Varsha’s journey at Lodha & Co.: An exposure to FMCG industry
About the Author: Varsha Taragi is pursuing MBA from Army Institute of Management, Kolkata. She worked as an advisory intern at Lodha & Co. and shares her conversance with FMCG industry.
In June 2017, I, along with four of my batchmates, began interning at a CA firm named Lodha & co. in Kolkata. This was a 45 days summer internship provided by our college after the second semester as a mandatory part of MBA curriculum. Before the end of the semester, we went for an interview with the partner manager of the company. I was asked about my educational background, my work experience as an analyst, reasons for quitting my job, and why I wished to join their enterprise as an intern. The interview went off quite well. We were all asked to choose our areas of interest to work on. My batchmates showed interest in the valuation of company’s share, financial statements, and ratio analyses while I chose data analysis.
After the semester exams ended, the internship began. I, along with one of my friends, was assigned the advisory part under the mentorship of the executive audit manager, CS Mahendra Sonalia. My job involved creating MIS reports on a monthly basis by collecting relevant information from an FMCG company producing wheat & wheat products, based in West Bengal, for which Lodha & co. is a service provider. This MIS report included updating various registers such as sales, purchase, and production to represent figures like electricity consumption, sales, revenue, purchases made for production, production of different units, key ratios, etc. The report was presented to the investor every month with an update and analysis of variance of the month under review and the previous one. Creating the MIS report required me to visit the client’s office and extract data from their ERP system. Another part of my job involved creating yield reports for the FMCG, and comparative valuation reports for various industries, viz. hotels and BPOs.
The internship exposed me to the working of the FMCG industry. I learnt all the key parameters involved in the process such as the production of goods, sales, etc. I gained a substantial knowledge of data analytics while working on the calculation of variance of different parameters like purchases, sales, production, borrowings, inventories, fixed assets etc. It helped me understand the reasons for rises and falls in figures. I got a hands-on experience of MS Excel and mastered it.
The internship ended on August 1, 2017, and currently, I am working on the project report of the internship to be submitted to the college.
Are you also inspired by Varsha’s journey? Check out these latest MBA internships.
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