Oriflame Summer Internship

Morocco with summer intern, Anna Edding Heijde

Publicerad 2015-06-24 10:03:00 i Allmänt

Bonjour, مرحبا !

I am Anna, the summer intern in Morocco, Casablanca. I will start by giving you a short introduction of myself and then turn the focus to how it is to be a summer internt at Oriflamme in the, to pick the right word, fascinating country Morocco.

Currently I am doing my master at Stockholm School of Economics where I major in management. I developed an interest for the world early on when I at the age of 17 moved to Spain to do my second year of high school at El Colegio Sueco and stayed with a Spanish family. Since then, I have both lived in and visited many more countries and kept being curious about cultures, other markets and the opportunities of doing business across boarders. Hence, Oriflame has for long time been an attractive company for me as a successful Swedish enterprise, with a presence in many interesting and also challenging markets. Therefore, I decided to apply for the position as a global summer intern, and was thrilled when I got the placement, Morocco!

Morocco is everything that I expected it to be, but at the same time not at all. Just like I thought, Casablanca, the economic capital of Morocco, is hectic - everywhere you go there are a lot of people moving and the traffic is unorganized and pretty intense. Alongside this you have the markets full of colors, clothes, mats, moroccan lamps, spices and such. The culture and traditions are strongly precent, and I timed Ramadan, which is an interesting and educating experience where people are fasting during the whole day until sunset. One of my favorite things about Casablanca is that it is situated by the coast and after finishing work I can just grab a cab, which costs me around 20 SEK, to the beach and there are waves, sun and surf.

One of my biggest surprises here has been the people. I thought that Moroccans would be just like anyone else, but it is amazing how warm and inviting they are. They are one of the most hospitable people I have ever met - helping me with everything, inviting me to their homes and wanting me to feel part of them and their families.

At work it is the same. Before arriving I got emails from most of the managers and others wishing me welcome to the Oriflame office and the team. My impression after my first work week is that Moroccans are dedicated and hard workers, and also very helpful and polite. Everyone greets you in the morning and always makes sure that you are included in the different discussions, quickly changing from French or Arabic to English when I am present. Mattias, the managing director of Morocco, has placed me on two very interesting project - one within marketing and one within operations. The first is regarding CSR where I will be part of developing their CSR profile here on the Moroccan market. Within operations I am working with the different branches to increase productivity and efficiency. My projects are planned so I get a great insight into the whole organization, from the grassroots the whole way up to the top. They also include a lot of travels, which gives me an opportunity to see all the major cities in Morocco and meet the consultants from different areas.

After having been here only a week, I have so much more I want to share, but I think these pictures will tell you more than any further words.
 
Casablanca landmark, the third largest mosque in the world - Hassan II Mosque
 
At the branch in Rabat, together with some of the many inspiring consultants and prospects. 
 
The typical Moroccan tea served twice a day at the office. (not during Ramadan)
 
At the beach in front of a small surf club I found. After work on a Tuesday.
 
La Medina. The market.
 
Sunday, funday. Playing together with one of Mattias's wonderful kids at their home in Casablanca.

The projects at Oriflame Indonesia

Publicerad 2015-06-23 04:58:35 i Allmänt

Now we have been here for three weeks and we are focusing on the two projects that are the most time sensitive. The first project is called “removals” and our goal is to identify concepts that aim to lower the removal rate and increase activity among consultants. With the removal rate we mean the percentage of consultants (direct sales people) that has become inactive for more than three months. In order for us to come up with solutions to this problem, we are currently focusing on identifying what it is that makes the consultants becoming inactive for more than three months. To identify this, we have interviewed top leader consultants and sent out surveys to all the 14 branches in Indonesia and the inactive consultants - so at the moment, we are analyzing the answers and will hopefully soon be able to recommend solutions that will decrease the removal rate.

The second project is called the “CRM project”, where Oriflame Indonesia seeks to evaluate the possibility of implementing a local CRM (customer relationship management) system. Here we are working on sorting out the CRM djungle by identifying both key factors for Oriflame to have in a CRM system, and identify what kind of system and supplier Oriflame is looking for.

The projects are challenging and really fun, and we hope and believe that we will be able to contribute to the Oriflame business by coming up with project solutions. We are working 100% during the weeks, and this weekend we are going to take a trip to Bali again (and the next weekend we are going to Singapore!). So the weeks are filled with challenging work and the weekends with alot of travel and fun - a great combination.

After the interview with one of out top consultants in Indonesia, Rosa. 

 
At Kota Tua - old town in Jakarta. 
 
Here we'er at lunch with colleagues from the office 
 
Our great brand and communications director Roslina celebrated the Swedish midsummer by coloring her nails according to the Swedish flag. 
 

Have a great Tuesday everyone!

/Lydia 

 

 

 

Greetings from Jakarta!

Publicerad 2015-06-16 08:37:04 i Allmänt

The first week in Jakarta has come to an end and there are so many new impressions. Jakarta has around 20 million inhabitant and the infrastructure is not quite adapted for that amount of people. This leads to a lot of people at the same place at the same time relative to what we are used to in Sweden, and especially a lot more traffic. However, Oriflame has arranged for us to live near the office, so we have a short walking distance to the office every morning, and can avoid the heavy traffic.

I and Filippa have received three different projects that we are going to work with during our time here. We will work with them together and coordinate the tasks in between us to reach the goals and I think we will make an excellent team!

The first weekend was spent in Bali, the paradise Island just 1.5h by airplane from Jakarta. We left Jakarta after work Friday evening, and came back to Jakarta Sunday evening - it was the perfect getaway from the large city. Bali is very beautiful and exotic, and our colleague Rambo was the perfect guide and host, showing us several beautiful spots around the island.

This is at the Oriflame office in Jakarta with Ehsan, the Operation Director in Indonesia (Lydia to the left, and Filippa på the right)
 
At the hotel pool in Bali 
 
Seminyak beach 
 
Sunset in Bali 
 
Morning horseback riding at the beach 
 
Sunday at El Kabron before going back to Jakarta for a new week at the office 
 
 
 
Have a great week! 
 
/Lydia 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Filippa och Lydia- Före avresan

Publicerad 2015-06-09 18:23:00 i Allmänt

Hej!

Vi heter Filippa von Schoultz och Lydia Graflund och kommer att blogga från vår tid med Oriflame i Indonesiens huvudstad Jakarta. Det kommer bli en fantastisk upplevelse och det är dessutom otroligt roligt att få berätta om våra erfarenheter här.

Kort om mig, Filippa, så har jag precis gått ut tredje året på Handelshögskolans program Retail management och kommer under hösten börja mastern i Marketing and Media management. Jag har innan dess en mängd internationella erfarenheter från att ha både bott och jobbat i USA och Frankrike vilket har gjort att jag tidigare sökt mig till företag av internationell karaktär och fått mycket erfarenhet från att jobba för EF Education First. Förutom internationell erfarenhet men dessutom ett stort intresse för kosmetik vilket bidrar till att just jobba för Oriflame kommer bli fantastiskt kul. Jag hamnade på Oriflame av att jag föregående år var en del av ett utbytesprojekt i Tokyo där jag blev rekommenderad vidare till Oriflames Global Summer Internship. Efter många olika delmoment i intervjuprocessen så blev jag erbjuden att åka till Jakarta i Indonesien vilket var det land som jag hade hoppats på! Jag blev självklart även otroligt glad att Lydia också blev placerad i Jakarta.

Jag, Lydia, har precis avklarat mitt första år på masterprogrammet Business Management på Handelshögskolan, och har sedan tidigare en kandidatexamen från skolans ekonomiprogram. Efter andra året på kandidatprogrammet tog jag ett sabbatsår och reste i Australien/Asien och har på så vis erfarenhet från att resa i liknande förhållanden som i Jakarta, vilket känns givande nu när vi befinner oss i vad i folkmun kallas Asiens business HUB. Precis som Filippa har jag tidigare arbetat på EF Education First, vilket jag gjorde innan jag avslutade mitt tredje år och därefter påbörjade masterprogrammet.

Det är just nu mindre än en vecka kvar till vår avfärd och vi har ända sedan Januari haft en mängd förberedelser för resan. Vi har nästan blivit bortskämda av all den hjälp vi fått från kontoret i Jakarta med allt från stora saker så som lägenhet till små saker som simkort till telefoner. Vi har även fått våra visum och vaccinationer och är i stort sätt redo att åka.

Vad man har börjat fundera mycket på är just packningen och framförallt dresscode på kontoret. Kombinationen av buisness casual, tropisk värme och en muslimsk kultur är någonting man måste tänka till för att få ihop. Det kommer bli veckans uppgift att uppdatera garderoben för detta.

Vi ska under sommaren berätta om våra erfarenheter och det ska bli otroligt roligt. Nästa inlägg kommer bli efter vi har landat i Jakarta och lyckats installera oss mer i staden och på vårt nya kontor.

Filippa & Lydia

Summer Internship 2015

Publicerad 2015-05-29 10:47:00 i Allmänt

The summer is here and some new interns are about to start the adventure as Summer Interns at Oriflame. Follow this blog and you will get the opportunity to join them on their exciting journey and learn about life at Oriflame.

Fanny in Bangkok: Week 10

Publicerad 2013-10-24 13:09:00 i Allmänt

Dear all,
Never could I imagine that 10 weeks could pass by so quickly. My time here has come to an end and it is with a bittersweet mood I tell you that this is my last day at Oriflame Bangkok. These 10 weeks have been indescribable; by far one of the best experiences I have had so far!
My project has received great feedback and I am really proud of my achievements. These 10 weeks have not only given me invaluable experiences and professional development, but also an incredible personal development. Starting your career after university graduation is already a big step, but doing so in a dynamic company in a foreign country, is a winning concept! I have learned so much during my time here, and am looking forward to learning more.
To all of you out there, if you are considering applying for an internship here – stop hesitating and apply now! I promise you, you will never regret it! I am so grateful for this opportunity and for everything this internship implied.
I hope this blog has been a source of inspiration, or at least information. This journey has been incredible and I have always dreaded this moment, having to say goodbye, so I decided I won’t do that. I will only be taking a short break and hopefully, we will see each other soon!

Fanny in Bangkok: Week 9

Publicerad 2013-10-18 06:54:00 i Allmänt

 
Time goes by quickly when you are having fun, and as a matter of fact these two months have been the shortest ones ever! That is how fantastic this internship has been and I can’t believe that next week will be my last one here.

I have been planning and going through my 190-pages long workshop over and over again (now I am completely fed up with my own voice). Unfortunately, I will not be able to hold the workshop for a big group of people, due to the fact that we are having our targeting next week – bad timing! However, I will be holding the workshop for our copywriters, which I’m so excited about!

The tone of voice manual is now finalized and will be sent to Global in Stockholm for feedback and approval. This workshop is basically based on the manual, but much more interactive and I am very excited to hold my first workshop!

I’ve realized that all my posts have been focusing on my project and somehow I have left out all the fun I have had on my spare time! My internship here in Bangkok has been incredible, not only because my beloved project, but also because of this wonderful city and all those amazing friends I have met!

I will now list my top 5 adventures during my 9 weeks here:

1. A weekend trip to Thailand’s National Park ‘Khao Yai” together with Petra (a colleague who has become one of my closest friends). We spent the weekend together at a trekking tour in the jungle, watching wild elephants and monkeys!

2. A one-day “floating market-biking tour”, where me and my friend Lovisa visited Thailand’s biggest floating market Damnoen Saduak and then biked 35 kilometers in a city outside Bangkok, through pomelo, lychee and coconut plantations.

3. My one-day business trip together with the Managing Director for Thailand to Chiang Mai for a recruiting event at a Thai University. It was so inspiring to meet our dedicated Area Managers and our enthusiastic Leaders!

4. My first wake-boarding experience, which was one of the coolest sports I have ever tried! Surfing on water, by being pulled by a cable (the majority of the time you would succeed in surfing 5 meters and then splashing heavily into the water) was a one of a kind experience! Most of the time, me and Petra was laughing at each other’s glamorous wathersplashes, while our wakeboarding-pro colleague Desiree did all the cool tricks you could imagine on the ramp.

5. Lazy Sundays spent on shopping at Siam Paragon, cinema at Emporium, classic Thai massage at Sarinya and ‘oh-so-relaxing’ tea time at TWG.

Hope you got a more inspiring picture of what Bangkok has to offer, except for a great internship at Oriflame!
 
 
Me and Petra at the National Park
 
Wild Elephant
 
Little monkey begging for sweets
 
Floating Market
 
During biking trip
 
Flight to Chiang Mai
 
Presentation at University
 
Wakeboarding and a double rainbow
 
Enjoying my afternoon tea and macarons

Fanny in Bangkok - Week 7

Publicerad 2013-10-01 10:22:00 i Allmänt

Dear readers,

Sorry for leaving you for such a long time! I guess you already know what the reason is, busy busy working on my project. However, I have some good news to tell you – the first draft of the manual is now finished! A 70-pages long Tone of Voice manual, providing guidelines on how to write all copies for Oriflame; my pride and joy with other words. Before finishing the manual, I got the opportunity to participate in several inspiring and resourceful workshops myself!

The first one was our regional Your Dreams – Our Inspiration Workshop, focusing on our new brand promise; what it signifies and how it should be implemented. We spend the whole day learning about branding, successful brand cases, Oriflame’s branding strategy etc. It was a fantastic workshop!

The other two were presented by our Creative Director and Catalogue Development Director from Global, and the emphasis was also put on our new promise. Which we all can conclude is a big happening here at Oriflame. These presentations and workshops provided me with not only useful information, but also inspiring ways of setting up my own workshop, which is the next step on my project.

The manual will be sent to the Global office for review this week and hopefully the final version will be implemented, not only at a regional basis, but globally. It is still hard to take in that as an intern, I was assigned such an important and significant project! This creates even more incitement to do the best I can. I could never imagine being assigned a project like this; interesting, fun and important.

And I haven’t even mentioned the workshop yet – that will be even more fun to work with! I am at the moment creating a full day workshop for everyone working with copies, and this workshop will be based on the Tone of Voice manual. So right now I am gathering both good and bad examples and cases to illustrate what an impact Tone of Voice has on branding.

I hope I gave you all a good explanation why I haven’t been so active on the blog, I’ll try my best to involve you more during the last month of this fantastic internship!
 
Our product assortment!
 

A diploma after the workshop!
 
At a event with the Sales-Team!
 

Fanny in Bangkok: Week 4

Publicerad 2013-09-10 05:25:00 i Allmänt

A new exciting week has just started! Sorry for bad update lately, time goes by so quickly and I have had too interesting work on my table - My beloved project! It has evolved to somewhat of a frienemy relationship; some days we are best friends, other days we just want to strangle each other. Since a major part of my project revolves around branding, a natural start was of course to learn more about Oriflame’s new brand promise: Your dreams – our inspiration. I fell head over heels in love with the brand story and was so thrilled to be the one delivering this fantastic concept by creating a work shop! Before I continue, I have to show you the “Your dreams – our inspiration” video!
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJqzZUIDc4g

After my initial crush on the new brand promise, we stepped into the next phase, which would be best described as despair. There is so much information circling around about our new brand promise and the Oriflame brand. At first everything seems so clear, but once you really start digging into it –you find a big rabbit hole! And this rabbit hole is filled with brand identity, brand personality, subbrand personalities, brand architecture, core values, mission and vision; you get the point don’t you? To collect all the information is easy, to sort the relevant out and structure it up is something else. Don’t get me wrong; it is very exciting and stimulating, sometimes even a little bit too interesting. I totally love analyzing the interrelations between the cornerstones; does the brand personality reflect the identity? How should the copy be written to deliver our new brand promise? How can we adapt our tone of voice to the subbrands, but remain the same brand identity? These are some questions related to my project. Hopefully I will have some answers to these questions soon, until then, wish me luck.

Fanny in Bangkok: Week 2

Publicerad 2013-08-27 10:07:00 i Allmänt

Dear all,

My first week in Bangkok has been wonderful! My induction week at the company has been both exciting and very informative. Last week was filled with introductions and interesting meetings, which gave me the chance to understand how the different departments work independently and their interconnection with each other. My project was also handed to me, which is to build a tone of voice workshop and knowledge about Oriflame Copy for the regional and local copy writers and I am so thrilled about this project! I have been collecting information regarding Oriflame’s brand and studying the material, which also gives me a deeper insight of what Oriflame is really about. I hope I will be able to share these insights with you in the coming weeks!

Until then, I’ll show you how I spent my first weeks in pictures. Hope you will enjoy!
 
Me and my colleague Tang at the office.
 
Traditional Thai lunch with my colleagues.
 
Farwell party for Gig (in the middle) at the office.
 
Thai massage after work (sooooo relaxing!)
 
Friday afternoon yoga for all the Oriflame employees.
 
Dinner at a Sushi restaurant with Oskar and Caroline (two Swedish friends).
 
 
 
 

Fanny in Bangkok: An exciting journey to the east

Publicerad 2013-08-20 11:39:00 i Allmänt

 
Hello everyone! I am Fanny, a Global Summer Intern at Oriflame spending 10 weeks in Bangkok. I arrived 3 days ago and am still familiarizing with this exciting new city! By now I have enjoyed fantastic Thai cuisine, relaxing Thai massage, exciting local markets, interesting Tuk-tuk taxi and an amazing day at work. I had my introduction at the office yesterday and everyone was so nice and welcoming. During my 10 weeks, I will try to share my experiences as much as possible, bringing you into an exciting journey in the East.                                                 
 
 
 
 

Last week in Oriflame India

Publicerad 2013-08-13 09:23:37 i Allmänt

Hi Everyone,

Yesterday I had my final presentation of my Project: Product Culture in Oriflame India. I was really excited and “a bit” nervous. The presentation was two hours (2 HOURS) and the entire management team and other key stake holders attended my presentation. It was great experience to conduct a two hours presentation to senior management. A first time experience but definitely not the last.

During this project I have improved several skills and I have also developed as a person. The business skills that I have improved are leadership skills, project management, time management, prioritizing, work across cultural barriers, analyzing skills, information gathering, structure and scope a project (which is hard and takes a lot of time), presentation technique, information gathering, internal marketing as well as external marketing.

At a personal level; the huge contrast between Sweden and India has emotionally affected me to a large extent, both positively and negatively. To start with; the poverty is bizarre and extremely visible. I have been travelling across the world but never faced this high level of poverty (not even in Cambodja). The poverty itself is terrible but the contrast to the rich Indian people and the goras (foreigners) is even more dreadful. And the worse thing is that you know that India do not have a security network that take care of all these human beings that have the same value as everyone else. I could write about this in hours but this is not the right forum for this kind of issues, but I felt that I was forced to mention it.

The thing that I really love with Delhi is that you cannot control your days and I agree with my Co-intern: “Delhi is an organizational Caos”. You don’t know if you will spend your day in the “fantastic” Delhi traffic or if you are not able to work since the electricity switch on and off. I love that you can travel to different tailors and custom made your own bags and clothes, that the Spa’s are open during  the night, that the weather is pleasant (now, not in June), that people are extremely good at English and really helpful. These things are charming with Delhi. I love that everything is not organized as it is in Sweden and that something new happend all the time. It is FUN!

This internship and my experience in India have ad high value to me and I am extremely thankful for this great opportunity.

Unfortunately I broke my phone some weeks ago, but I will show you a picture that Malin took after my presentation.

Have a great day everyone!

Now we are going to have a Farwell meeting for me!

 

Namaste!

Kendra

The time is running to quickly- Kendra

Publicerad 2013-07-26 14:52:17 i Allmänt

 

Today it’s Friday. The official Friday song is on the speakers and I have completed my fifth week at Oriflame. I think the time is running to quickly and I do not want this fantastic experience to be over. Luckily I have 3 weeks left.

I really enjoy my time at Oriflame and in Delhi and people ask me why I do not travel more. Of course it is a legitimate question, but for me is so obvious. I love Delhi and I want to spend my spare time here as well. Despite this I travelled to Agra last Saturday in order to visit the fantastic monument Taj Mahal. Agra is situated 3,5 hours with car from Delhi (Delhi Traffic), it is the same distant as from Helsingborg (my hometown) to Gothenburg (approx. 200 km.). Taj Mahal It is one of the most beautiful building I have seen. The symmetry in the architectural structure was unbelievable. I recommend all of you to go to Agra and enjoy this experience! DO IT!

 

Two weeks back we moved to a totally new office. This new office is located 15 minutes from my home by car, which is unique in Delhi traffic. The office is a WORLD CLASS OFFICE. Modern, silent, stylish, huge. Richard and Klas have arrived to Delhi after work and vacation in Sweden. These two guys are real oriflame souls- happy, energetic, loyal, friendly etc. We are discovering the night life in Delhi, the cinema, the shopping together, which I appreciate very much. Tonight we are going to a friend of Richard and the plan is to play “Rappakalja” in English. Hmm…

My project is moving forward. I have done a first PPT draft that I will present for my colleague on Monday in order to get constructive feedback on my recommendations, everything to deliver the best project as possible. Today I had a call meeting together with Johan Bjurman Bergman. He is a Global Summer Intern in Istanbul. We shared our best practices and gave feedback on each other’s presentations. Thank you Johan!

Now I am going to be efficient some hours before the weekend.

Keep in touch

 
 
 

Namaste!

Kendra

Malin week 4- Exciting project, New Office and Colorful Indian culture

Publicerad 2013-07-17 19:04:00 i Allmänt

The last weeks have been filled with exciting and challenging experiences…let me start by introducing the main source for my excitement, my assigned project!  During this summer I will work with oriflames wellness category in relation to the upcoming launch in India. The project entails a number of objectives which are broad, hence encouraging own creative ideas and input. However the main focus is to map, analyze and get an in-depth understanding concerning the competitive landscape on the Indian market. In order to be thoroughly prepared for a wellness launch I’m also closely interacting with all our 15 branches in India and top consultants from different regions across the country in order to get an understanding about regional differences needed to be taken into account, from among other things, a marketing perspective. The project has already taken my out on various exciting and challenging fieldtrips around Delhi for data gathering and it’s much more to come! Moreover, last week we moved in to our new World Class Office here in Delhi, more specifically in south Delhi, in the area called Jasola. It’s truly a remarkable office and one can both see and feel the happiness among all the colleagues. We are all very proud when we entering the door to the office in the morning (..especially, after battling with the heavily congested Delhi traffic J) .

During the weekend we visited Kingdom of dreams to see one of Indias most famous bollywood stories Zagoora, the gypsy king, get illustrated on stage. 2 hours of colorful Indian culture captured in extraordinary song and -dance numbers was truly an experience that I will cherish for a long time.

I will upload some great pictures in the coming days. Now it time for bed, having an early fieldtrip tomorrow! :)

All the best!

 
 
 
 

Week 4- Kendra Ibsen

Publicerad 2013-07-11 08:46:44 i Allmänt

Hi everyone, Delhi is Calling,

Today I want to describe my project in more detail.

My project is called: "Increase the Product Culture in Oriflame India". This project is very extensive and the content of the project depend on how product culture is defined. The aim of my project is to improve the product culture internally and externally in India, where internally means the employees at Oriflame and externally the consultants. 

My project is divided into three modules; 1. Mapp the current situation of Product Culture in Oriflame India (product knowledge, trainings modules, launch material, Catalogue) 2. Do a competitor analysis with product culture in focus. 3. Suggest and propose different actions in order to enhance the product culture with the base of potential gaps and my own knowledge/experience (events, competition, better trainings, more efficient material etc.)

That is a short description of my project in. It is a very interactive and challenging project, because of the lack of numbers and clear measurements. I have got the opportunity to talk with employees all over India, with many leaders in India and the opportunity to work in different teams here at the HQ, since my project involve many departments.

In Oriflame it is all about taking own initiative and to shape your own project. I am also doing two projects besides my main project. These projects focus on to improve the Launch material towards the consultants and internally, with focus on the main Launches in 2014. I am going to create a 360 degree launch plan for these launches..

Since I have been at the field and visit leaders I want to show you some pictures. The lady Sangeeta, is #3 in India. She is fantastic!

Have a great Weekend, we will in Delhi!

 
 
 
 
 
 

BR,

Kendra

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On this blog you can follow some of the Oriflame Global Summer Interns who have been selected for their passion, creativity and energy to complete exciting strategic projects in one of our locations around the world. This summer we will follow Emilia Bryngelsson, who is doing her summer internship in Istanbul and Anton Ekman who will be working in Moscow. Feel Inspired? Do you want to dare yourself and take the leap out in the Oriflame world ? Be on the lookout on our corporate site when applications for Global Summer Internship 2018 opens up in December!

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