Name an instance where you wanted something and went out of your comfort zone to achieve it OR Tell us the biggest risk you have taken so far in your life.
I started my corporate career with KPMG in the risk consulting domain under the Advisory function. KPMG is one of the very few firms, which I feel expect their new joiners to be at their A-game very early in their career. . My work mainly revolved around client-specific internal audits & consulting reviews covering a varied set of projects from a documentary heavy compliance review to a process-based SOX IFC Review. After working on a few initial risk advisory projects like Compliance and Procedural reviews, KPMG gave me a chance to lead a team of experienced professionals for a plant-based SOX IFC Review. At first, I was a bit apprehensive of taking up the role of a team leader as I felt I didn't have enough exposure to handling such a huge team. Also, the fact that my team was composed of a few outsourced people, they were not in a situation to directly coordinate with the Client. Being asked to work as the main representative for such a huge project was a major shift for me. One thing which I realised immediately after taking up the managerial side of the role was that managing people is time-consuming and there will be days where one will have to make the hard calls. The fact that I had to be prepared to explain the reasoning behind any choices that I make and also ensure that the views of the team members have been heard, was a time-consuming task, one such scenario was when I had to allot specific tasks to the team keeping in mind their preferences. Along with this, I had to manage the project deliverables as well, which also required a substantial amount of time. Getting exposed to the managerial spectrum of the business so early in my career has given me a lot of confidence to take up more challenging projects in the future. Today, when I look back at my decision of accepting the given role, I feel this has to be the defining moment of my KPMG Career.
When was the last time someone relied on you? OR What did you do which was purely for someone else - a truly selfless act.
I have always had this theory that if I can help 40 people in a year, I consider that to be a year of personal growth. I feel my biggest achievement is that I have been fortunate enough to have contributed and brought a small positive change in people's lives. If you can clap and cheer for someone else genuinely, then that's a sign of being self-content. Not just content but rather self-respect.I have always enjoyed helping people and that is the reason I took up a lot of social development roles in my life. One such role which I feel has shaped my life was when I was selected to work as a cricket coach for a group of 20 students from low-income schools in Pune as a part of the fellowship program of The Apprentice Project. The Apprentice Project (TAP) is a not-for-profit organisation working towards empowering underprivileged children from the age group of 10 to 14 years to develop social-emotional skills and succeed in the current world. I feel proud to have been a part of the organisation that has shaped the future of more than 3000 kids.I have always believed that cricket can teach a lot of life skills and help one become a better person, so my eventual goal was to make these kids better future citizens of this country. The three months that I had with these kids have to be the most enriching time of my life. Cricket is a hard game, it throws you to the ground, urges you to get up, tests you all the time, it observes you whether you have it in you to go through the grind. I feel I oversaw the transitions of these kids from seeing cricket just as any other sport to loving this game and learning great life skills from all these experiences.The idea was not to only focus on making them better cricketers but to make them understand the importance of life beyond academics Also, it was not completely one-way learning, I also ended up learning about the different facets of life and have tried incorporating the learnings in my life. I have always been a very firm believer in the idea of learning from peoples experiences and that I feel is my biggest achievement.
Tell us about a time when you disagreed with an opinion/idea/decision. What did you do about it?
I have always believed that the conflict that is denied, avoided, or handled ineffectively can harm business relationships and on the other side conflicts that are handled well will free up people to focus on their jobs rather than tensions in the office which will lead to higher productivity, efficiency and effectiveness. One such scenario happened while I was working in KPMG on an HR Review for one of our clients. The first step in any consulting engagement is to finalise the scope of the review i.e. identifying major areas to cover in the course of the Audit. I had done a very thorough analysis and I found that there are major loopholes in the handling of third-party contractual employees. However, during initial discussions, my manager had a different view regarding my observations and was not willing to include "Third Party Vendors" in their scope for the audit. At that point, I decided to not take this disagreement negatively but to take this as an opportunity to refine my analysis and look it from an unbiased approach. After working out some minor changes, I felt that I had pretty valid points to back my arguments and if I let this go right now, if some major loopholes appear in the future in the third-party payroll, it would be on my conscience. At that point, I decided to go and discuss this issue with my engagement senior as I felt that I had very valid reasons for putting across my views, and to my surprise, he was quite willing to listen and understand my version of the story. If I look back on my life so far, I realise that most of my learnings have come not from those moments of peace and tranquillity but experiences of conflict with others, including colleagues in the workplace. I am still a work in process but I am grateful for those difficult personal disagreements.
What is the one thing you can claim to have some level of expertise or depth of knowledge in - it could be anything - a subject, a sport, a hobby, a venture, an initiative which has led you to do deep work in that field?
Cricket has been a very important part of my formative years and has helped me grow as a person. I have been playing professional cricket for almost 10 years now and have been fortunate enough to be a part of very competitive teams such as Delhi Summer League, IPSC National, Inter DPS, SIU Inter-varsity team, and recently I have also played for KPMG for the 2018- 19 season.I have learned the value of effort and commitment through cricket, One of the basic prerequisites of commitment is staying true to yourself and there have been numerous occasions during my cricketing career, where my commitment was tested. Cricket is a hard game, it throws you to the ground, urges you to get up, tests you all the time, it observes you whether you have it in you to go through the grind.I have also made an effort to pass on the cricketing knowledge and experience that I have gained over my professional career. I have been fortunate to work as a cricket coach for a group of 20 students from a low-income school in Pune as a part of the fellowship program of The Apprentice Project.
If 10 Million Dollars (approximately INR 75 Crores) is given to you to use it any way you deem fit what would you do with this corpus?
I have been very active in the social service sector, the thought of doing something for the society has always been one of my priorities and I used to make sure that I keep doing my bit to make this world a better place to live. I feel I have been fortunate enough to have contributed and brought a small positive change in people's lives.Having worked with a number of NGOs focused on a varied set of social problems, I think one area which resonates with me and if given a chance I would want to focus on would be to start an NGO focused on empowering the underprivileged children from the age group of 8-14 by imparting relevant emotional and technical skills in the areas of Sports, Visual and Performing Arts and inculcating essential leadership skills like Creativity, Problem Solving and Communication.Having played a competitive sport like cricket for over 10 years, I Understand the importance of such activities. The fact that I have already worked with a similar organisation The Apprentice Project , I have a good understanding of the nuances required to manage such an organisation.
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