Culture, Curiosity and Communication: The 3 Cs of my internship at Marsh India -By Ankita Parekh from NMIMS Bangalore
“The capacity to learn is a gift, the ability to learn is a skill, and the willingness to learn is a choice”, these were my go-to principles right from the day Marsh India was on campus at NMIMS Bangalore on the 18th of September, to every working day at the leading Insurance Broking and Risk Management company globally. Here is an anecdote of my internship experience at Marsh India.
The entire team of Marsh India walked into the room, smiling brightly and enthusiastically high. “Throughout your journey at Marsh, you will be filled with learning and innumerable questions. So, keep your questions coming and walk away with a storehouse of knowledge”, said HR. Those were the defining moments when I knew exactly that I wanted to do an internship at Marsh India over the summers of 2020. A company that always pushed me to ask ‘Why’ and help me fall in love with the problem, and not the solution. So here I was, a fresher, right out of under graduation, pursuing my MBA, and looking forward to the most exciting summers that I could have imagined!
However, all wasn’t hunky-dory. The news of COVID along with the number of cases was increasing day after day, and LinkedIn was filled with the news of rescinded offers, canceled internships, and cries of assistance. Despite the chaos, Marsh kept communicating with us from Day 1. A WhatsApp group had been formed with the summer interns from across campuses and we were assured that each piece of information would be conveyed to us timely and duly. We were the first and the only batch till date, associated with the company during a pandemic – and before we could worry any further, our program had a new and interesting name - The Virtual Summer Learning Program 2020.
A perfect fit of work, learning, and fun
The VSLP began on the 4th of May 2020. We were invited to the ‘Happy Hour Session’ at 4 pm. The session though having to last an hour went up to 2 hours, with all 38 interns smiling bright, laughing, and getting to know one another. The fun part about having to be associated with Marsh India is not only limited to the abundance of resources one can learn from but that each and every employee of the company carries their culture with them, embedded deeply. Throughout our 6 weeks program, we were invited to a number of informal sessions – ranging from Yoga @ Home and Weekend Bingo Games to sessions on ‘How to maintain your Diet and Nutrition during the lockdown’ to ‘Neurolinguistics’ – an art of understanding how the deepest parts of our brain are wired, and how to align the same optimally to our daily lives, goals, and ambitions. The rich balance of work and play, always made me wait for what is in store the next day!
Calculated strategies and a smooth framework
Our 6 weeks program was divided into 2 halves. The first three weeks revolved around multiple training sessions being provided to us by Marsh’s Industry Leaders – from the basics of Insurance Broking and Risk Management to a deep dive into the various product and service segments the company offers to its clients. “I am extremely new to the field of Insurance and Risk. Will I be able to manage and understand the intricacies of the work, align myself with my fellow interns and do justice to the opportunity I have received?”, I asked myself before the program began.
But from the moment the journey of my internship at Marsh India kick-started, the industry leaders were aware of the educational qualifications and backgrounds of each and every intern and had structured the sessions accordingly. And did I mention that our hands and minds were never empty during the 3 weeks of training? Throughout the training sessions, the HR team kept sending us mailers and pre-reads for the upcoming sessions, and now if I happen to go back and count the number of pages, they would definitely be 500 plus! That is the magnitude of importance that the company gives to learning! Even after the sessions, I found myself flipping pages of credible resources from BRINK, WEF, and RIMS.
Interactions that matter
“What more can I expect from a company during the lockdown, when the entire country is at home, grappling with the deadly virus?” a voice in my head echoed, completely overwhelmed with the experiences I was having. And right into the 3rd day of VSLP, a mail pops up in our inbox which read – ‘A Leadership Session with the Country Head and CEO of Marsh India – Mr. Sanjay Kedia’. What? Was I reading it correctly? CEO? On day 3? And so, the next day, I found myself right on time, logged onto the Zoom App, hearing Mr. Sanjay speak about his journey from University to Marsh and to the position of CEO. This was not it.
The next 4 weeks saw the interns interacting with the Organizational Leaders from not just Marsh India, but the extended Marsh and McLennan group all across Asia. The humbling experience helped me understand how the organization is structured, what it values when it comes to performance and one can chalk out their growth path at Marsh on the basis of their skills and competencies, rather than their age. And being one of the youngest of my peers, this was surely a morale boost!
A riveting project
The second leg of our journey saw us interns being handed over our much-awaited ‘Summer Projects’. Each intern had a separate research project matching their qualifications and experiences. As I had always been eager to know the know-how of the ‘Customer Relationship Management’ segment, I was given a project in the Sales and Management team based out of Gurgaon. The project titled - ‘Belief Based Engagement for the Chemicals, Pharmaceutical and Telecommunication Industries’. The project had me dwelling deep into secondary researches of the industries mentioned and keeping myself updated with the industry data, the risk profile, and the vast amount of damage a small risk can do, if not insured against.
Follow your quest for learning
My project mentor and guides were available to assist me despite having a busy schedule of their own. I had planned my project accordingly. I started planning backwards, which always helped me achieve my targets on time. I had clearly listed out the deliverables given to me and had prepared my weekly Team Milestone Calls accordingly. Over the week, I would have multiple engagements with my guides, take their approvals, make changes to the areas I wasn’t clear about, and presented the same over the Milestone calls for the last approval from my mentor.
During the entire stint of the project, I made sure to ask as many questions as possible, to get my doubts cleared. “No question is a good or a bad one. It only showcases your enthusiasm to keep learning and growing. If you fail to ask, you will fail to grow”. I kept these words of my mentor deeply instilled in me and made sure to make the best learning outcome from my entire stint of internship at Marsh India.