Shruti Sharma
Class of 2006
Founder, Pristine Edutronics

Previous Occupation: Director, Rikken Instrumentation Ltd
Present Occupation: Founder, Pristine Edutronics
Sector: Power and energy (Rikken Instrumentation Ltd); and education and skill building.
Work Experience: 13 years
Interests – Professional/ Personal: Creativity interests me, be it in business solutions or personal life. Regular meditation helps me maintain a fairly good balance and remain creative.


Can you tell us a little about your family background/ history?
My parents are first-generation entrepreneurs who started the venture Rikken Instrumentation Ltd together as a proprietary concern back in 1982. Since then, it has been through a lot of phases of ups and downs in the power and energy sector. Both my parents are technocrats in the domain.

Briefly describe your personal and professional achievements (including recent awards/ special projects)
I don’t have any specific awards to speak of as yet. In fact, I am currently in the last stage of my toughest professional challenge till date, i.e., to restructure Rikken Instrumentation Ltd financially as well as organisationally and take it to the next growth phase.

Tell us about your profile pre-ISB, and recap your professional life after ISB, including your career progression.
I have worked with my family business Rikken Instrumentation Ltd since 2001. I continue to be a director with the company and am involved full-time with its operations.
Taking forward my entrepreneurial aspirations, I have over the past year and a half started two new ventures – one aimed at skill development and employability enhancement for graduates from not-so-top-notch colleges. The second one is a social venture aimed at enhancing capability and outreach for non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in a self-sustaining model.
Over the past few years, I have worked in different domains of business. As the businesses are a part of the small and medium enterprises (SME) sector, I have managed various domains such as production planning and control, marketing, new product development, procurement, and quality systems. Given that these are recessionary times for manufacturing units, I am involved in steering the turnaround of my family business.

Describe your fondest memory at ISB.
Interacting with colleagues at various clubs is one of my fondest memories. Such an intellectually rich group has been hard to find post-ISB.

How do you think ISB has contributed to your career growth?
The courses at ISB provided the right footing and have implanted concepts that I use every day. Getting a solid introduction to these concepts has supported me in many ways.

If you have to sum up ISB in one word:
Life-changing.

What was the main highlight of your programme at the ISB?
Strategy and marketing courses were the main highlights of the programme at ISB. This was mainly due to group case studies, which brought home the fact that there is no correct answer and that the process is more important in business decisions for strategy or marketing. Evaluating different points of view of business situations, and using a structured approach to do so, builds or brings forward a fairly successful solution.

Word of advice for the current class?
ISB gives us a lot more than we expect before going in. I would advise more ISB graduates to venture into entrepreneurship and take risks for it. Professionals of the calibre that ISB produces must use their creativity and start new ventures in the country, rather than be over-focused on salary packages. They are capable of creating successful ventures for tomorrow.

What was your favourite course/ class at ISB and why?
Leadership Development Programme (LDP), Strategy and Negotiations.

Was there anyone during your time at ISB who acted as a mentor for you? Tell us a little about this relationship and why it was valuable.
Fortunately I had a lot of mentors among my colleagues at ISB. They helped me steer around a lot of situations in both my personal and professional life and are an integral part of my support system even now.

What are the areas in which you can contribute to ISB?
I have met with a good share of success and failures in my entrepreneurial ventures. This is the area where I can contribute by sharing my experiences and knowledge.

What do you enjoy most about your current career position?
I enjoy the freedom and confidence to create which my current career position provides me.

What is the next new thing in the industry or vertical you are working in? Any trends that you can see?
Education lacks quality and performance benchmarking on a realistic scale in India. This is a trend that will pick up. We can expect a lot of consolidation in education; however, with the population we are looking at in India, affordable and effective education remains a very big opportunity.