They say "A mother is the best manager." We are all witnessing it first hand during these COVID 19 times. But what happens when that one person, everyone's most dependable shoulder, falls ill? Who takes up the responsibility then? Today, we bring you the story of someone who decided to take up the reigns when her mother fell ill. She did double shifts to keep her family out of the quarantine blues. On the first shift, she worked as an analyst at Goldman Sachs. On the next shift, she managed the entire household. Her ability to showcase exceptional leadership skills, both at the office and the home front
placed her amongst India’s 50 Most Employable Graduates of the Class of 2020!
The following is Sakshi Agrawal'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, Sakshi’s story and profile stood out. Here's her story in her own words.
"Right out of school, I was pleased to join IIM Indore for their 5-year Integrated Program in Management. The integrated program not only ensured a holistic college experience but also ensure that I graduate as a socially conscious and contextually relevant individual in 2020. At IIM Indore, I started a business with a couple of friends to utilize our free time and a market opportunity at the campus. I am deeply interested in Statistics and its application in the real world. In my free time, I like to knit, do origami, solve cryptograms, and work on my blog."
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.
"Studying at IIM Indore, I got the opportunity to go study at a university in France via the student exchange program during term 4. Along with my 3 friends who were going to the same foreign institute, I made endless plans to go around the continent. One place that I particularly wanted to visit was Switzerland, but owing to the fact that all 3 friends of mine had visited the country during their childhood, I was left on my own to fulfill my heart’s desire. I spent 3 months in Europe, and for the first 2 months, I kept procrastinating this trip. However, in mid-November, when my return to India was right in front of me, I decided to go to Switzerland for a weekend. My concerns included the fact that I will not get any phone network there, given my French SIM card will not work in Switzerland (thus no Google Maps), and that the weather forecast for the following week involved heavy snowfall across the country. Even with several trains getting canceled on my way to my dream place, I did not look back. I reached the place where I always wanted to be and enjoyed myself to the fullest, not only when I reached my hostel, but throughout the journey. Initially, I was extremely scared of embarking on this solo trip. Looking back, I see that as the best risk I ever took. I made friends I can call upon, across the world. I made memories I can go back to in times of distress. I garnered experiences I can infer life lessons from to support myself. Now, I know a place I want to go back to, and I will in a second if given the opportunity. I can confidently say I have the courage to my name and above all, I have faith in the people who will go out of their way to help a girl without internet access."
When was the last time someone relied on you? OR What did you do which was purely for someone else - a truly selfless act.
"Well, in the current scenario of the Coronavirus Pandemic, my city is under complete lockdown, with my whole family living under the same roof. As we have decided not to call the house help for the last 2 months, to ensure the safety of all the family members, my mother has allocated tasks for each morning. However, last week my mother fell ill. She was concerned about how the family will cope. However, I stood up to reassure her that I would cook for everyone, dishes specially requested by each member of the family during different meals. Moreover, with my father’s 49th birthday during this period, I baked a cake and decorated it, to make sure that the quarantine blues do not break the spirit of the household."
Tell us about a time when you disagreed with an opinion/idea/decision. What did you do about it?
"B-School curriculum involves a lot of group assignments, as anyone would expect. However, going into the group project for the course ‘Contemporary Social Issues’, I did not except the amount of disagreement the assignment involved. Our group chose “Religion-based decision making in the secular country of India" as our topic. All the group members were certain that this was a politically controversial topic, given the landscape of a couple of acts passed by the government. However, everyone agreed to set aside their political views to work on this project. Soon, we realized that the group has been polarised into 2 sects of opposing ideas, neither wanting to budge from their position. I realized that something had to be done if we wanted to submit our project on time. Thus, I began a round of boundary spanning, talking to each member of the group individually, trying to understand their point of view, and working a way out with them to align the whole group somewhere in the middle. A couple of individuals were not pleased with the final conclusions, but in the spirit of a B-School group assignment, I made sure that everyone in the group ended up with some of their viewpoints being reflected in the final submission."
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?
"As a participant of the Integrated Program of Management at IIM Indore, my course curriculum involved a holistic approach, including disciplines ranging from Mathematics, Economics, Statistics, and Optimization to Social Psychology, Mandarin, Ethics, Mercantile law, and Public Administration. Out of all the diverse subjects and viewpoints I was exposed to during the last 5 years, the one that caught my attention the most was Statistics. Not only did it feel like some think I understood the best, but it also felt like something I enjoyed the most, bringing it really close to my ikigai. Thus, I started spending more time on the subject outside the classroom hours, and decided to take it up for my “Course in Independent Study.” The curriculum offered me the option to design my own 2-credit course in any discipline, and I decided to research "Opinion Mining and Sentiment Analysis", deploying the data extracted from Twitter using R Studio. The project made me realize that the area of Statistics is where I would like to work. I would say that the incredible team of professors that IIM Indore had in the area of Statistics helped me push my boundaries and discover a subject that I liked."
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?
10 Million Dollars is a lot of money and even though one’s desire takes their mind towards buying a Tesla for themselves, I would like to wait and think for some time to ensure that the corpus is utilized in an optimum way. First of all, I would like to gauge for myself, the aim I want to achieve with respect to this corpus. After some thought, I came upon 2 main objectives:
- Investing a part of the corpus to ensure that the cash flow is intact for the years to come.
- Engaging in philanthropic activities.
Thus, the planning for my investment strategies will begin. I would actively deploy the concepts I have learned and the connections I have made during my time in B-School to assemble a suitable team to help me with the task at hand. Furthermore, I will ensure that a substantial part of the charitable fund goes to serve the causes that I deeply support, which include health and education-related causes across the world.
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