Vipul Kumar
Class of 2008





Tell us a little about your family background/ history. How has it influenced you?
I grew up in Bokaro Steel City. Contrary to the popular belief that everyone who hails from this city have their parents working with the Steel Plant, I come from a business family. My father is into medicine wholesale business and my mother is a homemaker. My career was planned the moment I was born in the Steel City (very similar to Farhan in “3 Idiots” - mera beta engineer banega). Though I did manage to get a B.Tech degree, I was always inclined towards entrepreneurship. This is what my wife did to me - gave me the confidence to take that “leap of faith” into the fascinating journey of entrepreneurship.

Briefly describe your personal and professional achievements (including recent awards/ special projects).
On the personal front, my biggest achievement has been a happy family and a fantastic set of friends and well-wishers around me.
On the professional front, I believe my biggest achievement was successfully setting up and running an entrepreneurial venture in a fiercely competitive “Management Consulting” space. Though I have now operationally exited from this venture, it has given me all the confidence and experience to work towards setting up my next venture soon.

Tell us about your profile prior to attending ISB and recap your professional life after ISB, including your career progression.
Prior to ISB, I was into mainstream IT Services primarily in client interfacing / business development role. I always loved the business side of IT - understand technology requirements and convert them into technology solutions. I was lucky enough not to have to spend much time behind the computers developing endless lines of codes.
Post ISB, I switched to Management Consulting and joined a boutique consulting firm where I spend a year before going ahead and setting up PiVOT Consultants, a management advisory firm in the Infrastructure and Logistics space. The six years that I spent here building this up was an experience of a lifetime. I currently am with Ennovent, an innovation accelerator, as Director-Services and manage the P&L of its Services Business.

How do you think your time at ISB has contributed to your career and personal growth?
I think the one year at ISB has given new perspectives, opened up avenues and extended the boundaries of possibilities in my career. I always had been a dreamer and every moment I spent at ISB instilled in me the confidence that I can covert my dreams into reality.

What do you enjoy most about your current career position?
It allows you to be part of the vibrant social enterprise startup ecosystem in India and get to learn about fantastic ideas that are being converted into businesses serving the low income markets.

Briefly describe a typical day at work, in a way that illuminates the kind of challenges and opportunities your role involves.
My day starts very early in the morning around 630 am when I spend around an hour clearing my inbox. First thing at 9 am I have the daily Sales Update meeting followed by Operation Update. The rest of the day is spend in meetings/calls with development agencies/foundations discussing solutions that can enable the social enterprise ecosystem in India, with corporates discussing how social enterprises can be integrated with their mainstream business to address low income markets and with innovators offering mentoring support to build scalable enterprises.

What is the next new thing in the industry or vertical you are working in? Are there any trends that you can identify?
In the past 5 years, there has been a tremendous evolution of social enterprises in India addressing compelling problems around health, education, energy and livelihood. These are now graduating into the mainstream with innovative business models which not only make money but also impact lives.

What was the main highlight or most memorable aspect of your programme at the ISB?
The large pool of wisdom! Quoting from “3 Idiots” again - as Rancho says - “Gyan har jagah bat raha hai, jahan se mile samet lo”

If you could offer a word of advice to the current class at ISB, what would it be?
If you don’t build your dream, someone will hire you to help build theirs.

How do you feel you can contribute to ISB?
I’m happy to contribute to any initiatives encouraging entrepreneurship.