Let’s begin the story…
As soon as I returned from Karnataka field visit, I was told that this was the last project that I had to work on. It was then, I suddenly realized that 2 months have passed in a flash and my internship at Greenlight Planet was coming to an end with just a couple of days more to go. Let me take you through different experiences that I have gained in this small, yet pleasant, journey at GreenLight Planet.
First of all, let me quickly give you a recap of the projects that I have worked on and its current/possible impact:
- Preparing SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) from Order to Cash (Ops project) – This document will be a handy tool for all partnership managers to be used for procedures relating to FOB shipments. Also, this could be useful to train new Business Development and Sales Hires
- Reaching out to Regional Rural Banks and Public Sector Banks to get them onboard to be a partner in progress for Business Development in India (BD project) – Obtained leads from 2 rural banks and 1 Public Sector Bank which were welcoming to discuss the terms of partnership and create a good customer base in their operating regions
- Preparing a dashboard for competitor analysis (Marketing) – This could help the sales and marketing team to keep updated about competitor’s product quality and their pricing strategy
- Karnataka field visit to understand the pain points pertaining in the long partnership with FICC and understand the reason for a significant drop in sales
(BD and Ops project) – The analysis of the reasons for a drop in sales and highlighting the issues that required quick attention from the operations team at a senior level to get back the sales on track and make the distribution of the product more efficient.
Let me now take you back to,
How I got selected for this position?
Following the global trend of gradually shifting from non-renewable to a renewable source of energy with an aim to reduce the global carbon footprint, I wanted to expand my experience in energy domain to renewable energy space.
With this goal in my mind, I had a word with my cousin who was in this industry and Greenlight Planet at Mumbai office for a few years now. He suggested me to forward my resume to him which he then forwarded to Mr. Gaurav Bhandari, Senior Global Partnerships Manager. I was given a case study to solve and present where I had to role play as Business Development Manager to pitch for a new partnership with a prospect. There were 2 more rounds of interviews. After the assignments, interviews and a few talks with Mr. Amar Samarapally, who was going to be my mentor for 2 months, I received a confirmation email and subsequently the offer letter.
Tips from my experience:
- Giving answers that are crisp and concise rather than sophisticated helps create a good impression.
- Be thorough with any case given to solve during the selection process. Expect question even from what you think is not that important.
- Be thorough with the basic terminologies taught in class in the first year. The questions asked are very basic. For example – Some of the questions that were asked of me were
- how do you forecast the market share,
- what is market segmentation, and
- what is the difference between cyclic and seasonal demands?
How were the initial days?
Reflecting back on my first day at Greenlight Planet, I was warmly welcomed by Ms. Dimple Samatani (Human Resources) who gave me a brief of the company and its working methods. After being introduced to everyone on the team that I had to work with, I was given an overview regarding the organization structure, the products and services and the business model. And, I must say it was a great start to get a glimpse of different aspects of the business in this industry. I was provided with some initial reading materials to understand the market trend that gave me a detailed insight on different business model applicable for a profitable business in this industry. I was also amazed to learn that GreenLight Planet has been able to work in accord with its mission to provide sustainable and affordable energy by selling around 8+ million solar lamps in 64 countries across the globe. This has changed the lives of many families where the children can now study at night under the bright lamps and small businesses can prosper despite being deprived of grid electricity.
My First Project
The first project assigned to me was to formulate a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) that would cover the steps taken as soon as the purchase order is received from our business partner across the globe to shipment and receiving of payment from the partners. It includes petty details of all the exceptions to the normal procedure for some strategic partners as well as includes a comprehensive FAQ to answer any doubts arising while going through the document. As it was the first project, I encountered several doubts and needed to clarify them from different people across different teams and it is worth mentioning that each one of them was readily available to help me out in this regard. This document is intended to be a handy tool for operations, sales and BD team for FOB shipments and training new hires to understand the company’s policies. I learnt a great deal of operation related terminologies as well as the departure of practical application from theory. I also got how the company differ its strategy depending upon the financial health of the partner.
My Second Project
Till this time, my mentor was on business tour and when he came back, he gave me a project to lay down current banking industry structure in India and bring leads from Regional Rural Banks and Public Sector Banks for B2B partnership. During this, I got to learn in detail how the cross-selling of products actually happens and several do’s and don’ts while pitching for the business partnership to prospects. I was given constant guidance, whenever required. I was successful in getting positive leads from 2 Regional Rural Banks and 1 Public Sector Bank, which the BD team is now considering to convert the lead into a good prospect.
Karnataka Field Visit
This was the best part of my internship where I got an opportunity to visit Karnataka to encounter a live problem that the company was facing a significant drop in sales in the past two months. The company booked my flights and a comfortable stay at Ginger Hotel, Mysore which served an amazing breakfast that kept me active the whole afternoon.
I was a bit nervous at first as it was my first experience in such kind of job where I, along with our Area Managers at Karnataka, met with 6 branch managers, 1 Area Manager and 1 Cluster Manager, of one of our business partners to understand the pain points that have lately taken ground. Also, I got a chance to meet our rural customers who were located in remote locations and take their feedback on our products. It was a delight to know that there were almost no issues in terms of quality. I reported all the issues that I figured out in a report with my personal recommendations which was appreciated by the team back in Mumbai. It was a great sense of achievement as it was a great project to be the last one at my internship.
Key learning and advice to juniors
- Consider yourself lucky even if 2/3rd of the work given to you is interesting
- There is a definite learning attached to each work that you will get which you may not realize while doing
- Don’t hesitate to interact with members of other teams and discuss their work as that is where you will learn the most
- It is a myth that textbook knowledge is not important. This knowledge silently helps you while working in corporate
- Ask your doubts outright as it will help you save a lot of time. No one expects you to know everything from before
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