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ICFAI Business School (IBS) Ahmedabad

MARCH 30

Authored by: Prof. Girishchandran Pillai

Summer Internship Program (SIP) –

BLUES – A Student Guide for Acing the SIP

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ICFAI Business School (IBS) Ahmedabad

BLUES to ensure Your Summer Internship Program (SIP) is a Rocking Success!!!

SIP is indeed the Gateway to the Corporate World to most of the students, especially,

the ones, who would have chosen to complete the PG Course in Management, straight

out of their under-graduation days and more so for the experienced lot too, since, this

stint allows them to look at an organization with different lenses.

Let’s get started, with my recommendations for getting over the Blues of SIP with the

following BLUES!!!

Bulls Eye Mindset

Lead Indicators

Understanding & Seeking Support

Evaluation of Efforts

Scoreboard

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ICFAI Business School (IBS) Ahmedabad

• Bull’s Eye Mindset

The Power of Goal before You is that it helps you to Focus on the Mission Ahead and

helps you to visualize your Goal and Hit Your Goal in Your Mind even before you Actually

Do it!!!

SIP is exactly that, especially, from a context of getting yourself accustomed with the

Corporate Culture, People, Process and Most Importantly, the Politics involved in getting

your Work Done the Right Way!!!

You need to Visualize Your End-Role of the Project that You envision while you are in the

midst of understanding the Project itself.

Research has proven, that a Successful Professional generally wins twice in any event

across domains such as Sports, Arts, Music, any other Arena and the same is true in

Business too, especially, since, most of the Successful Business Professionals have build

the art of Capturing the Bulls’ Eye in their Minds.

“The 1st Victory is in the Mind and then followed by Actual Action of what they have

visualized in their respective Minds”.

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ICFAI Business School (IBS) Ahmedabad

How to Check Your Bull’s Eye Criteria?

A Quick Checklist

• You are Clear about the End Result expected out of the Internship Project – in

terms of Key Deliverables in terms of Quantifiable Measurable Parameters, Key

Input Parameters to achieve the Deliverables, Key Timelines & Resources available

to address the Deliverables & the Input Parameters across the Weekly, Monthly,

Time Zones.

• Your Faculty Guide & Industry Guide are also in sync with the above parameters

and you have documented and taken a sign-off from them on the above discussed

parameters – thereby ensuring your goals are aligned and your support

mechanisms in terms of Faculty & Industry Guides are also in sync with your Goals

for the next 4 months.

• Your Result that you have envisioned will be able to give a Substantial Value Add

to the Organization you are serving in terms of Quantifiable Value Addition, ie – in

terms of Sales Turnover, e.g.: Revenue Enhancement(Enhanced Sales)/ in terms of

Process Value Addition eg: Process Improvement(Introduction of Balanced

Scorecard)/in terms of Customer Value Addition eg: Measuring Customer

Satisfaction Index Scores ( understanding the Current levels of Retention ratio

amongst employees, customers, other stakeholders etc.,) etc., Overall any Project

that you take up should be able to get a Quantifiable Value Addition to the

Organisation (there may be projects which may not always be quantifiable- eg –

Secondary Research – however, always try to link the same with a Quantifiable

measure – since, that would lead to definite Value addition of your Project).

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ICFAI Business School (IBS) Ahmedabad

• LEAD Indicators

The Most Important part of the SIP as per my experience is the ability of the student to

chart out the Lead Indicators, which would lead him or her to the Success of the Program.

Lot of Students, define their Project very well with defined outcome parameters,

however, fail to identify the Indicators or Activities, which is under their Complete

Control, which would ultimately lead them to their Goal. This failure to determine the

Lead Indicators, lead to a lot of concern, among the students, especially, when the going

gets tough and the business pressures go high.

To give a more lucid example, anyone who would have wanted to attempt to lose weight,

myself included, would have gone through this exercise of attempting to keep watching

your weight on the weighing scale and either feeling down or feeling elated with kgs

being displayed on the scale. The Fact remains, that the Scale is the output measurement

of the activities that would ultimately make the scale feeling good or bad. Thus, the onus

is to identify activities and own those activities which are Predictable & Influenceable

from your side (completely under your control) & those activities would ultimately help

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND

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ICFAI Business School (IBS) Ahmedabad

to get the output changed. The Projects which are generally successful, are seen to be

projects, wherein the Students along with the support and guidance of Faculty & Industry

Guides have identified Activities which are Predictable & Influenceable at the student’s

level and thus can directly impact the outcome deliverables.

For E.g., Incase a Sales Project is being given to a student, wherein 5 policies need to be

activated by the student in a month, the student needs to identify activities, which are

directly influenceable & predictable and those activities need to be directly linked to the

Goal, viz – 5 Policies for the month. Accordingly, the Lead Indicators alongwith the

respective targets on a daily/weekly/monthly basis could be the following:

1) Number of Customers being Contacted for filling up a Customized Questionnaire

on understanding the Insurance Segment among prospective insurance buyers

2) Number of Customers who have agreed to fill up a Questionnaire highlighting the

Current Insurance status of the customer – which could help the student to

identify the gaps.

3) Number of Customized Insurance Proposals being given to Customers per week

(After a customized Plan being prepared for them after a thorough analysis of their

current risks & family stages)

How to Check Your Lead Indicator Criteria?

A Quick Checklist

• You have been able to make a list of activities sequentially that lead to your

outcome.

• You have been able to identify and segregate those activities which are predictable

& influenceable from your side.

• You have got an analysis either from past experiences from other experienced

professionals (in the same field) or from your faculty/industry guides that the

identified activities will eventually lead you to a successful outcome.

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ICFAI Business School (IBS) Ahmedabad

• You have set a Target for each of the identified activities, either on a daily

basis/weekly basis – post validation from experienced

professionals/faculty/industry guides.

• Understanding & Seeking Support!!!

One of the Greatest Errors that a Summer Intern does is that he or she forgets that

one is generally pardoned (more often than not) for the 1st & only time possible time

in their adult lives for making mistakes, with a disclaimer to make mistakes while

making 200% efforts. Thus, while, once we have put up lead indicators, chances are

high, that, you may need to seek support from the more experienced professionals

(including some grumpy but tough bosses) for giving you some insights on how to

meet your set lead indicator targets.

It is said that in a Change Cycle of Mastering Any New Skill, the 3rd phase, ie –

Conscious Competence, after the 1st 2 stages are completed, viz – Unconscious

Incompetence (Stage 1) and Conscious Incompetence (Stage 2) revolved around the

support that one gets when the grilling is on during the stage. There are 2 possibilities

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ICFAI Business School (IBS) Ahmedabad

as per research data, some people freeze during this stage and some fly during this

sage after putting on required number of efforts.

Thus, the need to seek Support, ask for Support and sometimes Demand Support–

shamelessly from your Faculty Guides, Industry Guides, Google Guides is nothing but

Common Sense!!!

How to Check Your Understanding & Seeking Support Criteria?

A Quick Checklist

• You have been able to identify a Professional who has been able to successfully

demonstrate the skill that you are trying to learn, which would be critical to your

success in this role.

• You have been able to put in required efforts & record these efforts in a

documented manner to highlight the same to the seasoned professional (on a pre

decided time slot agreed by the professional on a periodic basis), which would help

the professional to help you overcome your shortcoming & give you Valuable Tips

to achieve success.

• You have got an analysis either from past experiences from other experienced

professionals (in the same field) or from your faculty/industry guides that the

identified activities will eventually lead you to a successful outcome.

• You have set a Target for each of the identified activities, either on a daily

basis/weekly basis – post validation from experienced

professionals/faculty/industry guides.

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ICFAI Business School (IBS) Ahmedabad

• Evaluation of Efforts

The Great Greek Philosopher Socrates once said “A Life which is not examined daily,

is not worth living”. Indeed, this proverb written and talked about centuries ago, is

even true and worth in gold, for someone who is undertaking a SIP in this 21s Century.

The Real Tribute to understanding the Project comes when the Intern is thinking

about his or her own project, free from any bias or perception issues from his other

stakeholders on daily basis. Thus, an honest daily evaluation of his/her efforts in the

journey till date will determine his or her future endeavors in the organization, since,

this would allow one to take a decision in terms of corrective actions, seeking support,

flagging major issues and thereby seeking a solution to anything which comes as an

impediment to the earlier visualized goal.

How to Check Your Evaluation of Efforts Criteria?

A Quick Checklist

• You have been able to document your daily activities & efforts in your dairy.

• You have been able to diagnose your Critical Areas of Improvement from your daily

activities which needs to be corrected on your own.

• You have been able to seek guidance and support from your experienced

professionals/industry/faculty guides in areas, which you are not able to get an

appropriate solution.

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ICFAI Business School (IBS) Ahmedabad

• You have been able to get your work being evaluated from a neutral perspective

from an Expert in that domain & thereby work on the improvement suggested on

an SOS basis along with incorporating their Valuable suggestions in your project.

• Scoreboard

There have been many instances wherein students have got a frown on their faces, when

the Guide (either the Faculty or the Industry Guide) did not give them the scores that

they thought they deserved. My analysis tells me that the actual reason for the same

was the lack of a Common Scoreboard being prevalent between the student and the

guides.

Thus, the final suggestion from my side would be to ensure that the student takes the

initiative in Creating a Scoreboard which is approved and vetted by the Industry & Faculty

Guides in line with the Project Guidelines and which acts as a Lighthouse to the student

who is looking at it to ensure the Project is channelized in the right direction with the

right efforts.

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed

under CC BY-NC

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ICFAI Business School (IBS) Ahmedabad

The Scoreboard, thus, helps the student to learn, unlearn, relearn and thereby intervene

at the right stage to create more actions to correct the gaps (if any), which will get

exposed in the Scoreboards being filled on a daily/weekly/monthly basis. Thus, the

student gets the advantage of being the critic themselves and thereby helps the student

in planning & creating a more stronger action plan for the day and thereby helps the

student to be in much more control of the situation.

How to Check Your Scoreboard Criteria?

A Quick Checklist

• You have created a Daily List of Pre-decided Measurable Activities – which can be

Scored from a criteria of Target v/s Actual, eg: Number of Sales Calls done/Number

of Proposal Sent/Number of Cost Benefit Analysis done

• You have created a Weekly List of Pre-decided Measurable Summary of Activities

– which can be a combination of total of weekly activities – in the form of Target

V/s Actual, eg: Average Number of Sales Call Done in the Week/ Number of Weekly

Proposals Sent/ Number of Cost Benefit Analysis done

• Marking the Daily Scoreboards in the form of highlights in various forms – eg: Red

in case it is below 80% of the Target, Amber/Yellow incase it is within 80% to 100%,

Green incase it is above 100% - thereby getting an estimate of the overall day’s

productivity & thereby creating a plan for changing the red & amber activities in

the Green belt as an action for tomorrow.

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ICFAI Business School (IBS) Ahmedabad

Thus, I do, sincerely hope, that the above Guide Book helps our students in being more

organized and structured in their approach, in their endeavor in showcasing as Valuable

Assets in the Organizations that choose to do their Summer Internships.

I would like the students, especially in this pandemic time, with the following message,

which hopefully, will inspire many students to work harder even when being aware that

there is no shoulder who is overlooking them during the SIPs – mostly at homes & hence,

even more important to follow a Disciplined effort full SIP tenure!!!

“Heights Reached by Great Men & Women were not achieved in a Sudden Flight, they

were Toiling Hard, when others Slept in the Stillness of the Night.”

Happy Learning!!!

God Bless!!!

Warm Regards,

Prof. Girishchandran Pillai

ICFAI Business School (IBS) – Ahmedabad