My Experience
As Chief Operating Officer for a start-up company, I had a wide array of responsibilities across multiple work-threads, as opposed a singular project. My core responsibilities included: building and managing relationships with partner organizations that will help provide input on the design and evaluation of our wellness promotion strategies; working with the core management team to build a Return-on-Investment (RoI) calculator that is tailored to the target population (low-income communities in NYC, starting with East Harlem) and the unique nature of our program design; and regularly ensuring that our financial model responds to changes in the operating model. As City Health Works! is still in its pre-launch phase, these aligned within the organization’s mission of getting off the ground with a group of core partners, a baseline evaluation framework, and consistent business development materials.
I applied skillsets from the MBA program, specifically “Launching Social Ventures” with Ron Gonen and “NYC: Innovative and Entrepreneurial Solutions to the City’s Complex Challenge” with Cliff Schorer, during my internship experience. These included thinking outside of the box, brainstorming with the team, organizing these concepts with tools such as Excel, and then presenting them with applications like PowerPoint. Further, the communication and presentation skills I developed during my MBA experience were extremely useful when meeting with investors and potential partners. Lastly, understanding the big picture in terms of business planning, marketing, finance, etc, and how they all fit together, did a lot for my confidence and enabled me to keep pushing forward without too much hesitation.
The greatest challenge was managing so many moving parts at once on a continually shifting schedule. On one hand, this was really exciting and much more adventurous than the usual regimented timetable of corporate America. However, I found that key items on my to-do list kept on being pushed further and further back because of new priorities.
This was the most fulfilling 10-week work experience of my career, and further, since I’ve been involved with City Health Works! since January, it’s been the most meaningful 9-month experience as well. I loved being in an entrepreneurial environment, working with an excellent team, creating deliverables on our own volition (as opposed to under a manager’s orders), and being a part of something where we all wanted to truly make a difference.
