Sumisho Hands-on Internship Behind the Scenes: Experiencing "Real Work" Through Retail Data Marketing in the Field

Out of the internship's eight days, interns spend Days 2 through 6 working inside their assigned teams. (Day 1 focused on guidance – learning about Sumitomo Corporation Group's Corporate Mission Statement and corporate values. Days 7 and 8 brought all interns together for final presentations.)

Below is the full five-day schedule for the Retail Data Science team. The program covered a wide range of experiences, from a Hands-on Data Science Exercise and meetings to store visits and conversations with employees. In the sections that follow, we present the highlights in digest form. (Not necessarily in chronological order.)

The core of this internship, the Hands-on Data Science Exercise, centered around two tasks.
Task 1: Interns work to predict daily category-level sales at the prepared foods section of the Summit Store Kanda Square. Using a programming model developed by employees, they selected variables likely to influence sales, such as historical purchase data and weather, and trained the model, checking performance against sales data and refining their approach.
Task 2: Building on what they learned in Task 1 and during store visits, interns conducted their own additional analysis and developed recommendations to improve store sales.

On the first day of the exercises, employees encouraged the interns: "We want you to experience firsthand how your hypotheses affect results by running real programs. Through store visits and conversations with employees, we hope you'll learn to blend field insight with data analysis." The three interns discussed their objectives – Who is this prediction for? What decisions will it support? – and divided roles as they moved forward with their work.

Refining Proposals Through Fieldwork and Feedback

To sharpen their hypotheses and recommendations, interns visited Summit Store Kanda Square and competitor supermarkets, observing product displays, time-of-day variations and differences across stores while asking employees questions.

The team also received advice from Akito Mori, the CINO (Chief Innovation Officer) of Insight Edge – the company that specializes in DX technologies and engineering in the Sumitomo Corporation Group – and other members outside the team. "Data looks different depending on your vantage point. As Sumitomo Corporation employees, always think about how analysis relates to real impact on business," stated Mori.

Turning Five Days of Learning Into Final Proposals

Interns also sat in on a number of actual meetings, both internal and external, getting a feel for the negotiations and coordination that drives business forward, though some nervousness was visible on their faces. They participated in the AI x Business Design Capability training session, open to the entire Lifestyle Business Group, joining more than 100 participants online and in person in lively discussion and workshops, with the interns listening intently throughout.

Throughout the internship, interns interacted with a wide range of employees, through business briefings from each unit, lunchtime discussions and informal conversations. As their understanding of Sumitomo Corporation's business grew, their questions became more wide-ranging, prompting deeper discussions from employees. This close, approachable atmosphere is unique to a hands-on, work-immersive internship. At the young employee roundtable, topics ranged from overseas assignments and English skills to everyday work style, sparking lively conversation.