What does it take to work with teams and batch mates during b-school and produce the best results as well as make great friends? Hitesh Arora, featured as one of InsideIIM's Best 50 - the most employable graduates from the class of 2018-20, has some answers. From being challenged in b-school competitions to playing team lead and taking ownership, Hitesh has done it all. This IIFT grad has an interesting perspective on b-school, competitions and teamwork. Find out in this article why he features in InsideIIM's Best 50!
The following is Hitesh Arora’s set of responses to a questionnaire floated amongst MBA graduates to determine the top-50 most employable MBA graduates of the Class of 2020. Amongst the massive number of entries and responses being evaluated by the Founder of InsideIIM-Kampus Konversations, Hitesh’s story and profile stood out. Here's his own story in his own words.
“I'm Hitesh Arora. Born and brought up in the millenium city of Gurgaon, Haryana. I start my day with a jog and help myself to a healthy breakfast. I believe having conversations has helped me come a long way in solving the trickiest of problems and that's how I managed to solve a few case study competitions. My friends would describe me as someone who's gregarious, trustworthy and ambitious. In my free time, I love playing FIFA, watching football and reading blogs.”
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.
“Professionally, at PCBL (my ex-employer), an emergency situation occurred during plant shutdown when the APH temperature abruptly increased (close to 1400 degree Celsius). I took the responsibility for rectifying the same in absence of my team leader and through continuous monitoring of 14-16 hours, I could finally lead to a concrete solution. Although I was apprehensive in the beginning in that atmosphere, through perseverance, I could see it through and was applauded for my effort.”
When was the last time someone relied on you? OR What did you do which was purely for someone else - a truly selfless act.
“During the national finals of a competition namely RB Global Challenge 2019, we had to present our final solution to the jury in an NDTV studio. My teammates although, as brilliant as they are, also were introverts and lacked confidence for the same. I had a little stage experience prior to that. So I took them backstage, explained the importance of everything going around and made them rehearse five more times to settle their nerves and we could successfully deliver the presentation.”
Tell us about a time when you disagreed with an opinion/idea/decision. What did you do about it?
“During our class presentations at IIFT, since I was the team leader of my group that had to give presentations every week, I divided the PPT part amongst all our group members equally. But one of our group members used to give his part the very morning of the presentation day, giving me little time to assemble and edit. This happened twice or thrice. Even after conversation on earlier occasions, he didn't mend his ways which ultimately led to conflict amongst everyone because even they asked for extra time. Through patience and making them realize the importance of deadlines and repercussions if not done in unison, I could sort that out.”
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 think studying people and having conversations has helped me solve at least 30 percent of any problem I've ever faced. This led me to do various case study competitions involving changing consumer behavior, gathering and interpreting data for the same and coming up with feasible solutions. Through this experience, I've started helping my junior batch in their internships which are virtual this time around and they see limited scope.”
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?
Currently, I'd invest this money helping healthcare professionals and medical research agencies find solutions for tackling COVID-19 to make the world the better place it used to be.
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