In our list of India's Best 50 - the 50 Most Employable Students from the Class of 2021-23, 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, Pradyumna Bhandiwad, has shown an incredible amount of passion to achieve his true potential. Read on and find out his story!
The following are Pradyumna Bhandiwad’s set of responses to a questionnaire floated amongst MBA graduates to determine the top 50 Most Employable MBA Graduates of the Class of 2023. Amongst the massive number of entries and responses being evaluated, Pradyumna's story and profile stood out. Here's his story in his 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 it is told that every step counts & being outside of our comfort zone is the first step is making the mindset towards achievement & success. The story is in connection with how I pushed myself & my limits of learning to create an impact in the organization I was interning with & received a PPO at the end of my stint which gave me a recognition & helped me craft my journey of growth.I was asked to present a one-slider of myself to the global leadership of Accenture, which helped me unlock my potential of getting to know and explore myself through the intricacies. Whilst my project was based on Talent demand & supply analysis, I chalked out a plan to connect with stakeholders of various business units & functions so as to have a broader view of the organization & the services it caters to. The offline experience in the last week of internship helped me in connecting with the best minds & experiencing the technology. By interacting with offline teams, we got to be aware of how a corporate etiquette functions right from checking-in to developing report & communicating information.Through the course of my project, I had set a target to myself for developing something unique and help the organization grow in its endeavours. True to this target, I strived hard to create something very unique with regards to my project on Talent analysis. I developed a tool of dynamic dashboard using MS Excel & Power BI containing various HR metrics as the primary classification of data. In a larger sense the dashboard that I have developed is a multi-utilization tool that can be integrated with the latest technologies like Metaverse & would help the company with the modern digitization. The dashboard can also be be kept updates with the latest talent pool & market data by updating the master data which is linked to the dashboard.The experience of being in the journey of creating an impact for the global & India leadership along with implementation of some of my major ideas is a content in itself. A lot of thinking went into preparing & developing a On the day of final presentation, it was a fabulous moment to experience the presence of 6-7 members from the global HR leadership panel, which was a huge privilege for me. A time slot of 5 minutes (yes, just 5 minutes) had been given to me, in which I had to make my final pitch & present the solution & the recommendations that I had prepared. I had strategically designed my slides to flow like a story connecting the progress in past, present & the future-focus to make an impact. Having followed the lean & six-sigma principles, the panel was happy with the unique approach. I presented a dynamic dashboard as part of my solution, which was highly relevant and point specific to my deliverables, due to which I got applauded twice by the HR India leadership & a lot of positive feedback as to how I implemented comprehensiveness along with the utilization of analytical thinking in building & presenting. The flow & the design of the presentation was highly liked by the panel & was appreciated for the unique approach followed with the detailed research analysis presented to them.The toughest question would be of how my skills solution is being utilized in the approach, which was also quite a long question & understood with the repeat. I took the help of my dashboard & navigated to the data inputs & analysis part which was the heart of my project, & explained the source of data which cleared half of the answer. For the second part of the question I gave a pertinent example of market scenario and how cross-platform hiring can be done to leverage adjacent skills to bride the skills gap generated through various ongoing reasons.Once I was done with my presentation & the Question & Answer session, I received many mails from my managers & senior leadership teams, with a note of appreciation for having collaborated so well with the team & presenting all the work very comprehensively. The panel included India HR Head & senior HR managers across functions.With the "Red Letter Day" on 16th June 2022, where I got ovation & clap appreciation for my work, twice from the India HR leadership, this can be beautifully summed up as one of the best moments. It is mainly due to the fact that this journey of Accenture has been my first corporate journey of my professional career. As soon as my presentation was over & I walked out of the conference room, I got a mail from the HR Leadership team, having a detailed appreciation for my research analytics & the complete work. Reading that mail was the moment of the internship. My project is under planning and being implemented at few functions & I have been told to be contact post-internship for further steps & guidance for the project that I have started.The first steps in our lives & career are always special. Accenture provided me with a platform to accelerate my growth & shape the trajectory through my very first Corporate journey! There could not have been a better place to embark on my first step. Accenture truly encompasses "360 Value" & "Unlocks Human Potential" through an ethical, collaborative and supportive environment to grow!This was a small story of how moving beyond our comfort zone helps us realise the potential that we have!
When was the last time someone relied on you? OR What did you do which was purely for someone else - a truly selfless act?
A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way. John MaxwellThe narration is with respect to an opportunity where I could truly utilize my skills & expertise in the field of corporate competitions as part of my B-School journey. My sequence of acts ultimately helped two of my friends & colleagues get placed at a prestigious company after seeing a lot of struggle, rejections & downs in their MBA journey. I have been the Unstop (Dare2Compete) Top-100 Competitive B-School Leader of 2022 due to my enthusiasm of learning & garnering expertise through winning & leading many flagship corporate & B-School competitions. It was the month of Sep22 where ICICI Bank announced their flagship annual B-School competition Beat the Curve 2022. This ignited my spirit to take part & grow along the journey. As a procedure, I formulate strategies in getting the right people on board for any competition, which has a meaningful mix of skills & understanding with collaboration.As a small parallel event, two of my friends named A & B have been my teammates in the committee that I head, Supply Chain & Operations Club at SCMHRD. Right from the first semester they have always had struggled to get a good summer placement. Unable to deliver performance & not being able to convert PPOs had further reduced their Morales. Though they seemed to be hard-working, it did not seem enough to get a final placement either. The final placement season had begun & they seemed not to convert any of the shortlists. I then felt it was finally the time to give both of them the right push & opportunity required to shine & succeed. I decided to recruit them in my team of ICICI Banks Beat the Curve due to the sense of hard-work they portrayed. As an added reward, PPOs & PPIs were to be provided for winning teams. I initially started training them on various topics including how to make presentations, thought process, interview skills & more. As the competition advanced, we started working relentlessly for the topic of ESG in banking & provided a top-notch solution to ICICI Bank. This led us to qualify Semis round as well as the national round. This feat rewarded all of us with PPIs & that was the time when my selfless act of taking them into the team was fruitful. At the round of final presentation I solely had to pitch in for the question & answer round to provide the best possible answers & my teammates were highly dependent on me due to my experience & expertise in presenting It was the national final round & our presentation impressed so much of audience that we were awarded the Audience Choice Award. Parallelly, I started training A & B for their PPIs as it was their only shot in the entire career of MBA that they had received as a golden opportunity. Leaving no stone unturned, I took they mock interviews & gave every material for preparation. Being specialised in Human Resources (HR), I could provide them with the best of interview experiences. With all these efforts put in, it was time that would provide us with outcomes.Voila, & both of them converted the Pre-Placement Interviews & got placed at ICICI Bank though Beat The Curve 2022 Competition. This instance would be my bit of contribution towards my colleagues & friends who were struggling to get placed. My intervention of recruiting them in the team helped them land their first job after MBA.
Tell us about a time when you disagreed with an opinion/idea/decision. What did you do about it?
I am the SPOC & the Core member of Supply Chain & Operations Club at SCMHRD. It is a committee that organises competition for the corporates & awards for their excellence in their respective domains. All the major planning & decisions taken are routed through me for all the committee related events. Post my first year of MBA, it was the time to bring in the new junior team & hand over all the responsibilities along with planning the detailed training of all the events. To ease the workload & processing, the team suggested in one of our review meetings that junior members can be recruited with their CV & an interview & get done with it. I follow the principle of right efforts and value generation through continuous dedication & involvement. Hence, I wished to conduct a full-fledged recruitment within our campus for getting the best & capable talent to take forth the legacy of our committee. It was this point when I disagreed with our teammates of following a simple hiring process. I then made a sequence through a flowchart & explained it to my team as to why this is essential. Slowly my team agreed with the fact that skills need to be tested effectively & started contributing to the process that I had set. My recruitment process included seven (7) gruelling rounds of activities & assessment that tested the holistic skills required for the committee. Since our events revolved around coordinating with corporate world, I designed each of the rounds that tested their team collaboration along with communication skills with quick decision making. Following are the rounds & skills which I had designed for the end-to-end recruitment process. 1. Personal Interview:Ethical Judgement, Behaviour under stress, Conflict Management, Integrity, Perception about SCOPE and its events2. Structured Group Discussion: Group Dynamics, Strategic Team Building, Conflict Management, Influencing Group Behaviour, Interpersonal Skills, Initiating Skills3. Group Exercise - Simulation/ Presentation: Group Dynamics, Conflict Management, Influencing Group Behaviour, Solution Design & Approach, Event Management, Initiating Skills4. Pitch Round: Influencing and Negotiation, Accountability, Interpersonal Skills, Flexibility, Proactive Thinking 5. Skill Assessment: Integrity (or) Creativity, working with timelines, Deliverance, Priority Setting.6. Situation based/ pressure test: Influencing and Negotiation, Approach towards solution and presence of mind.7. Board Interview: New perspectives for SCOPE and its events The structure was finally agreed upon by the entire team. This decision helped me learn that whenever something is to be opposed or improved upon, always follow an subjective approach & weigh the best practices that would make a difference to a lot of stakeholders. This is how I approached disagreeing with a decision & counter-placed an exciting & important process in place that would also help & guide the junior batch in conducting recruitment processes in the future.
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 that has led you to do deep work in that field?
MBA is a journey that seems to transform any individual with grit & spirit to conquer & claim the most competent knowledge in the industry. Businesses always strive to invest & take the best decisions. This requires fresh & strategic perspectives to keep moving ahead. Leading corporate organizations conduct annual business case competitions indicating their areas of concerns. Being the Unstop (Dare2Compete) Top-100 Competitive B-School Leader of 2022 I have won many corporate competitions & I feel to have mastered the art of deciphering strategic solutions that gives a tactical advantage to companies by implementing them. Having secured a winning & national position in 10+ competition of companies in the domains of manufacturing, banking, IT, FMCG giants like ITC, TATA Steel, JSW, Wipro, ICICI Bank etc, I have a structured format of thought process to generate solutions in each category.The expertise garnered through competitions by interacting with other competitors, mentors allotted from corporates & the esteemed judges & panellists in all the instances have guided me in realising how leadership thinks & what businesses actually required to keep them sustained.Agility & business-driven goals are at the core of my processes that help structure solutions to any challenge. Human Resources as a function excites me into thinking & formulating efficient & ethical value systems in all the endeavours I undertake. My solutions contain a 360-degree view of what takes place with all the stakeholders & provides an individual impact.A holistic approach to strategic & sustainable impact is a key driver of my progress.I have a particular inclination for interacting and collaborating with colleagues for projects and competitions. I am always eager to adopt new skills and apply diverse technical and managerial concepts in generating efficient solutions. My case solutions comprise of process improvement, innovation, competitive edge business driven goals along with sustainable impact. I follow the below steps in realising the best possible solution:1.Understanding & research of problem statement along with company & point of interest of stakeholders2.Brainstorm ideas which are feasible, lower implementation time, higher ROI & impact with value creation till the end of chain3.The most important part is to map the solutions to the problem statements.These steps also comprise of practices & industry competitor research, along with identification of pain-points & loopholes by applying design thinking principles & brainstorming novel concepts. The final impact created are in the following areas:1. Ideation & Concept2. Innovation3. Societal Impact4. Business Sustainability5. Busienss PotentialHaving a diverse team each time has helped me in gaining small bit of expertise each time developing my thought process. These are some areas under corporate competitions & generating sustainable business solutions that I have gained an expertise in.
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?
An amount of this cadre is an opportunity to make a positive difference in the society & be an inspiration for the younger generation & peers. I would divide the amount into ten equal parts of INR 7.35 crores & invest/utilize in the following ways:1)Personal Growth & Development: My Holistic needs & requirements like education, certifications & professional learning is of crucial importance to continue & sustain my growth in the organization & hence would invest for my knowledge & expertise building in the first place.2)Strategic Capital Investments: Shares, start-ups, as a venture capitalist, funding budding minds of India. To build a successful financial portfolio one needs to have segregated their revenues & savings into the right channels to garner long term profits and sustain the businesses. I would hence strategically invest the capital in various long term start-up & projects venturing into space, electric vehicles, renewable energy & caron cutting projects.3)Land acquisition for Future projects & investment in crucial metals & minerals like diamond, gold etc: Land & real estate is one such resource that never stops surprising the communities. I would carry out primary research of various geographies in India & across the globe to gauge the potential of various land topologies with respect to climate, soi composition & groundwater & soil strength. Based on that I would purchase land to transform it to either futuristic projects, agriculture & organic farming or renting & leasing space for critical & sustainable projects. Investing in noble & valuable metals will prove to be an emergency fund storage & savings for liquidating it in case of crisis or emergency of any type.4)Societal Benefit & contribution to defence sector, rural sector/donation to NGOs: Ones development should always be shared across all the communities & our humanistic values should always be kept high. I would invest the amount to various NGOs & the Indian Defence forces which is a crucial part of our survival & existence in the nation. Developing society to the latest technology fulfilling all the basic necessities & amenities has always been my dream. I would survey & identify those villages & adopt them for redevelopment which are in grave need.5)Pursuing Hobbies & interests, Sports & experimentation: To keep myself motivated & evolving in creativity I would invest in my hobbies such as driving, Photography, gardening, electronics & circuitry, Electric Vehicles, Table Tennis & sketching. I am very passionate about automobiles and wish to own & experiment travelling with supercars & sports vehicles along with drifting in those vehicles. I would also invest in electronic technologies to develop some of the complex circuits at home & DIY projects such as automated gates & home-automation projects. Electric Vehicles are highly interesting to me & would own them as they are the future of energy & transportation across the globe. I would also invest in a state of the art DSLR & Camera technology to capture the moments & pursue my interest in nature & scenic photography.6)Application to a Aircraft pilot license & flight training with jetsBeing an aerospace engineer, I have always been inspired by Flight simulators & fighter aircrafts at large. I have also qualified the Pilot test by Indian Air Force, CPSS & PABT as part of NDA-SSB selection process. I wish to possess an pilots license that requires high-precision training & practice off many hours. This is one of the feats I wish to undertake. Part of my inspiration also comes from the Bi-annual Aero-shows that happen at Bangalore in India, which is organised by Indian Air Force. Managing the funds, a personal Jet would enable me to inspire the younger generation & the budding Aerospace Engineers in pursuing an amazing career in the field of Aerospace & Defence forces.7)Travelling to all 7 continents & 20+ countries: Understanding the cultures & various traditions across the globe have always been my passion. Being in the field of Human Resources (HR) I also wish to know & interact with people of various backgrounds, ethnicities & cultures. This helps in an overall development of our mind & body.Being an nature & trekking enthusiast, I wish to travel to countries rich in geographies, flora & fauna that inspire us from the roots of nature. Australia, Brazil, Scotland, Egypt, Singapore, Ireland are some of the countries I wish to pay a visit. Alongside observing & learning various aspects like lifestyle, fashion, technology, I also wish to experience the food cultures followed in various regions of the globe.8)Construction & owning a huge library with all the genres in various languages including Sanskrit & a temple with meditation centre: like spirituality, mythology Library is one such spiritual & knowledge space that remains unadulterated of any modern day habits. I wish to design a dynamic & architectural marvel of a library with floors & sections in accordance with the tradition & culture of those genre of books. I wish to organize my library with every possible genre of books like science, technology, spirituality, mythology, literature, history & more of all the places in the world. In short, an encyclopaedia of contemporary & futuristics genres of publications are to be a part of my library9)Owning latest technology capable of undertaking any supercomputer level projects: I would strategically invest in the best possible technologies & build a personalised super computer for undertaking events like gaming, photo & video editing, high-profile projects. I would also have a Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (Drone) & sophisticated gaming equipment with thermal & graphic capabilities, photographic equipment like DLSR & high-grade lenses, AR-VR enabled metaverse set-up along with any other major technological innovation in the market.10)Parents & family savings, support, health: To keep our family growing strong, I wish to set aside a sum for the education & development of my children along with providing the best possible facilities & comfort to my parents who are the pillars of my life.
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