Field Work Journal: Week 1

Name: Antovna Gyawali

Enrollment no: mf2017hrm001

Organization: Corzeal Solutions

Fieldwork mentor: Shafali Goutam

Task for the week: To make a consolidated company profile

Time covered in the journal: 3rd -4th July 2017

Day 1:

I was quite excited and nervous at the same time when I came to know that I was placed at the

Start-up as my field work of the first semester. Shashwat and I tried to search the information

about the company and the domain it works on. Since it was established in September 2016, its

website is not yet launched and we had to completely depend on the social media page.

However, once we went to the organization we questioned our mentors and tried to find out what

Corzeal Solution is. It is a 360-degree Corporate Wellness and Engagement Platform which

believes in focusing on the prevention rather than the cure i.e. laying emphasis on keeping the

mind and body rejuvenated and prepped for the complex and volatile world that surrounds us in

our place of work and/or pleasure. The company has two co-founders: Ms. Shafali Goutam and

MS. Nonita Mehta and they have been working on the different avenues of the company.

We were given a brief introduction to the company and the areas they have been working in. It

was quite surprising to hear about how only two of them are handling the company. For me,
working in a co-working space was a very new thing and it really interested me. I had heard

about it in but had never seen how it works. My mind was constantly comparing the working

space I had worked before and this and found out so many differences and the impact working

environment makes. We asked them questions regarding the co-working space. They also told us

that working in a co-working space has its merits and demerits. Merit being that all other start-

ups working in the same place but in the different domain could be helpful to get the information

and to get their work done easily. But at times its disturbing and they get distracted. Ms. Nonita

cited the example how they took the help of another start-up to make their introductory video of

the organization.

My mentor is young and energetic and open for ideas and suggestions. She explained me about

the task I had to do for this week. Since they are gradually entering the market, we as interns do

not have one fixed task for the entire field work but will be posed with different challenges and

works.

An informal chat with both the co-founders made us know each other more. Both are friends of

the age of 11 and they have been working like a family after they returned from abroad studies. It

is quite inspiring to see how they have been putting their minds and hearts into their business. As

a failed start-up initiator, myself, this field work posed me to a different approach of how things

could have worked when I along with my friends were trying to establish one in Nepal in 2015,

right after our undergrad.

At the end of the first day, Shashwat took me to the corporate office of Axis Bank where he used

to work before joining TISS. We then started discussing how an organization that is already

established and has thousands of employees differs from the start-ups. I had never imagined that

a bank could have a gym, yoga service and other recreational activities for their employees. To

conclude the first day, my satisfaction with the task assigned was limited as I felt that work was

something not challenging and a person with limited knowledge could do it. However, I am very

optimistic that in the coming day's other tasks will add value to my learning.

Day 2:

I had to complete the assigned task by this day. Hence, I picked up the pace as soon as I reached

the office. Upon the completion, I further worked on the document based on the feedback from

my mentor. Preparing this document made me clear about the mission and vision of Corzeal and

the areas it wants to cater the services on. Further, we brainstormed the ideas for executing the

event for their client Togglehead which is going to happen on 1st of August 2017. What I saw

there was that the founders were not limited to one specific job roles, but open for any challenge

the journey brings in for them. Though it is not an event management company, they agreed to

manage the event to establish the name in the market. Talking about all these gave me limelight

of how the organization and its culture are established. I was very curious to know how they

named the company. It was quite wonderful to hear that two of the interns from TISS last year

helped them with the initial phase of the establishment along with the name. Working here for 2

days has triggered my long hidden/ lost entrepreneur dream. I look forward to having a great

learning experience at Corzeal Solutions.

Observation and Reflection
One of the things I observed was the working space. Since it was in a co-working space, we

could sit anywhere and do our work. The casual environment it provided gave me the freedom to

think more and do my work enthusiastically. Also working in the co-working space means that

the organization does not have to worry about the different operational costs like the internet,

electricity, phone, coffee. They are obliged to pay a fixed amount and they get all the facilities

that come within. The thing that surprised me was that there is a college with a good number of

students attending the class. Besides, there is a big food lounge in the basement of the building.

However, my mentors carried their lunch boxes from home and I observed that they are very

health conscious and eat healthy food. Upon my observation, I figured out that lunch time is also

a good time to know more about the team as everyone loves food and we get good topics to

discuss. Further, the working culture of the start-up is different with the ones that are established

already. I always thought that we need fixed policies and procedure to work, but observing the

place for two days dragged me to a completely new perspective that we could still carry out the

work in a very proper manner even if there are no such policies. It might be because there are

less number of people working and consistent communication takes place. Once the organization

grows bigger, ultimately rules and policies must be drawn and executed. Also, it does not have

strict rules regarding the office timings. Upon the requirement of the work to be done, co-

founders could come and leave the office any time of the day. Another difference I observed was

regarding the filing of the documents. Since there is no fixed office area, there is no place to put

up the documents. The first week of fieldwork was quite an experience and I am looking to

experience and learn more.

Field Work Journal: Week 2

Time covered in the journal: 10th -11th July 2017

The learning in the second week was different from the last one. We had ended the last weeks

field work with the brief discussion about the event Corzeal is managing for its client

Togglehead on August 1. In that respect, I thought of brain-storming some ice-breakers and

other games for that event so that I could give idea to the mentor. As soon as I reached office,

Ms. Nonita, one of the co-founders asked me to work on the same thing. I googled some ice-

breakers and ask my friends regarding what could be the engaging activities that we could do for

the employees of Togglehead.

Post-lunch we had meeting with Capt. Darryl Braganza, Fleet Safety Superintendent. As Corzeal

has got the project to do performance appraisal of MTC, scrap steel company which has got

factories in different locations, co-founders wanted to get insight from the experienced person

and wanted to make sure that the plan they had drwan is on the right track. The co-founders

along with Capt. Braganza had the meeting at Chennai based factory on 11th and 12th of July. To

my surprise, we were also asked to be the part of the meeting and contribute our ideas. This

opportunity gave me the overall view of the basic outline of the meeting and the whole project at

a bigger picture. I was also asked to minute the meeting. There were many take-aways from the

meeting. However, Capt. Braganza focused on the emotional side of the employees. I could

relate it to the class discussion we had with Mr. N.S Iyer regarding how employees feeling

should be considered while taking decisions. Mr. Iyer always told us that take decision from

heart and be emotional oriented and we would be never wrong. And this was exact what Capt.

Braganza said.
Capt. Braganza also emphasized on that Top-level managers want change but they never give the

information. So, Ms. Shafali and Nonita were advised to talk to mid-level managers as they are

the ones who give information that would be valuable to execute the project. He also said that the

labors of the factory are very important as they are the part of manufacturing the product of the

company. He shared his personal experience how he talked to the heart of the labors and not to

their mind and how they have been appreciating him. Life is precious, thats why touching their

life makes sense. He also role played on the script of how they could talk to the labors.

Next, most of the labors there at MTC are contract labors and thus have the low motivation level.

On this note, Captain advised to make workers feel close to us by breaking the ice before starting

the actual talk. The areas that Corzeal would be focusing on the meeting at Chennai would be as:

1. The process that had been followed

2. The issue area

3. What change would they want to see?

4. Double- Job problems

5. Focused Group Discussions

As my mentor was flying to Chennai on 11th of July, we had an off day on Tuesday. However, at

the end of the first day, we were given tasks to that we had to do on Tuesday. Shashwat and I

were assigned the combined task of working on the power point presentation of Corzeal and

make it more appealing. My mentor mailed me the reference so that we could work accordingly.

On Tuesday, Shashwat and I worked on the slides. We had a nice discussion about various issues

like post-earthquake situation of Nepal, cross-country cultural differences and similarities, the

purpose of joining masters and so on and so forth. Besides, we worked on different templates and
tried making the slide more appealing. We were also in constant touch with mentor through

WhatsApp. My mentor was in touch with me and made sure that I had no problems in doing my

work even from home. This gesture as a leader was appreciable and I am going to follow this

later in my life.

Observation and Reflection

The major takeaways from this week was that I could relate the class room learning to the actual

working scenario. The discussions we had in the class regarding the people before profit was

replicated there and thats how all the organizations must work to be successful. Labors are the

human first and touching the human factor in them results in more productivity and loyalty.

Next, observation was regarding the planning to be made before the meeting and the discussions

after the meeting in case if there are any external guests participating in the meeting. I learned

how to pre-plan for the meeting. Since on the second day, we worked from home, I realized the

difference between working from home and at the proper office location. At first, I decided to

work alone but I was within an hour. Thus, I decided to call Shashwat at my place and even he

shared the experience that he was lonely and he needed company to accomplish the assigned

work. In this regard, I went through the research paper, DOES WORKING FROM HOME

WORK? EVIDENCE FROM A CHINESE EXPERIMENT by Nicholas Bloom, James Liang,

John Roberts and Zhichun Jenny Ying. Though working from home saves the travel time and

give more freedom and flexibility, it depends on the nature of work whether it can be efficient or

not. The research done in the Chinese context says that the productivity and satisfaction level had

increased in that case. However, in my opinion, its not the case all the time. I believe that

depending on the nature and attitudes of individuals and the work they have, working from home
can have dual positive or negative effect. In the days to come, I have planned to undertake a

project by taking the self-initiation as that would make my field-work more effective.
Field Work Journal: Week 3

Time covered in the journal: 17th -18th July 2017

Although co-working space sounds wonderful and has its own perks, it also has many demerits.

My excitement to go to the office on Monday and the enthusiasm that I had for finishing my task

stagnated as soon as I received the message from my fieldwork mentor instructing me to work

from home as ISDI Ace College in the same building had an event scheduled for Monday and

the whole space would be occupied by them. Mentors instructed me and Shashwat me to work

combinedly on the power point presentation related to the pitch deck of the organization. One of

the learnings on this week was to use Prezi, an online platform to make interactive presentations.

We prepared two different Power point slides and forwarded that to the mentors. Since Shashwat

and I worked together on Monday, we had an opportunity if exchanging Nepali and Indian

culture. One of the observations on that day was that, no matter where do study or work, people

are same and it solely depends on the individuals how they are and how they do rather than the

nations and race they belong to. Since I had less work to do on Monday, I decided to research on

co-working space and statistics about it. The results looked fascinating.

(It is taken from https://www.knoll.com/knollnewsdetail/the-rise-of-co-working)

On the second day, I asked the fieldwork mentor Ms. Nonita about their visit to Chennai for

MTC factory visit. She explained in detail about the factory and the working condition there.

MTC is scrap steel manufacturer which has a lot of safety issues. Workers are not given proper

safety equipment like helmets, gloves, shoes and so on. She also explained how few workers

there got emotional when they asked about their personal issues and working conditions. One of

the workers said that it was his first experience of someone from work asking about his family

and life though he had already worked there for many years. We also watched the videos they

had captured of the manufacturing and process unit. The factory layout seemed very haphazard.

The hot iron rod that is being processed was directly touched by the labors which seemed very

dangerous. Corzeal is about to launch its website soon. Thats why I was asked to go through the

website and give the feedback as well. In addition to this, Ms. Shafali had prepared a document

as a summary of their visit to the factory which had the problems stated and solutions from her

side. The major problems stated we:

1. Safety issues and communication problems

2. Lack of proper organization structure

3. Less trainings and no feedback system

4. Lack of Performance Measurement System

5. No employee handbook

I also added my feedback to the document. The Godrej factory visit we had from campus turned

out to be very fruitful in this case. I compared the safety measures at Godrej and suggested

accordingly. I also suggested the idea of giving ownership and responsibility to the supervisors at

the manufacturing and processing unit by hanging the placard such as this area belongs to Mr.

XYZ.
Observation and Reflection
One of the things I tried doing this week was to understand the business model of Corzeal. In

that respect, I came to know that they have outsourced a girl to look after their accounting and

finance. I was also curios about their revenue model but I have not yet been able to figure it out

completely. However, their major chunk of revenue comes from Feel Fab Event. Also, as they

hire instructors and facilitators to execute their events, they mentioned that they are transparent

with them and share the income on case to case basis.

Apart from this, I observed that the parking fee of One India Bulls is quite expensive i.e., Rs.500

for one day and from my understanding, they are making a huge money out of the parking lot as

well.

Another learning for this week was that entrepreneur is the new buzz word and on trend but its

easy to say then get it done. To become an entrepreneur, one should have the knowledge and

skills of various fields like accounting, finance, marketing, operations, IT, communication skills

and a high degree of dedication because as a start-up only few people will be working for the

organization. No matter the size of the organization, it must perform all the functions. Thus,

entrepreneur must have the idea of diversified sectors. On the top of it, communication skill is

the most needed one. I observed that my fieldwork mentors are so good at it and I can learn a lot

form them.

Further, I am looking forward to work on the project