Tell us about a time when you messed up, and what you learnt from the experience?
I did my schooling in Rayagada, a small town in Southern Odisha. For a 16-year-old, being the district topper in 10th was a big high. The shine had hardly paled when I landed in Bhubaneswar to pursue intermediate. Back then, when internet penetration was still nascent at best, call it ignorance or something natural for somebody from a small place, I had no idea about the coaching culture that existed to crack JEE. So, when I came to know about it, I felt a sense of inferiority and paid coaching the importance it perhaps didn't deserve. Because of constraints at home, I couldn't take up coaching. But that in itself was not as big a deal as I made it out to be. I went into a spiral where I subconsciously told myself how I wasn't going to make it without the coaching, how the world was an unfair place, how others who availed coaching and came from more prominent places were better than me. I put in some effort for sure. But with the kind of negative attitude I had, I couldn't make it to the IITs. Here, not making it into the IITs wasn't the real failure at all. It was the negative attitude I had developed even before the journey had begun. I had given up mentally before the start. I entered a new phase with a closed mind. This experience taught me perhaps the most fundamental life lesson. You can't quit before you have tried. After that, I have always made it a point to call the conclusion on something only after I have tried my best, to go in with an open mind, not to allow a constant negative attitude.
Tell us something about yourself that others may be surprised to know about you.
For a few years now, I have devoted a significant amount of time and energy to honing my public speaking skills. Apart from being vividly active in Toastmasters, I have been into Slam Poetry, Debates, Guest Talks, Anchoring, Panel Moderation. So, whenever I share my public speaking journey with people, they are sometimes surprised to know that I was not always good at this. Honestly, we always know we build things from scratch. But when presented with a refined version, we rarely can imagine the kind of journey the refined something in our sight might have gone through to reach this point. As a young boy going to school, I would freeze whenever the teacher asked me something. In 5th class, when I had to, despite my firm resistance, attend a debate competition in my school, I couldn't go beyond the first couple of lines. From that point to winning a few speaking competitions in 10th to the present moment, life has come a long way. In hindsight, I think it was just the sheer number of unsuccessful attempts. My mom would insist on participation no matter what. And after a point, that moment of absolute nervousness and anxiety when asked to speak, started diluting slowly. Honestly, the fright never left me. It was just that gradually I started managing it better. There was no real strategy. It was the attempts that shaped my coping and response mechanism.
What have been your two biggest successes in life? What did you learn from them?
Last year, as a fresher, I had an admit from XLRI. From where I come, it was a massive opportunity for me. But owing to the pandemic and a long-cherished dream of making it to IIM Ahmedabad, I decided not to take up the offer. At that point, little did I know what was awaiting me. With a delay in joining Deloitte, I was in my home preparing for CAT full-time. With each fluctuation in the mock score, the pressure multiplied. It was all self-created. But at times, I think we are not cognizant of what we are doing to our health. I have had a history of acute GERD a jargon for gastric problems. But it doesn't stop there. GERD has some allied effects like anxiety. So, when I was in the grips of lows from CAT preparation and visited the doctor every fortnight for GERD, I would sometimes question my decision. Sometimes, I would lose belief in myself. And I don't exactly know when, but sometime in September, I was diagnosed with acute anxiety disorder. I was a fine young man. Yet within a few months, I was facing a strange low, one that I had never really experienced. Sure, I had been in tougher and sometimes more demanding moments. But grappling with anxiety is somehow very different. At first, I was on pills. But slowly, I learnt how vital it was for me to fix the root, practice some natural therapeutic ways like yoga, journaling. I started going for evening walks, tried to de-emphasize the impact of CAT results, wrote daily. This is not at all to say, things improved overnight. It took time. I stopped taking medications sometime in march. It has been a very different experience. But as I reflect, I call it a success for two reasons First, I am proud that I could come back from the bottomless pit. It wasn't easy. Second, I now better know my priorities in life. The realization in me that mental health comes before everything else will help. This is not to say, one will not shoulder stressful responsibilities. Whatever I do now, I am more conscious about the way I am processing it internally. I am in the process of knowing myself. And this is a big success for me.2. Making it to IIM Ahmedabad. My biggest learning in this long journey has been realising the importance of 3Fs. Friends, Family, and Fortune. Hard work and efforts definitely matter. But without the 3Fs, I wouldn't have been able to brave the long road.
Professionally, what is your ideal image of yourself five years from now? Where do you see yourself?
As of now, I am interested in strategy consulting. I want to pursue it with all my heart. Five years from now, I aspire to be in a role where I am solving business strategy problems. It can be as a Project Manager at MBBs or an in-house strategy role at a start-up or a big tech firm. But I would like to talk about something much matters much more to me than a particular role. I want to be a true leader, one with Empathy, Integrity, and Humility. I want to be able to inspire humans and actions. Deep down, all I am seeking to do is some meaningful impact. Not in the way some corporate PPTs present it. I have nothing against it or capitalism even. Just that, I would like to be more human in the impact I am seeking. I am still figuring it out. I have this vision and that's all for now. I believe the clear goals and roles will shape up as I walk further.
What is the one skill or characteristic you possess that you are most proud of, and why?
Being authentic or genuine in all situations is something I take a lot of pride in. I strongly believe, only you can be the best you. If youre yourself, the only real competition then is just with yourself. Self-growth comes organically, and there's minimal internal conflict. One most vital consequence is You can hear your inner voice. It is not drowned out in the chaos. You're self-aware. In my undergrad days, web development was all the rage. Being a computer science student, I thought of giving it a try. After spending a couple of weeks on freecodecamp.com, I realized I was not fond of web development as much. I found the process of analysis of algorithms much more fascinating. There were a few of my branch mates who didn't like development too. But guess what did they do? Coders doing open source contributions, side projects, and running various websites sounds very cool, right? A resounding yes. Well, some gave in, despite not finding the process/work interesting enough. But thanks to my natural affinity for being myself, I felt comfortable with the idea of dropping web development plans. FOMO, as I didn't know the term back then, has never been more powerful. Being my authentic self every single time allows me to hear and understand my internal voice genuinely. And in a world that is perennially stimulated, I believe this characteristic is an asset.
In your opinion, what skills or qualities does a successful manager possess?
The most essential quality of a manager is how well she can give up managing and instead lead the team. This might seem counter-intuitive at first. But let's dive in. The entire world is running on trust. From concepts of the constitution to money, societies are functioning based on trust. If you look at a team, a group of individuals is trying to collaborate towards achieving a single task. There's implicit trust running between them. So now, as a manager, its a skill to lead your team towards a goal while trusting your team players to deliver the results. Trust begets trust. Sure, you can always have conversations about the processes. But by and large, you need to lead and show the way. Not manage. At the end of the day, humans like to be led but despise being managed. And at the heart of it, the entire concept of management is understanding and then reacting accordingly to human psychology. This brings me to my next points.Empathy/EQ, Integrity, Inclusion are hallmarks of a good manager. In todays corporate world, which is abundant, where maybe the most important motive may not necessarily be remuneration, these three qualities go a long way in establishing a manager as a leader and fostering an environment of trust for the entire team.Last, IQ and creativity: For a proper manager, while the above points are sacrosanct and have a high bar, these two work well even with a minimum threshold level.
Tell us about an ethical dilemma that you may have faced, and how you resolved it.
In the pre-final year of my undergrad days, I worked on a machine learning project with three of my friends (A, R, D). The objective was just pure learning. In the final year, we had to undertake an academic project as part of our curriculum. I proposed enhancing the existing project and going for publishing our work. A agreed, but R and D wanted to work on a different idea. R and D didn't have any problems with A and I going ahead with my proposal. However, I felt it wasn't fair as R and D had their contribution to it, and now, the enhanced project would have only A and I on it. I also knew including all names wouldn't be fair as well, as we were going to do the critical enhancement work. The issue of due credit was essential to me. To resolve the dilemma, I thought it best to have our guide, HOD sirs opinion on this. Seeking an experienced person's advice in moments like this is critical. He made us realize how we are looking only at this idea, how we were focussing on a narrow strip during the conversation. What if we could work on a new dataset and focus on implementing my proposal on it? I took his suggestion. A and I worked on a new dataset, and fortunately, the work got published, and there was no dilemma about the credits.
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?
I would choose BCG for two reasons:1. I am interested in pursuing a career in management consulting post my MBA. Especially in strategy projects. BCG has plenty of relevant opportunities.2. BCG does a lot of projects with the Indian government. I am passionate about scalable impact, and when it's on a broad canvas, like the government policies, it's all the more satisfying. My first action as the CEO would be to foster the spirit of gender equity at the higher echelons of the firm. Case in point, when Alpesh Shah, MD, BCG India (an alumnus of IIM A), was elevated to his position, four other senior partners were in consideration. All 4 were males. This speaks something about how BCGs #BalanceForBetter might be bearing fruits at the lower levels but is not cent percent effective at the higher levels of the corporate hierarchy. It will take time. But if I am getting a 6-year stint, I would rather love to make a mark on the culture bit of BCG than just raking in a higher bottom line. I have championed for girls being allowed in the library post 6 PM in my college and have tried, in my little ways, to be a human whos sensitive to some uncomfortable realities. I strongly feel theres rare magic in making an effort to understand somebody truly. I hope to find that rare moment of magic in the BCG world too.
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Check The List Of InsideIIM’s 50 Most Promising Incoming Students 2021 Here!
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