The Awaited Journey Begins

It was the first day at Emami. Suited-up with full of enthusiasm, with 18 other interns from various B-schools of India, I was slightly nervous about how’s life going to be in coming days. After 3 years of work experience in the manufacturing sector, it was a significant change for me as I would be getting to know the corporate world first time through my 2-months summer internship at Emami. Time flew so fast, I could still remember it was like a few days back I came to IIM Shillong, went through the internship process and then grabbed the Marketing role of an FMCG.

Now, I was in that company, going through the induction process, interacting with several SBU heads. I was quite excited for my onboarding in my team which was New Product Development and I would be working for their ongoing project of digital platform which was similar to working in a start-up from scratch.

My Project

I closely worked with Senior Management of the Emami as this was one of the fast-paced projects going on. In the health care world, to launch new products requires battling to come-up with the roadmap for product strategy. For this, I worked on product ideation, analyzed market potential, build product architecture and concept development for a portfolio of 50+ products.

The most difficult part which I felt was writing insights, the first step towards design, to turn research data into actionable. Insight writing leads to breakthrough marketing and advertising promotions. This project developed a new perspective in me, to see through the eyes of netizens and get down to all the detailing like labelling, product descriptors, proposition and packaging to scope market opportunities to the fullest. The learning I got here could not have been possible without the guidance and support I got from my team.

The Best I Could Ever Learn

In one-year of MBA, we considered Kotler as the handbook for marketing, but how to develop marketing acumen is something that I learned from my guide. On a daily basis, he used to take knowledge transfer (KT) sessions where we used to brainstorm on several subjects and derive to a concept. In this whole process, he cited a number of successful and failed examples from various companies around the world to let me get a deeper sense of what we want to do.

Sometimes, I struggled in funnelling down as the project was vast in nature involving an array of products from different categories, but the trust and encouragement from my guide led me to the successful completion of my project.

An Exciting End To A New Beginning

At the end of my internship, this project was on its half-way to implementation, the best thing I can ask to culminate my short stint at Emami. My whole journey of the internship was a delight for me as I interacted with several professionals, made new friends, developed new skills, got enriched from the expertise of seniors and enjoyed every moment at Emami.

I am confident that this edification will help me to perform better in my career after one year with improved professional skills.

Vidhi Khabya

Summer Internship Diaries At Emami - Vidhi Khabya, IIM Shillong