My Experience
This summer I worked with Ciceksepeti.com, an e-commerce start-up based in Istanbul, Turkey. The site initially sold and delivered flowers across Turkey, but has since expanded to sell food, small gifts, edible arrangements, and beauty products (all sold on different websites). My role was to work directly with CEO and Founder, Emre Aydin, on any and all projects he needed help with. During the course of the summer, I had the opportunity to work with Emre on a variety of different projects including: developing and instituting employee reviews and job descriptions, strategic assessments of the current company structure and the possibility of restructuring the company as an incubator fund, potential for international expansion, and researching different product categories and market potential in Turkey.
The company's main site, Ciceksepeti.com, is already a leading e-commerce site in Turkey and has backing from both a European Venture Capital firm and Amazon.com. Emre’s goal is to continue expanding the company to capitalize on the rapidly growing middle class and dramatic increase in the number of Internet users in Turkey. Eventually, the company hopes to expand internationally, specifically targeting the Turkish diaspora. In order to facilitate this expansion, it was essential that Emre begin formalizing an employee structure; over the past few years the company has grown exponentially, though it had not yet created systems to facilitate this growth. The projects we worked on this summer put in place structures to facilitate future growth within the company and help to analyze the potential and scale of that growth.
My work this summer provided the opportunity to leverage a broad range of the skills that we had learned in the first year of the MBA program. For example, when conducting market research for potential new products and international expansion, I used the skills we had learned in our marketing classes. Specifically, we looked at market share held by current competitors, the cost of acquiring new customers and the predicted customer life-time value of current and new customers. Emre also requested that I assess the productivity of each department. Ciceksepeti runs several production facilities for the gourmet goods in addition to a large, 24-7 call center. I was able to take tours of the production facilities and had access to specific, detailed data. Using this information I employed the techniques we had learned in operations management to analyze the flow-through-rate, the facility capacity, and the utilization rates. I also worked closely with the online marketing group, an opportunity to use some of the more recent marketing techniques we learned. In general, however, the skills I relied on the most were those learned in strategy formulation and finance classes. The over-riding demands of my work this summer required an ability to bring quantitative approaches to problem solving and strategic decision-making. To do this, I relied heavily on my ability to assess the financial viability of individual projects while accounting for larger macro issues of the company.
The biggest challenge I faced this summer was the language barrier. Though I knew I would be working internationally, I was not prepared for how little English was used in the office. This made working with people very difficult. I often had to rely on a translator. This was my first experience working with a translator and it dramatically alters the work environment. The language barrier also meant that it was more challenging for me to be pro-active in the office. I had to wait until work was assigned rather than seek it out, and I could not follow along in large meetings - I generally had to wait for my translator to give me a summary afterwards. However, after a few weeks I was able to adjust to this new system and add more valuable insights by communicating in writing as it allowed people time to process the thoughts if we were working in English. This was also my first time working at a start-up. I thoroughly enjoyed the fast-paced, entrepreneurial atmosphere. Rather than clearly defined, structured roles, many employees participated in a variety of projects for the company. Working in a more free-flowing company allowed me to spend time with every department and gain a deeper understanding of the company operations and process.
This was my second international work experience and I found it extremely valuable to my career. I have always worked in finance and investing. Working directly for a company allowed me to gain a more complete understanding of management, company structure, operations and general business challenges. Gaining this knowledge has allowed me to better understand companies from an investor stand-point as well. I truly enjoyed living and working in Turkey and actively contributing to a robust and dynamic economy. I would absolutely recommend the Endeavor eMBA program for anyone looking to gain international exposure and contribute to job generation and growth in developing markets.
