Jonathan Osika

As we get closer and closer to the end of our stay here in Milan, I am reminded of the many great memories I’ve formed here through travel. This week we had our final weekend trip of the term in Florence. 22 of our group of 25 spent the weekend in a villa just outside of Florence as our last hurrah before heading home. Being in the remote hills of Tuscany together had both relaxing and exhilarating moments. I was happy to cook a few meals for the group which was a good way to feel productive in the midst of such a relaxing weekend. My favorite component was surely the fact that we everyone was so clearly having a great time. A lot of planning and collaboration went into our travel so ending it with a bang felt very fitting.

 

During our classes this week, we were given lots of work to be done outside of class with less in-person classes. On Monday, we were tasked with watching the movie “Erin Brockovich” followed by a sheet of questions about the movie. I found the movie very interesting and especially captivating since it was based on a true story. Movies like that make you wonder how accurate the Hollywood version is to the real events. Wednesday’s class time was meant to be spent working on our final papers. Sam Rosen, Neave Murray, and I have been working on a research paper regarding big pharma price gouging for life saving drugs. In just a few days we will be presenting on our topic to the rest of class, so the three of us will be preparing diligently.

 

At work this week Dane and I continued our work on our new project, reviewing customer comments for Tempocasa as well as their closest competitors in Italy. From what we can tell, customers appear to love Tempocasa much more than their alternatives! Not only does Tempocasa have more reviews than their competitors, they have staggeringly higher rankings. Dane and I will be concisely compiling this information for our bosses for next week. In other news at work, one of our coworkers, Jessica, decided to resign last week. After speaking with her and the rest of the office about it, it appears to be better for everyone and Jessica is very excited to move on. I hadn’t talked with her much during the time she was there, but she was always very nice and Dane and I wished her all the best!

 

This week in the office, Dane and I wrapped up our project on workflow analysis for Tempocasa and geared up for our presentation. After running through it a few times, we went into Wednesday’s meeting confidently. After presenting our work to Silvia, she seemed very impressed and even jokingly commented “You boys should work for us!” after we made a suggestion for their operations. Hearing such positive feedback made us both very satisfied with the work we’ve done and excited to move onto the next, and final, project: competitor analysis using customer reviews on Trustpilot. Trustpilot is the platform that many Italian companies use for customer feedback and Silvia would like us to compare the positive and negative reviews for Tempocasa with that of their competitors here in Italy.

 

In class this week, we had a few very thought-provoking conversations that have stuck with me. One of which was on a case study for Apple regarding the working conditions of their overseas manufacturers. We had a very insightful debate on whether or not Apple is responsible for the conditions of the workers in the companies they contract with. I honestly don’t have a fully formed opinion on the matter. When you consider the fact that Apple could chew into their profits a tiny bit to create better conditions for their employees, it feels very greedy of them to still work with companies paying pennies on the dollar. Although, in many cases the pennies on the dollar these workers are paid are actually decently fair wages for that country and the work they are doing rivals much more difficult and demeaning work alternatives.

 

Travel this week was incredibly fun! First, I spent the weekend in Florence and La Spezia. Friday and Saturday in Florence was an experience I will never forget! The city has incredible architecture and great night life that I will never forget. Following that was a night in La Spezia, a harbor town just south of Cinque Terre. Saturday was spent in Vernazza, a great town with rocky beaches and a nice cliff jumping spot. Sunday was spent visiting Riomaggiore, Manarola, and Corniglia (my favorite) with a slew of cliff jumping spots, caves, and beautiful beaches. During the week I wasn’t able to travel anywhere but I found myself in Lake Como yesterday once again with a few of my friends from home! We spent the day in Lecco, a small beach town in the southeastern branch of the lake and had a blast!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At Tempocasa this week, Dane and I finished up our work on the existing workflows of the Customer Care division. We developed a powerpoint presentation detailing what we like about the current workflows of the company, what we think should be improved, and how those improvements influence the Net Promoter Score of Tempocasa. It dawned on Dane and I this week how much trust is being displayed in us at the offices. We have received very open-ended instructions for each project and have had very little interruption while working. This has given us lots of autonomy in completing our tasks for our supervisor, Silvia. I think Dane and I agree that this freedom we’ve been granted with has directly benefited our work for Silvia and Tempocasa as a whole.

 

Class this week has been very interesting! Monday we started with a conversation on loan forgiveness programs and the upcoming presidential candidates. This was followed by a debate on whether or not businesses often release PR statements with an empty rhetoric to appear more virtuous. For about a half an hour we were wrapped up in discussion about a Business Roundtable press release from the 90’s and its counterpart released in 2019. The two reports contradicted the views of the Business Roundtable and laid the groundwork for our debate. Wednesday’s class was spent watching the movie “A Civil Action” followed by some discussion. I’ve really enjoyed both of the days we’ve spent in class just watching a film. I find that I absorb the information much more effectively than just by reading about a topic.

 

Over the weekend I visited my good friend Uros in his village in Serbia! I have never been to Serbia and quite honestly, would never have visited if Uros didn’t live there. In American pop-culture, the Slavic countries are depicted as very industrialized, brutalist, and rundown. Before I even landed in Belgrade I knew that these preconceptions were completely unfounded. The area around Belgrade fits the stereotype a bit, but the moment you get out of the city limits, you are surrounded by rolling hills, farms, and land still untouched by man. I got to visit the village he grew up in and see his childhood home. His home and farmland has been in his family for almost 100 years so being able to share his culture and history was an incredible experience. We hiked a mountain in the Stolovi region and were greeted by wild horses and dogs at the top. After our strenuous yet peaceful hike, we went back to his home where his family made us dinner using the ingredients found on the farm. I seriously felt like I was in another time period and it was like nothing I’ve ever experienced before.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In class this week we first watched a documentary on Corporations and the idea of treating them as a person rather than an entity. The documentary followed many real life examples of actions taken by corporations that could constitute as almost psychopathic behavior when applied to a real person. While the documentary was certainly eye-opening, I couldn’t help but feel a bit sick to my stomach after hearing about the manipulation and fraud detailed in the documentary. On Wednesday, we began class with a very interesting discussion about corporate opinions. I have typically been of the mindset that corporations don’t have any obligation to making statements on social issues that aren’t pertinent to their business. After our discussion in class I was introduced to the idea that corporations are typically the ones lobbying for big decisions in congress, so the opinions they hold will have some merit and should be considered.

This week at Gruppo Tempocasa, Dane and I presented our findings on our comparison of Italian vs. American real estate brokerages. The feedback we got was overwhelmingly positive and our bosses and coworkers found it constructive. We’ve since moved into our next project which is an analysis of the workflows of the customer care department at Tempocasa. We’ve been studying the ways in which the customer care employees collect feedback from customers at each step or the selling process. Dane and I will be finding sources of improvement, whether that is adding or removing a touch point or tweaking the method in which information is collected, Tempocasa wants a fresh eye to look over their procedures.

This week in travel included a trip to Lake Como on Sunday and a trip to Genova on Friday. Lake Como started off a bit rainy in the morning but became more and more beautiful as the day went by. We grabbed a great lunch at a hole in the wall osteria then laid in the park by the water. After it had warmed up a bit, Sachi, Neave, Lili and I rented a little boat and got on the water. Genova followed a night of very little sleep so once we had arrived, we all took a long nap on the beach. Once our appetites had warmed up, we had a feast at another hole in the wall deli in downtown Genova. I spoke with the owner, a very nice woman originally from Milan, and was able to practice a bit of my Italian. Another great week!—

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

During our internship this week, Dane and I took a deeper dive into the real estate customer care procedures in preparation for our presentation on Tuesday next week. For someone like Dane, I think he is really getting a lot out of the internship since he plans on going into a real estate background. What is really interesting to me is how similar much of the process for brokerages has become over time. I’m confident that the idea of global business assimilation will be something I take with me into my career, no matter the field. On Wednesday, Dane and I were invited by Silvia to have lunch at the bar below the office. We talked about music a lot and had a great time!

 

Tuesday in class was spent in a mock debate on mortgage interest rates, fraud protections, and the ethical implications placed on banks for those scenarios. Sam, Neave, and I were forced to take the opposing viewpoint of what the three of us had sided with. I remember my dad always telling me this was a common practice in college courses he took but this was the first time I did anything like it. It was very interesting to see how someone who has lots of experience debating can make an objectively lacking argument seem rational. On Wednesday it was more of a lecture style after we had a great discussion about our blog posts.

 

The highlights of this week’s travels were surely Verona and Lugano! On Friday, we took a full class trip to visit the Arena and a general tour around the city with a lovely tour guide. I was really interested in the tour guide and how she had such a wholesome life. She grew up in Verona and lived her whole life there, and now she spends her time as a tour guide sharing her beautiful city with the world. I also bought some authentic truffles in Verona to take back to my mom. Today was spent in Lugano, Switzerland where we rented a boat and enjoyed the sun on the water. Can’t wait for Lake Como tomorrow!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Immediately after arriving in the Milan Malpensa airport I felt surrounded by a culture unlike that of America. It’s not very often I find myself in another country and when I do, they rarely speak a language other than English. Our first few nights have been spent eating, drinking, and above all else, walking to burn off the five meals we’ve eaten. With a trip to Lake Maggiore yesterday, I got to see the natural beauty Italy has to offer in contrast to the urban space we’re housed at. The lakes around my home in upstate New York are something I’ve appreciated my whole life, so seeing a Maggiore top them all was really special. Seeing Italy’s diverse mix of landscapes solidified the idea in my mind that I could live here for a significant portion of my life!

The introduction class to our CSB course set a strong precedent for the remainder of the term. In the first class alone, I began questioning some of my own core values after some discussion with my classmates. Considering it only took one class to put me deep into this state of reevaluation, I’m confident by the end of the term I will have reformed my views on business ethics. After doing the first Wall Street Journal entry assignment, I learned quite a bit about the concept of greenwashing and the reduced liability faced by sustainable tech investors during today’s ESG boost. I’m very excited to continue discussions with my classmates about the relevant topics we find ourselves interested in.

Dane Ishibashi and I have been tasked to work with Gruppo Tempocasa, a real estate holding company, in their customer care department. Our core objectives are to: provide a comparison between Italian and American real estate, analysis of current workflows, and a benchmark comparison of Italian competitors. Dane and I met the staff on Thursday of this past week and were greeted with smiles and some well-intentioned broken English. Thankfully, there are about four employees with substantial English knowledge that Dane and I can communicate through. It was very interesting to speak with the employees about some of the cultural differences we have between our countries. Dane and I are both very excited to both build relationships with the other employees and provide valuable information to the corporation.