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.
Biggest Risk: Chose to take a break year in 2020. I got admitted to ISB in Feb 2020 for PGP Co'21 and so I resigned from work immediately. Within a month, the lockdowns started and ISB had to shift classes fully online. I believe there is no substitute to in-person learning and so decided to defer admission to this year (Co'22). Now came the tough choice. I had already resigned from work and then deferred admission so I had 2 options; either I go back to my previous job for another year or take a break year. I chose to take a break. This decision was not taken lightly as a break year looks bad on most profiles during placements but I was determined and seemed the right moment to do so. In all probability, I will not get a break year till I retire! Also, coming from a family of doctors, I knew I would be of more help at home while the rest of my family was completely tied up at Covid hospitals.
When was the last time someone relied on you? OR What did you do which was purely for someone else - a truly selfless act.
In a recent incident, I was heading my club committee for ISB's flagship management fest - Advaita. Here we had to design a case competition from scratch; covering the problem statement, rounds and deadlines, judges and sponsors. As such ISB is a wildly hectic program and to devote time for extracurriculars is extremely taxing. In this scenario, my team members were relying on me to design all the steps for this case comp and then distribute the execution work amongst the members. Since this is the flagship fest, there is a lot of pressure from the ISB management to adhere to deadlines and come up with high-quality cases. For the first time, I found that 24 hours weren't enough and I needed to create time to complete all the steps. It was a very tough week but I managed to finish the designing on time with a little help from caffeine powered RedBull!
Tell us about a time when you disagreed with an opinion/idea/decision. What did you do about it?
I had a disagreement with one of my bosses regarding how to engage with the 2 wheeler EV startups. We had different approaches in mind and I thought since I am handling the EV customers and know the ground realities, my POV should get preference. We tried to find a middle ground but by doing that we arrived at getting the worst of both worlds. There were some financial considerations involved too and I was aware of those but wanted the team to focus on long term returns rather than short term financial ratios. We ended up going in my boss's direction and that did really prove to be financially viable in the same fiscal quarter but lost the customer's project. In the long run, whether that will come back to bite the company, I cannot say but what I learnt is that even when disagreeing with your colleagues/bosses, you should first put yourself in their shoes and gain another perspective before blindly defending your point of view.
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?
I would claim to have a good degree of expertise in motorsports and the automotive sector in general. I have always been a "car guy" since childhood and then as I grew up, I started watching F1 in high school at the same time when F1 came to India at Buddh International Circuit. Following this passion, I joined the Formula Student team at my undergrad engineering school and went on to lead the team in my final year. We participated in various international racing competitions where I was exposed to students from various universities and got a global perspective on how the automotive industry works across the globe. Following this, I joined AB SKF straight out of college and worked in their automotive business unit for 3 years. Here, I divulged into the electric vehicles sector and spent the better part of my job understanding EVs and creating roadmaps for electrification and connected mobility for SKF. Now at ISB and post-graduation, I hope to continue in the same industry and use all the skills and knowledge I have gathered to make a positive contribution to the industry.
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 would divide the amount into 2 buckets 50% each. For the first sum, I would create a simple portfolio with a mix of high risk and steady returns in the short to medium term and design the portfolio in such a way that this sum grows y-o-y gives above-average returns. (Finally applying corp finance in real life!). For the second sum, I would use the money to provide better equipment and training at government medical colleges and increase students' exposure to best medical practices from around the world. This pandemic has made one thing very clear, our medical infrastructure is not equipped to handle crises. While the infra improvement is a long term investment typically funded by the government, what is also striking is the capabilities of medical students to face such severe challenges. If we expect a resident doctor to treat a completely new disease such as Covid, we should also provide impetus so that these young doctors have a platform to learn and treat patients better. This money will be used to ensure that we have competent doctors treating us and with the renewed focus on healthcare, I believe this investment will have long term returns.
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