After the nice induction, now it was time for some real work. It was time to solve the challenging business problems, learn some essential skills that would come handy later in life.
I was assigned a strategic role with Mahindra insurance brokers limited which is one of the group companies under Mahindra Finance. Mahindra Finance is the biggest NBFC in the rural and semi-urban segment of India hence I was very excited about the great learning opportunity ahead. I was a bit nervous at the same time since this was my first engagement in the insurance space.
The first day at office turned out to be great. A welcoming mentor introduced me to the other members of his team. Despite being a very busy person, he took time out of his schedule to make me settle down in a new place. The warmth of the people in the office, a nice office canteen that serves palatable food made me like the place even faster.
Gradually, I entered into the deeper detail of the project and started to understand the nitty gritty of the non-life insurance industry. Top managers from different departments of Mahindra insurance brokers helped me a lot during that period. I also met the COO of the company, Mr. Rajesh Sharma at that time. He listened to my project details, my plans, expectations of the project in great detail and encouraged me to do good work.
After a week, we had the opportunity to meet Mr. Ramesh Iyer, the MD of Mahindra Finance. Naturally, we were nervous before meeting the topmost person of the company we were interning with. He patiently listened about all of our projects and gave us directions regarding the project which would prove to be very helpful later in the project.
After getting a familiarisation of the industry, now it was time for hitting the road. With a lot of questions in my mind, I started to meet the stakeholders and conversed with them regarding their business, their expectation of us and knew about their suggestions. It was a great experience to be on the ground and I understood why everyone always stressed on spending a stint in the market before making the strategy - since best of the insights come from there only. The MIBL field executives helped me a great deal at that phase. Without their help, it would have been impossible to gather insights from the market. My interactions with the customers enriched my understanding of Mahindra as a brand, customers' longstanding relationship with the brand and what are their expectations of the brand.
We have already been halfway through the internship and it has already been a great learning experience so far. I hope the rest of the internship is going to be an equally enriching experience for me as an intern.