Internship Company :
AkzoNobel India Pvt. Ltd.
Profile:
Sales & Marketing
Bang. This story starts with a Bang. And so did my internship. Here, Bang stands for Bangalore (or Bengaluru). We had our induction in Bengaluru. Getting out of the Kempegowda International Airport, made me realise that I had just 2 months with AkzoNobel and I would have to make that count. You put a Mumbaikar anywhere in the world. The only thing that will make him/her uncomfortable is not seeing Marathi around. And the jalebi-shaped Kannada is single-handedly capable of making anyone feel uncomfortable. I made up my mind as soon as I reached the hotel that Uttapams, Dosas and Kannada are going to be my life for the next 2 months.
The first day of my internship – Bengaluru office. I, along with 4 others, met the HR. The usual drill followed – we introduced ourselves, she explained to us, our projects, and gave us our project locations. Yes, our project locations were decided on the first day and not before. My location – the interior of Navagam Ghed, which is in the interior of Jamnagar, which is itself in the interior of Gujarat. And another intern hailing from Gujarat got the Mumbai location. So here am I, a guy from Mumbai getting the Gujarat location and on the other end there is a guy from Gujarat getting the Mumbai location. How I wished that day, for our locations to be swapped. And my wish got fulfilled within 2 hours when the HR said to me “Akash, do one thing. You take the Mumbai location” One moment I had decided to embrace Bengaluru and the other moment I was packing my bags to go back to Mumbai.
Rest of the internship - Mumbai office at Kopar Khairne (yeah okay Navi Mumbai!). Here I was introduced to my mentor Mr. Prasanth. And my project guide Mr. Ashish. They both are the most professional, humble and helpful mentors any intern could ever get (Prasanth Sir, if you’re reading this, do I get a PPO now?) Jokes aside, I was assigned my project. It was quite interesting and in line with my work experience. I was very happy and grateful that I got this project. It involved a week’s visit to the market or as they call it – The Field. The remaining part was on the digital front. On my first day in ‘The Field’, I met another great mentor and AkzoNobel Sales Officer Mr. Neeraj. Here’s an excerpt from our first conversation:
Neeraj: What are the four P’s of marketing?
Me: Sir actually now there are 7 P’s of marketing - Product, Price, Pla..
Neeraj: Leave that. Tell me what are the four P’s of sales?
Me(confused & clueless): Umm.. Sir I don’t know
Neeraj: Please, Please, Please & Please!
And we both laughed out loud. This was the kind of employees AkzoNobel had. Humble, Helpful, Humorous, Hard-working and all the other H’s there are.
Soon, I learnt about the field; made the necessary reports; devised solutions; implemented the solutions and gave my final review presentation. And I ended my internship by taking a great deal of learning from Mr. Prasanth, Mr. Ashish, Mr. Neeraj as well as the dealers and the painters in ‘The Field’. Hope they take my suggestion I gave while leaving that they change the name of ‘Employee Of The Year Winner’ to ‘Akzo
Nobel Prize Winner’.