Eshanthi Ranasinghe

Greetings from Bangladesh!

Rossers are all over the world right now embarking on the great adventure known as the summer internship - working in finance to consulting, working on brand strategy to clean tech development, working at offices from Chicago to China.

For my internship, I'm working on as a WDI Fellow at CARE Bangladesh, country office of NGO CARE International. I got placed here at an amazing time. CARE BD is in the process of separating its innovative Rural Sales Project from the non-profit to form a joint venture with French consumer product goods company Danone (yes, like Dannon yogurt). I get to work on final business plan and governance structure! The new social enterprise will be launched this fall.

Background on RSP

The Rural Sales Project is an initiative started in CARE BD’s Economic Development Unit that equips CARE BD's infamous "Aparajitas" (women who do not accept defeat) with training and products to sell to villages in rural Bangladesh. The program employs more than 2,000 women who source products at more than 50 hubs.

The model is based on CK Prahalad’s BoP concept and is similar to the Shakti model run by Hindustan Unilever. The big difference is that it was set up by an independent organization, allowing them to engage a range of for-profit companies and keep close measurement of social impact.

As a result, the Aparajitas sell a range of products, which ultimately mitigates risk. They sell shoes (Bata), daily packets of soap (Bangladesh Unilever), sanitary napkins (Square), chocolates, seeds, animal feed, phones/minutes (Grameenphone), yogurt (Grameen-Danone Foods), and will soon be selling garments. Shoe sales, which earn the women the largest commission, fluctuate in a cycle of about one-two months, while soap sells daily but provides less commission. In the end, it balances out into a steady income stream for the women.

In 2009, RSP generated $1M in sales for the companies it partnered with and is projected to generate $10M this year, almost 700 million Bangladeshi taka. In addition to providing the women with a regular income, the project also empowers the Aparajitas to become income generators, and thus decision-makers, in their families. RSP targets rural women who are the most marginalized in their social structures, so the impact of this empowerment can be quite significant.

As one woman told us on a field visit, before she became an Aparajita, she couldn't approach even the poorest house in a village she lived near; now she is welcomed at the home of wealthiest in the village.

Here are some photos from my first field visit where I got to see RSP and a partnership initiated by CARE BD between a local entrepreneur and a group of women to create naturally dyed fabrics for sale to high-end retailers (they already have orders booked for the whole year!).

Slideshow: My first field visit, May 17, 2010

Microsoft Emerging Markets MAP: Photos!

These are certainly long overdue... but better late than never! Here are some photos of our MAP team at the Microsoft offices in Redmond, Washington, and from a weekend trip into Seattle with the other Seattle MAP teams (MS and Amazon). Thanks to Chris Rodriguez and Howard Law for the lovely photos!

Photos courtesy of Chris Rodriguez:

 

Photos courtesy of Howard Law:

 

(I took this one! Thanks to Howard for letting steal his beautiful camera!)

 

Microsoft Emerging Markets MAP: To Redmond We Go!

We just got back from a whirlwind visit to Redmond and Seattle to kick off our MAP project for Microsoft. Two words sum up my current mental state: 1) overwhelmed; 2) excited!

We spent last Monday, March 15, flying in to Seattle and settling into our hotel in Bellevue, WA. We had a team dinner at Cheesecake Factory and glorified in our first reimbursed meal since starting school. We ran into our sponsor, Karen Leavitt, in our hotel lobby and all took an instant liking to her.

Tuesday morning we headed into the Microsoft campus in Redmond and kicked off a day of meetings with Matt Rossmeissl, Mike Novasio and Ross Alum Ganga Venkatasubramanian, who were all interested in the research we would be doing on emerging markets e-commerce. In the afternoon we got deep into the details of our actual project. Over the three days we worked there, we learned a great deal about Microsoft and got a chance to get an unique insider's perspective on the company's strategic direction. 

Wednesday evening we made our first trip into Seattle for a Seattle Ross Alumni Happy Hour at the Black Bottle. We got a chance to meet up with the other domestic Microsoft teams, and the Amazon team. The food and wine were amazing! 

Thursday was spent working on our initial project documents and fleshing out our scope,  Letter of Engagement, and work plan. Here is a brief version of what we're hoping to accomplish for Microsoft in the next month:

- Create a map of industry capabilities related to local e-commerce in key emerging markets
- Define an Action Plan recommending the top capabilities in which MS should invest in emerging markets

Don't let its simplicity fool you - the full version of our scope is intimidating, but incredibly interesting. We're hoping that our work will be used to help Microsoft guide and shape its emerging markets strategy. What a great opportunity!

On Friday, part of our team traveled back to Ann Arbor, and part of us stayed to get a better look at life as a Seattlite. I was part of the group that stayed, and I had a blast hanging out with the other Seattle-based teams. More on this, with photos, to come!

Excuse me, have you seen my Winter A?

I think I caught a glimpse of it at Skeeps on Thursday, and then at an operations review session on Saturday. But I'm not really sure where it went. Have you seen my Winter A?

The past seven weeks have passed by in a haze of ski trips, Ross Follies, MBA prom, off-campus internship searches, Go Blue Rendezvous planning, club leadership transitions, drag shows and the FUNNYs.. Here's quick re-cap of the fun.

Ross Ski Club: the Boyne Ultimatum

A total blast. For expert skiers and snowboarders, Boyne is probably a snooze ("a pimple of a mountain," as one Rosser put it), but it's perfect for trying out a new snow sport. Plus, it's a great opportunity to hang out with friends, go tubing and relax in a 50-person "hot" tub (more of a lukewarm pool, but still fun!). I tried snowboarding. My tail bone only hurt for a week or two. 

Photo courtesy of Ling Chen

Don't you wish you looked this cool? (I'm standing like that b/c my butt stopped working).

MBA Prom: Our tireless effort to relive high school continues

I have a theory about MBAs... we're a bunch of recovering nerds. Seriously. Despite how cool and downright sexy we are now, we were all once trumpet carrying, yearbook editing, debate club presidents. We were not cool. We were smart. Some of us managed to appear normal on the outside, but they were still closet nerds. And that's okay. It takes only one glance through Facebook to see that we chose the right path in life.

Because we're all recovering nerds, we have an insatiable urge to relive our high school experiences to make up for our impossibly awkward adolescence. Hello MBA Prom! Similar to MJ's nose (RIP), it's way more fun than the real thing.

Photos courtesy of Rotem Yossef

Ross Follies!!

A word: Wow. In just a few weeks, in the middle of classes, conferences and recruiting, the Ross Follies cast pulled together an unbelievable display of MBA acting, singing, and dancing talent. Rife with inside jokes and sophisticated humor, Ross Follies 2010 was a blow out hit. And I'm not biased at all.

Photo courtesy of Eyal Itskovich

Ross Follies 2010 Board and cast opens the show!

Photo courtesy of Ling Chen
 
Room Room Now cast! We rocked it.

Room Room Now was a parody written to the tune of "Boom Boom Pow" (Black Eyed Peas) about the drama associated with securing meeting space at Ross. Two groups battled it out on stage in a dance directed by Jeanah Hong and choreographed by Sara Jones.

Check out video from Ross Follies 2010!

Secret Gunner Man - awesome music video about secret MBA gunners
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqFhiv212Fk

The Domestics - hilarious skit about family visits over Fall Break
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyWF9ZJ7D6Y

MBgAy

Ever wonder what an MBA drag show looks like? Wonder no more! Out for Business organized a fantastic event featuring straight MBA guys dressed in drag. I had the pleasure of working with sectionmates Laura Grund and Matt Schnugg to turn Matt into a lovely lady. He rocked it to the tune of "It's Raining Men," and "What a Feeling" from Flashdance. We had six other MBA guys jump on stage during "It's Raining Men," in formal coats and swim trunks - Aaron, Kevin, John, Shantanu, Ben and Paul, you guys brought the house down!

Photo courtesy of Rotem Yossef

Matt & Laura! 

Now we're officially facing finals week, which explains why I'm writing a blog entry instead of studying for operations. A few short days after that we'll be heading all over the world for Spring Break, and then starting our final quarter of our first year as MBAs! You know what that means...

MAP!: The program every business school wishes it had

Multidisciplinary Action Project For those of you who don't know what MAP is, it's a program that Ross organizes up with companies around the world to provide MBAs with real-world application of the business concepts we've been learning all year.

My MAP is going to be with Microsoft working on eCommerce market development in emerging markets. I met my team, and we heard from our company contact last week. We'll be heading to Microsoft's training facility in Seattle the second week of March. We don't have a lot of information yet, but you can expect plenty of updates once we get started. More on this in the next post. 

The End of Winter A

That wraps up Winter A! It's been an unbelievable year so far. Graduation for our second years is right around the corner, and I'm definitely feeling a tug at my heart. Plenty of memories still have to be made before then, but I want to take a moment to appreciate how amazing everyone at this school is. Our section (section 3!!) had its "1st Annual FUNNYs: Funners for life" event. We voted on everything from who had the "Most Game," to who was "Most Likely to Change the World," and ended the ceremony with a collection of photos from our time at Ross. Thanks to our social chairs for putting together this unforgettable event!

Section 3: the MBA Dynasty, courtesy of John Leu

New Year's Resolutions: Top 5

Several people have asked me what my resolutions are for next semester. Many things have crossed my mind. These are my top five:

1. Call my non-Michigan friends more. Not texts, not voicemail tag, not Facebook wall posts, not even emails. Real, live phone conversations. Eventually we graduate. Let's not lose the people who know us the best (and love us anyway).

2. Try not to kill any family members before I return to school. This is much harder than it sounds.

3. Commit myself fully to the internship hunt.

4. Do things outside of the business school, which includes the building on 701 Tappan St., as well as our four satellite campuses (Skeeps, Blue Lep, Brown Jug, and, of course, Rick's).

5. Do not be afraid.

Let's talk about this last one. I don't want this to start sounding like an entry in Eat, Pray, Love; but I can't help feeling like I've let fear dictate too much of my last semester. For people as intelligent, accomplished and ambitious as we all are, we share a common fear that most of us never realized we had because it's never been something we've had to face - fear of failure. Fear of being the last in the pack.

We come in confident and smiling at being admitted to one of the best business schools in the country. We practically pat each other on the back when we first meet. We're so pleased with ourselves - we're on top of the world. And then we start recruiting.

The economy is recovering, but hardly recovered - what if there isn't enough to go around? We want, need an internship. We have to be involved in everything. We have to be leaders. We have to be well-rounded. We have to network, get people to like us. We have to go on bar crawls, organize parties, meet people. We have to compete.

You think you know yourself before you get here, but then you realize, maybe you don't. You think you're smart, talented, unique, interesting, clever, charming. And then you meet all of these other smart, talented, unique, interesting, clever, charming people and you start to wonder - where do I fit in all this? Am I consulting? Banking? CPG? Healthcare? Erb? What's my competitive advantage? What's my dynamic variable at Ross?

Business school is a place where labels can get out of hand. It's very easy to get silo-ed, to get overwhelmed by the waves of people funneling into specific, predetermined tracks. It's much simpler to follow a crowd than to hack your own way through. It's easy to let your fate be decided for you, to fit into a persona, into a clique, and lose the part of you that has always made you different. 

So, that's my resolution. To give up fear. To embrace failure. To know that as long as we move toward what we care about, what we're interested in, what moves us, we are never failing. We are simply changing, and change is the only constant in life. It is innate to being human.

Also, I'm going to start meditating again.

Time to let my freak flag fly.

Rock on! Rock N Roll B-School Pics

Thanks to Ling Chen and Shayan Merchant for some awesome photos!

Photos by Ling Chen:

Photos by Shayan Merchant: 

 

Rock N Roll B-School 2009

Ross is a different kind of business school. That's the conclusion I came to at this year's Rock N Roll B-School show at Necto, on Thurs, Nov 19.

As an MBA1, this was my first chance to attend RNRBS, and see one of the most spectacular displays of MBA talent ever. In the history of the world. At least until Ross Follies.

Let me add a caveat to this. If you don't like rock music, colorful skits, inappropriate humor, inappropriate people, inappropriateness in general, stay as far away as you can from this show. There are lots of fun things to do at Ross; and, for you, this is not one of them.

If you do happen to like a complete lack of propriety, and "raunchy, rockin' R-rated comedy," your first order of business when you come on to campus next year is to sign up to participate. It's a blast to watch, and I can only imagine it's a blast to be in. 

A quick run down of some of the fabulously inappropriate skits..

- Student life as a feature on National Geographic. Think Mean Girls concept of high school as a jungle, but applied to the Ross School of Business.

- "Spam Venture Capital" parody of the venture capital process and how projects are chosen to receive funding (enhanced performance is key).

- Company office hours, interviews and resumes; lots of material for spoofs making fun of the pains of the internship and job search process.

- "iTalk," featuring several students, Steve Jobs and a translation system that helps international students talk to other students, professors talk to their classes, and women talk to men (you know how poor communicators we are). Shout-out to actors who stayed in character all day! That's right, through classes.

And, my personal favorite:

- "Michigan Match Maker," based (not so) loosely on the Monroe Street Journal's match maker column that pairs two MBAs on a blind date and records their charming beginning on the path to eternal love and happiness. The random match up in the spoof? Ross siblings Robyn and Brian Katzman. The results? A hilarious skit of brother-sister antagonism that gets rewritten as a match made in heaven for the column, read aloud by Ian Swedish and Tina Feng. Directed by Elizabeth Abbett.

Brian "is this free-range chicken?" Katzman and Robyn "I could probably bench press you" Katzman face off on a Michigan Match Maker date.

Best part of the skit:

B: Hey Rob, that top you're wearing, kinda... (inappropriately revealing to imply a loose woman). It would be nice if my little sister didn't look like a ... (lady of the night).

R: Are you <bleep> kidding me, Brian? Did you look in the mirror before you left the house? Could you be wearing any more fleece? You look like a <bleep> sheep. Not to mention the fact that you've had those jeans since college, which was what, like 20 years ago? You should never leave the house in those again. Ever.

If you'd like to see a video of the skit, taped by the talented Ling Chen, email me directly. The language may be a little inappropriate for posting.

What's Rock N' Roll without a Band?

Performing between skits was a fantastic rock band, featuring current MBA students James Bell, Zach Robin, Kripal Kavi, and Michael Godwin. Aileen Payumo was amazing as the lead singer for Blondie's "Call Me," and "Roxanne" by The Police. Watch RNRBS Band perform "Roxanne!"

Tony Ehrbar sang lead for "Use Somebody" by Kings of Leon- another awesome performance, along with "Mr. Brightside" by the Killers, and many others. Watch "Use Somebody" by RNRBS.

Props to Paul Zahka and Brian Wahlgren, who also wooed the crowd with their honey tones. Anyone who can crowd-surf in a club full of MBAs must be pretty baller at networking.

Photos to come!

Washington DC Career Trek

After weeks of planning, the Emerging Markets Club DC Trek Leadership Team pulled off an informative and insightful career trek to Washington, DC, over fall break, networking with representatives from for-profit and non-profit companies working in international development and sustainability.

Our group of 27 MBA and MS students went on six company site visits, participated in a panel discussion on entrepreneurship in emerging markets, featuring Dr. David Canter from the William Davidson Institute, and attended the annual DC/Baltimore Ross Alumni Club Worldwide Club Day event.

We met representatives from AED, Booz Allen Hamilton, Grassroots Business Fund, US AID, Chemonics, ICF, Asoka, ACDI VOCA, JE Austin, Aspen Institute and ANDE.

The DC Career Trek was a great opportunity to network, but it was also a unique chance to learn more about the ways various sectors work together to help develop international markets and spur healthy growth.

Maybe I lost some sleep, maybe I didn't spend enough time studying for finals, maybe I almost forgot my mom's birthday; still, I had a great experience putting this Fall Break trek together. We rocked out to karaoke and sushi in Dupont Circle, had sangria at Lauriol Plaza, interacted with truly amazing people and organizations, and I worked with some of the best students I have had the pleasure of meeting at Ross.

You hear it time and time again - being at Ross is like drinking water out of a fire hose. It's true! Opportunities to get involved come at you at full speed. You can hang back and let them fly past you, or you can hold your breath and jump in.

Read more about the DC Career Trek on the EMC Blog.