Mrinalini Shastry
Class of 2003
Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP), Government of Andhra Pradesh
Consultant – Evaluation and Learning

Previous Occupation: Trainee – Legal & Corporate Affairs, Navabharat Ferro Alloys Ltd.
Present Occupation: Consultant – Evaluation and Learning, Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP), Government of Andhra Pradesh
Sector: Development, Government Sector
Work Experience: 8 years post-ISB, 1 year pre-ISB
Interests – Professional/Personal: Measuring impact of development projects/programmes in complex environments;textile heritage of India and AP in particular; improving the economic situation of weavers in India. Cryptic crosswords, cooking, music and reading.


Tell us about yourself – your profile, recap your professional life after ISB including your career progression

Pre ISB, I was a company secretary and worked with the Corporate Affairs Department of a Hyderabad-based organisation. At ISB, my work with the Net Impact Club and some of the courses that I pursued made me consider careers in the Development sector. I eventually decided to take the plunge and pursue this area. I started working with Byrraju Foundation, where I used to be part of the Donor Relations and New Programme Development team.

Looking to do something more operational, I then moved to Dr. Reddy’s Foundation (DRF) to work on their livelihoods programmes. Initially, I set up and ran some of their customised programmes for special groups, such as migrant communities and women in trafficking, but eventually, I moved on to setting up their Monitoring and Evaluation Department. This was career-defining in many ways, because at that time, DRF was scaling up from being an AP-based NGO to a national-level employability trainer, and we needed robust monitoring systems, sensitive and accurate impact assessments and strong reporting relationships.

After DRF, I did impact assessments on a freelance basis for five years and also worked on some of the first social accounting and audit projects in India. I have been actively involved in setting up the Social Audit Network (SAN) India and as part of that, I have worked with leading social entrepreneurs and CSR Groups in India.

Currently, I work with the Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP), a joint-funded project between the Government of Andhra Pradesh and the World Bank. I am part of a small evaluation and learning team, which coordinates all impact assessment work across the project.

Key take-away from the ISB.

My year at ISB was literally a year of self-discovery. The School gave me some basic grounding in the core courses, allowed me to explore my interests with the electives courses, join clubs, take up short projects – to sum it up, I got the space to discover what I liked, what suited me, and more importantly, what I wouldn’t enjoy doing!

From knowledgeable professors, to world-class facilities and myriad opportunities – the takeaways from ISB are plenty. It really depends upon what you choose to take out of the whole experience and for me, the highlight was my peer group. Everyone in the class was a “super-achiever” even before coming to ISB. Some have become life-long friends, others have had a deep influence on me even though we spent very little time together, some remain etched in my mind for their unforgettable class participation while others have simply been inspirational – And if you’re lucky like me, you end up finding the one person you want to spend the rest of your life with. In many ways, life at ISB was much more than the MBA. It was life-changing for me.

How do you think the ISB has contributed to your career growth?

The courses that I enjoyed most during my year at ISB were Government, Society and Business (GSB), Market Research and Consumer Behaviour (CB). These courses have a direct link to the work I am doing currently, which is to carry out impact assessments and programme evaluations for a variety of development organisations.

Other than that, ISB helped me develop a unique set of skills that enable me to approach problems from a different perspective, and this has positively impacted my career.
In addition, since I stay in touch with the School, I get to benefit from the resources at the LRC, attend networking events and talks by eminent speakers, and gain new ideas through knowledge-sharing sessions – all this helps me face challenges at work.


What is your vision for the School?

ISB has changed the way people look at management education in India. One just has to look at the number of one-year programmes that have sprung up in the wake of ISB’s phenomenal success.

My vision for the school is that it continues to shatter established beliefs and to push the boundaries of what we expect of higher education.

What are the strengths that the School can leverage upon and areas it can improve?

The School has several strengths that it is leveraging upon at present. However, it can do more to tap on the strengths of the alumni network. With ten years of history behind us, ISB has over 3000 alumni in key positions – entrepreneurs, future business leaders and policy-makers amongst them. ISB would do well to actively engage with them.

How do you think alums can associate with the School or alum’s role in building the School?

This can be done in three ways- first, by being good at what they do-by remembering that everything that they do adds to or detracts from the perception the world has about ISB. Second, by helping with the admissions and CAS- this is a clear responsibility- if your company is hiring, make sure they go to ISB. If you know someone who’s likely to be a good MBA candidate, ensure he/she joins the ISB. Third, by engaging with other alumni, and building a strong alumni network so we continue to stay in touch with the school and contribute to each others’ careers as well as to the school.

What is the area you can contribute in?

As a Chapter Representative from Hyderabad, I work towards engaging and building the alumni community here, especially since there are many of us in this city.