Sip 13-15-student guidelines
- 1. 1 GITAM SCHOOL OF NTERNATIONAL BUSINESS GITAM UNIVERSITY, VISAKHAPATNAM MBA (IB, IBF, GLSCM) 2013-15 GUIDELINES FOR SUMMER INTERNSHIP IMPORTANT DATES Commencement of Summer Internship Project 21st April, 2014 Submission of Industry / Sector Review to faculty guide: 19th April, 2014. Penalty of 1 mark per day up to 23rd April, 2014. Zero score after that for this component. Submission of contact telephone number of the student, along with name, designation, telephone number, and email ID of the supervisor in the company/organization to whom the student is attached by 24th April, 2014 Finalisation of topics for SIP by 12th May, 2014 Completion of Summer Internship Project and Collection of SIP completion Certificate from the organization, 20th June, 2014 Submission of complete draft report to faculty guide: 5th July, 2014 Submission of hard copies of e-mail correspondence with faculty guide to Programme Chairperson: 5th July 2014. If these are not submitted, the concerned students will not be allowed to make presentations. Presentations to Faculty Panel: 7 – 10 July, 2014. Late presentations up to 12th July, 2014 will be allowed with a penalty of 3 marks. No presentations will be allowed after this date. Submission of 3 hard-bound copies of final Reports to the Faculty Guides: 14th July, 2014. GENERAL: Duration: It is a mandatory requirement to undergo summer internship for a period of 2 months or eight working weeks from 21st April, 2014 through 20th June, 2014. If the project work assigned is completed earlier than the required period of eight working weeks or alternatively more time is required to complete the work, the student should contact the concerned faculty guide for necessary help and guidance. In any case the student is expected to be in touch with the faculty guide continuously.
- 2. 2 Objective: The objective of Summer Internship Project (SIP) is to help the interns acquire perspectives of various operations of the chosen Organisation, ideally to relate to the theoretical concepts, to explore for the best practices, and identify the scope for continuous improvement. Faculty Guides: Each student will be assigned to a faculty guide at GSIB, ideally chosen with the required domain expertise. Faculty guides once allotted cannot be changed or swapped without explicit permission of the SIP Committee (viz. M.V.S.Kameshwar Rao, Dr. Ch. Venkataiah, Programme Chairperson, Dr. A.V. Rao, Chairperson - Placements). Contact with the Guides: After reporting to the Company, the student should be in regular touch with the Company Guide assigned by the Company, and with the faculty guide through regular email correspondence. It is mandatory to submit the e-mail correspondence as part of the SIP Report. Hence the students are advised to make their arrangements to get connected through internet atleast once a week. Faculty guide’s guidance on phone is not acceptable. All guidance on phone should invariably be followed with a confirming email. As part of the e- mail etiquette and branding GSIB, the students are strongly advised to use only gsib e-mail ids to communicate with both the Industry and Faculty guides. More than one Student in the Same Company: Two or more students are not permitted to work on the same project. If there is more than one student in a company in the same city, normally the company allots different work for each student, e.g. different geographic areas in a particular city. Non-Completion of Internship: Unauthorized absence from Internship, non-completion of the process of Internship, no contact with the faculty guide and unsatisfactory performance is liable to cause rejection of Internship. In all such cases the students will have to repeat the summer internship at the end of their final year for award of the Degree. Any Issues: Any issue during the internship should be brought to the notice of the Faculty Guide immediately for clarification / advice. In case of need, the faculty guide will get in touch with the SIP Committee. THE SUMMER INTERNSHIP PROJECT The project will comprise the following: 1. Work in the Organization assigned or chosen: The students are expected to undertake the assignment/s allotted by the company. The issue to be addressed in the assignment will naturally be the topic of Summer Internship Project. The assignment will be as far as possible in the chosen area by the student. In case the company has no clear topic for the intern, the student, in consultation with the Faculty Guide, may carve out a topic out of the nature of work assigned by the company. All the necessary information for analysis and preparation of the SIP Report has to be collected from various sources in the company and through survey of its customers if possible.
- 3. 3 The students are expected to observe the practices of the company and relate to the theories they have learnt during their first 3 trimesters. In case the company’s assignment requires problem solving, they need to apply the various tools and techniques learnt as part of the curriculum at GSIB or from their respective disciplines in Graduation, and attempt for various alternative solutions in consultation with the Faculty and Industry Guides. The 8 weeks of Internship engagement with the Organisation should necessarily result into a Project Report. Hence the students are advised to plan their schedules accordingly, to fruitfully allocate time for the simultaneous preparation of the SIP report. 2. Preparation of Industry / Sector Review Focus: This Review should put together the student’s knowledge of the sector / sub-sector to which the organization belongs. Examples of industries /sectors are: Pharmaceuticals, Clothing, and Capital Markets. Examples of sub-sectors are: R&D on formulation, Drug Distribution, Retail, Fabric Production, Mutual Funds and Insurance. The Review should focus more on the specific sub-sector, and relating to the functional area, viz. Marketing/Finance/Operations/HR/SCM/ etc. The review should involve the application of a popular strategic framework for Industry Analysis, and ROE driver analysis performed at the Industry level. Content: The content in the review should be analytical, and should not be a copy-and-paste job. Basic concepts need not be explained. Historical account of the sector/industry is not required. The Review should cover the structure of the industry (e.g. shares of large / medium / small firms), major players, competition between the SIP company and its close competitors, market size and growth, government policies, views of the industry association, current relevant issues, e.g. relating to input costs, FDI, imports/exports, taxation, environment, etc., and future prospects. Sources: Some sources for industry / sector information are: ASSOCHAM, CARE Ratings, CRISIL Research, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, FICCI, ICRA, KPMG, McKinsey, PwC, The Hindu Annual Survey of Industries, India in Business (Ministry of External Affairs), business newspapers and business magazines. Material should be collected from at least 4 different sources. Summary should not be made source-wise. Appropriate sub-headings should be given and the material from different sources should be summarised under those sub- headings. The student’s ability to synthesize material from different sources is tested. 3. Preparation of Project Report on the topic of SIP: Every student has to take a topic for the preparation of project report as part of the Summer Internship Project. If the organization has not specified the topic for SIP the student, in consultation with the Faculty Guide, should shortlist 3 or 4 topics after discussing with the Company Guide, and finally select one of them.
- 4. 4 FORMAT OF THE PROJECT REPORT OF SUMMER INTERNSHIP: a) Primary Section: (In the given order) Title Page Attendance (completion) certificate from the company Signed Declaration by the student (stating that the work was done by him / her and that it was not submitted anywhere else) Signed Certificate from Faculty Guides Acknowledgements (not required to be signed) Table of Contents b) Main Body of the Report: (In the given order) Executive Summary: Main findings and recommendations of the whole report summarized in one or two pages. Introduction (Objectives, and their significance of the project). Industry / Sector Review Company Profile & Review: Brief profile & review of the functions and operations of the company, relevant to the topic has to be included. Vision / Mission, names of Board of Directors, etc. need not be given. Theoretical Framework: A brief review of the underlying theoretical concepts applied in the SIP. Methodology used Analysis Summary: To include recommendations and suggestions. c) Reference Section: (In the given order) Annexes (Questionnaire, List of Respondents, etc.) References d) Font, Spacing, Paper, Margins, and Page Limitation The content of the report should be printed in Times New Roman font, wherein the size of the characters should be as follows. a) Chapter Heading – 14 b) Side Heading – 13 c) Text Matter – 12 d) Table Heading and Data – 11 e) Footnotes – 10 The entire content of the report should be typed with 1.5” line spacing, with 0 spacing before and after the line. The entire report, excluding the cover page and back page should be limited to a maximum of 120 pages. Matter to be printed on A4 size paper with 1.5” left margin and 1” on all other sides.
- 5. 5 SUBMISSION OF FINAL REPORT The suggestions given by the faculty may be incorporated in the final draft of the Project Report. The students have to submit their final reports (three copies) in bound form to the faculty on or before the stipulated date. All the three copies will be signed by the faculty guide. One copy is for the student, one for the company (to be dispatched by the Placement Office), and one for the School Library. The students should not submit any reports to the organization without the approval of the Faculty Guide. If the company requires the same for issuing Completion Certificate, the student may submit a report but inform the Company Guide that the final report signed by the faculty guide will be sent to them by the Placement Office. DETAILED GUIDELINES ON SPECIFIC ASPECTS OF REPORT: Title The title should be brief, but self explanatory. The student in consultation with the Faculty Guide should explore using contemporary industry terminology, reflecting the functional domain of SIP, in the title of the SIP report. The title should contain the name of the organization and the place of work. For example “………. - at HDFC, Visakhapatnam” or “…. - A Case Study of Hyundai Motors, Sriperambudur”. Executive Summary This should be a summary of the important and specific aspects culled out from the Report. It is neither an introduction to the Report nor a description of the plan of the report. The report is nothing but an expanded version of the Executive Summary. The Executive Summary should contain a judicious mix of short paragraphs. References The references should clearly state the name of the author (if any), title of the article or book or report, the source (e.g. the name of the journal, the name of the publishing organization, and month / year of publication). So ‘source’ is part of a reference. This list should be in alphabetical order at the end of the report, after annexes, if any. Each reference should be mentioned briefly at the appropriate place in the Report. For example, an article from The Washington Times by C. Fred Bergsten and Arvind Subramanian would appear as Bergsten and Subramanian (2009) in the report, and the full details will appear at the end under 'References' as: C. Fred Bergsten and Arvind Subramanian (2009), “New Mercantilism’, The Washington Times, June 9. In the case of books, reports and monographs, the name of the author (s) or that of the organization should be mentioned first, followed by the details as below. Example of a report reference: Mention as WTO (2011) in the report and in the References as:
- 6. 6 WTO (2011), Understanding the WTO: Basics (www.wto.org > About WTO > Introductory Brochures or http://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/whatis_e/tif_e/tif_e.htm or both) As can be seen, articles will be in quotes, and title of a book /report / journal will be in italics. If there is any web source, the source with links may be given to enable the reader to open the website and get to the article. There should be a one-to-one correspondence of the articles, books, etc., referred in the Report and the list at the end - i.e. references mentioned in the report should appear at the end and all the references in the list at the end should be referred in the report. Confidentiality The aims of SIP are to observe and learn from the practices of the organization, to relate the theoretical concepts, to appreciate the best practices of the competitors and Industry, and to explore scope for continuous improvement. The report is not intended for any publication in any form, and is for submission to GSIB as part of the curriculum of the two year MBA programme. So the students can assure the organization in this regard in case of any issues of confidentiality. Any information in any form, has to be included in the report only after the due consent from the organization and necessary approvals on confidentiality. EVALUATION The SIP carries a weightage of 2 credits in the two year MBA programme. The project will be evaluated for 100 marks as below: Report (50 marks): - Evaluation with respect to Industry / Sector Review (10 marks), content quality, and analysis & organization of the material in the Report (40 marks). Presentation (50 marks): Evaluation will be with respect to Content and Style of presentation, and Answers to Questions. The Guidelines for Presentation before the faculty panel are: Presentation time allowed: 15 minutes Maximum number of slides: 15 The slides should not be cluttered with too much material. They should contain only the points to be explained. The content of the slides in the presentation, at minimum, should comprise the following: Title of the project Objectives Research methodology used Analysis and Results of the study Recommendations and suggestions
- 7. 7 Best SIP Reports The best three reports will be selected by a Committee constituted by the Dean and Director. Certificates will be given to these students. In addition, papers based on the reports of the best two projects will be considered for publication in the Global Vistas after due editorial process. Administrative Matters The decision of the Director, GSIB will be final in all matters pertaining to summer internship.
- 8. 8 The Report Some students write very lengthy reports containing a lot of unnecessary information. For example, one Company Profile included the names of the Board of Directors, list of branches with locations, and so on and on. Some students put material in the main body of the report which should have been put in the Annexes. Blind copy-pasting is a major drawback. It went to the extent of saying 'for details, please check our website ....'. or ‘we are one of the best....'. The student should remember that (s)he is not an employee of that company. Other examples: ‘When I was in Singapore…..’; “In my humble opinion….’. Analysis This is based on, inter alia, primary / secondary data. Where relevant, secondary data from sources such as Prowess may be taken. Some students have a wrong notion of what 'analysis' is. Some students who collected data through a questionnaire put a pie chart even for number of male and female. Such simple data should best be summarised in a short table. Pie charts are an alternative to tables to draw attention quickly to some category that is dominant. It is not analysis. Some students include big tables in the main body of the report. Only short tables or summary tables prepared by the student should be put in the report. Some students repeat in words what is there in the table. This is not analysis and is unnecessary. Students should only give the inferences from the table. The first level of analysis is when the student starts asking questions like 'why'? For example, if a survey showed that males preferred a particular brand of cell phone than females, the question to ask is why. By just giving the information on how many preferred what is not analysis. The next level of analysis is using statistical techniques like chi-square and regression analysis learnt in QT and other techniques learnt in Business Research Methods. In this the following are important: * Whether it is relevant to use any technique at all * When using a technique whether it makes sense to use it. * If a technique is used, a proper job should be done. One student used a t-test when a chi-square was the relevant test. Another student fitted a regression and when questioned, 'where are the t-values, R-square and F?', he wondered, 'How do you know these things?' Yet another student entered some data in SPSS and could not interpret the output.