Oriflame Summer Internship

Привет! (hello!)

This week I have been once again been diving into marketing trends and concepts. The Monday was spent preparing for a mid-project presentation I had on Tuesday. I have also deadlines for some objectives coming up so it’s I’ve been focusing on to get my material ready.

Mid-project presentation

This Tuesday I presented what I’ve have come up with so far in my research. I presented for the main stakeholders I must relate to in the communication project: Linda, Olga and the channel managers Kirill, Anna and Maria. Everyone had already got a pdf with 100 slides the evening before and so I only presented a ‘summarized’ version on the meeting. You can only do so much in one hour! I still had more than 50 slides with content that I couldn’t exclude. The meeting went alright. I presented briefly on all covered issues in a rather fast pace. There was some good discussion between the sections of the presentation, which is good. It is the whole idea of what I’m doing here. I’m trying to come up with input that makes people think about how things regarding the different communication channels can be done better or that maybe aren’t being done at all now

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The week progresses

Since the presentation on Tuesday I’ve been diving into the research again. I must finish some material for Kirill and Maria by the end of the week so there’s no time to waste. :) Sometimes I miss out on breakfast at home when I feel it is being better spent either sleeping or working. Thankfully, there are protein shakes and powder soups in the kitchen corner of the office. It a real lifesaver.

This weekend I’m looking forward to go to the banya to say farewell to a friend who’s leaving Moscow for new pastures. It will be an awesome reward for diligent work.

/Anton

Sofar this week I’ve stayed busy with my project assignments. This week I and Olga met with Maria, another channel manager to her what kind of research she needed. I also got an addition from one the other channel managers. So now I have a lot to do but I have the full picture.

Midsummer celebrations

This week we’ve had a pair of social events at work. This Tuesday we celebrated Swedish midsummer with some traditional dance and song, followed by some cake. I had the responsibility to prepare songs and dance so I had chosen “Prastens Lilla Kraka” for song and dance and “Helan Gar” for a toast afterward. Johan Rosenberg, who heads the CIS-region opened the celebrations before he gave me the word. It was fun to take charge and demonstrate the songs and dance before encouraging everyone to do it all together. It was a nice fika and a good chance for all locals to bond with Oriflame’s Swedish heritage.

Team-bonding

This Wednesday we had a team event so the team had a chance to get to know everyone a bit better. We started after lunch with Linda presenting the day’s agenda: strategy discuassions, individual plan reviews and strategy workshops. Linda did not have any poker face so after 10 seconds she stopped pretending that we should do all this ‘boring’ work before all the ‘fun’. I thought it sounded interesting. Anyway, we dropped everything and went to an art studio, where we painted pictures in groups. Linda will hang the paintings in her office. After that we went home to Linda’s place for dinner and drinks. Overall, it was a great day and I think I got the chance of knowing the team a bit better. :)

 Oriflame products run in their veins. :)

 The end result of my group's creative effort.

 

All the best,
Anton

It's Thursday and the second week of my internship in the Istanbul office. This weekend is the end of Ramadan and here in Istanbul people traditionally go home to visit their parents for the feast. A few people have already left the office for a longer vacation at home, but the rest of us are free from the weekend and until Tuesday next week. I will take the opportunity go home to Sweden for the midsummer weekend and hug some friends and family. But before I go home I have some work finish at the office.

I will take the opportunity to explain a bit more about the project that I am conducting here in Turkey today. As I mentioned before I will be analyzing the margins of Turkey's product offers. My project is divided into three steps; first I will prepare a bunch of reports with financial data for a few consecutive years, then I will analyze the margin reports to find where Oriflame Turkey loose and gain margin and finally I will give recommendations for the future business of Oriflame Turkey.

Right now I'm in the process of creating the financial reports based on figures like sales, number of sold items, margin and so on. There are a lot of new terms and calculations to learn, since Oriflame has a few specially developed KIP:s for their business and the fact that I have not studied a lot of economics before. I think that I will learn a lot in the end though.

Today we also got the products that we ordered for the june catalogue - it's like Christmas! Every month the employees of Oriflame are able tro try five products from the current catalogue, best first hands on experince I have ever had. I will try the products that I ordered and give you a review later on. But the first impression is pretty great, right? :)

I began my Saturday with trying out the metro system in Istanbul and went to the old and more touristic part of the city. I strolled around and went to the Grand Bazaar(Where a lot of people tried to sell stuff by calling stuff like ”Blondie”). I really liked the traditional serving plates that they are selling and the traditional Turkish towels are also very pretty. I think I will buy some of those before I go home in august. After the pretty clamorous walk through the Bazaar I went to a park where I sat down and ate some cherry’s that I bought in a small fruit shop along the way (for 1,5 TL which is less than 0,5 euro :O ) and read for a bit. This city is all about contrasts.  

I was a bit nervous before my first weekend in Istanbul, since I have never been here before I didn't know anyone in the city except for my colleagues. There is not really any big social networks for foreigners here in Istanbul anymore because of the unrest in the country the last few years. How ever, I managed to get in contact with a Turkish girl during my first days here and we meet for a lunch on Saturday. She grew up in Istanbul and therefor knows a lot about the city and it's sights. We went for lunch at a traditional Köfte restaurant. Köfte is almost like Swedish meatballs and we ate them with a traditional bean salad with a lot of oil. The food was okay - but I think prefer to eat other Turkish foods like meze!

 

After lunch we went to see a few sights in the nearby. We checked the most common ones as the Blue Mosque and a water reservoir from the 6th century called Basilica cistern. Istanbul has beautiful historic buildings and a rich culture which is reflected in the big differences between the areas of the city. We also went to a rooftop café&bar where we drank some coffee and lemonade while we enjoyed the magnificent view over the city and the water.

Sunday morning, I slept in and went for a swim in the hotel pool - they have a small gym and relax area in the basement, which is nice. The rest of the day I spent wandering around in an area called Taksim where I meet with a few other expats here in Istanbul. Among them a Swedish couple that showed me a Swedish cafe called "The Swedish Coffee Spot". They serve coffee, cinnamon rolls and other typically Swedish "fika", which was really nice. The weekend time flew and suddenly it was Sunday evening and time to go home and sleep and get ready for a new week at the Oriflame office!

This Saturday it was time for Megaforum. Megaforum is an event that is arranged regularly to celebrate and reward Oriflame consultants for their success. This time it was held at the Olimpiyskiy Arena in Moscow and 15 000 consultants gathered together with Oriflame management and employees to perform this grandeur event! It was a day of motivational speeches, success stories, music and introduction to new initiatives and products followed by fun and relaxation at one of Moscow’s most famous night clubs. I was blown away by the magnitude and professional execution of the event. My initial reaction was that this is like the Eurovision Song Contest Final but with better content.

The Olimpiskiy Arena. It was impossible to cover all of it in one photo.

Megaforum on Olimpiyskiy

I arrived to the arena at 11:45. At first sight I found it quite unbelievable that such a large arena was needed for a corporate event. The Olimpiyskiy Arena is one of Europe’s largest arenas with closed roof. I walked in and took my seat in the section for Oriflame employees. A had view over the whole arena and the stage and everything and could see all the people streaming through the doors.

Magnus is speaking.

The atmosphere was booming when the event started at 12:00 and the crowd cheered. After that the whole schedule followed. Members of group and senior management were treated like rockstars, when they held their speeches. Magnus, the CEO himself was there and all the consultants went crazy. Successful consultants received awards on stage with glitter and glamour. Some of the consultants shared their stories and how they their experiences with Oriflame transformed their lives. Even a famous Russo-Ukrainian pop group performed with some of their hits. Their English name is The Virgins but in Russian it’s literally VIA GRA. :)

Awards!

The Megaforum finished a bit after 18:00 and was left deeply impressed by the whole thing. The atmosphere pulled you in to the Oriflame-culture and sense of connection between everyone there. No matter how interesting it was the whole six hours, it was about time to get some food.

Afterpart at Jagger Bar

An afterparty was arranged at Jagger Bar, which is a popular open-roof bar in Moscow. We were lucky with the weather! About 600 selected consultants relaxed and had a good-time with Oriflame management and employees. The consultants had to participate in a competition on Instagram, where they put out a thematic picture to win a ticket for the afterparty. I went straight from the arena to Jagger Bar and met up with my girlfriend Lolita outside the bar.

Finally some food.

 Magnus and the other big shots came to the party

It was fun to relax, dance and have fun with colleagues, consultants and management. It also great to see members of group management hanging out with the grass roots of the business. I think that’s a great thing to do. However, sometime after midnight it was time for me and Lolita to make our way home. A day of so many impressions. I am so glad I have the opportunity to experience all this. :)

My Iphone 5 doesn’t do justice to everything pictured but take a look here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7D6p7kMR-4 for a livestream of the Megaforum-event.

The second week in Moscow has been great. Monday started off with a holiday and ended with Megaforum!

 Russia Day

Monday was a national holiday: Russia Day. It commemorates the creation of the Russian Federation in the transition from the Soviet Union. So, everyone got the day off from work to celebrate the holiday. I did however work a couple of hours from home to do some adjustments to an assignment, which was due to Tuesday. In the evening, I met up with my girlfriend to see the fireworks, which were planned to 22:00 around the Red Square. I met her close to the Red Square at 21:45 and we went to a spot with good view over the Kremlin. The fireworks were supposed to be set off after a VIP-concert that took place on the Red Square. We were unfortunately not invited to the concert. So, we waited there with hundreds of other people and the clock turned 22 but no fireworks. No big deal, a small delay is ok. 22:05 still no fireworks, hmm well soon probably. 22.10 hmm, if there’s still no fireworks. 22:15 a soldier walks up to the crows and says: “Hey folks! The firework was moved forward, there won’t be anymore. Go home!”. So, that’s it. Sometimes things don’t turn out as planned in Russia.

Close but no cigar. Nice evening though.

Making progress at work

It’s been raining a lot this week, so it’s been easy to focus on the work at hand and shut out the outside world. I have gotten a lot of things done already done a significant part of my project, which is good since I need to deliver the bulk of my project in just a couple of weeks. My project is a part of a much larger project at the office so I need to adapt my schedule after what fits all other cogs in the machinery.  I don’t mind if that means that I need to speed up sometime because it feels good to doing impact, where it matters and being part of a larger context. This way there is no risk of being ‘isolated’ with my own ‘special assignment’ with no real connections to all other things that go on at the department.

A moment of clarity. The Moscow State University can be seen in the distance behind the Luzhniki Stadium from the office.

On Tuesday, I and Olga sat down for a feedback session after lunch. It was great to get some feedback on the work I have done, both to confirm that I’m on the right track and to get some advice on future directions, focus areas and improvements.

Speaking a lot of Russian

One thing I have reflected upon is that I talk in Russian 90 % of the time at work. I’m a bit surprised of how well it is working. I and Olga had a meeting with Kirill, who is one of the Channel Managers, who I am supporting with some analysis. The purpose of the meeting was to define the analyses that Kirill needed me to provide and we took the whole meeting in Russian. I didn’t feel any need to clarify anything in English. It feels good that all those thousands of practice hours are paying off! It is only with the other Swedes or in mixed groups that I talk Swedish or English.

Score! Double rainbow seen from the office.

Learning new things

Since the project that I’m working on is related to Marketing and especially Brand Communication, I have had the opportunity to learn a lot of new things since the start of the internship. I have not worked directly in this area before and I can say that the learning curve has been steep in the last two weeks. This Friday we had a team meeting to go through the results of a campaign that ran on TV and internet earlier this year. It was fascinating to get some insight in how you work with targets and KPIs in this sphere of business. Overall, all these experiences keep adding more and more pieces to the puzzle of how businesses work.

That’s all for this time but stay tuned for an update on Megaforum! It deserves its own post.:)

I hope all of you will enjoy taking part of my time as a summer intern for Oriflame in Moscow. I will share both work and spare-time activities to give you true insight of what it’s like to an internship in such an exciting place as summer-time Moscow.

Flight in

I have already finished my first workweek with lots of exciting activities, so I’ll give you a recap of what’s happened since my arrival. I flew in Sunday afternoon to Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport. Debora, one of our great administrators had a taxi waiting for me. The driver was already briefed on everything and took me straight to the apartment where I am staying. It was great, that everything went so smoothly and the clock was only around 18 pm when I arrived at the apartment. I was a bit tired after finish my last exam on Friday, moving out from my apartment in Uppsala on Saturday and flying to Moscow on Sunday, so took an early evening after going out to get a new cellphone number. However, before I went to bed I reflected on how fast time flew by and that it felt somewhat strange but good to be back in Moscow for work again.

First day at work

Monday morning, I woke up at 8 am excited about my first day at work. After finishing my morning routine I took the metro from the station Belorusskaya (close to the apartment) to Sportivnaya, where Oriflame’s regional head office is located. When I arrived to the office, I bumped into Linda, who leads the Brand and Communication department here. She greeted me, introduced me to some nice colleagues and showed me the way to the 4^th floor, where I have my desk. There I met Olga, who I report to. She is a Global Business Leader and has already been here for some years now (Don’t worry there will be a more thorough introduction of her). Olga took me on a tour through the facilities and helped me get a hold of a computer. The rest of the time before lunch was spent on getting more acquainted with Oriflame’s business model.

Olga, Nastya and I at lunch in the office cafeteria. Yes, it's Stockholm on the wallpaper. :)

After lunch it was time to kick-off the communications project I will spend most of my time working on together with everyone involved in it. It’s always nice to hit the ground running! The project is basically about coming up with new strategies for the different communication channels, which are in use here. My main responsibility is related to the external-analysis part and involves mapping communication trends and coming up with input, that the channel managers will use in the strategy-crafting stage. The rest of the afternoon flew by and in the evening, I went out with Olga, some other colleagues and expats for dinner at Mos, a Scandinavian restaurant. Funny thing, that the first dinner out would be food with such a high recognition factor.

I went to bed around 12 pm and Moscow already felt like home again.

Second day at a photoshoot

The second day I met Olga in the morning at a photostudio in a former industrial area close to metro station Elektrozavodskaya. We were to spend the day at a photoshoot for an upcoming journal, that Oriflame produces every quarter. It was a great chance to see all the work behind all beautiful pictures, which are so vital in the beauty business! It was real Oriflame consultants modelling that day and I think it is great that those so important to the business get featured in the marketing material. When things had settled down me and Olga sat down and planned my tasks for the rest of the week before calling it a day.

Me and the Oriflame-team at the photoshoot.

The rest of the week flew by when I dug into some research at office. The week has been a great start to the internship. I feel like I have great and supportive colleagues, meaningful work, in a fun business, in an awesome city. It can't get better than that. :)

This year Oriflame has five interns placed all over the globe. We will be placed in Mexico City, Kiev, Moscow, Shanghai and Istanbul. Two of us will be blogging about our experiences during the summer and in this post we will be introducing ourselves briefly and present what we will be doing during the summer. Let’s do this!

Anton Ekman, Moscow office

Hi! My name is Emilia Bryngelsson and I will be conducting the summer internship in Oriflame’s Istanbul office in Turkey. I applied for the Oriflame Global Summer Internship since I’m interested in other cultures and were really excited about the opportunity to work abroad during the summer. Apart from that I believe that Oriflame is an interesting company with great passion and values, which also offers products that I personally can relate to. Earlier I have been studying mandarin and East Asian culture and lived in Taiwan, but living and working in Istanbul will be a completely new experience for me!

I’m originally from a small town by the west coast in Sweden, called Kinna, but are currently living in Linköping where I’m studying Industrial Engineering and Management. I have just finished my fourth year of engineering studies and are now thrilled to be spending my summer in Istanbul. During my time in Istanbul I will be working with a project in the Marketing Category Department analysing the product offerings that Oriflame has in Turkey. Tomorrow I will start my project – so after tomorrow I will definitely be able to explain it more through.

You will be able to follow me and Anton during the summer at our different locations. We will share our lives in Istanbul and Moscow with updates from the offices and projects, the cultural experiences, personal lives and everything in between. Stay tuned for more!

/Emilia and Anton