Himanshu Bhangotra, Indian Institute of Management, Shillong - India's Most Promising Incoming MBA Students 2022

I am Himanshu Bhangotra from Pathankot, Punjab and I completed my graduation in B. Com in 2016. I have work experience of 58 months, 6 months as a Management Trainee (Marketing Department) in verka, Punjab MilkFed and 52 months in Public sector banking out of which 27 months as Branch manager. I am one of the youngest manager in the 53 years history of Public Sector Banks in India. I like playing football and following finance and Economics related news, I also love watching documentaries.

Tell us more about your extracurricular achievements 

1) I was part of the football team ( Pathankot FC) which was able to secure a runners up position in an inter district football tournament organized in December 2015. Although we have won other football tournaments, I rank this to be my greatest sporting achievement because of the team against whom we lost the final match 'Patiala FC'. We lost the final match with the score of 5-1 and the few of the players in the 'Patiala FC' team included those who had represented India at the international level like 'Shenaz Singh',etc.

2) I was part of a football team ( Pathankot FC) which won a football tournament organized by Army Cantonment of Kuantarpur in July 2016. I rate this achievement of mine so high as this has been the last sporting event that I have participated in and we defeated the host team in the final match on penalties.

Tell us about a time when you messed up, and what you learnt from the experience?

I have always dreamt of joining the Reserve Bank of India since a very young age. In the year 2021 I appeared for the recruitment exam of RBI Grade-B (General) - Manager. I aced the phase 1 of the exam. While preparing for phase 2 exam I got infected with covid-19 and was just able to recover a day earlier but still I was again able to clear the exam and got shortlisted for the interviews round. I put in all my hard work and dedication for preparing for the interviews but at the time of the declaration of final results my name was not there in the final selection list. After the final results I realized that I had become quite overconfident and didn't pay attention to minor details. I learned to be humble and better focused on your targets from this failure of mine.

Tell us something about yourself that others may be surprised to know about you. 

I am perceived as a very studious and punctual person. The first impression that I think others perceive of me is that 'I am a calm and resilient person who knows how to enjoy myself and is also considerate enough to make others comfortable with my presence. But, there are few suprising things that others might be suprised to know about like I am a very avid follower of Console gaming world. I like playing FIFA on PSN. I am also a very good cook and my favourite dishes that I prepare are Chicken, Rice Pudding and Pizza.

What have been your two biggest successes in life? What did you learn from them?

1) I was ranked 2nd in the annual promotion exam from Assistant manager to Manager at Bank of Maharashtra in 2019. This makes me feel proud as Bank of Maharashtra is one of the 12 Public sector banks in India and every year around 10 Lac people try to get recruited into these banks but only a handful of few are selected and I was able to stand among the cream of people of this ivy league.

2) I consider scoring more than 99 percentile in CAT 2021 and then securing admission to IIM Shillong to be one of my best academic achievements as every year more than 2 lac people try to secure a seat at one of such premium colleges and I was among those selected.The learning that I have gained over the years is continuous and dedicated hard work always pays off. Staying calm in difficult situations and control over your emotions are the two most important things required to be successful in professional and personal life.

Professionally, what is your ideal image of yourself five years from now? Where do you see yourself? 

I have been following the RBI policies and development in the economy and the financial world since 2011. I have always aspired to become part of the most important financial institution of the country and tried but failed so far. I have joined IIM Shillong to upgrade my skills and make myself more acquainted with the world of finance and economy and I hope that I would someday join RBI in a lateral position. But, in the next 5 years I intend to continue with my steep learning curve and join JP Morgan Chase in an M&A role and I'd like to build and manage larger teams and continue advancing as a leader and be its valuable representative.

What is the one skill or characteristic you possess that you are most proud of, and why?

There are lots of qualities and skills that one needs to hone and acquire like interpersonal skills, Empathy, be a team player, innovative thinking, etc. but the single most important consideration for me to be distinguished is my leadership skills. I have acquired a very vivid experience in my professional life while working in Bank of Maharashtra which has helped me develop and built a multi-dimensional character. I have become better at handling pressure, improved my commitment & perseverance, become a holistic manager but most importantly I grew from being a team member to becoming a team leader. The focus of a leader is not just personal development, but they focus on developing others as well, encourage strategic thinking, innovation, and most importantly lead by example. When I was given the charge of my first branch as Branch manager at Bank of Maharashtra, the financial position of the branch was not in a very good condition and the existing staff was also very much disinterested and concerned about the position of the branch. Most of them would come late to work and try to leave as early as possible with no concern towards branch performance. This is where my leadership qualities came to the fore and I led by example in maintaining the decorum of the branch as I was always the first one to come to the branch as early as 90 minutes before the opening time and would even utilize my holidays for improvement in branch financials. This helped me in changing the attitude of other staff of the branch and all of them became very punctual with the timings and performance and were sometimes assisting me with the branch work on holidays as well and we were successful in improving the branch position.

In your opinion, what skills or qualities does a successful manager possess?

Working with Bank of Maharashtra has had a very deep and big impact on building my character. As a person, growing over the years has significantly changed who I am, and I would keep on evolving to be better than who I was yesterday. The most striking personality trait that I have been able to develop over the years is 'Emotional maturity' or 'Emotional intelligence'. I have become more aware of myself and try to take steps toward changing my behavior for my betterment, not blaming others or even myself if something does not go the way I want and taking responsibility for my actions. I have developed a sense of empathy and humility becoming more holistic and task oriented. Even when I experience aversive scenarios, I don't tend to be dominated by fear and anxiety, and try not to dont panic, developing the ability to control my emotions without distorting them and knowing my limits thus helping me to deliver on the promises I have made and fulfill my responsibilities.

Tell us about an ethical dilemma that you may have faced, and how you resolved it. 

During my tenure with Bank of Maharashtra, I had been mostly posted in rural and semi-rural branches in the Nashik District. When I joined the Bank in 2017 there were droughts in the area in 2017 and for the next two years excess rainfall affected the crop produce of the farmers who had borrowed from our branch. Crop insurance claims that they received were not sufficient to sustain them let alone repayment of loans they had availed. When I visited these farmers for recovery of loans, I found out that the financial conditions of the farmers in our area was in a very troubled state and many would not be able to repay their loans as some were barely sustaining. As the balance confirmation certificates of many borrowers were close to their expiry need to be renewed at least every 3 years) and some were unwilling to renew them; I kept my emotions at bay and did not let them interfere with my decision-making process, I decided to file recovery suits against the defaulters for recovery of dues by auctioning of their farmlands

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?

Manchester United F.C., I have been following football since I was 6 years old and have been a die-hard fan of Manchester United F.C. The most successful club in the history of British football has lately fallen from its glory days and have not won even a single competition in 5 years. I am very disheartened by the current state of the club and if I were to be made the CEO of the club, I would try to overhaul the scouting and transfer policy of the club as they have been overpaying for not so very good players. I would want to manage the affairs of the club and would want to bring back the glory days for the club.

Any Other Comments Or Factors You Would Like To Highlight About Yourself? 

1) Captained the Football and Cricket team at the School level in class 10th.
2) Part of the Football team at my college which took part in inter-university tournaments in 2015.
3) Reached Level 3 of EA Sports FIFA 20 online league on the Sony Play station Network.
4) I acted as a 'Player cum Manager' for the football team ( Pathankot FC) in the tournament that we played in Dec 2015. It was an inter-district tournament and we were able to reach all the way to the final match of the tournament which we eventually lost. My leadership role as a 'Player cum Manager' played a very important role in driving the performance of the team without any formal training coach. We were considered the underdogs among the 16 teams which participated but still were able to finish the tournament as runner ups.