Arpit Mehta from Xavier Labour Relations Institute, Delhi-NCR is one of India's Most Promising Incoming MBA Students 2022!
The following is Arpit's set of responses to a questionnaire floated amongst incoming MBA graduates to determine the top 50 Most Promising Incoming MBA students of 2022. Amongst the massive number of entries and responses being evaluated, Arpit's story and profile stood out. Here's the story in his words.
My name is Arpit Mehta and I come from Chennai. I have completed my graduation in B.Com in 2021. I have 11 months of work-experience at 2 diverse organisations. I come from a Gujarati family associated with business for the last 2 generations. To give a description when most of my friends would be discussing about the latest music launch, I would be taking insights on the valuation metrics of the latest IPO in town with my father, a stockbroker. I am someone who is a trained guitarist, a numismatic and a sports enthusiast with Cristiano Ronaldo being my inspiration.
Tell us more about your extracurricular achievements
Sports -
Played State Level : I have represented my school in 5+ State Level Table Tennis Tournaments and have reached the Semi-Finals stage.
Positions of Responsibility : At XLRI (PGDM - BM) I have been selected as the Junior FINAX Member (Finance Committee at XLRI - 3 out of 120 selected)At DG Vaishnav College, Chennai (UG - B.Com) - 1)
Entrepreneurship Development Cell Member Garnered highest ever footfall of 18,000+ at Vaishnav Bazaar, an event to promote entrepreneurship
Raised INR 10,00,000+ and increased sponsorships by 125%. Provided guidance to 200 stalls, 90% profitable
Coordinated 12 events over 3 days as a part of VFest, the annual fest of DG attended by 1000+ students
2) Class Representative Responsible for co-ordination between students and faculties
Undertook entire Academic related responsibilityAt Chinmaya Vidyalaya (School) : 1)
Student Council, CVTSecured a footfall of 500+ over 2 days consisting of 10+ events at Chinamyam, the cultural fest of CVT
Garnered footfalls of 2500+ at Geeta Mahotsav, an exhibition of 18 Chapters of Bhagwad Geeta2) Vice President, Karuna ClubLed 120+ students in an anti-addiction awareness rally.
1/160 elected as the Vice President of Karuna Club
3) Editor, Interact Club, CVT1/12 selected out of 120; Spearheaded the team in designing and executing campaigns and newsletters
Managed end to end execution of annual school magazine.
Published 2000+ copies of The HorizonLaunched FAN-TAG-TIC, an asset tracking mechanism which improved logistic efficiency by 100%Led Annadhan Project to provide 500kg rice to people in need4) Class Prefect National Level Competition in Undergrad
National Level Semi-Finalist in Eureka Espirit, a B-Plan Competition conducted by Christ University
Tell us about a time when you messed up, and what you learnt from the experience?
Once during my UG, we were given a group assignment for which we had worked very hard on. The submission deadline was 12PM, but I misunderstood it to be 12AM and hence our group missed the deadline and for which we were all penalized with a grade drop. Though my group members were quick to free me from the guilt, this was a big mistake on my part and this experience made me become more alert, active and careful in the future. Fortunately, there has not been any other mishaps after this.
Tell us something about yourself that others may be surprised to know about you.
I am someone who is not a big fan of technology improvements and would rather prefer to go back to the period where things were a bit more simpler and life was more interwoven with people. This would be surprising because I am always up to dated with the latest technology and most of my friends and family members would take my guidance before purchasing a new smartphone or a laptop.
What have been your two biggest successes in life? What did you learn from them?
I cherish every success (however small it may be) and try to learn and better myself after every failure. The two biggest success of my life would be:Success 1:In 2016, I had been diagnosed with a spinal cord injury as a result of which I had to undergo a major surgery. This put me out of classes with the board examinations right in the vicinity. Despite being advised complete bed rest by doctors and my teachers, I decided to give it my best shot regardless of the results. I managed to complete over 75% of the syllabus within a month and to everyones surprise, scored a CGPA of 9.8. This incident completely changed my determination levels and taught me the importance of perseverance and emotional support. Success 2:I have been part of various social initiatives through a community service group. The leadership and routine affairs are assigned to members on a rotational basis. During my time as in-charge, the vision was to collect and distribute old clothes in reusable condition to underprivileged people affected due to the pandemic. This was a very big project and the time in hand for executing was less than a week. We planned the execution in a manner through which we took adequate care of all social distancing and sanitization norms, while leveraging on digital communication and optimizing logistics and costs to make it an impactful exercise. I also delegated activities to the group based on each members comfort zone and time availability while also ensuring that there were no bottlenecks in the entire execution. Needless to say, with the constant support of my fellow participants, the activity was a success. This experience made me understand the importance of planning, time management and effective leadership.
Professionally, what is your ideal image of yourself five years from now? Where do you see yourself?
My longer-term goals are to explore areas within the field of corporate finance and work toward deciding what area of specialization I want to take. While Id love to make inroads in one specific field of finance, I do know that the first step is to build a solid foundation and strengthen the basics.My ambition is to secure a position at a company where I can grow and improve myself both personally and professionally. I enjoy challenges and look forward to opportunities where I will be able to assume more responsibilities. Right now, Im also focusing on improving my communication skills which would go a long way to smoothen the path to where I would like to be. Ultimately, Id like to move into management with a focus on strategy and development and work my way into a long-term position where I can build a solid career. I would feel blessed if someday, I am able to become a mentor for others like me within this field.
What is the one skill or characteristic you possess that you are most proud of, and why?
The one skill that I am most proud of is my positive mindset. I am not afraid of facing failures and no matter what the circumstance is I always try to stay positive. Most of it is also related to the fact the my role model and inspiration is Cristiano Ronaldo, who I would say is the epitome of having a positive mindset. No matter how adverse the situation is he never gives up. I try to imbibe the same values in me as well because I believe that by staying positive and confident we open up a few doors which would have been earlier closed to succeed and overcome the particular situation.
In your opinion, what skills or qualities does a successful manager possess?
As per my belief the three most important thing that differentiates successful managers and other managers is the Networking Skills, Communication Skills and Transparency. A successful managers needs to be able to network well, mingle professionally with his/her coworkers and clients. He/she needs to have good communication skills through which he/she can demonstrate their points effectively and finally there needs to complete transparency on what goes around in the organization ( apart from matters of utmost confidentiality).
Tell us about an ethical dilemma that you may have faced, and how you resolved it.
An evening, when I was returning from college on my bike, an old man approached me and politely asked me if I could drop him at a distance on the road. Instantaneously, I blurted that it wouldnt be possible even though I was travelling in the same direction. I immediately felt guilty as the person moved on dejectedly. This incident had a deep impact in my life regarding my choices and since then I have made it a habit that I would do whatever that was in my capacity to help people.
If you were the CEO of any company of your choosing, which company would you choose and what would your first action be as CEO?
I would choose to be the CEO of Apple and my first action would be to focus on capital allocation. Apple has huge cash reserves and it could go on a huge acquisition spree similar to google and become market dominant leader in other spaces as well, like for example the AI & AR space as well besides it's hardware dominance.
Any Other Comments Or Factors You Would Like To Highlight About Yourself?
Just before I began my UG, I along with 12 other people started a community service group wherein our aim was to give back to the society and do whatever was in our capacity to help people. Some of the initiatives which we took were:Directed and executed a project to provide necessities to 1000+ orphans and 500+ old age peopleExecuted Campaign - Clothing/Toys to 800+ individuals Distributed refreshments every weekend to 200+ people during summers I am also a Numismatic since I was 9 years old and have a collection of 500+ unique coins across different timelines and geographies.