Internship Spotlight: Anthony Asiegbunam ’27, Cummins

Internship company name and location: Cummins Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Hometown: Port Harcourt, Nigeria
Pronouns: he/him/his
The SOM classes you’re using on the job: The Executive, Operations Engine
Go-to work lunch: A pasta dish I meal-prepped the weekend before or a hot sandwich from Subito
After-work routine: Gym, then a social event in Mass Ave with friends, or catching up on my favorite podcasts and shows
Favorite thing about internship city: I got access to the electric bikes around the city, which absolutely made my summer! I loved cycling downtown, particularly along the canal and through Mass Ave, grabbing food or getting drawn into live music along the way.

This summer, I worked as a corporate strategy intern at the manufacturing company Cummins in Indianapolis. My main project focused on a growth strategy for the company’s North America off-highway aftermarket division—the parts-and-service business supporting engines used in construction, agriculture, marine, and industrial equipment. I spent the first part of the summer understanding the business environment, identifying growth opportunities, and interviewing stakeholders who interact with our customers day-to-day. In the latter half of the summer, I developed recommendations across sales coverage, parts availability, and the customer ordering experience. I worked with senior leaders across the off-highway and aftermarket businesses to align on an implementation plan.

Before business school, I’d worked in strategy roles in education and social enterprise, and I knew I wanted to test my skills in a new industry. I came into SOM planning to explore strategy more broadly. I first learned about Cummins from a few second-years I met in SOM’s General Management Club. I applied through CMS in late November, went through two rounds of case and behavioral interviews, and received an offer in the first week of March. The extent of my exposure to the energy and industrial world before this was chiefly from listening in on my dad’s conversations growing up—he was a petrochemical engineer—but I felt very positive about the people I’d be working with and excited about the chance to learn a new industry. And that instinct turned out to be right!

One of my biggest takeaways from this summer was that a significant part of strategy is stakeholder alignment. My project involved data from different systems, teams with different perspectives on the problem, and stakeholders who cared deeply about how the proposed recommendations would affect their part of the business. I used toolkits honed in a range of core classes at different stages of the project; the two classes I drew from most significantly were Operations Engine and The Executive. Operations Engine gave me the vocabulary and frameworks to think rigorously about supply chain and fulfillment issues that were central to the project, and lessons from The Executive helped me navigate stakeholder dynamics among senior leaders with competing priorities.

I especially appreciated I got to be a part of in Indy. I connected with Wale Williams ’20 before the internship began and got to meet up with him a few times over the summer. He’d done the same Cummins internship himself, and he was instrumental in helping me get my footing both at the firm and in Indy. He helped me connect with senior business leaders and introduced me to other Africans at Cummins, who became some of the people I spent the most time with outside of work. The potlucks, weekend outings, and impromptu plans after work made a new city feel familiar surprisingly quickly. I also found a great community among the other MBA interns. I made a lot of great memories outside the office—and gained so much more appreciation for Caitlin Clark!

More than anything, this internship gave me a better understanding of what strategy looks like inside a large Fortune 500 organization. I leave with a much clearer sense of why I enjoy this process of breaking down complex problems and iterating on the best ways to solve them. I’m looking forward to bringing that perspective back to SOM for my second year and carrying it with me into whatever comes next.