After wowing the judges at the KBS-ITL Business Challenge in April, MSc Finance and Management student Mia Huang was offered the opportunity to complete a one-month Marketing internship with medical device designer and manufacturer Integrated Technologies Limited (ITL).
Mia’s Experience
First of all, I would like to thank ITL for offering me this valuable experience. I now have a better understanding of ITL’s departments such as Marketing and Sales, Research and Development, Production, Accounts and Quality Assurance.
ITL is like a big family and I received a very warm and friendly welcome from everyone on my first day. I mostly worked with Carl Lincoln, whom I truly thank for guiding me through my internship, he explained everything in detail to me and gave me comprehensive insights about what to take into account as a marketing person in the company.
During these four weeks, I was invited to several marketing, branding, and business meetings and as a result I got to know more about the internal and external environment of ITL. It was amazing to participate in marketing meetings as I saw how ITL involves staff in helping to brainstorm how to make ITL better than before and it is fascinating to see experienced people in different positions look at things from different professional perspectives.
I completed several market research projects for ITL which helped me understand more about the global medical device market and to get to know the unique advantages of ITL in this competitive industry. Joining business phone calls was another interesting activity for me since I experienced the British business culture and got to know how people negotiate with each other in this specific industry.
In my first week, I had the chance to see how ITL markets itself through different approaches in order to enhance its presence and promote the services it provides. Also, I was able to talk to colleagues about their jobs and learn about each department. This included engineering and production, not just marketing, and I learned about things like writing manufacturing work instructions, producing and testing PCBs, purchasing from suppliers, quality assurance, and shipping products.
During my day at the R&D department, I had a lesson on the product development life cycle which took my knowledge from an academic to a practical level. I realise now that creating a product is never that easy. ITL starts from an idea in the Research & Development department and it then needs to go through hardware and software design, verification and validation before they are able to produce large quantities.
As ITL is primarily designing and manufacturing medical devices, all of the products need approval from regulators so that quality and patient safety are guaranteed. This is why the Quality Assurance department has to be responsible and strict with the final checking process before delivery and make sure all the components are trackable in order to find problems quickly and be more efficient. I am grateful to have had this opportunity to understand the detail of product development as it showed me how complex a business is in the real world compared to academic theory which is sometimes simplified.
Ultimately what truly impressed me at ITL was not only the passion, responsibility and dedication in all departments but also how they support, help solve problems and collaborate with each other harmoniously. ITL manages a very good communication relationship between its subsidiaries in the US and China to keep everyone updated with the latest information and to solve problems for customers across continents.
Although four weeks has passed so fast, I learned new things every day, thus, I really appreciate all of the priceless experiences offered by ITL that just cannot be learned from text books. Last but not least, I will definitely miss the people I have met at ITL that taught and guided me with their expertise and passion throughout this month!
A Word from the Employer
Mia’s mentor ITL Marketing and Business Development Manager Carl Lincoln was very pleased with Mia and her contribution:
“What a valuable contribution Mia made during her time with us. I set her a number of in-depth market research projects and she delivered on all of them, usually much faster than expected….When I say that what she has done is valuable I really mean it, our sales teams are currently working through some lists of potential customers that she made and we are building an entire marketing campaign around a research piece she did on the use of Wearable Technology in MedTech.”
KBS are very proud of Mia’s achievements and are delighted to hear that her contribution at ITL was of such positive nature.
If you are looking for work experience or a longer-term placement, head over to the ITL careers page to see what is available.