Public park “Hofgarten” with the University of Bonn in the background.
(by Benjamin)
Starting my Blind Applying internship at the Deutsche Telekom headquarters in Bonn was quite overwhelming: The offices of Europe’s largest telecommunication operator are spread all over the city and it is shockingly easy to get lost in each of them. It is no wonder that Deutsche Telekom is omnipresent in the former German capital. The company has over 220.000 employees world-wide, with 110.000 employees in Germany, and 11.000 based in Bonn alone.
The team I am supporting is called Group Business Development & Partnering. I will support it in Bonn from July until September, and in San Francisco from October until December. The team is based at one of the largest Telekom offices in Bonn located at Landgrabenweg.
Some of the many courtyards at Landgrabenweg.
The team Group Business Development & Partnering works on scouting and establishing partnerships with innovative companies all over the world. Their scouting offices in San Francisco (USA) and Tel-Aviv (Israel) continuously screen these important innovation hotspots and evaluate potential partner firms and their products. Thereby, they aim at systematically introducing disruptive innovation into Telekom’s product portfolio for Germany and all other national subsidiaries. The first projects in which I have participated are in the areas of cyber-security for both private and corporate customers, and also entertainment services.
“It is exciting to be part of influential projects in an international setting.”
One of the challenges was to get an overview of all company-internal stakeholders involved in a product launch process. Telekom has an immense organizational structure with many predefined processes and wide-spread responsibilities, which is not simple to grasp at the beginning.
However, it is very exciting to be part of these influential projects in a highly international setting and I am looking forward to the remaining four months and the new tasks lying ahead.