This week is the final countdown for our summer interns in India: two MBAs, Federico and Jeremy, and a Product Designer, Joe. Though they've only been with d.light for a few short months, when I look back and think about what they have actually accomplished, I am blown away. They have built ridiculously complex financial models, helped us hire an outstanding team, spent days discovering what is most meaningful to our customers in Indian villages, led design trainings, designed new lights, devised marketing, sales, and inventory strategies, ridden thousands of kilometers over bumpy roads, had their astrological charts read, gotten sick, visited the beach, hiked in the Himalayas, learned some crucial Hindi, figured out how to survive when their apartment had no power for a week, helped us fund-raise and manage investors, and co-created and co-nurtured our growing global d.light culture.

 
But even that laundry list doesn't begin to define the impact that they have had on d.light as an enterprise. Each intern shouldered real responsibility, took hold of projects in an incredibly ambigious and challenging context, and ran with them. They have helped shape the culture of our growing team, and despite some difficult times, right now our team vibe is incredible -- positive, high energy, and determined. Jeremy, Fede and Joe have each been a big part of that.

 
I should also point out that none of the interns had been to India before arriving in June. We have a truly multinational company, and the interns' presence gave our team as a whole many opportunities (some sought after and some unintentional!) to explore and understand our diverse perspectives and cultures. Sometimes being a foreigner makes me feel like I represent a whole category of people (all Americans, for instance).  But d.light can't afford to take time being polite or pretending that everyone is the same -- we have to work collabratively and we have to get there fast...and this summer we learned how. Now our team is actually functioning like the eclectic group of multi-ethnic inviduals that it is - Indians, Chinese, Americans, Turks, Dutch, Mexicans, Singaporeans, etc.

 
Looking ahead, I am constantly wondering how to effectively scale up as a multinational company.  Its a pressing issue -- and given our size and given our values as a social enterprise, we don't have the money that large corporations can throw at this issue (offsite bonding experiences, internal exchanges to maintain corporate culture across different offices, allowances to send ex-pats back to their home countries to visit friends and families, etc.).  However, the past few months have shown that with the right people, the really hard stuff of working together daily across cultures is possible when you're aligned around an important mission. Go Interns! Thank you.