In our list of India's Best 50 - the 50 Most Employable Students from the Class of 2020-22, we feature MBA students who have walked that extra mile and done that little more to stand out. One of those featured in today's story, Devyani Bhardwaj, has shown an incredible amount of passion to achieve her true potential. Read on and find out her story!
The following are Devyani Bhardwaj’s set of responses to a questionnaire floated amongst MBA graduates to determine the top-50 Most Employable MBA Graduates of the Class of 2022. Amongst the massive number of entries and responses being evaluated, Devyani's story and profile stood out. Here's her story in her own words.
Name an instance where you wanted something and went out of your comfort zone to achieve it OR Tell us the biggest risk you have taken so far in your life.
As the chairperson of a national level business and economics fest, one does face a lot of challenges and hindrances to achieve set objectives. One may end up changing them as well, but there are certain places where one just can't compromise. As the newly elected chairperson, my aim was to push the envelope and step it up both qualitatively and quantitatively. For the same, I had put up a target to get double the sponsorship so as to ensure there are no loose ends. With the sponsorship working towards the goal, I started looking after the administrative objectives. But almost 2 months prior to the event the team comes in with bad news saying that we haven't even reached 25% of the target set. With the event this close and a lot of things in the pipeline I didn't have the mindset to compromise on the ideas generated. To meet the vision, I started looking at alternatives to finally find a solution. I finally leveraged the alumni community of our college, I reached out to them over calls, visited their office personally and made sure we got the sponsorship in. I even reached out to my alum's secondary contacts to ensure that we have the money in the bag. Sponsorship was not much of my forte, I had done it in the past through cold-calls and walk-ins, but having the confidence and willingness to reach out to our alums in a college which didn't have a maintained strong circle, was a task in itself. This did not only help the team surpass its own set goal of doubling the sponsorship, but it also led to a new beginning for the alumni cell.
When was the last time someone relied on you? OR What did you do which was purely for someone else - a truly selfless act.
I am part of a course called Post Graduate Program in Liberal Studies and Management at IIM Kozhikode which has students from diverse backgrounds and with the gravity of work experience. Being a fresher and thus, one of the youngest in the class, it was honestly a surprise to be elected as the Class representative. Being the pandemic batch, we all were caught up in online classes and exams which had its own issues. I as the CR made sure that this novel pedagogy is easiest for both students and professors, by bridging the communication gap between the two. I continued with the roles of CR for a year after which I stepped down to make way for another person. It was a huge responsibility as I was dealing with a set of people coming from backgrounds ranging from culinary to engineering. Balancing the class request and the issues being faced by them (especially covid related) with the esteem and respect towards professor and course was a challenge, but seeing people with much more experience coming to me for help, advice and counselling made me believe in myself and acted as a mark of reliance from other people's end and kept me going everyday.
Tell us about a time when you disagreed with an opinion/idea/decision. What did you do about it?
During my internship at the Coca-Cola Company, I had to hire a vendor to design a platform. The company seniors were impressed by a vendor with high prices and packed features. There were multiple teams which were working towards this platform and hence there were simultaneous pitch meets happening across leading to various opinions coming out of the discussion. With multiple suggestions coming from leaders on the board it was a little intimidating to even suggest something else, especially when I was backing a new company which was made of developers, was offering its services at a cheaper rate and wasn't into fancy pitch ppts. To give credibility to my suggestion I drew upon a comparison chart where I measured different vendors and their offerings, aligned the same to the objectives set by the project and further detailed out the analysis by incorporating small but impactful brackets from a usability point of view. I presented my findings internally thus influencing all the teams to choose the vendor suggested by me and make this a company-wide decision.
What is the one thing you can claim to have some level of expertise or depth of knowledge in - it could be anything - a subject, a sport, a hobby, a venture, an initiative which has led you to do deep work in that field?
I would like to highlight two things, one is from the area of academics and that is strategy as a subject. The other thing which is a bit more personal to me is photography. Now strategy has been one of my favourite subjects as the complexity of cases and the dynamism required to think critically have always left me excited and asking for more. I have secured the top grade in the subject and I wish to apply the learnings of the subject in whatever I pursue. Photography is something that is very close to my heart. From the small digital cameras, to DSLRs, to the very handy phone cameras, I have explored this interest through all its tools. I have pursued it more as a hobby and you can see my gallery filled with beautiful sunrises and sunsets, beaches, hills, aesthetic elements and people. I have never followed it professionally but often my pictures have been re-shared and tagged on various photography pages on Instagram. I am always going to pursue it as it offers me a break from the chaos and a different sense of peace and calmness.
If 10 Million Dollars (approximately INR 75 Crores) is given to you to use it any way you deem fit what would you do with this corpus?
Honestly speaking, I don't like to count my chickens before they have hatched, yet, I would like to give a logical answer to this imaginative question. As this money corpus is huge, I would firstly take the time off to calm myself and then only make sensible decisions on how to use the money. First of all, I would like to use a certain amount of money (approximately 9-12 crores) to scale up my mother's hospital and turn it into a one-stop for everything from obstetrics and gynaecology ranging from basic ultrasound to infertility. This investment will be broken down in equipment, real estate, staffing, licensing/franchising rights, safety, administration and facilities. It will also be aimed at taking up philanthropic work so as to support female general healthcare in the nearby rural areas and will harbour a dedicated percentage of beds for people below the poverty line. ( an extra fund of 1-2 crores will be set aside, based on requirement). This setup will be aimed to provide an easy lifestyle for my parents and a consistent source of income from an area in which my mother has expertise in. Secondly, I will be looking at investment for personal growth. Based on the stage of my life and the kind of career setup I am in, I will try to bolster up my weaknesses and make investments in the right direction. Assuming I am in an entrepreneurial business, I will try to grow my own setup by making the right investment within my company and by further mixing it up with options (risky options 60%, safe option 40%). The total amount to be spent here will be between 50 crores. I will keep 5 crores to dedicate a school for skill development especially in the field of IT and analytics for the people with lower means based on merit exams. This investment will be done in a way that the set corpus grows perpetually and the organisation is able to survive with just a little donation from my end and from other donors. I will keep 2-5 crores to spend on a few short term things like trips, car, a small house for myself or just a good camera.
Read the stories of the other Employable Graduates here!