Interns from global B-Schools flock to Indian companies

This April, Ivey Business School student Alexandra Schneidman landed in India for a lowdown on the working of large Indian conglomerates and customer dynamics in Asia’s third-largest economy.

While Schneidman completed her internship at one of the businesses of Ernakulamheadquartered Muthoot Group last month, David Chen, a student of MIT Sloan’s management programme, is close to wrapping up his India project on renewable energy, which he has taken up with the Green Initiatives team at Infosys.

Schneidman and Chen represent a growing tribe of foreign scholars of top institutes such as Wharton School of Business, Insead, Harvard Business School, MIT Sloan and Ivey Business School who see India as anentrepreneurial destination and want to understand the dynamics of large local businesses, some of which are familyrun.

“The internship project gave me a broader view of how companies operate in India, which is one of the crucial emerging markets,” said Schneidman, who is part of a batch of 40 students from Ivey’s international business class that has interned at the various businesses of the Muthoot Group.

Schneidman, who’s received her first lessons in gold loans, added, “We are used to a more standardised working environment in the West, but learning from India, where things are more volatile, will help me in my future managerial roles.”

Jinyuan Cai, another Ivey scholar, had interned in this part of the country for a better understanding of how emerging markets develop and what it takes to succeed in these economies. This is the first time Ivey Business School, Canada, has sent its international business programme students for internship to India.

The institute is keen on partnering with more Indian companies for similar programmes. “India is a market of great curiosity to people outside of India. It is important for our students to have the experience of living and working in this key emerging market,” said Darren Meister, director of Ivey’s MSc programme.

“From an educational perspective it is a memorable experience.” Chen from MIT Sloan said, “India is a fairly complex market and I wanted to understand the dynamics and the association between government and businesses here, and how Indian companies are run.”

Megan Milazzo, an MBA student at Kellogg School of Management, picked up her internship project with a social enterprise start-up, Project Dharma. Milazzo, who plans to work in brand management, sees India as the next source of growth for several brands, and feels a first-hand exposure to rural consumers and a developing market is necessary for an understanding of the challenges and opportunities.

The Kellogg School of Business offers fellowships to a select group of students through the Center of Research Innovation in Technology. The fellowships are located in Africa and India.

MIT Sloan has two-semester programmes that have students working with and at Indian companies and start-ups. These programmes include MIT Sloan India Lab, MIT Sloan GlobalHealth Lab and MIT Global Entrepreneurship Laboratory.

“India’s dynamic growth in a relative short time period and continued interest in supporting and developing its entrepreneurs, makes it very interesting to the students at Sloan who share a passion for creating new technologies and new businesses,” said Michellana Jester, director of Action Learning Program at MIT Sloan School of Management.

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