Sriya Sainath, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore - India's Most Promising Incoming MBA Students 2022

Incurable optimist, intrepid perfectionist, seasoned thinking dreamer, animated learner this, in a nutshell, is how I have been described. My family has been instrumental in imbibing the values that define me. My grandmother is the first female mountaineer of Odisha, my mother a national-level rural development trainer. Growing up around strong, self-assured women has had a profound impact on my worldview. They taught me that fear stems from an unwillingness to investigate beyond the obvious. Ever since, I have always explored new avenues, be it debating, painting, vocals, or being a district level basketball player, while consistently maintaining academic prowess.

Tell us more about your extracurricular achievements 

I was awarded 5 awards during graduation, including the Institute Gold Medal for Best Graduate for standing first in academics and the Gold Medal for Best All-rounder of the batch. I also won the branch topper award, as well as endowment awards for being the "Best Graduate" and "Best Engineering Graduate" across all streams. In college, I realized my own proclivity towards leadership while assuming many positions of responsibility, a few being founder and mentor of the Student Counselling Program, student nominee for the Inter Disciplinary Student Committee, Deans nominee for the Games and Sports Society, and Vice President for the debating/literary club. I was the recipient of the reputed Adobe India Women in Technology Scholarship in 2018 when I also interned at Adobe Research and secured a patent during that time for inventing a novel dynamic pricing mechanism for data marketplaces to maximize revenue. I was also the founding lead of the Google Developer Student Clubs and facilitated solution development initiatives as well as coached students for building technical skills via workshops. I founded and worked as a mentor under the Student Counselling Program and was the student representative for the institute's disciplinary committee. I was the technical head of our institute's cultural magazine and creative head for our primary coding club. I also contributed under the IMPRINT scheme of the Government of India for smart city architecture and infrastructure on the modules of Crime and Suspicious Activity Detection and Automatic Traffic Control. While at Microsoft, I participated and won in a number of Hackathons, including Hack for Good by building CORAbot as a grassroots emergency response "helper" tool to offer critical supplies/skills or obtain those resources, and Fix, Hack, Learn by improving the cultural sensitivity of the autocorrect functionality in Microsoft Office. At IIM Bangalore, I was elected as the head (overall coordinator) of the first cultural fest organized by our batch, "Aarambh".I achieved state ranks 3 and 4 respectively in National Science Olympiad and International English Olympiad in school, and won academic excellence award for +2, Kingston education awards for being the state winner in ISC, and secured Inductotherm scholarship for first rank in HSC. I've played basketball for the district team and have won multiple accolades in sports, literary/debating and cultural events. I've won best player in multiple sports, best speaker in international parliamentary debates, and won first place in many other events across school, undergraduate and now post-graduate such as content writing, poetry, case competitions, clay modelling, classical singing etc.

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

Once while at work, one of the features I owned saw an intermittent failure over a weekend. Since I was the sole feature owner, the responsibility of resolving the issue was naturally mine. After probing and investigation, I found out that the problem was due to a failure from a dependent service cascading onto ours. Despite knowing that our work hadn't introduced any errors, I realized that we ought to have a mechanism to check for failures across dependent services as well to ensure sound health of our system. So I created a comprehensive alerting system to ensure proper error detection and enable resolution, and telemetry to analyze service data and build visualizations to track all features performance. This experience made me realize the importance of accountability, and how even if one might not directly be at fault for an issue, their ownership makes it imperative for them to devise solutions to identify and resolve them efficiently.

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

I suffer from an auto-immune disease called Vasculitis, which is a rare disorder that causes the immune system to attack blood vessels. Apart from narrowing the blood vessels to reduce supply to vital organs, this also causes fatigue, weight loss, and severe aches and pains. I was warned by the doctor that I might not be able to be as physically agile and fit as my peers, but that never deterred me from my hobbies. I've always been passionate about sports and fitness, and I was best athlete in my school, have won and been declared "Most Valuable Player" in numerous sports events during undergraduate and postgraduate, and have even played for the district Basketball team. It just takes a little bit of pushing and a whole lot of determination to persevere!

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

At my convocation for B.Tech., I was privileged to be awarded five medals, including Gold Medals titled Best Graduate for securing first position in academics, and All-rounder of the batch. Far more than the happiness I got while receiving the awards, the expression of pure elation on my family's faces made the entire effort of four years. I grew up in a joint family, and I realized how important is it to give back to them for everything they had done for me, and prove that their efforts did pay off eventually.Despite having many other accolades which might be more significant on paper, my contribution towards Project CORA which won the global competition "Hack for Good Jumpstart" holds a special place in my heart. It involved creating CORAbot, which serves as a grassroots emergency response "helper" tool individuals can interact with in 60 languages. When news of the first COVID-19 cases came out, it hit very close to home, and it was not long before we felt its consequences, including the shortage of critical supplies and access to basic, everyday needs. At the same time, we immediately witnessed random acts of kindness and generosity, as people/businesses immediately started to reach out and help each other by sharing their own resources, or by repurposing their skills to address critical needs.It became apparent that gaining rapid, systematic visibility to available critical resources is one of the key challenges during a major crisis, and our solution could prove effective for amplifying human kindness in just about any major, population-impacting event. This helped me learn how important and satisfying it is to be able to use one's skills for the betterment of the society.

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

Five years from now, I would be utilizing my existing expertise in research and implementation along with problem-solving, stakeholder management, and in-depth knowledge of the various verticals of business. These, along with the art of optimal decision-making, would help utilize my curiosity and creativeness in order to materialize my abstract ideas into reality through managing well-rounded products. I see myself excelling in a symbiotic, rounded career, creating value-driven products, and leading growth in a global business organization sustainably and in an inclusive manner, thereby making my family proud.

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

My strongest asset is my work ethic and my willingness to step in when needed while handling diverse aspects at work/school. Im not afraid to take on a difficult customer or do a project that others are shy of because they teach me the most. I have gone beyond my work description and used my ability to step in and adapt to any situation to get the best results.I believe that being this proactive also enables me to solve problems quickly and efficiently. I can see any given situation from multiple perspectives, which makes me a good communicator and uniquely qualified to complete my work even under challenging conditions.

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

There are many nuances in being a successful manager, but I believe being empathetic and knowledgeable as a leader who is inspiring but approachable, effective with a knack for identifying potential and delegating tasks/splitting responsibilities accordingly, a good mentor working towards the growth of those looking up to you, possessing sound communication skills, and being inclusive, goal-oriented and analytical are a few of the qualities one needs to hone.

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

Once during work, there was an urgent change that had to be implemented as soon as possible, but my manager wasn't present for approving those changes. I faced the dilemma of being proactive and responsible for my own work while bypassing conventional authority, or waiting to follow the prescribed and suggested path but delaying the updates and causing issues for users.I decided to take charge of my work while making sure I don't actively flout any regulations. I took the initiative of reaching out to a partner team in another geolocation and getting my changes approved, but I made sure I and put changes behind a "flight" so they could be reverted instantaneously if need be, and informed my manager as soon as he was available to maintain accountability and transparency.

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 Amazon as the company I'd want to be the CEO of, because of the wide global reach as well the scope of improvement visible via shortcomings I believe can be tackled through better managerial decisions. The core of any company and one of its biggest assets is its people: the employees and the relationship they share with the organization. So my first action as CEO would be to make Amazon a better place to work for frontline workers, and hence create a better vision for how its create value for employees and their success. Amazon definitely has scope of doing better in terms of the working conditions and benefits provided to frontline workers, aspects which took a hit during the pandemic, and this can be achieved by improving warehouse conditions, automating staffing schedules, increasing workers' paid leaves etc. The aim would be for Amazon to be "Earths Best Employer" and "Earths Safest Place to Work", since placing value on the human element will inevitably reinforce Amazon's focus on being "Earths Most Customer-Centric Company" as well, and help work towards satisfying multiple stakeholders better.

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

I'll always do the right thing, even when no one's watching. I grew up with very sound moral values under my grandfather's influence. As a retired IAS officer who had been influential, there had been numerous occasions he had faced when a slight lapse of judgement would have led to a serious moral scruple violation. While I might not have yet faced situations or decisions of that magnitude in a professional career, I carry my ethics and principles with me very firmly. I haven't and I won't resort to any unfair means at university/work, and it's not the fear of authority or the repercussion of being exposed that prevents me from delving into any unethical means, but the fact that I am morally upright since I was a child and I intent to be so always in the future.I also cherish the ideals of empathy very dearly, and to that end, have always been perceptive about people's difficulties/issues and done my best to be understanding and helpful, as well as been kind to other living creatures around. I've volunteered at NGOs during the pandemic and have also taught underprivileged children at "Aanganwadis" after college hours.