxed. Don't get me wrong, everybody works a lot, but no 12 – 15hrs a day. That's a good thing, but I have to get used to it, let's see how it works in the next weeks.
Something interesting about how the work is done here in Corporate Strategy is the fact that at the beginning of the summer I just got my project, a deadline and a pat on my shoulder. I have little or no supervision, unless I asked for it via peer reviews or meetings with the Director I'm working with.
This is something I like a lot, because it gives me a lot of flexibility to work at my own pace and to do other things (but don't tell my boss, hehe). The only drawback with this kind of jobs is that you need to be really responsible for what you are doing, I doesn't matter if you work a little everyday or you procrastinate from Monday to Thursday and work like crazy on Friday… you need to deliver sooner or later and you better do it because people is trusting you to do a quality work and have high expectations. Fortunately I think I can do it and I'm pretty sure I'm in the way to do it.
In order to keep myself on track I like chatting informally with my boss in a regular basis and give small updates of how I'm doing and probably ask some questions I could have (like who to talk with to solve an issue or get guidance on an idea). In addition to that, this Friday I want to present the work I have ready into something we call "peer review" were all the people in the strategy group get together to watch presentations of on-going projects and provide feedback and ideas that can be helpful for the owner of the project. I hope that presenting this Friday will help me boost the speed and insight of my project. I'll let you know later how it went.
Well, I think that's all I have to tell you this week… this was a really short and non-insightful post right?. To compensate I'll leave you all a photo of a bunny with a pancake over his head. See you later!
Internship: Quarter 1
I completed 3 weeks at Microsoft last Friday. These three weeks have been very exciting. I have been learning the lay of the land of online advertising, which seems to be evolving daily. While its all clubbed together as online advertising, different subverticals have completely different challenges. Paid search ads, diplay ads, mobile ads, Video ads, all have their own unique set of challenges. I have been lucky to get a chance to speak with people within most of these groups, and have been learning a lot.
The tools that come in handy are excel and powerpoint. I highly recommend the Excel courses to the class of 2012. The course covers the basics of excel, and is essential if you have not used Excel extensively in your past life. I also find that my MAP experience was really helpful in preparing me for the internship. I am better prepared for the informational interviews because of MAP.
The rain Gods have not been very kind to us over the past few weeks, and it has rained continuously. However we do get sunny patches once in a while, and this Saturday was one such day. A group of 20 MBAs (interns from all over the country, working for Amazon, Microsoft, Boeing etc) went to Twin Falls, for a early morning hike. It was a lot of fun and we got to meet a ton of great people.
The next few weeks at work are devoted to completing a financial model and developing a framework for search advertisement innovation. As I will describe in the next post, the display advertising space can be very intimidating, and it takes a significant amount of time to wrap your head around some of the concepts. I am looking forward to a ton of learning. Till then, Sayonara..
The tools that come in handy are excel and powerpoint. I highly recommend the Excel courses to the class of 2012. The course covers the basics of excel, and is essential if you have not used Excel extensively in your past life. I also find that my MAP experience was really helpful in preparing me for the internship. I am better prepared for the informational interviews because of MAP.
The rain Gods have not been very kind to us over the past few weeks, and it has rained continuously. However we do get sunny patches once in a while, and this Saturday was one such day. A group of 20 MBAs (interns from all over the country, working for Amazon, Microsoft, Boeing etc) went to Twin Falls, for a early morning hike. It was a lot of fun and we got to meet a ton of great people.
The next few weeks at work are devoted to completing a financial model and developing a framework for search advertisement innovation. As I will describe in the next post, the display advertising space can be very intimidating, and it takes a significant amount of time to wrap your head around some of the concepts. I am looking forward to a ton of learning. Till then, Sayonara..
Monday, June 7, 2010
Jumping into the water
(MBA,Booz) Two weeks had passed since the last time I wrote, in this time I started working on my assignment and found out more about the crazy consulting learning curve.
When I recruited for consulting, one of the things mentioned the most by current consultants was the learning curve, they all spoke of the fast and intense learning and the amazing pace in which things move on during a project. My first two weeks gave me the opportunity to see and feel it first hand! The amount of data I was exposed to and the complexity of the project are amazing, I found myself working on a task that seemed to be simple at the beginning but got more and more complex as it moved on, a simple excel model I designed to resolve it turned into a complex model that is getting even more complex as we move on.
In parallel to that there is a lot to learn about the way Booz works, specific tools and methods, decks’ preparation as well as technical things like submitting expenses and reporting working hours.
The team work experience is also a challenge, my team consists of two principles, few senior associates, few associates and me, above all of that there’s a partner from the Dallas office. The organization is flat by nature so I have a direct connection to anyone I want to talk to and I can present my ideas to anyone in the team, the team itself is very supportive and it’s a great experience working as part of it.
There is a lot of fun involved in this job as well, we have team dinners every week and these are always a fun experience, there are also all kinds of office activities on Fridays and weekends like a happy hour we had on the last Friday or a wine tasting event we will have next week!
To summarize it all in one sentence – so far I’m having a great experience and hope it’ll keep on going on like that!
When I recruited for consulting, one of the things mentioned the most by current consultants was the learning curve, they all spoke of the fast and intense learning and the amazing pace in which things move on during a project. My first two weeks gave me the opportunity to see and feel it first hand! The amount of data I was exposed to and the complexity of the project are amazing, I found myself working on a task that seemed to be simple at the beginning but got more and more complex as it moved on, a simple excel model I designed to resolve it turned into a complex model that is getting even more complex as we move on.
In parallel to that there is a lot to learn about the way Booz works, specific tools and methods, decks’ preparation as well as technical things like submitting expenses and reporting working hours.
The team work experience is also a challenge, my team consists of two principles, few senior associates, few associates and me, above all of that there’s a partner from the Dallas office. The organization is flat by nature so I have a direct connection to anyone I want to talk to and I can present my ideas to anyone in the team, the team itself is very supportive and it’s a great experience working as part of it.
There is a lot of fun involved in this job as well, we have team dinners every week and these are always a fun experience, there are also all kinds of office activities on Fridays and weekends like a happy hour we had on the last Friday or a wine tasting event we will have next week!
To summarize it all in one sentence – so far I’m having a great experience and hope it’ll keep on going on like that!
Saturday, June 5, 2010
First couple of weeks at Hill's Pet Nutrition!
Hello everybody from Kansas! Certainly not the greatest place on earth but this is where I'm spending my summer so I'll have to find a way to like it...
In addition to my project, there are several daily "mini-projects" coming my way which reminds me what the real world looks like. However, I am fortunate enough to report to a Michigan alum who, along with other recent MBA grads from other schools, has been very helpful. Most of the people here are more than willing to help me get a better understanding of the business and daily tasks.
Since my last post, the main difference is that I have moved to Lawrence, KS and been here for two weeks. Lawrence is a college town, very similar to Ann Arbor, but it's a half-hour drive to Topeka to get to work. I would love to give you more info on the location but unfortunately things have been pretty hectic at work and haven't had the chance to move around as much as I wanted.
I got my project(s) description and was given a cubicle (which as you can see I have decorated accordingly) the very first day. I was assigned to the Science Diet cat nutrition team for the summer. Basically, I will develop a promotional strategy for the special needs line, design the brand action plan for the life-stage line, and lead the monthly volume tracking to understand our sales activity, make recommendations on corrective actions, and comply with Colgate Business Planning.
Yeah I know it sounds like a busy summer! Just by looking at my deliverables I feel some pressure but every day has been a learning experience, even during lunch with directors and VPs. This is the kind of company Hill's is-everyone is accesible.
If I had to point out my major difficulty so far, that would be the acronyms! They use more acronyms than full words which makes my communication a little bit harder. Until my next post, hopefully I will have figured most of them out...
Enjoy summertime!
Thursday, June 3, 2010
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.
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.
More than just Chemistry - first week
I have finished my first week as an intern and it has been a very good start! It was exciting to find out that I will be leading three impactful and challenging projects. My expectations as career switcher, regarding the caliber and breadth of experience, seem to be more than fulfilled. Not only I will have exposure to one marketing project, but I will have to manage three different aspects of the marketing function. Juggling unrelated projects, involving Marketing Research, Market Assessment and Commercial Development will make a busy summer for me!!
At FMC BioPolymer (http://www.fmcbiopolymer.com/) I know I will be learning more than just Chemistry. I was lucky enough to participate in the monthly Marketing meeting, which gave me a more general idea of the focus, important initiatives and on-going projects, as well as who is involved. It will be soooo good to be able to deliver results while getting to know the company and apply what I’ve learned in my first year at Ross. I feel very pleased and I believe that afterwards I will have a better understanding of the area as a whole.
On the personal side, I have been very fortunate too. My new place was part of the package offered by the company and has everything I need. It is walking distance to the office in central city Philadelphia; and really close to historical sites and stores, restaurants and parks. People have been very helpful during my arrival. I received a walking tour of the neighborhood, maps and tips on activities and good places to go after the working hours are over. Office environment is something I have been very satisfied with! My manager, the project sponsors, Human Resources, and everyone else has been very friendly and warm. For now, I’m the only intern. Another MBA intern, from Kellogg, will be arriving in the next weeks. I hope he and his wife will be comfortable as well in Philly.
At FMC BioPolymer (http://www.fmcbiopolymer.com/) I know I will be learning more than just Chemistry. I was lucky enough to participate in the monthly Marketing meeting, which gave me a more general idea of the focus, important initiatives and on-going projects, as well as who is involved. It will be soooo good to be able to deliver results while getting to know the company and apply what I’ve learned in my first year at Ross. I feel very pleased and I believe that afterwards I will have a better understanding of the area as a whole.
On the personal side, I have been very fortunate too. My new place was part of the package offered by the company and has everything I need. It is walking distance to the office in central city Philadelphia; and really close to historical sites and stores, restaurants and parks. People have been very helpful during my arrival. I received a walking tour of the neighborhood, maps and tips on activities and good places to go after the working hours are over. Office environment is something I have been very satisfied with! My manager, the project sponsors, Human Resources, and everyone else has been very friendly and warm. For now, I’m the only intern. Another MBA intern, from Kellogg, will be arriving in the next weeks. I hope he and his wife will be comfortable as well in Philly.
The end is nigh....
After close to 10 weeks of work I was finally ready to deliver!
My final presentation was scheduled for a weekday afternoon, via a conference call that would be attended by some of EDF’s experts in nitrogen management and agriculture. I was nervous but comforted by the confidence my boss had displayed in my findings by inviting his colleagues to my briefing. I had never delivered a presentation over a conference call before and found the prospect of talking to a phone for 45 minutes discomforting! Nevertheless, I did the best I could and my audience followed along with the slides in front of them.
The presentation was over quicker than I thought it would be and there were plenty of questions as I went along. This resulted in my having to hurry up toward the end and skip over a few parts of my presentation. Luckily I did not have a hard audience and I was able to reach my conclusions and recommendations without a problem. On hindsight I would have had my boss moderate the entire presentation so that we limited questions during the presentation and saved more time to run through the slides. This is a common mistake and even harder to manger via a conference call with attendees dialing in from different locations. There are no substitutes for face to face meetings, it turns out!
On the whole, the internship was a great experience for me and hopefully provided EDF some good material and research on which to base their nitrogen interventions. I had the chance to learn about agriculture, cropping systems and the environmental impacts that fertilizers have on our natural resources. This is a big bonus for me as I’m also concurrently pursing a Master of Sicence and this definitely helped my understanding of agro-ecology. Finally, I was surprised to learn that it is remarkably easy to identify gaps and need for coordination when one talks to enough people with different points of view. My project is now wrapped up and I’m looking forward to working with EDF in the future again!
My final presentation was scheduled for a weekday afternoon, via a conference call that would be attended by some of EDF’s experts in nitrogen management and agriculture. I was nervous but comforted by the confidence my boss had displayed in my findings by inviting his colleagues to my briefing. I had never delivered a presentation over a conference call before and found the prospect of talking to a phone for 45 minutes discomforting! Nevertheless, I did the best I could and my audience followed along with the slides in front of them.
The presentation was over quicker than I thought it would be and there were plenty of questions as I went along. This resulted in my having to hurry up toward the end and skip over a few parts of my presentation. Luckily I did not have a hard audience and I was able to reach my conclusions and recommendations without a problem. On hindsight I would have had my boss moderate the entire presentation so that we limited questions during the presentation and saved more time to run through the slides. This is a common mistake and even harder to manger via a conference call with attendees dialing in from different locations. There are no substitutes for face to face meetings, it turns out!
On the whole, the internship was a great experience for me and hopefully provided EDF some good material and research on which to base their nitrogen interventions. I had the chance to learn about agriculture, cropping systems and the environmental impacts that fertilizers have on our natural resources. This is a big bonus for me as I’m also concurrently pursing a Master of Sicence and this definitely helped my understanding of agro-ecology. Finally, I was surprised to learn that it is remarkably easy to identify gaps and need for coordination when one talks to enough people with different points of view. My project is now wrapped up and I’m looking forward to working with EDF in the future again!
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Quarter one of internship
If the internship was equivalent to a company's financial year, this would be about time I would be reporting the Q1 performance. Yikes!!! what a scary thought. Three weeks...and no sign of the killer insights I'm supposed to deliver at the end of my internship. Three weeks and no economic value added. I'm sure my managerial accounting Prof. would be so disappointed.
However, over the past weeks I have been able to better formulate the questions that I'm seeking answers to and identify the people outside and inside the company who can help me answer them. Initially the problem to be solved didn't seem that difficult. I was confident that either the precision weaponry of Operations or mass destruction capability of corporate strategy would be enough to slay these demons. After all, how big can the problems of a small company be? But I guess the real complexity is in how and where to get the facts that define the problem.
The good thing about interning with an early stage company, I believe is that there is lot of room for contributing your own ideas. At the same time as there is little to no past data that you can base your decisions on, there is constant need to find information from outside sources. And if you are coming from a background where you have worked for large corporations in the past it takes a change of mindset to get used to the new way of getting things done. However, so far I have liked the freedom of being able to not only decide how to execute the project but also to decide the sources that I will use to come to the project conclusions.
So, I spent three weeks understanding the problem and may be formulating a vague strategy to solve it. Does that mean I added any value to the company? Wish there was a way to report that on a quarterly statement.
(325 words)
However, over the past weeks I have been able to better formulate the questions that I'm seeking answers to and identify the people outside and inside the company who can help me answer them. Initially the problem to be solved didn't seem that difficult. I was confident that either the precision weaponry of Operations or mass destruction capability of corporate strategy would be enough to slay these demons. After all, how big can the problems of a small company be? But I guess the real complexity is in how and where to get the facts that define the problem.
The good thing about interning with an early stage company, I believe is that there is lot of room for contributing your own ideas. At the same time as there is little to no past data that you can base your decisions on, there is constant need to find information from outside sources. And if you are coming from a background where you have worked for large corporations in the past it takes a change of mindset to get used to the new way of getting things done. However, so far I have liked the freedom of being able to not only decide how to execute the project but also to decide the sources that I will use to come to the project conclusions.
So, I spent three weeks understanding the problem and may be formulating a vague strategy to solve it. Does that mean I added any value to the company? Wish there was a way to report that on a quarterly statement.
(325 words)
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Soy Jism
MBA, News Corp. So… its Roy again. I know the five people that actually read this missed me and are kept up at night anxiously awaiting how my first week at News Corp treated me. Well you are in luck, I am about to tell you all about my little adventure in the world of Fox News, which one liberal politician called “a fire breathing monster with frightening powers”!
My first day at News Corp was an experience for the ages. I arrived, got my badge, met with HR and was whisked away by my manager, Jeff Cohen (on the off chance you know him), who promptly confirmed that I was going to be working on http://www.foxnews.com/ and http://www.foxbusiness.com/, which I already knew, as they are two of News Corps most prominent digital properties. We then went to find my desk. On the way, I was shocked he kept passing all the corner and window offices. I was sure that one of these spacious quarters was where I was going to change the sales world. However, I was escorted to a cubicle and was greeted with four mystery flavored Starburst (no doubt left by the last intern who sat at my desk), a computer and TV. This cubicle, although not an office with a window to outside world, has a window view into an office with a window to the outside world. Score!
The next thing I was told to do was surf the web and watch TV. My boss actually mandated that I watch TV and surf the web at work. Of course, I also had a couple of meetings, some training and lots of office debauchery. In the end it was a slow week leading into the long Memorial Day weekend, but I accomplished my goals of getting to know the people I am going to work with and getting familiar with the lay of the land. Following my boss’ direction, I researched Fox News clips like this one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zB4ItYcX4I about soy jism.
My first day at News Corp was an experience for the ages. I arrived, got my badge, met with HR and was whisked away by my manager, Jeff Cohen (on the off chance you know him), who promptly confirmed that I was going to be working on http://www.foxnews.com/ and http://www.foxbusiness.com/, which I already knew, as they are two of News Corps most prominent digital properties. We then went to find my desk. On the way, I was shocked he kept passing all the corner and window offices. I was sure that one of these spacious quarters was where I was going to change the sales world. However, I was escorted to a cubicle and was greeted with four mystery flavored Starburst (no doubt left by the last intern who sat at my desk), a computer and TV. This cubicle, although not an office with a window to outside world, has a window view into an office with a window to the outside world. Score!
The next thing I was told to do was surf the web and watch TV. My boss actually mandated that I watch TV and surf the web at work. Of course, I also had a couple of meetings, some training and lots of office debauchery. In the end it was a slow week leading into the long Memorial Day weekend, but I accomplished my goals of getting to know the people I am going to work with and getting familiar with the lay of the land. Following my boss’ direction, I researched Fox News clips like this one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zB4ItYcX4I about soy jism.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Finance for Jewelry Retail
Hi all,
Glad to be writing in again! It has been a very exciting and challenging couple of weeks. I am close to the end of the 1st project and am gearing up toward the finishing stretch. Just to remind you, I am interning in Finance at Sears and am working to squeeze in as much as possible over the next six weeks as I have a baby coming at the end of the internship, and not much say in when she decides that will be! I have been putting in an average of two hours overtime everyday as contingency against losing time in the last couple of weeks of the internship. My team, especially the business finance manager that I immediately report to, has been extremely understanding of my need to take time off for doctor’s appointments. All in all it is shaping up to be a productive summer!
Let me tell you a little bit about my project. I work with the Jewelry business unit and one of the most important things the merchants/buyers do every year is to go into negotiations with their supplying vendors to determine fair costs of products, negotiate returns of unsold or defective merchandise and negotiate support for things like marketing, volume discounts, margin support, clearance sales etc. It is critical for them to have all the numbers relating to these items for the previous two years in order to be effective in their negotiations. My task is to figure out what metrics are most relevant to them (through conversations with all of the buying team and their leadership) and develop a comprehensive scorecard that they can refer to during negotiations. Up till now, this sort of elaborately detailed information had never been available to them in one comprehensive data source, due to the existence of multiple data entry and pull systems. While the move to better IT is something the company is working on, much of the collation of data has to currently be done by individuals like myself, in order to be useful on the ground.
I made a presentation of my work to the Senior Vice President (SVP) on Thursday in the presence of the merchant and finance Divisional Vice Presidents (DVP’s) and my Business Finance Manager (BFM). The SVP and merchant DVP were extremely appreciative of the work I have done and are very excited about taking the scorecard to market in a week, where they will finally be armed with as much or more information than their negotiating counterparts on the vendor side.
The role of the finance team in a retail set-up is to support the functioning of the business unit using financial metrics, and I think this project has definitely delivered value to the business unit in a way that they would not have been able to access on their own. I am pleased with the opportunity to create value for my team and for the fact that I have made an impression of thorough groundwork and meticulous attention to detail with my senior leadership.
Looking forward to the next project!
Glad to be writing in again! It has been a very exciting and challenging couple of weeks. I am close to the end of the 1st project and am gearing up toward the finishing stretch. Just to remind you, I am interning in Finance at Sears and am working to squeeze in as much as possible over the next six weeks as I have a baby coming at the end of the internship, and not much say in when she decides that will be! I have been putting in an average of two hours overtime everyday as contingency against losing time in the last couple of weeks of the internship. My team, especially the business finance manager that I immediately report to, has been extremely understanding of my need to take time off for doctor’s appointments. All in all it is shaping up to be a productive summer!
Let me tell you a little bit about my project. I work with the Jewelry business unit and one of the most important things the merchants/buyers do every year is to go into negotiations with their supplying vendors to determine fair costs of products, negotiate returns of unsold or defective merchandise and negotiate support for things like marketing, volume discounts, margin support, clearance sales etc. It is critical for them to have all the numbers relating to these items for the previous two years in order to be effective in their negotiations. My task is to figure out what metrics are most relevant to them (through conversations with all of the buying team and their leadership) and develop a comprehensive scorecard that they can refer to during negotiations. Up till now, this sort of elaborately detailed information had never been available to them in one comprehensive data source, due to the existence of multiple data entry and pull systems. While the move to better IT is something the company is working on, much of the collation of data has to currently be done by individuals like myself, in order to be useful on the ground.
I made a presentation of my work to the Senior Vice President (SVP) on Thursday in the presence of the merchant and finance Divisional Vice Presidents (DVP’s) and my Business Finance Manager (BFM). The SVP and merchant DVP were extremely appreciative of the work I have done and are very excited about taking the scorecard to market in a week, where they will finally be armed with as much or more information than their negotiating counterparts on the vendor side.
The role of the finance team in a retail set-up is to support the functioning of the business unit using financial metrics, and I think this project has definitely delivered value to the business unit in a way that they would not have been able to access on their own. I am pleased with the opportunity to create value for my team and for the fact that I have made an impression of thorough groundwork and meticulous attention to detail with my senior leadership.
Looking forward to the next project!
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Deadlines looms large
Talking to experts, researching fertilizers and learning about farming has been really interesting! However, it was week 4 and I had the final deliverable looming ahead of me. I was starting to feel knowledgable about nitrogen fertilizers, cropping patterns, environmental impacts of nitrogen pollution and had not given a thought to how to translate this information into recommendations that I could pass onto EDF. The biggest difficulty I faced was obtaining enough high quality information that was peer reviewed and published as opposed to internet published data from practioners who may have biased opinions. Furthermore this information was scattered and much of it resided with the experts and academics. How was the average farmer supposed to make any informed decisions on fertilizer choice if the information was this hard to find? This thought spurred a couple of recommendations for EDF and I discussed this difficulty with my boss - could there be a niche that EDF could fill here? He was defnitely interested in hearing more!
The pressure was however definitely building as I was down to my last two weeks. I started to build a ‘strawman deck’ which is consulting speak for a partially completed PowerPoint presentation that defines a detailed outline without providing all the answers. This is crucial to give your client an idea of what to expect and how much work is remaining to be done before the final presentation is ready. There are pros and cons to this approach and although I would highly recommend doing this, one should be prepared to push back against last minute scope additions. In my case, the strawman was very helpful in getting the end deliverable to a quality that was acceptable to EDF, but it also meant additional work and data gathering at the last minute. I was working feverishly to plug the gaps in my analysis so that I could defend my recommendations. Things were starting to come together and I had some clear recommendations for EDF to pursue. I just needed to figure out how best to present it! ...It was going to be a tough week ahead.
The pressure was however definitely building as I was down to my last two weeks. I started to build a ‘strawman deck’ which is consulting speak for a partially completed PowerPoint presentation that defines a detailed outline without providing all the answers. This is crucial to give your client an idea of what to expect and how much work is remaining to be done before the final presentation is ready. There are pros and cons to this approach and although I would highly recommend doing this, one should be prepared to push back against last minute scope additions. In my case, the strawman was very helpful in getting the end deliverable to a quality that was acceptable to EDF, but it also meant additional work and data gathering at the last minute. I was working feverishly to plug the gaps in my analysis so that I could defend my recommendations. Things were starting to come together and I had some clear recommendations for EDF to pursue. I just needed to figure out how best to present it! ...It was going to be a tough week ahead.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
First Weeks at Fox!
(BBA, Fox Broadcasting)
Hey, it's Alyssa Fried again. The last time I wrote I was just days away from starting my internship at Fox Broadcasting, and here I am now almost two weeks into it! Things kind of got off to a crazy, hectic start. I traveled from Michigan to New York on Friday April 30th, and started orientation as a Sales Planning intern on Monday May 3rd. I was very nervous as I got off the train in Grand Central because even though I had been born and raised in a suburb of New York, close to the city, I was not very familiar with how to navigate the city alone. Despite my nerves, I arrived at the office on time and with no outside help. I already felt accomplished.
Orientation was very informative. I met individually with all of the people I would be working with and they showed me everything that they do for Fox, and gave me some background information about the company. I received tutorials, and I even got an assignment of my own, under supervision of course. The orientation lasted for two days, and on Thursday May 6th, I got on another plane to travel to Israel (personal travel). I arrived back in New York on Monday May 17th and had a day of rest before I returned to Fox that Wednesday. I was still a little jet-lagged but I was very excited for my first real day as an intern!
I arrived at the office at 9 AM and went straight to my supervisor's office. She set me up with a cubicle and a laptop and showed me all of the programs I would be using. This time is one of the busiest times of the year for Fox and other cable networks as it is the time of the Upfront. My job in helping with the Upfront is to utilize Excel and other programs to enter estimates and create spreadsheets for my supervisor to use. I felt very comfortable using Excel, and was excited to have my first project at hand. This internship will be giving me real experience in Finance as I will soon be working with media math.
Working at Fox has been a great experience so far. I love being in the city and feeling like a real business woman as I commute to work on the train. The environment in the office is so friendly and welcoming. All of the people that I work with make me feel very comfortable and are always available for questions. They all take their work very seriously, and are proud of what they do. Because of the working environment, and the people that have helped to create it, I am very proud to be working as an intern for Fox.
Hey, it's Alyssa Fried again. The last time I wrote I was just days away from starting my internship at Fox Broadcasting, and here I am now almost two weeks into it! Things kind of got off to a crazy, hectic start. I traveled from Michigan to New York on Friday April 30th, and started orientation as a Sales Planning intern on Monday May 3rd. I was very nervous as I got off the train in Grand Central because even though I had been born and raised in a suburb of New York, close to the city, I was not very familiar with how to navigate the city alone. Despite my nerves, I arrived at the office on time and with no outside help. I already felt accomplished.
Orientation was very informative. I met individually with all of the people I would be working with and they showed me everything that they do for Fox, and gave me some background information about the company. I received tutorials, and I even got an assignment of my own, under supervision of course. The orientation lasted for two days, and on Thursday May 6th, I got on another plane to travel to Israel (personal travel). I arrived back in New York on Monday May 17th and had a day of rest before I returned to Fox that Wednesday. I was still a little jet-lagged but I was very excited for my first real day as an intern!
I arrived at the office at 9 AM and went straight to my supervisor's office. She set me up with a cubicle and a laptop and showed me all of the programs I would be using. This time is one of the busiest times of the year for Fox and other cable networks as it is the time of the Upfront. My job in helping with the Upfront is to utilize Excel and other programs to enter estimates and create spreadsheets for my supervisor to use. I felt very comfortable using Excel, and was excited to have my first project at hand. This internship will be giving me real experience in Finance as I will soon be working with media math.
Working at Fox has been a great experience so far. I love being in the city and feeling like a real business woman as I commute to work on the train. The environment in the office is so friendly and welcoming. All of the people that I work with make me feel very comfortable and are always available for questions. They all take their work very seriously, and are proud of what they do. Because of the working environment, and the people that have helped to create it, I am very proud to be working as an intern for Fox.
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