FINAL INTERNSHIP REPORT

“ Experience is not what happens to you, it is what you do with what happens to you.”

-Aldous Huxley

Executive Summary : A cog in the wheel. A drop in the ocean. My experience at Zeneca made me realize that even a tiny drop in the ocean counts. Starting on 5^th of July 2000, I am proud of my association with Zeneca Ag Products, now Syngenta.

Syngenta, a new global company dedicated solely to agribusiness, was formed on November 13, 2000 from the merger of Novartis Agribusiness and Zeneca Agrochemicals businesses. Syngenta is the leader in the worldwide agribusiness market, which has an estimated value of USD 40 billion. The company operates in all major areas of crop protection and seeds, with products designed to improve crop yields and food quality. Syngenta is headquartered in Basel, Switzerland.

I judge my time spent at Syngenta as being the most productive and exhilarating experience of my corporate life. Few of the main highlights of my work experience while at Zeneca were :

· Good Leadership

· Congenial Work Atmosphere

· Challenging Tasks Assignment

· Employee Empowerment

· Proactive Problem Resolution

I am proud to have been associated with such a global identity but my true joy emanated from the fact that I had the unique pleasure of working for Syngenta, a company where I have learnt much and had the chance to implement my knowledge to solve real time problems. Three factors have been crucial to making my internship experience a productive and a memorable one :

1. Mentors and Colleagues at Syngenta è I received very good direction from my Department Lead, Ioana Tudor and Project Leader, Alex Moore and enjoyed immense support from my colleagues. The confidence placed in me was quite motivating and the lessons learned were rewarding indeed. People in other departments also have been a big help. To add to this, I am thankful to all the folks I met daily who beamed me bright smiles that brightened my day.

2. Excellent Tools è I was exposed to some of the cutting edge tools used in the IT industry including NetObjects TeamFusion 2000 and Allaire HomeSite 4.0. Exposure to online analytical tool like WebTrends® Log Analyzer gave me an invaluable insight into the traffic metering and site positioning.

3. Pride è Potent mix of both the above reasons gave me a sense of accomplishment and pride in my work. I came into the office with a smile, give my 200% and left with a smile. Yet, I was in no way different than any other person at Syngenta. Employment empowerment can do wonders to the employees and a happy workforce can do wonders to a company’s bottomline.

Project Analysis & Task Summary :

Syngenta presented me with a wide array of activities that kept my hands full. There were some activities which involved a regular routine. Some of these routine activities were as follows:

1. Online analysis of Zeneca’s North American websites.

This involved log analysis of website traffic and usage monitoring. For this purpose Zeneca employed WebTrends® Log Analyzer, which gave us a very accurate summary of website traffic activity summary and hit counts.

2. Log analysis of Farmassist.com

FarmAssist is computer software that enables farmers to keep accurate records of their crop production inputs and profitability. The program has excellent built in flexibility applicable to most types of farming, including row crop, tree fruit, small fruit, vegetable, and cereal grain farms.

Using advanced site monitoring system, Zeneca ascertains website traffic and download of their Farmassit software. Log information reveals the demographic information related to user downloads and well as provides valuable feedback which goes into improving the software functionality.

3. Generating online traffic and usage summary reports for North American sites.

Zeneca maintains four other North American websites, apart from Farmassist.com. A similar procedure, as described above, was performed on the log data, but this time the interest was to monitor the geographic usage of websites so that we could better manage the content to benefit the largest group of visitors. These websites will be integrated into the Syngenta.com domain by the time this report is read, which is by the 2^nd week of January 2001.

Besides the above activities, I was involved in content creation and management for the North American Ag. Sites

· Zeneca Ag Products (www.zenecagaproducts.com)

Website providing information resource for U.S. farmers and others involved in agriculture in the U.S. The site includes MSDS/labels and other relevant information about Zeneca products. There is a "Local info" section which provides relevant information at regional/local level.

· Zeneca Profesional Products (www.zenecaprofprod.com)

Website providing information about Zeneca products sold in Pest Control and Turf and Ornamental markets. You can download MSDS/label sheets and information about Zeneca literature available for its customers.

· Online training module : I was involved in the design and development of a training module for one of our herbicides, Touchdown. Working in a distributed architecture, different modules were created by Joe Gaylo, Carole Ricks and myself. These were integrated seamlessly together by our project leader, Alex Moore and we finished the project well ahead of schedule.

I also contributed to the development of site navigation system for the French-Canadian site :

· www.zeneca.ca/fr

I was also invited to join a management team to evaluate a B2B Agri-portal, Golfsat.com in San Diego, CA. Golfsat is a virtual community for professional golf course superintendents. It links superintendents not just through the Internet, but also the suppliers and manufacturers of industry-specific management products and equipment, service companies, universities, trade organizations, and field experts. Thus Golfsat is positioned as an online marketplace for Golf Superintendents and Managers by providing them a single stop shop where anything relating to Golf Management can be purchased. It thus allows golf course superintendents to easily find and buy anything they need to manage their operations. Membership in Golfsat is free to any golf course superintendent in the world. The only requirements are to have Internet access and to register with their site.

It was quite an insightful trip. My Project Leader, Alex Moore was designated as the contact point on Zeneca’s side and I was given the task of analyzing the project potential. I reported my finding to Alex Moore and my Project Leader, Ioana Tudor. It was received quite well.

During the last few weeks at Syngenta, my time was devoted to content conversion and development for our new site Syngenta.com. I helped out in the configuration of site navigation which involved ASP ( active server pages ).

Modus Operandi :

Having completed my International Finance courses in the Spring ‘99 semester, I was all gaga over IT & MIS while interviewing for Zeneca and for a good reason as my second major is Information Technology and I have a keen affinity towards the area. Zeneca gave me all the tools I could ask for and since I was involved more on the IT side of things, I did not use utilize my newly gained financial insight at the work place. But on the more personal front, I did open a DATEK ® online trading account with a modest sum, taking my interest in online trade simulations to a new level. Dr. Kirk Fiedler’s class on Information system was quite useful while writing my analysis and report on GolfSat’s strategy evaluation.

Suggested Refinements :

Performance Evaluation and feedback play an important role in gauging the effectiveness at work place. I was asked to fill out one feedback form while midway though the internship. I believe that this activity can generate valuable performance data and help in fine tuning the performance of a candidate. In order to achieve this objective, I recommend that performance evaluation exercises be conducted on a more regular basis. An monthly interval can achieve this goal.

Statement of Principles based on Zeneca Experience :

I have learned a lot by observing my Project Leader, Ioana Tudor and Project Manager Alex Moore. Planning and being prepared is the key to achieving goals. While some may pride themselves in staying back till late hours in the office to get the job done, by proper time management and delegation of task, a lot of processes can be streamlined. When extra effort is required, my superiors stayed back to lend a hand. I truly admire this “Leadership by example” approach. It is quite motivating.

Listening is another important skill. I always have a lot of questions and Alex and Ioana have always been patient listeners. This lent a very good rapport to our relationship, allowing me to clearly define problems and seek advise.

In Summation :

The secret of success is constancy of purpose. -Benjamin Disraeli

I have learnt a great deal at Syngenta. My exposure to various leading technological tools has enhanced my technical knowledge. My better understanding of corporate protocols and working environment stems from the fact that I was allowed ample working space and responsibilities to make my own judgments. Spending time on an internship is an excellent way to get into gear for the corporate world after months of academics. It allows an individual to apply new skill sets learned at school and warms up the mind for then coming years of career ahead.

I would like to conclude by saying that even though every person will have a different story to tell, the common factor that binds us all is the good work done by our predecessors in the MIBS program, that has given us a good reputation in corporate America. I have given more than 100% of my efforts to keep up that good work and I am sure that my colleagues have done the same. I am hopeful that as we pass through the corridors of this great institution into the real world, this legacy will be kept and upheld by the future generation of MIBSters.