Can you enlighten upon your Internship experience?
Bosch has a packaging Technology division in Goa. Various packaging machines for food, pharma and confectionery industries are customized and assembled there. The structure of the IT department is pretty concise: The Head of department and two employees working under him. The main challenge was to work with employees related to the manufacturing domain. Convincing them on IT front was difficult.
Having worked in IT industry, Bosch for me was altogether a different experience. The first difference from my previous employer was that they still follow salutation convention. The word ‘Sir’ was deleted from my system thanks to Infosys. I realized this cultural difference and got acquainted within 2-3 days.
Second, the difference was that Bosch did not have a flat hierarchy. There were various levels of review as well as approval. I had to get all my recommendations and documents approved by department head, IT head and finally Bosch Software division (Bangalore).
Overall, it was an experience that enriched my domain knowledge.
Can you elaborate more on your profile?
My profile was of a Process Improvement Consultant. But along with this I also worked as a Business Analyst. I was involved in finding out the gaps, and suggesting improvement points in the areas assigned.
I was assigned the department “After Sales” which mainly deals with after sales service. I conducted gap analysis of the department’s processes and my task was to streamline all activities involved in this department for an application.
For this I started studying existing business processes and identified stakeholders from whom requirements can be collected. Bosch had SAP implemented for most of their processes. Since I come from SAP background, I realized their requirement can be implemented using SAP. I made a proposal to Bosch, Bangalore team since they had the final authority for approval. This proposal was not considered since we had the budget issue.
After this we decided that we will go ahead with web based application development.
I started requirement elicitation through observation, one to one interview and meetings with stakeholders. I was not aware about Wireframing. Since it was a project requirement, I had to learn it for GUI specifications. I created a software workflow and functional design document once all requirements were collected. After this an approval meeting (over WebEx) was held with the Bangalore team where I acted as a facilitator.
For better modularization of application, I divided the entire project into two modules.
First module comprised of activities such as quotation management, spares data management, Pro forma invoice management for domestic and export customer based on various regulatory policies and conditions. The second module was about customer contracts and complaints. These contracts are warranty, paid service, goodwill, AMC.
Is there a need to keep a separate period for internship in the curriculum? As you are from the corporate background, give your take from that perspective?
Yes Internship is required to align our understanding from the first year of MBA and applying the subjects learned in the industry. IT is just an enabler, I always wanted to learn about business and have in depth domain knowledge.
I had subjects like RM (Requirement Management), BPM (Business Process Management) and PM (Project Management). I understood the importance of those subjects when I applied my knowledge in my Internship project.
Thought process of students before and after internship is completely different. All the concepts and case studies that we learn, we start implementing it in the industry. It is all about ‘Connecting the Dots…’ as Steve Jobs once said.
A word regarding your colleagues at Bosch?
All the colleagues were co-operative. Some of them were from top B-school in India having many years of industry experience and were expert in their domain.
I along with Anirudh (another intern at Bosch from SCIT) was given a cubicle along with Bosch employee. We got to learn many things from observation itself. All of them guided similar to what a mentor would do and were kind enough to provide regular help. They taught us professionalism and business understanding.
Apart from work, we discussed on various topics such as future plans, business, government, cricket, etc. These discussions with some senior colleagues would stretch for an hour over coffee breaks.
How did you find work culture in the company?
Bosch has always been a value-driven company. Robert Bosch (founder) is their main source of inspiration. He said “Rather lose money than trust”. Flavour of Goan culture reflects the manner in which Bosch at Goa functions. Bosch celebrated their diversity day on 21st May during my internship tenure. I was amazed to see Plant Head sharing the quarterly result and explaining them about company’s future plan to each and every employee (even to lower level workers). Most of the policies are transparent and each decision made either at plant level or at headquarter level is shared with all employees. Overall all there was fun-filled working environment. There were some or the other cultural engagements every fortnight.
A new state more often than not brings about its own set of challenges. What were they and how did you overcome them?
For most of my life I have lived in Maharashtra and Goa is not that far away. But let me tell you, Goa and challenges are two contrasting words. My two month journey was happening rather than a challenge.
If you leave aside the challenges related to transportation in Goa, this is one of the most peaceful states in India. The transportation challenge in Goa can be overcome by renting a vehicle as petrol in Goa is pretty cheap.
People in Goa are cheerful and all the more helpful as well. State’s major revenue comes from tourism and hospitality. Hospitality is Goans way of life. Goan food is awesome.
They enjoy their life to the fullest. Normally Goa is humid in summer (in fact throughout the year) but this year summer was not that humid. Sporadic rainfall made the climate pleasant. We took the advantage of such awesome climate to explore nooks and corners of every beach.
