My Internship in Shanghai - Sherpa's

When people ask me what I want to do for my career in the future, I have trouble defining exactly what type of “work” I would do. I skate around the issue by saying things like, “I really like people” or “I can see myself in marketing because I have creative thoughts.” But in reality there is always one thing on my mind – starting a business. I think it’s the adventurous part of me that just revels in the idea of being an entrepreneur. Or maybe it’s the artistic side of me that just wants to create something. Or perhaps it is the logical side of me, after all most of the richest people in the world are business owners. Most likely, I think it’s the freedom that lures me to being an entrepreneur. There are no boundaries, and perhaps that’s what scares most people away.

In Shanghai this semester, I have been working directly with an American entrepreneur, Mark, who founded a company called Sherpa’s. Mark is a super down-to-earth chill boss. He moved to Shanghai about 10 years ago because the girl he loved got moved there for work. After working a few different jobs, including teaching English, Mark went to business school at one of the only English MBA programs in China. His MBA project was to write up a full business plan start to finish. Sherpa’s was his business plan. Basically, Mark saw that there are a lot of food delivery options in Shanghai, but very few for good Western food restaurants. As a busy foreigner, he and his wife were never in the mood for cooking and delivery options were limited to cheap Chinese food. That’s were Sherpa’s comes in. Sherpa’s filled this void by providing a bilingual call center service, a collection of Western restaurants and a team of couriers with scooters. Now Sherpa’s a multimillion dollar business and has expanded successful to Suzhou, Hangzhou, and working on Beijing.

This semester, I have gotten to ask questions about running a business in China and really pick his brain on various topics. For example, I asked Mark if he had to work with the government at all to make his business run smoothly. His answer? Nah. It’s more of a threat than anything else. There are so many rules in China that you literally cannot run a business without the breaking the law. The government has this established on purpose. They aren’t going to crack down on Mark’s business unless he gives them reason to. But if the government ever need dirt on him, it’s always there. This is a normal business practice. I've heard the Chinese government described as a sleeping anaconda in a chandelier. It’s obviously there, it’s obviously dangerous, and it is obviously doing a bad job of making people think it’s blending with the backdrop. However, it’s sleeping nonetheless and does not plan to attack unless it need be. (My program director has said that the Chinese government is a very old, lazy sleeping anaconda. lol)

Overall, my internship at Sherpa's is complete. I learned a great deal from my mentor and had a great time working in a few different roles. My CSR (Customer Service Representative) project was the largest of all my projects. It consisted of listening to CSR complaint calls to find where standards were not being met or where changes should be made. I had a lot of freedom with the project but was also told who else to bounce ideas off of ( CSR managers Aki and Cecily). I liked having sequential steps that included: 1) Getting familiar with CSR calls. 2) Identifying problems. 3) Brainstorming solutions and changes. 4) Implementing suggestions and 5) Testing the changes. The work could get very monotonous just listening to CSR calls but it had to be that way to understand the process completely. I had trouble finding the recorded calls in HelpClient that corresponded with the actual complaint in the DMS. So that was just added time but really not a barrier. It was a great experience to have and I will remember my time working in Shanghai forever.