Being a Fresher, coming from a non-engineering background, all my seniors and mentors used to say that due to the lack of corporate exposure I’ll have to settle for a field job in a company that might not be a big brand. And I knew all of that made sense, and I had to work extraordinarily hard to get a job in a corporate office or you could say in an office of my choice. With sheer hard work, and I’d say a tinge of good luck, not only did I get to work in one of the biggest brands in the consumer durables industry, Panasonic India, I ended up as a Trade Marketing Intern in their Regional Headquarters which overlooked the ISAMEA (India, South Asia, Middle East, Africa) region.
I had to go through multiple rounds of interviews and since I applied through a non-campus platform, it made things a bit tough for me. But the amount of exposure and skills I developed in my first year at NMIMS Bangalore helped me sail through the interviews with relative ease.
My first experience at a corporate office was a different experience altogether. Contrary to my beliefs, even the top level executives were very welcoming. I was inducted in the team by the Assistant General Manager (AGM) of the Trade Marketing division which was followed by a team lunch. I was given a project on Dealer Relationship Management (DRM) which basically is how the company maintains a personal partnership with their business partners ( Dealers) apart from the ongoing professional partnership. This included looking to incentivize top performers of the quarter and also maintaining a healthy relationship with the dealers. My roles and responsibilities included overseeing and ensuring smooth functioning of the existing DRM programmes implemented by the company in the last financial year and also devising a rollout procedure/ Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the programmes to be implemented in the upcoming Financial Year.
Since, Panasonic deals through different channels, DRM becomes an essential part in order to attain a successful boost in its Market share for the consumer durables industry.
A Dealer relation when given a personal touch by the company would induce a feel -good factor into Dealers and should eventually result in a better performance in its segment of operation.
A successful rollout of the current DRM programme planned for this year would result in improved relations and performances of the dealers which will eventually benefit and enable Panasonic to position itself as a Customer as well as Dealer friendly brand.
The relative importance of a healthy relationship of a brand with its Dealer is as important as that with its customer. This is because Dealers play a very crucial role in the overall business of that particular brand.
- Dealers play a vital role in keeping the lines between manufacturers and users operating smoothly. They can expedite response times, enhance a company's reach and even create value-added packages.
- Dealership is the single most viable alternative to complement and supplement a direct sales organization.
- Dealership plays a unique role in that they are both a business partner and a customer at the same time
- Dealers also have the benefit of reducing inventory and service burdens for both the manufacturer and the user.
By nature, managing an ongoing partnership is considerably more difficult than managing a standard supplier or customer relationship. Hence, this topic is of utmost importance to companies these days.
My overall experience at Panasonic was, as I term it, an extremely fruitful one where I not only learnt a lot but also got familiar to how things work in a corporate hierarchy. This experience of mine will definitely come in handy in my pursuit of reaching the top ladder of the corporate world.
Apart from this, I was lucky enough to have both a mentor, Mr. Abhinav Sharan (AGM, Trade Marketing, Panasonic India Pvt. Ltd.) and a guide , Ms. Navneet Kaur ( Sales and Marketing Executive, Trade Marketing, Panasonic India Pvt. Ltd.) throughout these two months who supported me at every stage. The learnings and teachings imparted by them will remain with me all my life.
This internship has made me believe something which I’d like everyone like me ( a corporate beginner) to learn and take heart from is, never underestimate yourself, on your day you can overshadow even the brightest of minds in the business, but the only advice is – MAKE IT HAPPEN.