Aarti Kothari
Class of 2008






Tell us a little about your family background/ history. How has it influenced you?
I come from a small town business family with a very traditional value system and a huge emphasis on good education. So there was always this consciousness among us siblings (4 of us) that education is an investment being made towards future success. That knowledge along with a familiarity of the chaos, freedom and excitement of a family business meant I had to go my own way sooner than later in career terms. Hence, Foodbury was born in 2011.

Briefly describe your personal and professional achievements (including recent awards/ special projects).
Getting Foodbury off the ground has been my most recent achievement. Honestly, it’s been a small team and our achievements have been personal and not industry-benchmarked. For example, getting the company started without paying a dime in bribes. Or keeping it cash positive so it just about pays for itself.

Tell us about your profile prior to attending ISB and recap your professional life after ISB, including your career progression.
Academic:
Mayo Girls; St. Stephen's College- Economics Hons; ISB, 2008.
Career:
I was a business journalist between 2003-2007. Starting at the bottom as a correspondent to independently managing the Businessworld website and the entire B-School portfolio at the time of exit was a steep learning curve.
Then I was at ISB between 2007-2008, after which I landed a job on campus with my 'dream company', Airtel. Here I started as a Key Account Manager in Modern Trade, where I was in charge of identifying Rural retail opportunities for partnership with Airtel. Frankly, I didn’t know there were so many retail chains in rural areas that in the normal course we don't even hear of. From that I moved on to the 3G services launch team which was a big project within Airtel. I got a few internal awards for the same (Diamond Award of recognition being one).

How do you think your time at ISB has contributed to your career and personal growth?
ISB really helped me develop a 'marketing orientation' or at least that's the one skill I find myself using most often at work. It has given me the confidence to transition from journalism to a corporate functional role and now to start and run Foodbury. Lastly, it establishes a much higher threshold of conversation in business meetings than ordinarily, the moment the other side knows I am an ISB graduate.

What do you enjoy most about your current career position?
Freedom and the sense of responsibility that comes from knowing there's no escape goat and that the success and failures are both of my own doing.

Briefly describe a typical day at work, in a way that illuminates the kind of challenges and opportunities your role involves.
It surprises me how even routine transactions at work can offer so many twists and turns. A typical day involves a summary of all orders received, scheduling of dispatches – local deliveries and couriers, stock taking, grievance redressal and order placement. And every single day is like this. But still I'm kept on my toes because I deal in a category of products - gluten free foods - that are almost pharmaceutical foods. That means wrong ingestion in any form can lead to a severe health condition, so customers always ask several questions before buying. Hence, there's a lot of counselling that goes along with the selling. My team needs to know everything about each product from the kind of facility it was manufactured in, what precautions were taken to avoid contamination with wheat, ingredients, nutritional value, and so on. That's a challenge, and equally an opportunity, because we are unique in the way we get involved and 'solve' the customer's problem this way.

What is the next new thing in the industry or vertical you are working in? Are there any trends that you can identify?
The marketplace model is really the biggest talking point in the online retail industry currently. I'm waiting and watching to see its relevance to my category of products since a lot of personal involvement is there in making these sales coz customer health is at stake in a medical-kind-of-way.

What was the main highlight or most memorable aspect of your programme at the ISB?
That I wasn't in the GSB leadership, technically, yet was involved in so many things both at the front end and away from the limelight. Of course, only the Citi Scholarship tops that.

If you could offer a word of advice to the current class at ISB, what would it be?
You are there NOW. So make your presence felt to yourself and others. Be alert, absorb everything, stretch yourself every day. Most importantly, and I can’t emphasise this enough - make friends and build a priceless network. This will be more useful than a perfect GPA, the highest awards, and everything else put together.

How do you feel you can contribute to ISB?
I'd love to be an active and constant part of the Mohali campus in any way from admissions, mentoring, visits to whatever is asked of me. However, this has been on hold for a while as I have a little daughter I was unable to leave behind till very recently. So now I'm ready. Please feel free to reach out.