Another life chapter closed

I finished my summer at P&G UK on Friday. It was a bittersweet departure, as I haven’t decided whether I’ll return to the UK next year. It’s heartening to reflect upon what I accomplished this summer. My project came together quite nicely toward the end. I finished several reports and the supporting documentation, gave my final presentation, and said farewell to my team and fellow interns. I couldn’t have asked for a better internship, through both a challenging project and an enjoyable place to work.

I learned several important lessons from this internship. The first is the importance of networks, both formal and informal. There were a few times where I had trouble getting time in people’s calendars until my boss sent a few emails for me, but other times the informal networks carried me. I would have coffees with people about my project, and once they saw the worth of my project they would gladly help out. Some of my other networking time helped me to learn more about people doing different jobs and functions from my own. I now have a more complete view of the company because I made time for informal networking.

Another important lesson was the value of flexibility in business. Several of my contacts weren’t able to deliver the information or support I needed, and these obstacles ended up significantly changing my project. I was initially quite inflexible and spent too much time focusing on the problems instead of working around them. However, I now feel more comfortable reacting and working around change. Be ready for it, because it will happen.

My trivia question last week was how many legal entities P&G has. The answer is over 200. My final trivia question is how many Billion Dollar Brands (>$1B in revenue per year) does P&G have? The answer is: 24.

I’ll definitely appreciate being a student more after working full time for the summer. Time for one last year at Babson.

MJ

The past month has flown by. I have gotten into the groove of working at Marquis Jet and everything seems to come a lot easier than it did just a few weeks ago. My internship consists mostly of sales and I have talked to quite a few people who love the product and are very interested, though none have ultimately bought the 25 hour jet card. The product that Marquis sells is a large capital commitment by a normal person’s standard. However, the market that it is aimed at is well within the reaches of using Marquis frequently even within the tough economic environment. I have come to realize that buying a jet card is something that takes time and can really take months to close just one deal. It’s not that these people don’t want to fly with Marquis it is that they are usually just very very busy or do not want to take the chance on something new with all of the commitments they currently have. It is for this reason that we must find some underlying need that these people have to sway them away from their current provider. Most of the people that are in our target market are flying charter jet. The difference between charter and Marquis is enormous, and I think it would really take a test flight to see that. If the product were not so costly to test then it would be a great idea to give a trail flight to every charter customer with an income greater than 5 million. After seeing what a difference Marquis Jet has to offer I’m convinced that they would be inclined to switch.

Coming to a Close

As my internship comes to an end, I find myself wondering how these 10 weeks went so fast. Feeling like I just landed in San Francisco airport, I find myself at the airport once again waiting for a delayed Southwest flight back to the East Coast. Looking back on this summer – the BART rides to and from places all over San Francisco, late nights in the office, and later nights with friends – it is amazing that it has come and gone(although, I’ve never known a summer when that wasn’t the case). My time at Rapleaf was well spent – an impossible experience to duplicate or repeat. A non-typical internship from the start, I know that all the knowledge I have gained and talents I’ve honed will serve me well in both the near future, personally and professionally. The myriad books, articles, webinars, events, conferences and brain dumps I’ve been to are sure to give me enough to process for the next few months. And perhaps the most important take away from my time here in San Francisco – my first stab at entrepreneurship. This next phase of my ‘education’, in the very Mark Twain sense, is sure to draw on everything I’ve ever learned, both at Babson and here at Rapleaf. I’m looking forward to the next challenges I’m presented with, and can’t help but think I’ll be back to San Francisco many times in my life. More later, but for now, safe travels to all.

In my end is my beginning – T.S. Elliot

Cheers,

Max