Vikram Mehra, Managing Director of music company Saregama India is an old Tata hand. Picked straight out of campus after his MBA at IIM Lucknow, Mehra joined the Tata Adminstrative Service (TAS) and worked with the Tata group for several years in different companies, the longest stint as Chief Marketing Officer of Tata Sky, among the first to launch direct-to-home TV in India.
Mehra believes that during his MBA, it wasn’t all the courses per se which helped him as a manager in corporate life but his biggest learning was to survive a pressure cooker environment and also keep one’s balance. “We would have our fun but you always knew that you had to be in class by 8 a.m. and be prepared for a surprise quiz,” he says. That learning has stood him well and is helpful even now to help maintain his balance in life.
Mehra’s advice to B-schoolers is to try and get exposure to other areas, especially finance. Mehra had majored in finance at IIM Lucknow but became a marketer as his heart wasn’t in finance. “But, if you have a good appreciation for finance it always comes handy,” he says, recalling his tiffs with the CFO of the company he last worked in as his fundamentals in finance were strong.
Mehra points out that there was stereotyping in B-school which forced one into a finance specialisation when he was studying. “But, I got a job in TAS and I had to do stints in various Tata group companies and I realised that finance was not my cup of tea and got into marketing. So here I am, a computer engineer from IIT Roorkee and a major in finance but not using any of the skills I learnt and instead am in marketing,” says Mehra, quick to add that it’s useful still to have the exposure because you never know when some knowledge comes in handy. “When somebody has a debate on flash memory, many look blank. But I know what they’re talking about since I have learnt electronics in college,” he adds.
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