Internship Report for La Michoacana Elite

Executive Summary:

La Michoacana Elite is an international business venture relating to ice cream and related products with roots at Mexico. The internship experience as a Manager at an ice cream shop was an enriched opportunity to apply Global Business Program leanings on the practical side in a cross-cultural setting. The primary responsibilities as an internee encompass active participation in daily operations, assisting financial quarters along with accommodating domestic preferences and extensive market research. In addition, I also accomplished crucial assignments in supply chain aspects, logistic support, material purchasing, and weekly meetings with employees and investors. Meanwhile, internships posed multiple challenges like language barriers, adaptability issues in cross cultural environment, and lacking technological advancement. However, I overcame these problems by adopting multiple strategies and with the help of seniors. Overall, the internship was a marvellous experience that polished my skills and I highly recommend to others as well.

I. Introduction/Overview of the Company:

​Captivating its beginning from a little town in Mexico, La Michoacana Elite started its services for the public about twenty-five years ago. It was almost the same time when ‘paleta’ paved its way in the USA. Over time, the little girl image and La Michoacana Elite became a brand of trust and preference around the country. Currently, La Michoacana Elite takes pride as a renowned ice cream outlet with multiple cream flavours that revolve around the traditional Mexican flavour, Michoacán. In this context, innovative activities, top quality and uniqueness of flavour are prime pillars of this brand. The leading product is ‘bolis’ (a traditional name of paletas, CoolStix™) along with frozen novelties. These novelties have a speciality of hand-crafted fresh cream in alliance with fruits and walnuts, pistachios, and rich chocolate-like ingredients. Other than the main product, the snow and paddle products are in high demand at thousands of retail locations throughout the country. The products of La Michoacana Elite are a combination of arrays of flavours from traditional vanilla to tropical fruit amalgamations like guava, strawberry, mango and tamarind. Other than ice cream varieties, delectable cones and a collection of toppings Mexican snacks such as tostilocos, elotes, and nachos etc. delight the customers. The commitment to providing high quality along with the marvelous cultural heritage of Mexico make La Michoacana Elite a highly competitive brand in the market.

However, as far as the market of La Michoacana Elite is concerned, it attracts and captures the wholesale market around the country. In addition, retail options are also available with massive stocks, which usually point out at three locations including two of them in California. Originating truly from Mexico, the company has its market all over the USA with a high clientage rate due to social networking along with a delivery marketing strategy. In other words, the company transformed its Mexican ancestral taste throughout the country with hard work and dedication. However, the company does not owe any particular strategy but caters for the local market around the stores by maintaining the value-added quality of products, and authenticity of eatables. Meanwhile, the principle business model of the company revolves around market research concerning the particular demands of a specific community. In addition, planning of financial matters with strong analysis, supply chain management by the respective authorities and satisfactory customer-employee engagements are specific key elements to boost the businesses.

II. Overview of the Project & Work Experience Responsibilities:

During my internship tenure at La Michoacana Elite, I was assigned multiple operational tasks to boost the business vicinity of overall company. In addition, I was required to actively participate in the expansion outlet project leading to new addition of store for retail and wholesale purposes as well. The expansion project was expected to be accomplished in two months’ time. The expansion has the main purpose of utilizing hidden location on the high demand from the expected customers’ slots. However, the store has a dual purpose, i.e. retail as well as wholesale. My duty was to collaborate with the architect and to provide all the required machinery including lights, bar decorations, designing materials and product manufacturing-related items. I made those orders to the company ATAFORMA, an export icon from Mexico.

Moreover, along with mechanical and construction support, my duty was to perform some IT-related tasks as well. These include updating the website in alliance with grabbing social network gadgets like Facebook, Instagram TikTok, etc. For delivery purposes, I was working on adding transport logistics and service providers like Uber Eats and Dordash. The work on this dimension was complete enough to just sign the contract and service deals would be ready to proceed. Besides that, I had the lavish experience of formulating sales and expense reports on a daily basis along with schedule settings weekly. For engaging employees, which were seventeen in total at the internship locality, I was assigned to take necessary actions for their effective performance. In addition, my main objectives and responsibilities revolve around ensuring the smooth functioning of the store, enhancing growth drive and put valuable insights for successful broader business of the company.

III. Learning Outcomes Concerning Company’s Operations & Work Culture (Foreign & General Culture):

The internship as a manager at La Michoacana Elite provided me with huge opportunities to learn valuable insights. These mainly include a deep understanding of the company’s operations, in alliance with grasping the foreign work culture and its attributes. In addition, it also enabled me to perform in the cross-cultural domain by coping with the general cultural understandings. During the internship, I gained a crux of learning about cultural models along with the dimensions of the company’s operation. One such aspect proposed by Hofstede is Power Distance. It refers to a situation in the company where less powerful members accept the subject matter and expect unequal power distribution. However, I observed low power distance because of my managerial position and contributions from everyone are valuable. Meanwhile, the operations executed at the company mainly focus on cultural heritage. La Michoacana Elite is the demonstration of Mexican culture in the context of traditions and flavours.

Furthermore, the company provides insightful practical opportunities to understand, absorb and be adaptable to a foreign culture. The main aspects were collectivism and relationship enrichment through interpersonal cultural dimensions. It was an amalgamation of the Individualism vs. Collectivism model embedded with collaboration, mutual support and teamwork among employees. Such an approach gives rise to a harmonious environment where employees achieve mutual targets in weak meetings. Such acquisitions and adaptability regarding foreign culture contribute to professional growth in the global business paradigm. In addition, during the whole track of internship, I gained impeccable learning insights about general culture, i.e., inside and outside of work. The inside work environment at the ice cream shop rendered me less Power Distance. This made it easy for me to achieve business goals. Outside of work, I observed mixed cultural values at the local ice cream shop. The community culture was an impeccable demonstration of collectivism and I learned valuable intuitions.

IV. Strengths and Weaknesses that Helped/Hindered My Work:

Prior to and especially, during this internship at La Michoacana Elite, GCI remained a fruitful tool for understating my strengths and weaknesses. These insights influenced my work as a manager in multiple dimensions during this internship opportunity.

In this context, the foremost strength, that benefited me, was a high level of cultural awareness. My interaction with colleagues, senior slots, customers and investors improved manifold. I was able to appreciate cultural values and embed the same in ice cream shop activities. In addition, my open-mindedness and flexibility allowed me to embrace new operational ideas along with the integration of the team. It enabled me to foster strong relations with foreign personnel by accepting and regarding their values. Moreover, my strong interpersonal and communication skills played a major role in overcoming language barriers. It facilitated me to exchange ideas, take feedback and discharge instructions with improved decision-making processes. Similarly, GCI pointed out strength as respect for diversity. Probably, this strength provided me with crucial help in shaping the right policies for all stakeholders irrespective of their caste, creed, language and ethnicity.

However, cross-cultural assessment i.e., the GCI helped me to know weak areas of my personality. My foremost weakness is the lower level of intercultural sensitivity. This sometimes hindered me from comprehending cultural aspects leading to misunderstandings. Another weakness is the language barrier concerning local dialects. GCI assessed it as moderate but it hindered my efficiency as a manager in multiple ways. Language barriers hindered me from delivering my ideas and understand others as well at an internship. Additionally, another assessed weakness was a low inclination aptitude to resolve any conflicts. Such a weak point hindered my ability to convey my actual ideas during team discussion. However, by adopting proper strategies and plans of action, I overcame these weaknesses one by one at the internship.

V. The Relevancy of My Academic Program Course Concepts to Experiences at Internship:

My experience and my academic program aligned during this internship as a manager at La Michoacana Elite. Based in Mexico, the owner has a foreign vicinity, who comes to visit the company outlet after two to three months. So, it was a domestic cum foreign adventure for me, which directly linked to my Global Business Program. However, several key course concepts that I have learnt through my program came into play and enhanced my understanding of foreign business. In addition, these course leanings allowed me to gain theoretical knowledge while internship opportunities enabled me to apply that knowledge in real and practical world settings. For example, the course on international business management provided me strong foundation for business ventures beyond borders. In an internship, I applied the core concept as I had to deal with foreign investors and top owner leadership that resides beyond this outlet. This internship option allowed me to gain experience regarding several domains like cultural differences, legislative frameworks, cross-border supply chain and logistic operations, etc.

Similarly, the learned concepts regarding Marketing and consumer behaviours played a significant role in performing my duties as a manager. Through market research strategies I analyzed the local market to offer particular tastes of the region along with demands by customers. The core concepts of customer behaviour allowed me to apply the theoretical knowledge to formulate customer listings along with building brand loyalty. Similarly, owing to my diversified role as a manager on the spot, various learned core concepts like financial management, operations management, cross-cultural management and business strategies helped me a lot to polish my abilities on practical grounds. Additionally, these experiences have become decisive in parting the gap between my learned knowledge at the institution and real-world problems. This journey enriched my practical exposure for the dynamic application of Global Field Business to pave a successful career in times to come.

VI. Encountered Problems & their Ways of Solutions:

My internship position as a Manager at La Michoacana Elite was adorned with an amalgamation of both technical and cultural problems. For the time being, they were a source of immense panic at the start but with the passage of time, these hurdles polished my learning capacity with value addition. These paved my path towards adaptable circumstances and determination. During this time period, several problems encountered me with vast domains. For example, material purchase and inventory management had various technical issues. The inventory had the mechanical inclination to handle with and I had no idea how to run such a system. So, I handled this encountered problem by implementing a digital inventory to monitor the stocks. Meanwhile, the digital system also kept me updated regarding exact expiry dates. The digital system also allowed me to ensure optimized material purchase ensuring the absence of surplus material. Hence, collaborating with suppliers and negotiating for discounts helped me to overcome these problems.

Similarly, the primary cultural challenge was the language barrier at the international business unit of ice cream. The main problem was the Hispanic group whose dialect of language was problematic for me. For handling this issue, I thoroughly focused on the speaking personals with their facial expressions to understand the meaning. Besides that, I was also urged to learn their language dimensions by consulting the expert slots. Gradually, I overcame this problem. In addition, the diverse backgrounds of my colleagues also became problematic for some time. As a manager, I had to coordinate with all seventeen employees having mixed ethnic and cultural divisions. In this context, I was supposed to make hierarchical decision-making by my colleagues. But I intended to participatory decision-making tactics. I resolved the said issue by adapting my leadership style with a few changes. I used to take regular feedback, make informal discussions and provide relevant instructions.

Furthermore, in adapting traditional ice cream flavours, the availability of local Mexican ingredients was crucial. So, finding the relevant stuff was a challenge for me as a manager. To cope with that, I closely worked with local suppliers and they recommended alternative ingredients to ensure the traditional Michoacán flavour. I tried and took the feedback of the customer community, which proved successful as the local community was satisfied with the taste. Hence, I overcame various encountered problems and also ensured the success of the business without any compromise.

VII. Different Implantation Ways to Accomplish the Project; if Granted Another Chance:

As a primitive experience at La Michoacana Elite, various activities remained untouched which I would like to perform in another chance. Based on my experience outcomes, I would make a few changes for better growth and development of the business and polish my capabilities as well. First of all, I would go for language learning as a priority for improved communication with customers and colleagues. Such a step would improve smoother conversation and interaction. Secondly, I would deeply participate in domestic and local events to understand the preferences and values of community members. It would automatically improve the marketing strategy to flourish the business. In addition, I would warmly collaborate with the community members on adapting ice cream flavours through taste test sessions. Hence, the local clientage would be given a full chance to decide the optimum flavours according to their choice.

Similarly, upon the second chance to serve as manager here, I would introduce modern technology for optimized procurement and minimum wastage. Various social media tools would be used for marketing. Meanwhile, there would be a digital inventory with the purpose of transferring the mechanical aspects of the business to technological adaptation. Finally, I would definitely seek active mentorship from senior slots and learn specifically multiple hidden aspects of the ice cream business. In this way, I would utilize the second chance to be actually a competent manager for flourishing the business and making things cost-effective.

VIII. The most Rewarding or Least Rewarding Activity/Responsibility:

During my internship at La Michoacana Elite as a manager, I confronted various activities and job roles that looked charming and rewarding. However, some of them may be categorized as less rewarding or boring in the context of future careers. Meanwhile, the most valuable and rewarding was the meeting on a weekly basis with external clients as well as with internal colleagues and employees. The gathering of such type proved a platform to engage with employees to fetch desired information through feedback. Their feedback and suggestions allowed me to add impact to our products according to the expectations of customers. Similarly, through these meetings, I became able to understand the concerns, perspectives and ideas of employees to make improvements in business strategy, product quality, and flavour ingredients and learn effective teamwork. Additionally, some meetings with foreign investors broadened my vision and perspectives concerning business. I learned negotiation skills, convincing abilities and effective communication along with tactics to satisfy the investors. Hence, my skills in building relationships improved with time which is rewarding itself.

On the other hand, adapting ice cream flavours proved the least rewarding, according to my viewpoint. The main challenge was to fetch replacements of particular ingredients to maintain the traditional flavour. It was hectic and risky work which may damage the repute of company and the trust of customers. Moreover, to overcome such menace, there was a dire need to collaborate with multiple stakeholders including suppliers. However, I overcame this hurdle and the results were successful which ultimately became rewarding as well.

IX. Recommending the International Employer to another Student:

Yes, keeping in view the international GBM 495 experience, I would definitely recommend the international employer to another student due to multiple reasons. Firstly, the internship is a valuable opportunity to explore new dimensions to acquire hands-on experience with diversified approaches. Similarly, the ice cream shop provides chances to understand and grasp the necessary skills to be a part of a global business with various dynamics. Additionally, the preservation of cultural heritage in the form of traditional taste is a unique aspect of this internship experience. This aspect allows a person to explore multiple domains of a business embedded with cultural and traditional perspectives. Further, the overall environment is supportive for professional growth, improved decision-making, enriched work options and personality grooming vicinity. Lastly, dealing with multiple challenges makes the internee adaptable to problem-solving orientation along with international ventures. Hence, such an opportunity should be availed on a priority basis.

X. GBM 495 Experience; Beneficial to my Overall Education Program:

A hands-on experience gained through GBM 495 allows me to apply my theoretical knowledge in real-world issues and problems. The said experience on an ice cream shop, as managerial role, enhances my adaptability to others, even from other ethnicities. It helps to navigate my endurance and cultural competencies along with honed managerial skills on a daily basis. Similarly, GBM 495 enabled me to augment my decision-making powers by assisting financial management. Exposure to logistics and purchases enriched my supply chain optimizing abilities where I gained skills to make things cost-effective. In addition, this experience proved beneficial to my academic program as I gained reality-based customer relation training to interact with external clients. It further transformed my intentional dimensions towards problem-solving attitude through effective teamwork, collaboration, efficient communication skills and personal development and growth. Hence, GBM 495 equipped me with multiple beneficial aspects that will leave lasting impacts concerning my overall education and career goals.