We were in the middle of a hectic day at Les Fontaines, with deadlines looming and a lot of work still left to do when we were forced out of our room and made to go have dinner. That is when I got to know from David and Chirag (E.L.I.T.E. core team members) that I have been allotted my high priority choice project with David- working on go-to-market efforts for Asia wealth management.
In my subsequent conversations with my manager, he mentioned that he had a lot of ideas, and his enthusiasm got me excited about my journey ahead in building the business from a nascent stage. But what followed soon was overwhelming- before our first call, my project manager sent me a list of 17 deliverables (including sub-deliverables) to gather my thoughts around and prioritize.
What followed the next week was multiple iterations of the project charter- including in-scope, out of scope deliverables, mapping out the project plan and building a transformation map for my rotation as well as the whole project in general. The two major deliverables of my rotation were to help change the brand image, and to come up with new sources of revenue for Asia wealth business. With some amount of ad-hoc work cropping up now and then, I had the opportunity of involving some of the other ELITE trainees in my project - which had the senior leadership in Asia BU as the consumption audience.
One of the better parts of the rotation involved me travelling to Singapore for 2 weeks (being one of the first ELITE trainees to go for an international stint). While there, I was part of the IBF Masterclass where I got a chance to see the thinking process of the bankers from wealth management divisions of some of the biggest banks, and also get a feel of how the Applied Innovation Exchange (AIE) space works in our Singapore office. I also got an opportunity to network with the senior leadership- Head of Sales, CFO, and Head of Legal for the Asia BU among others. The most telling contribution of my time in Singapore was the presentation I got to make to our CFO, Asia about a business plan to generate new sources of revenue for the Asia wealth business. Being in Singapore also gave me a chance to have fun- I went to Universal Studios, had a chance to explore the Gardens by the Bay, Merlion Park, Marina Bay Sands and a whole lot of other places.
Coming back to Hyderabad after Singapore took some getting used to; especially the part where I was not working face-to-face with my manager anymore. But there were things to immediately look forward to as well. As part of the campus engagement team for the E.L.I.T.E. program, I have also been a part of the planning process to hire the first batch of summer interns this year. Just 3 months after joining Capgemini (and 6 months after graduating), I was back in campus, now on the other side of the table in the pre-placement talk. Going back on campus will always be special and I hope I can be part of the GD/PI process as well.
Along with rotation work, I have been a part of the sports committee on the campus and also played in football matches against other firms such as TCS.
I have faced periods of lull as well as storms during my rotation and each has its own lessons. The learning has continued right from the end of training and start of my rotation till now, and I hope I can continue to improve myself in what is left of this rotation and the next ones following this.