Summer Internship Experience At TATA Motors - Kshitij Arora, Shailesh J Mehta School of Management

What should I say? When I think of writing about my experience. There is so much to say but I am not able to find the right words. Let me just start with the start and let's be frank. I was really scared, there won't be an intern in this part of the country from any college in the company and it is the first time I am going to this part of the country. People eat fish and Rice. How will I adapt to the food out there? People speak Bengali. I don't know ABC of Bengali. And I am alone. Well, that would be the best part of it.
The first thing I had to do was to understand the hardcore yet basic mechanical concepts (and I am an electronics engineer, so you know what I mean) and the construction of a typical heavy commercial vehicle-4 stroke engine suspension, differential, gearbox, chassis, Tyre design, axle combination, BS4 & BS6 requirements. It was new and exciting. It went to another level when I went into the field and saw them working in the sand mines, stone mines, and coal mines. I was in love with 4M's - Mechanical, Mining, Marketing, and Man-Management. I had to interact with the wide array of stakeholders and that's where the real learning emerged. Everyone wanted something from the deal. They wanted different things, yet the same thing. Confused, Right? Well, that's how things work and we just have to find that win-win situation to provide that same thing.

I made friends out of complete strangers. I understood the concerns of so many stakeholders and also provided my perspective. Now then came the most interesting part, phase 2; market research in the heart of Dooars Valley. And I can say with confidence that the 2nd phase has beaten the 1st phase in all aspects possible. You know why? Because I got a chance to apply everything I learned in the first phase. I interacted with dealerships, service teams, spare parts team, customers, sales executives, financers and even competitors. I lead an activity from the front in which I organized and executed a loaded back to back fuel trial of one of the heavy commercial vehicles of TATA and its competitors. I conducted a primary market research in which I covered 5 cities and met 19 customers and 4 financers. I rode for 120 km in a heavy commercial vehicle loaded with 33430 Kg of stone. I even got a chance to negotiate with the competitors. I explored 15 new places, met 50 new stakeholders, stayed in 10 hotels, one guest house, attended 4 DRCs meetings and worked on 2 giant competitors. Even in a 4-level dream of Inception, I would not have been able to cook such a joyride and a learning curve. And I can say with utmost confidence that no college and organization in the country could have provided me with such an opportunity. And I only feel gratitude, and for that, I would like to thank my college, my organization and my luck which provided me such a tremendous opportunity and my courage which helped to grab it both hands and legs.