In the roller-coaster ride of a time-crunched course called MBA, a summer internship is a perfect mix of responsibility, exposure, and pressure. I was lucky enough to intern with the marketing and sales division the great old company - Tata Steel Limited. It all started with a GD, with some of the best peers and speakers one can discover in the campus. I evaluated myself to have spoken the least and not expecting much I went to attend a class. I was called for the interview, and somehow, I managed to be one among the 4 selected to intern in the Marketing and Sales profile of Tata Steel Limited.
In the month of March, we were asked to choose projects. I chose the project “Mapping of Boiler Market in Karnataka”. Having no clue whatsoever about how to execute the project. I expected that I will be guided, only to wrong myself and discover that I was will design the project myself. I consider myself lucky to meet Mr. Sabir Salam, Sr Manager in Boiler and Automotive division at Bangalore office, a cool-headed professional who works even on the weekends. I was a mentee under the Marketing head of Boiler Automotive and General Engineering (BAGE) SBU, Mr. Manish Jaiswal. Being the only intern at Bangalore office was daunting at first but once I could gain the momentum, it wasn’t difficult with the constant support I got from Sabir and Manish.
I went to meet the TSL distributor for the products (Boiler tubes, Air pre-heater Tubes and Corten tubes) time and again for gaining insights into the market, I was trying to analyse. Boilers are regulated under boiler regulation act and require annual certificates from the office of the factories and boiler, Karnataka government. I could meet the state head of the same department to discuss the project and obtained some crucial set of documents from him. After preliminary analysis of the data obtained from the regulatory authorities, I designed a market research to 1. Estimate Market Size of Karnataka Market 2. Micro-segmentation of the demand 3. Find consumer insights 4. Understand competition
The second phase of my project involved travelling around the state of Karnataka. I travelled around 9 districts in Karnataka and interviewed 50 customers for my project. In a completely new state, I would wake up in a new district every second day. All alone. And after every tiring day of work, I would make sure to visit nearby places and treat my stomach well. It was a B2B market research and every customer was almost double my age. Initially, I tried not to look startled by the technical specification the would speak, and within a short span, I learnt a lot. There was a particular customer whom I called around 8 times in 40 days before he agreed to give me an appointment. For the first time, I could understand the meaning of the word “Brand Name” , customers would describe their association with Tata steel from generations and tell stories about their past experiences. The internship ended with the compilation of my market research and a 1.5 hour of presentation to the Kolkata head office through video conferencing.
This internship endowed me with the art of patience, made me realise the value of trust and relationship in a B2B business environment and motivated me by the opportunity to interact with the top management of the company. And that’s the ode to my X internship!
Ahwan Abhinandan Joshi
Class of 2019
Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar
