Nikhil Bhasin from IIM Bangalore has earned his place among the 50 Most Employable MBA Graduates from the Class of 2026. His story is one of high-velocity execution in the E-Commerce product space, where he consistently demonstrated an ability to build from zero to one, thrive on data, and bring structure to ambiguous business challenges. Scroll down to discover how Nikhil has transformed opportunities into milestones and challenges into stepping stones on his path to professional excellence.
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The Ascent: Scaling Products and Leading Innovation
Nikhil Bhasin's pre-MBA career is defined by his significant impact on fast-paced E-Commerce giants like Zomato and PharmEasy. At Zomato, he was instrumental in scaling India's first Intercity Food Delivery business to serve over 9 crore monthly active users, a success that required tackling uncertainties across multiple aspects of the business. His work involved driving user retention and revenue by:
- Leading UI/UX upgrades from login to checkout.
- Owning product analytics, demand forecasting, and recommendation engines.
- Designing CRM journeys to improve engagement and repeat usage.
A recipient of a merit scholarship at IIM Bangalore, Nikhil is now leveraging his entrepreneurial background to head the Product Management & Tech Club. His summer internship with WinZO in the Product Management and Growth Strategy domain further cemented his expertise in the high-growth, consumer-facing tech space.
The Inner Core: Mentorship and Direction in the Unknown
What Nikhil considers his most meaningful achievement is his mentorship work with final year students and fresh graduates from his alma mater, BITS Pilani, during the 2023 layoff period. With an intent to give back, he joined the BITSAA alumni association and saw students in distress.
His initiative was methodical and high-impact: he shared resources, held bi-weekly Zoom sessions to address resume creation, technical skills like SQL and Python, business case solving, and conducted mock interviews. He then proactively leveraged his professional network to provide referrals. Within a month, 90% of the students he mentored secured their desired job offers. This experience reinforced his belief that leadership is fundamentally about giving direction in the unknown and turning ambiguity into measurable success.
Nikhil's top three strengths that are not immediately visible on a resume are:
- Leadership in Ambiguity: The ability to give direction when facing the unknown, a quality honed through his experience as a Fest Coordinator and now as Head of the PM Club.
- Resource Management: Learning to effectively allocate and manage resources, both financial and human, a skill he developed while growing revenue through sponsorship negotiations in undergrad.
- Designing Engaging Experiences: His background in stand-up comedy has honed his ability to quickly capture user attention, sustain their interest, and drive loyalty, directly translating into better product design.
The Employable Edge in an AI-Augmented World
In today’s AI-augmented business world, Nikhil’s biggest asset is a strong bias for action combined with the ability to leverage AI for accelerated learning and execution. Beyond his strong foundation in analytics and data science, his distinguishing traits are the capacity to move fast, learn fast, and think from first principles.
As an experienced Product Manager, he routinely uses AI to speed up the creation of Minimum Viable Products (MVPs), validate hypotheses, and run faster iteration cycles. This proactive approach was demonstrated in a recent project where he built an AI agent to simplify digital marketing workflows, automating campaign planning and real-time budget reallocation, resulting in a significant boost in ROI.
The Character: Creating Meaning Beyond the Event
Nikhil demonstrated genuine selflessness during his tenure as Pro-Nights Coordinator at BITS Pilani. He wanted the sports fest to be more than just entertainment, proposing an exhibition match between the Indian Blind Cricket Team and the college team, an unprecedented event at an Indian college. His goal was simple: to use the platform to honor the athletes and raise awareness for disability sports.
He ensured the players felt respected and comfortable, stepping far outside his usual responsibilities. When suitable accommodation was an issue, he worked with volunteers to prepare a vacant hostel wing with mattresses and accessibility support. When transport was scarce, he coordinated a vehicle for their travel. To maximize attendance, he converted a central football ground into a cricket pitch. On match day, the applause from the Director, senior faculty, and hundreds of students confirmed the value of the effort. This experience cemented his belief that leadership means quietly stepping in to fill gaps and working alongside others to create truly inclusive and meaningful experiences.
Nikhil Bhasin is a high-impact, first-principles thinker who offers a rare blend of product expertise, growth strategy, and demonstrated leadership. His hobby in stand-up comedy and improv provides unique business skills: user empathy from active listening and superior stakeholder management using the "Yes, and" mindset. Managers can count on a professional who is not only technically proficient and data-driven but also possesses the resilience, bias for action, and collaborative spirit essential for navigating the complex challenges of a rapidly changing, AI-driven corporate landscape.
