Ok. Let's see, before we get to the "Summer Internship Experience," let me tell you a story.
On Feb 7, 2001, an article headline in NY Times read, "Indian Company Offers to Supply AIDS Drugs at low cost in Africa." If you are not able to comprehend the importance of this headline just yet, let me give you a little background to it. Well, you see, the AIDS epidemic was at its peak in the late 80s and the 90s, and countless people were suffering and dying untreated from this deadly malady. But things changed in 1996 when the FDA finally approved a combination of two antiretroviral drugs which could be taken by patients in an oral tablet form. This 'Aids Cocktail' gave the existing patients and their families a ray of hope. But there was a catch to this, well you see, when the AIDS cocktail first hit the world markets, it was as expensive as it was effective. With $12,000/patient/year, it was out of reach for most people in the regions hardest by the epidemic, the African nations. The harrowing news coming out of Africa could be summed up in one statement given by Ugandan HIV/AIDS researcher, he said: "I saw so many people who would have lived… I saw them die painfully—excruciatingly. And yet their deaths were not inevitable.". Sure they were not inevitable, but the thing getting in the way between the life and death of these patients were Big Pharma and their 'Patents'. Patents are a source of strategic advantage (and hence profits) in the pharma industry. Hence the 'Big Pharma' were using their brawn to protect their patents to keep the drug out the reach of millions of people in Africa. But then came an Indian company (till then unheard of, at least globally) and launched a generic ARV (antiretroviral) cocktail at $350/patient/year (compare this to the $12,000/patient/year branded ARV). This was a company and its CEO (Dr. YK Hameid) who put peoples' lives before profits. This was a company that showed that the core purpose of Pharma Companies is not to make profits but to alleviate the pain and misery in patients' lives. This was the company I interned with, Cipla.
The Project
Growing up as a kid, I was a huge comic book fan and I one particular series that I used to enjoy, especially as the 'Amazing Spider-Man Series,' and one particular quote that stuck with me was Uncle Ben's advice to Peter, who had freshly gained his superpowers (this was later picturized in one of the Spider-man movies) on how 'With great power comes great responsibility. Power came to me in the form of the project I was entrusted with; going into the internship, while most interns hope for key projects, very few end up getting a project of strategic importance. In Cipla Alive, most of us ALIVE interns got projects of high strategic relevance, which encouraged us to don our 'strategic thinking hats; and when you are entrusted with such key projects, your inner sense of responsibility gets automatically propelled up. This was backed up by an extremely supportive project guide and owner who gave me the right balance of 'handholding' and 'project ownership'.
The Magnificent Campus Engagement Team
Great project; Great team to work with. All good, but are Summers at Cipla, "All Work and no Play"? NO. Enter the campus engagement team, who ensured that despite the virtual nature of the internship, engagement levels among us interns were kept at their peaks. We had fun team bonding sessions(with interns from other b-schools), virtual games, zoom brunches, and many more engagement activities, which made sure our online internship experience was as lively and organic as possible.
The Setback
From what I have mentioned till now, you must be thinking my summers was a 'Joyride'; believe me, it was anything but that. The reason, you ask? COVID. I know, compared to the destruction it has caused around worldwide, causing a mild inconvenience in the summers internship experience seems like the most inconspicuous thing covid has done since last year, but that's not the point; the point is right when I was starting to get a grip over the project I fell onto the grip of Covid. At one point, I wasn't even sure whether or not I'll be able to complete it, but here's the thing, this wasn't any other company I was interning for; this was a company whose core value of 'Caring for life' is engraved in its very culture. I received full support from my project team and the campus team while battling covid and was granted the much-sought project extension.
Final Thoughts And Conclusion
We as humans are motivated by a lot of things, some intrinsic (e.g., engagement in the task) while the others extrinsic (e.g., Rewards, Good teammates). But I think there's hardly any motivation greater than 'Purpose', i.e., knowing that the work you are doing is bringing a positive change in the lives of millions of people. That is what you get working for a company like 'Cipla'. Be it your permanent job or be it just an internship, when you know that the work you are doing is going to impact (no matter how distantly or indirectly) the lives of people, you cannot help but give your best; and this is exactly what kept me going through my down phase (the covid phase) during the internship and I was finally able to deliver the project which met the expectations of all the stakeholders. Drawing analogy from Dr. Y.K Hameid's ideology of 'People before Profit,' I would end this article with this thought
"When you work for Purpose and not just for Paycheck, it's not just your 'Job Satisfaction' that doubles up; your 'Resilience' does too."
About the Author
Avilash Bhowmick is a final year student at TISS HRM & LR, Mumbai, and a Computer Science Engineering Graduate. A sucker for Epic Fantasy Novels and a devout consumer of Social Psychology and I-O Psychology research, his biggest pet peeve is "Having to write about himself in the third person."