Tell us about a time when you messed up, and what you learnt from the experience?
While I was in the first year of B.Tech, eight of my batchmates and I decided to do an IoT project. We were looking for a team leader and I volunteered, not having any idea about what the role would entail. Very soon, I realized that the group began to expect me to guide them in the project when I had very little idea about IoT myself. I tried to live up to the expectations, but I failed miserably and ended up wasting a lot of time and resources. Nobody was pleased with me because I had volunteered for the role. From this experience, I learned that to lead a team of people, you need to have clarity on what they expect from you and then evaluate yourself. Only after careful evaluation, if you feel that you can place your trust in your own leadership, only then should you take up that role. If you are doubtful, you should not hurry and discuss it over with your mentor or manager to get a different perspective.
Tell us something about yourself that others may be surprised to know about you.
During the preparation phase for the B-school interviews, common feedback I would get from all the mentors and coaches who took my mock interviews would be that I came across as someone really confident. Even my peers from my undergraduate college and coaching institutions had the same thing to say about me and most of them believed that it is something that came naturally to me. I think that people would be surprised to know that at one point in my short life, I ended up losing all the self-confidence that I had and lived in a state of constant self-deprecation. I started to believe that maybe my dreams and aspirations were too far-flung posed against the backdrop of my abilities. I had to make a tremendous, conscious, and regular effort to pick myself up from this mental state and reach the level of self-confidence that I have now.
What have been your two biggest successes in life? What did you learn from them?
When I was in the eleventh standard, a stray dog in my locality gave birth to a bunch of puppies. After a week or so, I saw that she carried one of her puppies into our complex. The puppy was very weak, could hardly stand, and I remember my mother telling me that it won't make it. I could not bear to let that happen. So, I placed the puppy in a cardboard box and took it to a vet. The vet treated it. The puppy made it through. I even persuaded my complex's committee to provide them with shelter for a few days. Today, whenever I see the dog, it fills my heart with joy. This incident has taught me how a compassionate act towards our fellow living beings can be a source of long-lasting joy and has molded me into a compassionate human being. I would rate this as my biggest success to date as I feel I played my part in saving a life. My second biggest success in life would be reaching the final round of ET Campus Stars 3.0. It is a contest organized by Economic Times Digital in order to identify and recognize the brightest engineering students of the country judging not just by their domain knowledge but also aptitude, personality traits, interpersonal skills, leadership qualities, and a lot more.I consider it to be a significant achievement because of a number of reasons. Firstly, It instilled in me the self-belief that could compete with some of the brightest minds of the country and even beat most of them. Secondly, I had the chance to have a one-on-one interaction with Mr. Amitabh Ray (MD, Ericsson Global Services and ex-VP of IBM) who happens to be one of my role models, and ask him some insightful questions. From this competition and experience, I learned a lot about myself. I discovered where my comfort zone lies, how I can broaden it, and how taking up new challenges without fearing failure could be a source of pure joy. I also learned why diversity is necessary for the modern workplace to solve complex business problems.
Professionally, what is your ideal image of yourself five years from now? Where do you see yourself?
Five years from now, I want to be in an organization that would give me the space to explore the domain I am interested in and would give me opportunities to develop. I want to have a steep learning curve. Considering the fact that I want to work in the domain of sales and marketing preferably in the FMCG sector, I want to take up sales roles in this period to learn how things on the ground work. During my sales stint, I want to understand what incentivizes and disincentivizes distributors, retailers, and consumers so that I can use this understanding to curate effective marketing strategies later on in my professional career. Moving on from sales, I want to work in the marketing field. Here, I want to use my experiential learning and technical knowledge to curate effective strategies for brands. Hopefully, in doing so, I will be deemed fit to manage a popular brand. I want to help the brand grow and extend itself.
What is the one skill or characteristic you possess that you are most proud of, and why?
I have realized over time that one of my biggest strengths is that I do not become complacent at any stage. I constantly try to improve myself and keep myself flexible in order to make myself more productive and efficient. I am proud of this characteristic because of two reasons.Firstly, this quality is not something that came naturally to me. I made a conscious effort towards molding my mindset in this way after a point in time. I would like to tell what prompted me to take note and work towards building this mindset. Ever since the eighth standard, I always topped every exam in my school. This run of top performances instilled a sense of security in my mind. I seldom stepped out of my comfort zone and started fearing failure. It was only after my dismal performance in the JEE Advanced exam, that I looked up at the world that was there outside the boundaries of my comfort zone. I noticed the opportunities and potential that lay there. The only thing I had to do was to be courageous enough to go out there. I decided from then on that I would try new things, acquire new skills, and take on any challenge without the fear of failure. It was from then on that I decided I would not stagnate my skill sets or personal development at any point in the future. I have been consciously making an effort in this direction for almost 4 years now and it has done wonders for me.Secondly, I feel that this quality will serve me greatly in the coming years as I feel that the key to success in the modern business field is to keep growing and keep learning. The moment you stop learning, is the moment from when your downfall begins. This characteristic of mine guards me against such a downfall. Hence, I am proud of it.
In your opinion, what skills or qualities does a successful manager possess?
I think managers working in different domains need some specialized skills suited to that domain, but these skills are not the real deal-breakers. For me, two qualities that make a manager successful in the true sense of the word are as follows. Firstly, he/she should be able to recognize the diversity that prevails within the group of people working with him/her and should leverage this diversity to broaden the perspective of the team on any problem that it might be working on. To do that, he/she should create an environment where individuals are free to express themselves, even in a professional setting. When a manager does that, it not only improves the quality of output of the team in the short term but also does a world of good to each individual working on that team in the long run. Secondly, he/she should have the ability to motivate his/her team even when things are not going according to plan. He/she should lead from the front when things go south. The manager should look at positive methods and techniques to uplift the morale of the team rather than turning to coercion to get things done.
Tell us about an ethical dilemma that you may have faced, and how you resolved it.
About a year ago, four of my friends and I went on a trip. We made an arrangement with a local tour guide, where we gave him a certain amount upfront and would reimburse him the remaining amount on the last day of our stay.On the last day, while calculating the costs, the guide made a calculation mistake which reduced the total money we had to pay him by 3000 rupees. After he left, I decided to cross-check the calculations as the amount was lower than the tab I kept. I found out the mistake. On telling my friends, they told me to stay quiet about it as we were running a bit low on money and the extra amount would help. But, I reasoned with them and made them realize that whatever be our financial scenario, we couldn't keep the money. They agreed to pay the extra amount.
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 got the chance to be the CEO of a company, I would have definitely chosen Hindustan Unilever. The rationale behind my action is that this companys core belief matches with one of the things I have come to believe in very strongly. Everyday, we listen to people talking about businesses causing harm to the environment and more often than not the conversation goes down the Profit vs Environment path as if these two are necessarily mutually exclusive. HUL on the other hand believes that a company can keep churning out profits for its shareholders while making their processes and actions more sustainable by the day. A beautiful example of this is their high investment in water conservation programs where they safeguard the environment as well as the main medium of using a major part of their portfolio (washing powders, detergents, shampoos). My first action as CEO would be to ask every employee of the company irrespective of their positions in the corporate hierarchy to brainstorm and submit an idea with regards to how the company can keep on offering top quality products and high returns to its shareholders while protecting the environment. I would also create a dedicated team to go through these ideas and shortlist ones with real potential. The rationale behind my action would be to leverage the sheer diversity of backgrounds that the HUL workforce boasts of and get different views on the issue.
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Check The List Of InsideIIM’s 50 Most Promising Incoming Students 2021 Here!
For the Class Of 2022, we are back with the 8th season of InsideIIM's Best 50 - India's Most Employable MBA Graduates - Class Of 2022! If you're graduating from a B-School in 2022, you're eligible to take part in this competition! Grab the chance to bring out your best side and impress your recruiters and peers. Take the opportunity to show the world why you are special, on your own terms.
If you're using a web browser (Mozilla or Google Chrome), then you can take part through this link. Otherwise, please download the Kampus App (Android | iOS), and head over to Competitions.
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