‘MBA makes you learn how to learn!’ – Anonymous
Visakhapatnam - the name itself echoes with the city surrounded by 'Picturesque Amphitheater of Hills' on three sides and the blue sea on the other side. The city has been a witness to much through a long period of time and has built & broken the destiny of many dynasties in India - from the Cholas to the British! And with this, I would like to welcome you to the B-School, situated in this city, I have banked my dreams on - the Indian Institute of Management, Visakhapatnam.
Every institution strives for excellence in the areas they are working in. And when it comes to a B-School, they are meant to give its students the craziest of the rides. An MBA grad is required to have theoretical, technical as well as practical aspects of business practices and a B-School helps him/her to achieve that in multiple dimensions – that may range from interacting & learning with people from a diverse culture, background & work-experience, getting transformed to a nocturnal creature to meet the submission deadlines or be smart enough to reach the sessions just-in-time & without-being-late.
My batchmates at IIM Visakhapatnam come from 18 different states of India – diversity at its maximum! Being from the land of Durgapuja and Ras(o)gu(o)llas, I feel extremely fortunate to be a part of such a diverse class here. Impossible tasks & challenging deadlines, great parties & the hangover, the friendships we live for, the music and above all, the teamwork in achieving something great is what IIM-V is a perfect place to try out.
A day here goes somewhat like this: Rising up around 8 and rushing for the sessions to the surprise in-class quizzes to the brainstorming sessions at noon as well as the public – speaking/any other events in the afternoon – IIMV prepares its students with every kind of rigor and surprise that they may expect going into the corporate career. In the midst of all these, we need to find out some time tpp for those brief team meetings to give the finishing touches to the submission for a B-School Competition. Going back to the hostel in the evening after a few refreshing activities (for me, it’s football!), then the rush starts for completing the assignments by the deadline. And each one of us, with utmost passion, dedication, hard work, teamwork (and what not!), run against time and fortunately submit the same by the 11:59:59pm (A second before the window closed!) – Yes, we feel real tested but at the same time, we do also feel more confident that given tight timelines, tougher tasks can also be accomplished if approached in the proper ways!
In order to compensate for any fun missing out away from home in the midst of academic rigour, there are various active clubs trying to arrange for events from time to time. Let me introduce you to Zorba – the Hobbies and Interests Club. Zorba aims to hold events that are based on interests of the students and also create an environment wherein individual experiences and interests get a chance to flourish through the sharing of each other's hobbies. Likewise, there are a few other clubs namely the Consulting Club, Entrepreneurial Passion & Innovation Club (EPIC), IT Club, ARTquake, Vatsalya (The Social Activities Club) & the Sports Club – and they encourage anyone to realize their areas of passion.
Along with all these and a warm heart, the students of IIM Visakhapatnam welcome you with arms wide open!
Given a chance, I would like to get my passion running with Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Limited.
Being a part of the Retail R&D Innovation Labs in the previous company I was working for and having worked with retail clients like Walmart, Marks & Spencers, Staples in the stat-of-the-art next-gen technologies in the lab, I feel I would be a good fit to deliver value to the company. With more customers moving online each day for shopping, it would be a privilege for me to work in the Digital and Online space of ABG Fashion and Retail Limited. Besides, having knowledge regarding the challenges being faced by the retail & fashion industry these days, I would also like to use my ideation & technical skills as well as my business acumen to improve the in-store customer experience by the implementation of omni-channel retail across stores, real-time customer analytics, personalized promotions, easy-queue less checkout etc. leading to more revenue generation across stores.