Summer Internship Series: Crystal, Priya and Vinatie

The summer is coming to an end and so are our internships! Therefore, this will be the last installment of the Summer Internships Series. Thank you to everyone who contributed, I hope you all enjoyed learning about what the Rutgers MBA Class of 2016 was up to this summer! For our last update, we've got Crystal Orr, Priya Shivkumar and Vinatie Pasricha talking about their experiences this summer. 

Crystal, a Marketing student, is working for HP in New Jersey...

"Hello everyone!! I am currently a MBA Global Marketing & Communications Intern at Hewlett Packard, working in the Financial Services (HPFS) business unit right here in New Jersey. I actually started in March and my internship is for a year, so I’ll still be here part time once the semester begins.

It’s an exciting time right now at HP as the company is going through a separation and will be split into two organizations in November. I am definitely here at a good time because I am getting the firsthand experience of going through a large transition at a top 20 company and involved in the process of implementing and communicating a new brand strategy (names, logos and messaging) to employees, customers and partners.

Currently, I work on various projects focusing on global internal communications and sales and colleague engagement. Some of my daily tasks include designing and creating content for our intranet pages, Yammer account (internal social media), and internal reference materials to support the sales team including separation information. I am also learning everyday about IT consumption and the financial aspect of technology for businesses and enterprises.  

I’ve had diverse and interesting experiences here thus far, ranging from volunteering for the Take your Kids to Work Day activities to donating blood for the first time to attending a Brooklyn Nets game.  One of my first major projects was actually coordinating the second annual HPFS mini golf tournament for philanthropy day with proceeds going to Room to Read. This was a fun experience as I love to plan events and got the opportunity to meet a lot of colleagues in the office.

Since, I will not have an official summer break prior to starting school again, I’m headed to New Orleans next week for a few days of fun! See you all soon!"

Priya, concentrating in Finance, writes from Madison, NJ...

"This summer I am interning with Quest Diagnostics in their Corporate Finance function. Within Finance, I am with the Revenue Recognition and Analytics team, which has a mix of both - Accounting and Finance. My team and other corporate functions are largely based out of Giralda farms in Madison, NJ, which is a beautiful location! My project over the summer was to develop analytical tools to evaluate the cash collected against the accounts receivables recorded for each of Quest's business units. 

Through the summer, various lunch and learns were organized for the interns where we got a chance to meet Executive Directors and VP's from different parts of finance. The CFO attend our final presentations earlier this week and it was really good to get so much face time with him over the summer. Glad to be done with my presentation even though my internship runs for 2 more weeks!  Over the summer, I also went on a lab tour (Quest's main lab is @Teterboro) and had a lunch and learn session with an ex-FBI guy who is now the head of Corporate security at Quest. Interesting experiences! 

There is a girl in my team who is an excellent baker and makes amazing stuff for birthday's and other events ..so all of us wait for someone's birthday to come up so that we get some home baked goodies! Everyone is really nice here and its been a wonderful summer. Look forward to wrapping up my project soon but will miss working once school starts! 

PS: And yes, there is a huge Rutgers contingent here at Quest." 

Vinatie, who is specializing in Marketing and Marketing Research Insights & Analytics, checks in from Iselin, NJ...

"This summer, I am interning at Ansell, the personal protective equipment company that makes gloves, condoms and clothing. The company is organized into four global business units – Industrial, Medical, Single Use and Sexual Wellness. I am working for the Single Use Global Business Unit as the Global Branding and Strategic Marcom Intern with the Global Marketing team. What makes this business unit exciting, is the fact that it was created just a year back as a result of an organizational restructure and the integration of Ansell with the recently acquired BarrierSafe Solutions International, Inc.

The object of my projects for the summer is to assist the team in product integration, portfolio optimization and create tools to elevate the expertise of the sales team. For my first project, I am assisting in the development of competitive positioning statements for all disposable gloves based on a newly created segmentation matrix. This will help them drive clearer differentiation and better integrate Ansell single-use products with BarrierSafe products. My second project is to develop a demo kit, which will allow our sales representatives to demonstrate how Ansell gloves perform better compared to competitor gloves. For this, I have been working closely with the R&D team and creative agency to design tests to demonstrate attributes such as ergonomics, enhanced grip, chemical resistance and puncture resistance.

It’s hard to believe that the internship is already coming to an end with just 2 weeks left! I have really enjoyed working with my team. The culture is extremely collaborative and transparent, which makes everyone in the organization very approachable.

For those who have been following the blog, you have already heard from Susan about the lunch & learns organized by HR. These weekly sessions have been a great way for us to meet senior executives and learn about the company and the business. Some of the exciting ones were with the CEO, CFO, President of the Single Use GBU and Head of Sales for NA. Last week, Ansell organized a day cruise around Staten Island for all employees. It was a refreshing change, a great way to experience the true company culture and network with everyone!"

Thanks to all for reading each week! And good luck to the Class of 2017, who will be starting Orientation this upcoming Monday. Can't believe we went through all that a year ago, time has flown by. I look forward to seeing everyone in less than a month! Enjoy the rest of your internships and rock those final presentations! 

Summer Internship Series: Francesca, Ike and Jen

This week we hear from Francesca Pat-Ekeji,  Ike Okose and Jen Abalajon, who are working in 3 of my favorite cities!!

Francesca is concentrating in Supply Chain Management and is based in Austin, TX this summer...

"This summer I’m interning at Dell in Austin, Texas. I’m working with the team that handles planning and strategy for global operations aptly titled ‘Global Ops. Planning & Strategy’. The first week was a boot camp of sorts followed by 2 weeks of shadowing different members of my team to learn the data, lingo and culture. I’m in the 3^rd week now and have spent most of my week interviewing different stakeholders invested in my project to make sure that I’m approaching my task from many different angles and synthesizing all that information to discover where the areas of opportunity are. The learning curve is steep because we deal with dynamic data and a lot of variables, however I’m taking it one day at a time and asking a lot of questions. Outside of my team and project, the networking has been great and that’s one of the things I really like about Dell.  Anyone is willing to sit for 30 minutes and talk to an intern and if you’re from a foreign country, there’s bound to be someone –or in my case like 25- here from your home country.

I live a 10-minute walk away from my office in round rock and the weather has been pretty nice so I’ve been walking to and from work. It’s quite sub-urban, which can mean long trips to the downtown area in search of fun and frivolity on the weekends. In terms of major summer plans, besides seeing as many musicians as I possibly can, I’d really like to drive up to San Antonio and explore for a day. I’m keeping my plans flexible though because the best plans tend to come together when you’re not fixated on them." 

Ike is a Finance student working in NYC...

"This summer, I am working in midtown Manhattan at AdvancePublications.  You may not know the company, but I’m sure you know some of their products.  Some of their products include GQ, VanityFair, Vogue, and Allure magazines, and some of you may also be familiar with reddit.com.  I am working as an intern in the finance group, and I will have the opportunity to work on projects in areas like Treasury, Financial Planning & Analysis, and Tax. 

I started at Advance Publications on June 8^th, so I’m relatively new here, but they have me working on a couple things while I get familiar with their reporting processes and systems.  One project I’m currently working on is analyzing our competitors, or benchmarking, to not only determine how well we are doing in our respective industries, but also to help determine targets to create a budget for 2016.  Another project they currently having me work on is trying to determine how much we should plan to spend on 401K expenses by month for next year based on 2014 and 2015 data.  These projects are very interesting and engaging, and I’m really starting to learn a lot here in such a short time. 

Though I’m just starting out here, I can tell I will learn a lot from this internship, and I’m excited to get to work on some of the tasks they will have me doing.  The short commute from my apartment in Hoboken is also very nice!"

Jen specializes in Marketing and is working in Princeton, NJ...

"This summer I’m doing the 10-week MBA marketing internship program at Bristol-Myers Squibb in Princeton, NJ.  Currently, BMS has a robust pipeline in the area of immuno-oncology, which uses drugs that work with your body’s own immune system to help fight cancer.  Not only is BMS a leader in this space, but these new advances in immunotherapy are truly revolutionizing the way cancer is treated, which is one reason why BMS is a very exciting place to be.  Another reason is a recent company-wide initiative to put the patient at the center of everything they do.  If you’ve ever taken Branning’s US Healthcare class, you would truly appreciate this.  Especially for patients fighting cancer, you can imagine how much of an impact a comprehensive patient support program could have, given the severity of condition, complexity of treatment and the emotionally tolling nature of the experience.  BMS wants to be there for the patient every step of the way and that’s why I’m spending my summer working with the digital marketing team to develop a patient CRM* platform for the immuno-oncology franchise.  

BMS functions as a matrix organization, so one of the biggest challenges of this project is gaining alignment on the concept of the program with seemingly disparate groups who have varying interests when you don’t have any formal power.  One employee likened it to herding cats.  Not to mention project managing several internal groups and external vendors to actually execute the program.  I’m seriously learning a ton and so far, I have fallen in love with marketing because there are just so many roles you can have, from digital to analytics to product management.  Marketing is certainly for big-picture people who can juggle many things (including personalities)!"

*CRM stands for customer relationship management and refers to practices, strategies and technologies that companies use to manage, record and analyze customer interactions and data throughout the marketing lifecycle in order to drive sales growth by deepening and enriching relationships with their customer bases. (Definition taken from TechTarget)

Thanks for reading and see you same time next week! 

FACULTY SPOTLIGHT: Dr. Ramon Henson

Professor Ramon (Ray) Henson is an organization and management consultant with over 25 years of global experience working in senior positions with various Fortune 500 companies, including Merck & Co., Avon Products, Merrill Lynch and Citigroup.  He currently heads Henson Consulting International, is a Consulting Partner with Organisation Solutions (Singapore), and is a member of the consulting team of the Center for Organizational Design (United States).  

 At Rutgers Business School, Professor Henson teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses in Organizational Behavior, Human Resource Management, Executive Leadership, Cross-Cultural Management, Team Development, International Business, Global Management Strategy, and Strategic Management.  He is also on the faculty of the RBS International Executive MBA Program, where he travels overseas (China, Singapore) to teach. 

Not only is Professor Henson a dedicated teacher, but he is also an avid blogger. His blog was recently ranked by OnlineMBA.com as one of the top 50 business blogs by business professors.

Advice on Developing a Global Mindset

So you have heard that many multinational firms today want their new hires and managers to have a global mindset.  Yes, you say to yourself, that makes sense, since many firms today do business around the world, sell products globally, and have employees from different regions. 

But you are not sure what having a global mindset means.  You have a passport, and you have traveled overseas.  Perhaps you are a second-generation American, whose parents immigrated to the United States.  Or perhaps you came from overseas to study at RBS.  You have taken courses in international business and global strategy, and you have friends from different parts of the world.  You are familiar with the business issues that multinationals face when they do business in different countries, and you are aware of some of the cross-cultural challenges that these businesses face when they try to implement their policies and practices in different countries.  Does that mean that you have a global mindset?

There are two words that I have converted to acronyms that I’d like you to remember.  The first is FACE.  Global mindset is a mental attitude, an inclination.  It is not a behavior, but it should predict behavior.  In my own experience and interviews with executives and students, I would say there are four components to global mindset you can easily remember with the acronym FACE:  Flexibility, Acceptance/Openness, Curiosity, and Cross-Cultural Empathy.  So having a global mindset means that when you interact or work with people from different cultures, you need to: be flexible; learn to accept different points of view and to be open about them; be curious about other cultures; and develop empathy by trying to put yourself in the other person’s shoes.

If these are the four orientations to having a global mindset, what can you do practically to develop it?  The second word I’d like you to remember is the acronym ROPE, which stands for Reading, Observing, Practicing, and Experiencing. 

First, reading.  Yes, you can read randomly and surf the internet to learn about other cultures and global issues, but it’s better to be focused.  Pick a country or two you are interested in (for example, countries of the colleagues or customers you are interacting with), and spend at least 15 minutes daily learning more about that country – its politics, its business environment, its history, its people, what consumers in that country are like, and what it’s like to do business in that country. 

Second, observe.  No, you don’t have to be a voyeur or an eavesdropper.  But when you are watching a foreign movie, or are observing people from other cultures talk or interact, step back and pay attention especially to the non-verbals – their body language, their use of personal space, the tone and manner of speech.  Another suggestion is to observe the interactions during meetings with global teams or with people from different cultures.  Find someone to help you “de-brief” these meetings, especially around the group dynamics and interactions, to get a better understanding of how people communicate cross-culturally.

Third, practice.  Here’s a suggestion.  When you enter a classroom for a new course, do you tend to look for a familiar face and then instantly sit down beside that person?  Next time, look for a person you don’t know, even someone who you think may be from another culture, and introduce yourself.  After establishing rapport and gauging the person’s comfort level, ask questions about his or her country in a general way (e.g., “What’s the weather like this time of year?”).  More often than not, that person will appreciate your interest and you will be able to make a connection and build a relationship.

Fourth, experience.  Break up your routine and get out of your comfort zone once in a while.  There are a lot of different ways you can do this.  For example, when at a restaurant, order a dish that you have never had before.  Or better still, go to places that offer a different type of food than what you are used to.  Once in a while, take a different route in your commute.  Once a week, leave your mobile phone at home.  The point of these small changes to your habits will be to help you expand the range of your comfort zone so you can become more adept at “going with the flow” in the future.

The bottom line - global mindset is about having an attitude of eagerness, curiosity, learning and openness about different cultures and the people from those cultures.  Of course it helps if you are well traveled.  But I know people who travel to different countries and only stay at American hotels, eat only American food, and hang out only with other Americans (you can replace “American” with whatever your nationality or cultural identity might be).

As it turns out, your RBS colleagues have an intuitive idea of global mindset, as you probably do also.  From my classes, here are some of their replies to the question of what global mindset means to them:

 “Global mindset means that you are aware of your environment, of others and the impact of ideas and events in your business, strategy or position.”

“Taking a more macro look at things … understanding that things won’t work the same all over the world, and taking that into account.”

“Having an understanding that countries have different cultures, and going into each country, one must always be aware and sensitive to that country’s cultural ways.”

 “Someone who understands or has an open mind to understand different cultures and how these affect the outcomes of decisions.”

“Putting yourself in the other culture’s shoes.”

“Listening and resisting reflexive judgments.”

“Your way is not always the right way.”

“Understanding that different countries/cultures have different ways of doing things.  They value certain things differently.  A global mindset has to take all of that into consideration and be open-minded and willing to compromise.” 

For further reading, here are five highly recommended books:

          

Charan, R.  (2013)  Global Tilt.  Crown Business.  

Gundling, E.  (2003)  Working GlobeSmart.  Nicholas Brearley Publishing.

Nisbett, R.  (2004)  The Geography of Thought.  The Free Press.

Reid, T. R.  (2000)  Confucius Lives Next Door.  Vintage.

Morrison, T. and Conaway, W.  (2006)  Kiss, Bow or Shake Hands.  Adams Media.

For more wisdom on Global Management, visit Professor Henson’s blog: 

http://hensonconsultinginternational.blogspot.com