Ming-Dan Zheng, Shanghai Internship Program

Interned as a Commercial and Marketing Associate with the  SARBEC Laboratories, Spring 2012

Internship: SARBEC is a French cosmetics company that is conducting business development in China. Completing CORE the semester before I went abroad really helped me in this internship because essentially this internship was one large CORE project. I had to look at marketing, operations, information systems, and financial aspects of the company’s development in China. Part of my job included traveling with my manager to different parts of China to search for reliable suppliers and distributors for our packaging and distribution. On business trips, I had the opportunity to translate for my manager from English to Chinese and vice versa; this gave me the chance to use Mandarin in a professional setting. I was also a part of the marketing efforts, which allowed me to research competitor products and to incorporate the 4P’s and branding strategies. As we are now in the digital age, a website is imperative for a successful company; therefore, I created a domain name and set up the company website. Towards the end of my internship, I got to work with some numbers to forecast future revenues and costs as well as optimization scenarios.

I Learned: I learned about the reliance on connections and relationships when conducting business on all levels. Additionally, I learned that Shanghai use to be a fishing village, and now it’s one of the world’s most flourishing and modern cities.

Hardest Part: The hardest part was finding relevant information on the internet. One can find all information he or she doesn’t need but will not find useful information when searching for business material. I needed to use other ways to reach the information I needed.

Best Part: The best part was exploring the awesome city of Shanghai that consists of an abundance of history. I also did a lot of traveling during my time in China. I visited Beijing, Hongzhou, Suzhou, Yunnan, Yiwu, Fuzhou, Huangchun in Anhui.