Learning To Care For Life - Dipak Shenvi, Cipla PPO Holder - Evolve Series #5

I was a part of the South Africa and Global Access (SAGA) team at Cipla. Initially I tried to get an overview of the pharmaceutical industry in Sub Saharan Africa and understand the business from Cipla's point of view.

My preparation mainly involved reading up on articles related to the various activities undertaken by Cipla in the region and the future steps that it plans to take.
My main aim was to try and understand the entire process right from the identification of products for maintaining the portfolio to the pricing and marketing strategies involved.

Your selection process experience for this company:

Initially, we had group discussions along the lines of "Marketing in the Pharmaceutical Industry" and case based about expanding the operations of a pharmaceutical company in a new geographic region.

This was followed by the personal interview, in which I was mainly asked about my strengths and weaknesses and asked to substantiate the same with examples. I was asked about one difficult situation in life that I was able to overcome and the lesson that it taught me.

Finally, I was asked to state one factor according to me that is common to all business across geographies and cultures and how it binds people together.

Your overall experience during the internship:

It took me some time to get used to the various terms that are used regularly in the pharmaceutical industry. Hence, initially it was mainly about understanding the geographic requirements and the overall process of how the pharma market functions.

Once the initial week was out of the way it was all about understanding Cipla's activities and the deliverables assigned to me. My guide and mentor played a pivotal role in ensuring that I was on the right track throughout the two months.
The entire SAGA team was really approachable and learning from people who had such a rich experience of working in the industry across various countries was a plus point.

The best part of the internship was that I was made to feel at home and all my suggestions and contributions were valued irrespective of their magnitude and this motivated me to give my absolute best.

Technical skills used:

Technically most of my work was done on Microsoft Excel. I had to develop dynamic business models and dashboards in Excel and also work around big data to sanitize it and draw out inferences based on it to understand the various requirements of the deliverables assigned to me.

I also had to work on identifying marketing opportunities based on the latest trends in the industry. I used Microsoft Powerpoint to present all my work.

How has IIFT helped you in this internship?

During the initial few months of the first year, IIFT helped me in adjusting to the demands of the hectic "MBA life". Meeting deadlines and squeezing out time for all activities in spite of a busy schedule is something that will hold me in good stead throughout my career and this was a lesson that I learnt in the initial few months at IIFT.

Apart from this, the interactions that I had with certain seniors who shared their internship experiences helped me in getting a basic overview of how things function during a summer internship.