Internship Description
Ignacio González-Blanch ’20 interned with Tamer Fund for Social Ventures portfolio member Zero Emissions Livestock Project (ZELP), a London-based startup dedicated to mitigating the impact of the livestock industry on the environment. Ignacio worked as strategy and operations manager and assisted the team in developing a go-to-market strategy, as well as identifying and ensuring that organizational priorities are being successfully delivered across the company to support launch.
Specifically, I worked on three projects. The first was to develop and apply a methodology to define the implementation strategy and prioritize the launch among different locations. To do so, I carried out an analysis of the animal population as well as the CO2 emissions potential reduction and the current climate policy in different countries. The second project was to define different alternatives to the current distribution model, so ZELP could maximize the value captured from the selling and distribution of its technology. The third and last project I worked on was the assessment of the ZELP data platform, where I had to calculate the benefits of monitoring animals and managing the farm with ZELP’s technology. This work helped ZELP to accelerate and support the launch of its technology, contributing consequently to its mission of mitigating the impact of the livestock industry on climate change.
My MBA was incredibly helpful in completing the projects mentioned above and allowing me to maximize my contribution to the venture. From the very beginning, the CEO shared with me ZELP's current business model and financials, which, thanks to the finance courses I took at CBS, I could easily read and understand, and get a big picture of the organization and an initial idea of its priorities. I also used the skills learned in specific courses such as those obtained in Business Analytics and Programming, which helped me to manage and visualize a big amount of carbon emissions data to facilitate the analysis of countries for prioritizing the launch; or the ones obtained in Strategy Formulation and Operations Management that were particularly useful to think about the distribution model strategically and contribute to conversations with the founders about the best approach to offer the ZELP’s solution into the market.
Although it was not relevant for the tasks I was assigned to, I found that following the stages of product development while working remotely because of COVID-19 was particularly challenging. Most of the ZELP team was 100 percent focused on product development, and this sometimes made me feel even more isolated from the team members. I would have loved getting involved a bit more in the product to learn from the team. In any case, the founder was always following my progress and giving me feedback on recurring meetings, which was very useful to reconnect with the team and to set the course of my work. I also faced the challenge of working in a totally new industry for me (agriculture and livestock). I had to read many papers and reports about livestock emissions, cattle diseases or farm productivity but, while it has been challenging, it was also very interesting. You never know when this knowledge will be useful again but what is sure — and I proved it — is that we are capable of learning about anything we want at a very reasonable pace.
My main goal was to have a first experience on a tech startup and learn how they operate. It was interesting to see how ZELP is structured and how they work and try to develop a challenging product to address a global and relevant problem like climate change. It was also very inspiring to work with my teammates, experts in different fields, and see how they addressed the product from multiple disciplines — from chemical and mechanical engineering to electronics or animal science. I also had the chance to put in value the strategic thinking gained during the MBA and the importance of having the big picture of the organization. This experience wasn very rewarding and will be extremely valuable in the near future when deciding to startup a social venture or when leading a team in a medium orlarge organization. The experience also made me feel privileged by what I learned at CBS, and I am confident that the knowledge and skills gained will be relevant for any organization.
I joined ZELP as strategy and operations manager to support the CEO in the process of launching the ZELP technology into the market. ZELP is currently developing a wearable device to mitigate climate change by reducing methane emissions from livestock, which accounts for 14 percent of the global CO2 equivalent emissions. As the product development team progressed towards the first commercial version of the solution, ZELP needed to develop a go-to market strategy to ensure organizational priorities were being successfully delivered across the company to support the launch.
Specifically, I worked on three projects. The first was to develop and apply a methodology to define the implementation strategy and prioritize the launch among different locations. To do so, I carried out an analysis of the animal population as well as the CO2 emissions potential reduction and the current climate policy in different countries. The second project was to define different alternatives to the current distribution model, so ZELP could maximize the value captured from the selling and distribution of its technology. The third and last project I worked on was the assessment of the ZELP data platform, where I had to calculate the benefits of monitoring animals and managing the farm with ZELP’s technology. This work helped ZELP to accelerate and support the launch of its technology, contributing consequently to its mission of mitigating the impact of the livestock industry on climate change.
My MBA was incredibly helpful in completing the projects mentioned above and allowing me to maximize my contribution to the venture. From the very beginning, the CEO shared with me ZELP's current business model and financials, which, thanks to the finance courses I took at CBS, I could easily read and understand, and get a big picture of the organization and an initial idea of its priorities. I also used the skills learned in specific courses such as those obtained in Business Analytics and Programming, which helped me to manage and visualize a big amount of carbon emissions data to facilitate the analysis of countries for prioritizing the launch; or the ones obtained in Strategy Formulation and Operations Management that were particularly useful to think about the distribution model strategically and contribute to conversations with the founders about the best approach to offer the ZELP’s solution into the market.
Although it was not relevant for the tasks I was assigned to, I found that following the stages of product development while working remotely because of COVID-19 was particularly challenging. Most of the ZELP team was 100 percent focused on product development, and this sometimes made me feel even more isolated from the team members. I would have loved getting involved a bit more in the product to learn from the team. In any case, the founder was always following my progress and giving me feedback on recurring meetings, which was very useful to reconnect with the team and to set the course of my work. I also faced the challenge of working in a totally new industry for me (agriculture and livestock). I had to read many papers and reports about livestock emissions, cattle diseases or farm productivity but, while it has been challenging, it was also very interesting. You never know when this knowledge will be useful again but what is sure — and I proved it — is that we are capable of learning about anything we want at a very reasonable pace.
My main goal was to have a first experience on a tech startup and learn how they operate. It was interesting to see how ZELP is structured and how they work and try to develop a challenging product to address a global and relevant problem like climate change. It was also very inspiring to work with my teammates, experts in different fields, and see how they addressed the product from multiple disciplines — from chemical and mechanical engineering to electronics or animal science. I also had the chance to put in value the strategic thinking gained during the MBA and the importance of having the big picture of the organization. This experience wasn very rewarding and will be extremely valuable in the near future when deciding to startup a social venture or when leading a team in a medium orlarge organization. The experience also made me feel privileged by what I learned at CBS, and I am confident that the knowledge and skills gained will be relevant for any organization.