Avishkar Wagh's Internship Experience At Abbott Healthcare - JBIMS

I realised field work is indeed vital for business as it helps the manager stay connected to his/her customer. And it was also important to have good relations with the retailers as they were the direct link between us and the customer. I could almost hear my notes from my marketing lectures calling out to me saying “Told you so!”

The field work was something I was ready for, rather looking forward to. Thanks to the amazing Marketing Prof I have back in JBIMS who made us visit markets to know what happens in the field, and how to play it. There were several things that I learnt in college which I applied during my internship, like never to give up on the field, being stubborn about getting information and loving what you do. Something that even my guide taught me, “Patience is a virtue………..patience, perseverance and passion can make a manager bring great victory home”. I guess my teacher was right after all, and I was indeed being prepared for this.

If that was done, interviewing the doctor was not easy either. You had to wait for your turn to meet him/her, you had limited time to talk, and you had to get maximum information in minimum time. But after my first city, I had got the knack of talking to them. Like if the doctor has less time for you, ask only those questions which give you the important information. On the other hand, if a doctor wishes to talk to you, you patiently listen to him for as long as he wants. Following up with all the stakeholders regularly is equally important. Again, patience and polite conversation are what made it possible. Sometimes you missed an appointment because you were made to wait too long in one clinic or in some place the retailer closed shops in the noon. An unpredictable marketplace is what made the work even more exciting.

Further, the work of analysing the data from field work began. It was necessary to understand what were the views of all the stakeholders interviewed to find out how the brand was performing in different regions of the country. This meant penning down the findings and studying them (or as my prof would say “don’t just use your खोपडी also use your चोपडी ;) ”). I had to sit in office making graphs, excel sheets and perceptual maps. Sitting in office and working also had advantages of itself. Everyone there was very helpful. Not just my guide but even other leaders were easily approachable. No one hesitated in sharing their thoughts and inputs on my queries.I remember my experience with one of the seniors - while explaining to me the big picture and how to overcome various challenges, he told me how important it is to talk to the retailers and to make sure that they also have proper product knowledge.

The other advantage of working in an office was that, at Abbott, interns from all other institutes would sit together while working in office. Thus giving us an opportunity to interact with fellow interns and share knowledge. It is said that life is too short to learn everything with your own experiences - knowledge sharing with interns was really very helpful. I learnt quite a few things from their experiences as well. My experience in the internship, findings and insights on my project culminated in the final presentation which I delivered to senior leaders.

Overall my two months internship experience with Abbott was one of the best experiences of my b-school life. This was a golden opportunity to put my learning from classrooms to task out there in the field. The chance to learn and absorb all you can will remain as one of the best memories of my internship. I am confident that lessons learnt will stay with me for the rest of my life.