Internship At Robert Bosch Through The Business Challenge - Many Roads To An Internship

Being a finance major with an engineering background, I started by planning to get certifications, participating in finance quizzes and attending panel discussions to get some learning and add value to my resume. I have completed my internship in Bosch and got selected through their business challenge. Fortunately or unfortunately, the process did not involve any GD rounds, technical finance interviews or even resume shortlisting. I was supposed to present the Business model of the problem statement which was something I had not tried before. A week before I started my preparations - referring various business model templates, interacting with my professors and seniors helped me to get a clear idea about how my presentation should be structured. The panel really liked my presentation and answered all their questions with my best understanding. It was a tough week for me as exams were also going on, but the hassle was worth the tassel. I got selected in Bosch and was super excited to work with the DNA team - Startup Alliance Program of RBEI (Robert Bosch Engineering and business solutions).

On my first day itself, I had a meeting with the Strategy and Innovation Department team where they briefed me about the objectives of DNA for their upcoming cohort. I was given a laptop on my second day and started with my research about various business models and strategies. There was a huge depository of startup success and failure stories which made me understand the different phases through which a budding business can go through. My major task was to do research about a robotics startup and suggest the startups compatibility to work with Bosch business units. Bosch is a diversified business and DNA provides a platform for startups to get potential investors and partners. By interacting with the founder of the startups, understanding the requirements of the Bosch robotics unit located at Coimbatore - I started working on my presentation. I structured my presentation into four parts - Market & Competitor profiling, Internal Analysis of the Startup, Strategic fit assessment between Bosch & Startup and suggesting various alignment platforms (co-creation, partnership, IP License, Equity investment etc.) with their pros and cons.

Parallelly, there were some internal and external marketing initiatives to be planned for DNA. Sending startup info in the form of weekly mailers to all RBEI employees, revamping the current DNA website by coordinating with external agencies, giving suggestions and writing content for the social media handles of the DNA team were the other tasks I performed.

Towards the end of my internship, I was working on my last but yet most interesting project - BIG BETS.  The objective of this project was to help Bosch unit heads realize the areas to explore and work upon. Competitors of Bosch too are spreading their horizons and working in new age technology areas like Blockchain, 5G, AI, automation, robotics, cybersecurity and IoT and how Bosch can leverage its competencies to work in some of this area.

I consider myself a very fortunate person to get such kind of corporate exposure and chance to network with startups. My learnings from this internship helped me to understand all the aspects of business and looking at the broader picture as a future manager.