Isha Aggarwal

COMM386 0201
June 27, 2014
Journal 1
These first three weeks had a slow start with the introductory orientation workshops as
well as the first 1-1s with managers I will be working for and my mentor. The sessions I attended
included the IDP goal setting, Diversity, and My Novo Nordisk way workshops, one each week.
The first few days were actually rather frustrating because I needed to grasp what I would work
on for some many communication managers in different departments. Meeting with my
managers to talk through my project plan helped me realize that the diversity of my work will
provide me a wide understanding of what corporate communication is like. It is too soon to say
that my goals have been accomplished, but I know that the work that will be described further
down is on the right track. This will benefit me beyond the scope of my internship because it will
give me clarity when I start to apply to full-time positions in the fall.
I find it useful that on top of the goal-setting requirement of this class, I am required to do
the same for my manager just in the Novo Nordisk specific format. It acts as a double check and
keeps me on path for accomplishing what I set out. A copy of this is submitted with this
document as it was something I shared with my mentor and three different managers my first two
weeks, so together we could maximize my work to achieve the goals. I want to start collecting
these documents in one place now, so come time to put together my portfolio, I am organized
and not overwhelmed.
My internship started right when I arrived on June 9,2014 as the hiring manager
introduced me to the summer- long Legacy Project I will work on. The goal of this project is
for the interns to practice project management skills and make a lasting impact that aligns with
the companys takeACTION initiative. This initiative is focused on Novo Nordisk employees
giving back to the community, beyond monetary contributions, but also physical acts helping
Isha Aggarwal
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June 27, 2014
others. The 26 of us, interns, knew we needed to make a strong and professional first impression;
therefore, five of us took the initiative to set up weekly meetings for planning and brainstorming
for the group. I quickly took a vocal executive role of the group ensuring our meetings were both
productive and effective. Additionally, I acted behind the scenes to put together our slide deck
for our idea pitch to our hiring managers on June 24, 2014. I gave my peers the hard deadline of
the end of the day, June 22, to send me any notes and work they have done for our pitch. This is
so that I had amble time to finalize the deck and make sure it was Novo Nordisk compliant for
the pitch. The pitch was successful and the hiring managers approved our idea of facilitating an
event packed day at Camp Nejeda, the Novo Nordisk sponsored camp for children with Diabetes.
A copy of my slide deck is also submitted with this journal because it demonstrates a large
portion of what I worked on these three weeks. We plan to execute this pitch on July 15, 2014
and I have to opportunity to culminate our experience in an article for the intranet the week after.
This will be highlighted in my next journal entry.
I have already learned a lot about professionalism, just in these three weeks, working
with my same age peers in a corporate setting. 26 is a large group to coordinate budding heads,
ideas and backgrounds and for that standards and expectations needed to be set. By sending out
meeting notes and call of action emails before and after gatherings, I was able to keep the
communication among the 26 open and informed. This set a standard that everyone else was to
prepare their detailed components so that during the meetings we could talk top-level topics. By
doing this for my peer project, I will create a good habit for the meetings and work I have with
managers and real professionals during the rest of the summer and my professional career.
I have also noticed a huge difference between my generation and the professionals
generation. My generation is glued to their phones and a few of us have actually made comments
Isha Aggarwal
COMM386 0201
June 27, 2014
to our hiring manager about how unprofessional and bad it looks that a few others are on their
phones during workshops and even our own meetings. I was just rather insulted to be associated
with such unprofessionalism because it was truly disrespectful to the employees presenting to us
and looks bad as a whole group. My managers and the professionals I work with are focused on
what is being said in the meeting, not Snapchatting like other interns, and that is how it should
be.
Another habit I have strengthened is preparation and timeliness. Novo Nordisk has a
strong culture of meeting effectiveness where all meetings invitations require a Purpose and
Outcome, and meetings end ten minutes before the hour. This is done so employees can be on
time to back-to-back meetings, and that everyone is on the same page about what they plan to
accomplish during that time. I want to take these practices back to my work with Student
Entertainment Events so that students time is also used efficiently and we do not have to have
countless meetings without making any headway.
The second and third week, my responsibilities picked up and felt like I worked on tasks
that had purpose and meaning. The second week of my internship, I spend most of my time
researching endocrinology fellowships. There is a lot about this project that I did not like, such
as, working on an excel sheet of more than 500 fellows names and cross-referencing it with
another spreadsheet of more than 200 programs for several days, but my manager explained why
this spreadsheet is important. She stated the purpose of the overall initiative is to establish
relationships between the field force and graduating fellows so when they begin to prescribe
products their first thought is Novo Nordisk products. The sales force has some relationships
now, but a more consistent effort needs to be made. Before putting a national strategy out for
creating this relationship, the team needed to know what fellows and strong programs are
Isha Aggarwal
COMM386 0201
June 27, 2014
currently out there, which is where my work to create a composite list came into play. When I
turned in the spreadsheets, I was curious to know what strategic approach they will take
regarding these endocrinology fellows, which made me feel like I actually contributed to the
team instead of making copies.
On a less productive note, I endured a concussion during my second and third weeks,
which stunted my work for a few days. I did not use that as an excuse to get out of working, I
took the initiative to ask for work I could manage. This meant no computer, but filing and
stuffing milestone pins into envelopes, which were to be delivered at a large conference the third
week of my internship. Though this work did not directly work toward my goals, it was
something that had to get done and I was more than happy to help.
Once I was fully recovered from my concussion, I started to get into the thick of my
responsibilities, which related to what I learned in my academics. The end of my second week I
got acclimated to editing and posting the Novo Nordisk intranet and during my third week, I
earned the confidence of my managers to actually write articles to then post on the intranet. I
enjoy the web design elements because it is only elements we are exposed to in my classes, but I
actually got to see the changes I made on the company website. From posting videos, photos,
articles and updating the scrollers, I am slowly getting a taste of webpage management. Though
my academics did not come into play here, I did I used my research skills from COMM400 to
gather background information for the text. My countless writing practices from my public
relations classes made it second nature to construct a well organized, grammatically correct
article for the Biopharmaceutical webpage. I did not have to think about the comma placements
of quotes and other smaller details.
Isha Aggarwal
COMM386 0201
June 27, 2014
What has had direct relevance to what I learned in school is drafting a communication
plan for the Marketing Career Development Initiative for the Novo Nordisk executive team
during my third week. When my manager first gave me this project, she sent me a bunch of slide
decks to pull information and just said go at it, which left me a little unsettled. Much to my
surprise, she came back later that day to give me some background on the project, which
provided me with a better understand of why I was making a communication plan. She stated
that right now the company has resources and career path suggestions for marketing
professionals in each of these three divisions of the company; Diabetes Marketing, Commercial
Effectiveness and Biopharmaceuticals, but there is some inconsistencies if someone was
interested in more than one of those fields. The purpose of this project is to reduce those
inconsistencies and combined the resources to span all three sectors and make the marketing
individual more empowered. When I found out this information, I instantly felt that reading
through a hundred or so slides had an actual contribution to the result and it was not busy work.
My teachings from COMM350 about SWOT analyses, SMART objectives and goals
came into play. I needed to take their numerous think tank slide decks and translate those ideas
into measureable objectives and what Novo Nordisk call KPIs. KPIs are key point indicators, so
how they are going to specifically measure a tactic or strategy is will be claimed accomplished.
Outside of the memorable GHOST breakdown to ensure their next few years work is
organized and aligned to their overall goal, I also had to identify key stakeholders and their
responsibilities for the project. This task was intimidating because I had not put together a full
communication plan in school, just practiced each of the components, so this was definitely a
learning experience for me. However, my manager seemed to be pleased with the detail I packed
into the Novo Nordisk compliant template and we plan to review it in more detail after the team
Isha Aggarwal
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June 27, 2014
meeting on Monday. A draft of the communication plan I put together will also accompany this
journal entry.
Though the three weeks had a slow pickup, already I am getting to work on several
different projects in various departments. I know that is a sign that I will get a hands-on
experience corporate communication and not just be a lowly intern doing the grunt work. My
work already has merit, I am eager for more responsibility, and I am ready to see the start of
these projects to unfold in the rest of the summer.