I got my engineering degree, a B.Tech in Chemical Engineering from Alagappa College of Technology, Anna University, Chennai, in 1990. After working for a couple of years, I cracked the CAT and joined IIM-A and got my Post Graduate Diploma in Management in 1994.
How my MBA helped me in corporate life
First, it helped me to change my career from engineering to financial services. Second, it widened my world view in general and helped me understand businesses from multiple angles. As an engineer I would have appreciated the business from a technology or product or services perspective alone. As a business management professional, I have tended to develop a more holistic view of corporates. This has helped me to approach my career with an entirely different perspective.
My key learnings from my MBA
The recognition that people have talents in different areas dawned upon me a bit late, in my institute. Also working in teams was a huge learning, the ability to leverage each other’s strengths, complement skills, divide the work and meet deadlines… it was a fun race. Generating multiple solutions and options for a given problem and evaluating them objectively is one the most under-rated skills in the real world, but taught effectively in an MBA course.
If I had to re-visit my MBA what I would have liked to have been part of the course
Organisational politics needed more understanding. Also, more specific to my current profession as a finance professional, the institute needed to provide deep skills in a chosen area over and above the general management approach it follows. In other words, areas of excellence within management education needed to be cultivated and actively promoted.
The chief ingredients in my success in corporate life
An attitude to handle complex and stressful situations has been a useful trait. An ability to evolve a strategy, follow it and stay the course in response to a particular challenge is very important too. Most importantly the willingness to delegate, trust the team and encourage them to take independent decisions helps a lot to keep evolving.
My best and worst moments
Worst: Professionally, the early part of my career was very challenging. An unknown manager in an industry where there were all kinds of players… legends, stars, blue-eyed boys, whizkids and so on. Working in a start-up, trying to earn a name felt almost like a losing battle at one point.
Best: Winning the Best Equity fund house for Franklin Templeton India from international rating agency Morningstar in early 2015 is a cherished moment, not because we won it, but because it was a kind of recognition the firm deserved to get for a long time but somehow remained elusive.
My advice to young MBAs who are joining the corporate sector
There are many: Never chase money at the early part of career, chase the experience. Choose the firm you work for carefully (no fun in working in a corporate with a dubious quality of management) / take a medium term approach to a job i.e. do not switch jobs too fast. Help in innovating within your sector.
Am I happy with the way the MBA is structured / taught today?
I don’t know about many institutes, but felt that the pedagogy of IIM-A was quite unique and enhances one’s learning experience. To that extent I am very happy with what I got to learn in my MBA degree.
And, my advice on what young MBAs should read
Newspapers — regularly!