Premankur Roy from Xavier Labour Relations Institute, Jamshedpur is one of India's Most Promising Incoming MBA Students 2022!
The following is Premankur Roy's set of responses to a questionnaire floated amongst incoming MBA graduates to determine the top 50 Most Promising Incoming MBA students of 2022. Amongst the massive number of entries and responses being evaluated, Premankur Roy's story and profile stood out. Here's his story in his words.
I'm from Ranchi. I'm a 2020 graduate from Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra. I have exposure to the US Mortgage, Ed-tech and Food-tech industries. I've received multiple awards during my work stints. I'm a very outgoing and culturally active person. At UG level, I held over 5 positions of responsibilities including being in the Placement Committee. I am deeply passionate about singing, specifically Hindustani Classical Music. I also have a keen interest in social work. I'm currently serving as the trustee and youngest board member of The Kanchan Foundation, a Mumbai-based NGO, working for development of underprivileged children.
Tell us more about your extracurricular achievements
In August, 2016, during my 1st semester at BIT Mesra, I volunteered to teach for Rajkriyakit Prathmik Vidyalay. That is when I discovered my love for giving back to the community. In the following winter break in December, 2016, I joined The Kanchan Foundation (TKF), a Mumbai based NGO as a volunteer and started teaching underprivileged children. The Chairperson of TKF really liked my passion and offered me to stay associated with the NGO, going forward. In the last five and a half years I have supported in planning and setting up of multiple projects at the NGO including leading a few. Since December 2016, we have impacted the lives of 400+ children, providing them with supplemental education and personality development sessions. I also ideated the process of volunteer participation, onboarding 80+ volunteers from different walks of life - students, professionals and elderly. In 2019, I was promoted to being 1 of the 5 board members of the NGO and currently I'm the youngest one on the board. In 2021, I was further promoted to the level of a trustee.Apart from my work at The Kanchan Foundation, I had also taken up multiple social projects in college. One of my major contributions was in the ideation and execution of The Paper-bag Project at BIT Mesra for making the campus free of single-use plastic bags. We empowered homemaker women of nearby villages to make paper-bags and sold the same to campus vendors and passed on the profits to the women, thus making the campus a step more sustainable. This project received an award for 'Best Project Under Professional Service' from Rotaract Bihar & Jharkhand.As a part of my last organisation, I was a part of the company's CSR team. As a part of the team, I worked on the upliftment of the Pattachitra artist community of Odisha, who were majorly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. We ordered over 16,000+ handmade tea coasters and 4000+ cloth-based painting and connected the same to employee engagement of 4000+ employees, while also educating them about the history and culture of the community. I was also a part of the planning and execution team of 'Make-a-wish' campaign at our organisation which helped in fulfilling 100 wishes of children suffering from cancer, on the occasion of Christmas 2021.
Tell us about a time when you messed up, and what you learnt from the experience?
This incident is from January, 2022, while I was working with my last organisation as an Operations Analyst in the US mortgage industry. While working on one of the loans I was assigned, I missed out on a critical checkpoint which costed the organisation 850 USD, which was almost my one month's salary. I realised my mistake and reported the same to my manager. My manager informed me that this would be escalated to the senior management and I might have to give an explanation for my negligence. When the issue got escalated and a call was set-up with my manager, senior manager and the director of the team, an explanation was asked for. To my surprise, my manager took the onus of the mistake and said that this was the fault of the team as a whole and this would never happen again. I was surprised at my manager's approach to the situation but I realised the kind of leader I would like to become in the future. I realised that in a crisis situation, it is important to have the back of your teammates and subordinates. This not just inculcates a sense of oneness in the team but also ensures that there is no demotivation in the team, rather a sense of realisation of the seriousness of the work.
Tell us something about yourself that others may be surprised to know about you.
I hold a Sangeet Prabhakar in Hindustani Classical Vocals, equivalent to a Bachelors degree in music. I have been learning Hindustani Classical music since I was 8 and plan to continue my learning for the rest of my life. Managing music along with academics throughout school and college was challenging but equally rewarding. Classical music has taught me the value of practice, patience and perseverance. I completed my Sangeet Prabhakar in 2019 while simultaneously pursuing engineering from Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra. I have represented and won awards for my college in multiple inter-college national level fests of IIT Delhi, IIT Bombay, IIT Kharagpur, IIT BHU, etc. Ive also won multiple music competitions at the university, school and city levels. I have been fortunate enough to sing in the presence of multiple Chief Ministers and Governors of Jharkhand in various events throughout school and college, including former Governor of Jharkhand and current President of India, Smt. Draupadi Murmu, when she was a chancellor of my university. Ive also had the chance to record two songs for All India Radio, Ranchi.
What have been your two biggest successes in life? What did you learn from them?
Being associated with The Kanchan Foundation for 5+ years and impacting 400+ childrens lives has been of immense value to me. But what I consider one of my biggest successes is the time when two of our alumni who had joined as teenagers and were beneficiaries of our Sarvagunn program called to inform me that they had started small NGO foundations in their capacity to impact the lives of younger children of their communities, based on our program structure. This made me realise that an honest effort in a positive direction doesnt just create immediate value, but also has a ripple effect in the times to come. The second biggest success would be the time when I was working in a food-tech star-up as an operations management intern, managing 2 QSR food outlets in Mumbai, back in early 2020. After the covid-19 pandemic hit in March, 2020, the covid migrant crisis hit, leading to the majority of blue-collar employees in metro cities, wanting to move back to their villages. During the time, I was managing a team of 35 blue-collar employees, including delivery partners and QSR chefs. When most of them wanted to leave and go back to their villages, I managed to retain 60% of the workforce and made arrangements for their safety, while still continuing their jobs falling in the essential services category. Further, I interviewed over 100+ prospective new employees and hired 10 of them to fill up the vacancies due to the employees who left. In such unprecedented times, I feel, this was a huge achievement, given that it was only my 1st proper professional experience.
Professionally, what is your ideal image of yourself five years from now? Where do you see yourself?
In five years of time, I would want to be leading a motivated team in an organisation, where the team members are all aligned towards value creation in whatever we do. I would want to contribute significantly to the lives of the customers that wed be serving and also contribute positively towards the growth of the organisation Im with, my peers, my subordinates and other stakeholders involved. I also see myself having learnt a great deal about business situations and people in the journey of the next five years. I see myself broadening my understanding of the industry and perspectives of thoughts and solutions coming in from people I work with/for. Ideally, in 5 years I also see myself having the freedom of choosing the kind of projects that I would like to be associated with, in terms of the work that would interest me. I would also like to form a better understanding of my own professional inclinations and interests to make the right career choices that would benefit both me and the organisation that I work for.
What is the one skill or characteristic you possess that you are most proud of, and why?
Empathy! It is important for me to provide people with the freedom to express their thoughts, ideas and emotions. I feel I am empathetic to people and situations which helps me in being not just a good colleague and manager, but also a good friend in life. In today's time and age of short attention span and rapid technological development, people's need to be heard and understood is even more. I feel my empathetic side makes me more aware of life situations and others' perspectives and broadens my thinking as well. Being empathetic has helped me make better situational decisions in life as well.
In your opinion, what skills or qualities does a successful manager possess?
A manager doesn't just manage processes but also people. I feel in terms of skills, a successful manager needs to have great communication skills. Being clear in terms of thought and expressing the same is of paramount importance for being a successful manager. A good manager needs to be a great listener and an even better observer, not just in terms of processes and products but also in terms of people's behaviour especially when it comes to their team. A successful manager should have a clear understanding of all the stakeholders involved in any situation and should be able to prioritise the tasks at hand. A successful manager should be empathetic to their peers, superiors and especially to their subordinates.
Tell us about an ethical dilemma that you may have faced, and how you resolved it.
During one of my recent jobs, a fellow teammate of mine had their last day at the job after resigning. The teammate suggested to me that on the last day, they would do their tasks as usual, but put in my name as the person who completed the job. The logic behind it was, that since it was the 1st week of the month, they wouldnt be entitled to the additional incentives for the tasks done on that day, but if it was put on my name, Id get the additional incentives at the end of the month. For a brief moment I thought that this was okay, but immediately realised that this would be highly unethical on the part of both me and my teammate and this would be taking undue advantage of the organisations incentive structure. So I politely declined the offer of the teammate and also helped them realise why doing this would be wrong. The teammate was mature enough to realise the mistake in the thought immediately and went on with their usual work.
If you were the CEO of any company of your choosing, which company would you choose and what would your first action be as CEO?
If given a choice, I would love to become the CEO of Amul. I feel there is a lot of heart in the values of Amul, what it stands for, how it positions itself to the customers and even how the advertising wing of the organisation works. Amul, being a cooperative, has over 35 lakh milk-producing partners in the organisation, empowering their lives and facilitating their competencies with opportunity, respect and remuneration. Apart from its cooperative organisational structure, it stands for quality and trust, which I would want to be associated with. The kind of reach and penetration it has all over the country, maintaining a complicated supply chain of perishable items such as milk, makes the brand one of a kind. I also love the creativity that comes with Amuls branding and advertisements, especially through print media. As a CEO, I would like to have a team find out if there is space for us to enter into the childrens powder-based energy/health drink segment. Even with existing giant players like Cadburys Bournvita and GSKs Horlicks, I feel, Amul being a milk producer and supplier, might be a good fit to enter into this segment. If the surveys and market research hint in a positive direction then I would like to plan to enter into this segment.
Any Other Comments Or Factors You Would Like To Highlight About Yourself?
State Rank 15 in Jharkhand - in CBSE Class XII Examination, 2015 (Science) Received Certificate of Appreciation from Ministry of Education, Govt. of India for performance in Class XII AISSCE.Awarded as All-Star Performer in October, 2021, for being in the top 10% out of 200+ members for 6 consecutive months at Better.com, a Forbes 50 fintech company.Received Aces All-Day Award in July, 2021, for training 5 new hires and being consistently rated as a strong performer at Better.com, a Forbes 50 fintech company.Achieved 215% of the targeted enrolments for the pilot batch through cold-calling, enquiries & referrals at InSharp, an IIM-A alum ed-tech company.Managed front-end operations of 2 QSR food outlets with total revenue of INR 3 Cr per annum at Box8 and Mojo Pizza.Studied about benefits of CSR & application of CSR communication as a form of indirect marketing during a summer internship at IIM Ranchi.Selected and serving as a Jr. Exec. Member of Marketing Association of XLRISelected and served as a Placement Coordinator, BIT Mesra, managing placements for 800+ students.Selected and served as the Vice President, Rotaract Club of BIT Mesra, leading a team of 80+ membersElected as the Sponsorship Head of the Technical Fest of BIT Mesra, raising sponsorship worth INR 8 lakhs.Acted as the Head of Public Relations, Music Club of BIT Mesra and increased footfall of music fest by 25%Onboarded 80+ volunteers, including college students, working professionals and retired elderly for the supplemental education and personality development of children at The Kanchan Foundation.