There are many obvious reasons why an engineer or BBA student will want to do an MBA. But why would a literature student from Lady Shri Ram College (DU) want to do an MBA? What are her reasons? What's her aim? Does she know where her career will take her? Well, the answer lies in this article. Meet Shreya Sachdev, Head of Strategy, Puma and anIIM Lucknow Alumni (Batch 2013-15). She specialises in marketing and strategy and has 4+ experience in the consulting and consumer sector. Read and learn from her b-school, internship, PPO and work experience now!This article is a part of an SCMHRD initiative.
Question 1: How did you decide to do an MBA after studying literature?
Answer: Like with any other course, be it Engineering or Economics, a bachelor’s degree can either be the start of a lifelong career in a field that you are passionate about, or become the base qualification for you to pursue other careers that are not directly related to what you studied, but indirectly benefit from what you learnt in your undergrad field. I was always passionate about Literature, and Lady Shri Ram College was the perfect blend of passionate pedagogy and a talented peer group to pursue that dream. But like with many chemical engineers that eventually find a career in consulting or mechanical engineers that thrive in FMCG companies, I chose to go in a different direction once those 3 years were over, and settled on an MBA.
Question 2: Did you decide your specialization before joining your b-school?
Answer: No. I didn't get to choose a specialization in the first year. After studying for more than a year, I started showing interest inMarketing and Strategy.
Question 3: Did you have any work-ex prior to joining b school?
Question 4: You were associated with creative and media-related activities in your b-school. Right?
Answer: I was a part of the flagship management fest of the school, which was called ‘Manfest’. In the first year, I was part of the ‘Media and Creative Content’ vertical. In the second year, everybody in the team does sponsorship work, so I did that as well.
Question 5: Any key learning you had from this experience and how did it help in your career later on?
Answer: I learnt how to juggle othercommitments in a b-school along with classes and evaluations. As a part of college committees, you meet and work with a host of different people with diverse thought-processes. You come together, pool your strengths and collaborate to make magic. That is something you will have to do in your job as well, where you work in teams to deliver impact week after week. As a fresher, it was my first experience with corporates, reaching out for sponsorship was a good first exposure to the ecosystem I would soon be a part of.
Question 6: Which company did you work for and what was your internship project about?
Answer: I interned withMcKinsey & Company.We were working with apharmaceutical company. Our job (project) was to redesign their product launch process to make it more optimized. It was not just about designing that process, but also ensuring that once we rolled off, the on-ground teams would continue to see value in and follow that process. For that, we conducted a series of onboarding programs across stakeholders. We worked with various stakeholders across the value chain. It was a 25 step process, right from RnD phase, to manufacturing and logistics. The aim was to ensure teams don’t work in isolation, address existing bottlenecks, and drive org-wide adoption.
Question 7: What are the main things that a student needs to learn in order to bag a PPO as you did?
Answer: Honestly, it depends on company to company. As a consultant, you are not expected to come in with technical skills. They see how fast you can build a relationship with the client, collaborate with team members, pick up on project and client context to create impact. My advice to current students will be, don't go with a set mindset. For freshers, things are a bit easier because they aren’t conditioned by any previous professional experience, but for people who come with prior work ex., it’s important to be able to adapt to a new environment, because companies will always evaluate organization fit while considering you for a PPO.
Question 8: Tell us about your current role in detail. Can you also take us through a typical day in your life?
Answer: I currently lead the strategy team inPUMA- which is the No 1 Sports and Lifestyle Brand in the country today. With a view to retaining this leadership position, and be future-ready, my team works with stakeholders across the organization to drive short term and long term priorities for the organization. We work on diverse projects, at one end we take up projects like carving out PUMA e-commerce growth and strategy over a 2 and 5-year horizon so that we are ready to win the e-commerce game. At the other end, we also execute short term initiatives like “Steppin”, where we partnered with Goonj to collect used clothes and shoes from our store consumers. Given our focus on sustainability as a Brand, this was a project that was very close to our hearts. To be able to describe a typical day is difficult, no day at PUMA is typical! Given the dynamic nature of the industry we exist in, and the ever-evolving nature of my role, we prefer to take an agile approach to the work we do, quickly reorganizing and reprioritizing to adapt to new developments. However, In order to structure an essentially unstructured role, we define organization-wide priorities at the beginning of the year, redefining individual project approach and metrics on an ongoing basis to best accomplish those priorities.
Question 9: Please describe your career trajectory (Designations and responsibilities) and the major takeaways from each experience.
Answer: I spent close to 4 years in McKinsey, where I played the role of a consultant, before joining PUMA. While I spent the first 2 years at Mckinsey working across different industries and clients, my passion always lay in the consumer sector. I spent the next 2 years at Mckinsey fulfilling that passion before I made the switch to the industry full time. As a consultant, you are exposed to a diverse set of clients, industries, problem statements and teams in a very short span of time. The steep learning curve that comes with it equips you with a number of very valuable skill sets, including building strong client relationships and quickly finding the right working rhythm with new teams, besides the obvious cross-functional knowledge and problem-solving abilities that are honed with every project. Evaluating where I wanted to go after Mckinsey was a tough call. A personal inclination towards Fashion and Lifestyle, a need for a fast-paced working environment with ample opportunities for career growth, and a desire to explore all aspects of working in the industry is how I eventually landed on PUMA. At PUMA, my biggest learning has been that passion can truly drive business results, innovation is the key to unlocking the next horizon of growth, and that if you’re not willing to take risks, you’re not going to get very far.
Question 10: You never really took core marketing roles and you were always interested in strategic roles. Can you please throw some light on that?
Answer: While I majored in Marketing at college, I quickly realized that most of what I needed to succeed, I learnt on the job. That has been true for a lot of my peers as well. That having been said, your specialization does play a role in final placements, and so if you’re not expecting a PPO, do be mindful of the courses you choose in the second year. Your inclination towards a particular industry/role will be judged on the basis of what you chose to learn about, and how well you did at those courses. For me, the lure of strategy has always stemmed from the fact that I get to try my hand at a number of things, and I’m not limited by the set confines of a Job Description. Doing the same thing every day has never been my cup of tea, and the challenges that come with an ever-changing mandate is a high I have always chased.
Question 11: What are the usual gestation periods in a brand like PUMA?
Answer: PUMA has always had a legacy of hiring young and promoting fast, a strategy that has stood us in good stead. Our current MD joined the company at the age of 27 (whenPUMA was just starting India operations in 2006) and took on his current role at 34. In the one year that I have been here, my roles and responsibilities have drastically changed (eg: I am now also the Agile Coach for PUMA India), and it is the same story for many of my colleagues. Hiring on the basis of potential not experience, and promoting on the basis of performance, not tenure is the cornerstone of PUMA’s people and organization strategy. For employees that demonstrate capability, 1.5-2 years is the average time before the next jump, and given that we have a very lean vertical structure with less than 10 levels, it is possible to climb the ladder in next to no time. Question 12: Can you please also describe the conditions in the lifestyle industry at large, something one should keep in mind who is aspiring to enter it?Answer: The Lifestyle industry is characterized by several players across the value chain. There are local and global brands- which are increasingly becoming omnichannel in their approach, multi-brand brick and mortar retailers and e-commerce aggregators, and those that operate in a specific part of the value chain (eg: Delhivery that does last-mile delivery). The first question to answer would be to figure out which of these excites you. The second question to answer would be what you want to do. Some roles require specific expertise (eg: merchandisers typically come from a design/NIFT background). Others such as digital marketing, planning & analytics, e-commerce, strategy etc typically look for bright people with management degrees. Given that this industry is characterized by technological innovation across the value chain, India’s consumer preferences are rapidly evolving, as is the way brands interact and engage with these consumers, it is an extremely exciting place to be. What is needed is someone who thrives in a fast-paced work environment, and genuinely enjoys unravelling the consumer psyche.
Question 13: Almost done, anything else that you would want to tell an MBA student/ aspirant.
Answer: In a b-school, it is very easy to lose perspective and get swept up in the pressure of bagging a ‘day’ 0/1 job. 5 years down the line, it becomes apparent that job satisfaction and career success have absolutely no correlation to which ‘day’ you were placed on. Your career trajectory is determined by your ability to perform, which in turn is a consequence of how well suited you are for the role you’re doing.