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.
The biggest risk I have taken in life was to join Tata Strategic Management Group. TSMG is the internal strategy arm of the Tata Group. In the final weeks of my under graduation, while I was looking for a full-time opportunity in the Finance domain, I came across an interesting analyst role posted by an unknown company. I later learnt that the company was an HR consultancy firm, hiring on behalf of TSMG. After making it through all the rounds of the hiring process, I was offered a full-time role of an analyst at TSMG. I did not have much idea about the company or about consulting in general. So, I tried to read some reviews about the company on platforms like Glassdoor, etc. Here, I saw that TSMG had received very poor feedback from its past employees and there were many bad reviews, including warnings to not join and rather stay unemployed. At this point, I was also a part of further stages of the recruitment process of 2 other well-known companies. I was surprised to read reviews about TSMG and was in a dilemma about whether I should join TSMG or not. On one hand, there were poor reviews about the firm and a potential chance at other well-known companies and on the other hand, there was an opportunity to gain front end consulting experience at Tata Group. After much deliberation, I decided to join TSMG, which at that point of my career was a big risk, as it would have costed me with a lot of time and efforts. Further, an unpleasant start to my corporate career would have impacted me mentally as well. However, after joining, I learnt that TSMG had revamped its way of working and had made significant changes in its work culture. Online reviews were about what the company was until a year ago and not representative of the current employee experience. I really enjoyed my 26 months stint at TSMG and am glad that I took the risk to join this company by leaving other options.
When was the last time someone relied on you? OR What did you do which was purely for someone else - a truly selfless act.
At MDI Gurgaon, I am a senior member of the college's Mentorship and Preparation Cell (also called Prep Team) and here I have worked purely for someone else. At Prep Team, my primary responsibilities include preparing and mentoring students for their Summer Internship and Final Placement processes. We conduct various sessions and share relevant resources to help the students in going through these processes smoothly. Additionally, we also guide and support them for various corporate competitions. During the Summer Internship Placement process, the students are just a few weeks into the MBA life and are burdened with a huge task. Most of them are clueless and go through severe anxiety. At this point, they really need a lot of support to enable them to sail through easily.I was personally responsible for 20 first-year students for their Summer Internship Placement process and these students relied on me for support and guidance. I constantly mentored them and guided them through various stages of the process. I helped them in creating their CVs, took their Mock GDs and Mock PIs, provided them with resources and shared about past year experiences. I also made sure that I keep the spirits and motivation of the juniors high throughout the process. The Summer Internship process is the most important phase of an MBA and I am glad that I could play an important role in this phase for 20 students personally and the entire junior batch in general.
Tell us about a time when you disagreed with an opinion/idea/decision. What did you do about it?
During one of my projects at Tata Strategic Management Group, we were tasked to prepare a turnaround plan for a distress plantations Company. I was responsible for the agri business module where we were exploring opportunities for the company in agribusiness. In order to design a viable financial model, I conducted thorough research and decided to take industry averages for crop yield and unit economics. My manager, on the other hand, insisted on taking optimistic numbers to make the business look lucrative. At this point, I disagreed with his opinion and insisted on taking conservative figures.I tried explaining to my manager that these optimistic numbers might not give us a true and complete picture of the business. He, however, was still firm on his point of optimism. In order to further substantiate my point, I conducted extended research about crop yields. Through subsequent negotiations, I was eventually able to convince my manager to make the model as per industry standards. Further, I also explained to him how we can conduct a ground study to evaluate the soil and local market for crops. Therefore, we were able to align our thoughts and considered appropriate figures for the financial model. Staying firm on my stance of things and convincing the ranks of a Principal for the same, was a valuable experience and further helped me enhance my consulting and critical thinking skills. This disagreement was important because the distressed company would rely a lot on the financial model that we would present and accordingly take critical business decisions.
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 have a keen interest in the businesses of Taxi Aggregators, specifically on-demand cab providers like Ola and Uber. I have been admiring their business model learning more about their functioning, for quite some time now. The seeds of this admiration were laid during my under-graduation, when I co-authored and published 2 research papers around Taxi Aggregators - one, about the rise of the taxi market in India and second, about how these taxi aggregators have evolved. In these papers, I studied the different modes of on-road transportation and analysed how Taxi Aggregators found their way into the Indian Market. I also researched the disruptive model of Taxi Aggregators and how they have impacted the Indian Economy. I further analysed the sectors and businesses which have been impacted (positively and negatively) because of the rise of Taxi Aggregators. All of these were combined with an effective primary survey where I further learned about people's points of view and their associated behaviour. To keep myself abreast with the latest happenings, I constantly follow this industry for any further developments and innovations. I now am personally excited to see how the dynamics change after Ola and Uber nationally adopt EVs in their fleet of Taxis along with customers' response to this adoption.
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 firstly repay all outstanding dues and loans that I and my family owe, including my education loan. After that, I would want to buy our own house and our own business space and move away from rent. After this, I expect to be left with about INR 60 Crores. I would invest INR 5 Crores in our family business to help it to grow and expand and keep aside another INR 5 Crores to support different social causes and help the needy. Out of the remaining INR 50 Crores, I would keep aside 5% of the amount (in Savings Accounts) to ensure liquidity and meet contingency expenses, and would invest the remaining in different asset classes. Out of the remaining amount, I would invest 15% in debt, 15% in Gold, 10% in Hybrid Mutual funds, 20% in Equity Mutual Funds, 25% in Equity (shares) and the remaining 15% in Real Estate.
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