Shobhit Jain from Xavier Labour Relations Institute, Delhi-NCR is one of India's Most Promising Incoming MBA Students 2022!
The following is Shobhit '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, Shobhit 's story and profile stood out. Here's his story in his words.
Born and brought up in Delhi, I stay in a joint family with my parents, grandparents and a sweet dog, Mollie. Starting with my academics, I am a Gold Medallist from DPS Vasant Kunj. Post that, I joined Delhi Technological University and pursued Mechanical Engineering. During my engineering I interned and gained exposure across multiple industries/companies - Coca Cola, ABB, JCB. I received a campus placement from PwC India and worked as a front-end consultant. I was involved in implementing Oracle Cloud ERP solutions for both international and domestic clients.Now, I have joined XLRI Delhi for my MBA.
Tell us more about your extracurricular achievements
In school, I represented India to be part of a 3 week fully sponsored youth course in Sankt Peter Ording, Germany. This was a very enriching experience for me where I got to interact with people from different backgrounds and nationalities like Thailand, Singapore, Germany, etcIn DTU, I was the Co-Head of the Entrepreneurship Cell, and involved in the sponsorship and outreach activities for the committee. I have led a team of 20+ juniors and 50+ campus ambassadors to achieve a sponsorship target of INR 40+ Lakhs during my tenure with E-Cell.Since the last couple of years, I have been actively involved in animal caregiving. I am part of a group who look after the stray dogs and cats in and around my colony. We take care of their daily meals, vaccination, sterilization, and general health.
Tell us about a time when you messed up, and what you learnt from the experience?
At PwC, I was working on one of the project deliverables for a client. While I had a team in place, the task did not seem very complicated, and I thought of completing it on my own. I assumed that it would not take much time and I could be done with it well before the deadline. When I was mid-way into the deliverable, I realized I messed up because of which the customer's business process went into a 2 - hour downtime. As my colleagues were SMEs in their respective areas and understood their part of the business process, had I involved them in the task since inception, this stage would not have arrived. The work could not be completed in time, and I had to get the deliverable reworked by involving my colleagues and take corrective action to resolve the situation.After this incident, I realized my mistake and promised myself to not be an individual contributor when there is a team involved for a task.
Tell us something about yourself that others may be surprised to know about you.
Since the last couple of years, I have been actively involved in animal caregiving. I am part of a group who look after the stray dogs and cats in and around my colony. We take care of their daily meals, vaccination, sterilization and general health.In order to do better, we follow a 5 step process - Mapping, Feeding, Vaccination, Sterilization & Awareness - for stray animals. This way we have achieved 100% de-worming, 36% vaccination for Anti-Rabies & 6in1 vaccines and 77% sterilization of stray dogs. Also, in a span of over a year, we have generated INR 1+ lakh funds through caregivers, residents & crowdfunding for feeding & medical treatments.
What have been your two biggest successes in life? What did you learn from them?
One of the most significant successes during my life was overcoming stammering. During my growing years, I developed a stammering issue, because of which my life changed. I was laughed at, was bullied, and started to develop fear of public speaking. I focused on speech therapy and lots of reading to improve my awareness and knowledge. I joined a few college clubs and internships which gave me good external exposure and networking opportunities. All this helped me boost my confidence and I soon realised that the fear was in my mind. I just had to let go of what people said or thought and only focus on what is better for me. I made it a point to never shy away from making myself heard.The other one was receiving a fully sponsored three-week youth course in Sankt Peter Ording, Germany in 2015. I was one of the top 30 students from India to be selected for this program after going through a rigorous selection process which involved clearing a language certification and then an interview in German. I got an international exposure and an opportunity to interact and stay with people not only from India but also from other countries like Thailand, Singapore, and Indonesia. Since class 4th I had aspired to get this scholarship and to see it come to fruition gave me a very satisfying feeling.
Professionally, what is your ideal image of yourself five years from now? Where do you see yourself?
Within the next five years, I hope to get good opportunities to learn and grow professionally. Parallelly, I would like to have cross functional ground level experience and hone my management skills. With the backing of these learnings and experiences, I would want to work as a business professional in a global organisation, leading a team and contributing towards enhancing customer experience and growing revenues, profitably.
What is the one skill or characteristic you possess that you are most proud of, and why?
I come from a very humble background and have been brought up with a strong value system. Since childhood, this has been a major factor in shaping my personality and outlook towards other beings/animals. I believe that empathy and humility are the key characteristics which every person should possess. It brings out the best in a person and, in a business environment, helps one become a successful professional as well as a leader.
In your opinion, what skills or qualities does a successful manager possess?
In my opinion, a successful manager should have the following skills or qualities,
1. Motivate and align the entire team towards a common objective or goal.
2. Supports and stands by his/her team and manages all roadblocks for teams smooth functioning.
3. Has open and transparent communication, along with strong listening skills, giving freedom of expression of thought.
4. Is hands-on and leads by example.
Tell us about an ethical dilemma that you may have faced, and how you resolved it.
During my course at DTU, I was part of a very interesting and innovative project of making an e-racing car. I had to put in a lot of hard work and persuasion with the original team to convince them to make me part of them.As the project progressed, we started falling behind deadlines and even funding was becoming an issue to carry on the project. As a team we had to take a call on how to move ahead with this project. Also, there was a global contest which was a few months away, participating in which could have given us a lot of visibility.The suggestion given by few of the leading team members as a future course was a short cut which was neither professional nor ethical. A few of us including me refused to participate despite knowing that we may not be part of the prestigious project and may have to lose all the invested time, effort and the emotional connect with the project.We finally convinced others to hand over the project to the junior classes as a legacy from end so that they could work on it and take it to conclusion as their project.
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 I had the option to choose a company for becoming the CEO, I would like it to be a company which is strong on people culture and customer-centricity. In addition to that, it should be high on professionalism, ethics and values.When I take charge of the role, I would first and foremost understand and learn the company products and business processes. Parallelly, I would like to meet as many employees as possible across all levels to understand the ground realities.
Any Other Comments Or Factors You Would Like To Highlight About Yourself?
I am self-motivated and dont let failures impact me for long. I enjoy company of friends and like to spend time with family and with my pet dog, Mollie.