Satish Udayagiri
Class of 2007




Tell us a little about your family background/ history. How has it influenced you?

I was born in Udayagiri family and lived most of my childhood in a neighbourhood which is notorious for crime, political battles, thugs, and drugs. Such a non-conducive atmosphere taught me very early in childhood how not to be as a person and what I should focus on in my journey. Thanks to my parents, my sisters and I learnt the values of hard-work, focus, and persistence and we attribute our successes largely to our upbringing.
On the other hand, I have been married for 8 years to my beautiful wife, Bindu, and have a 6-year old boy, aptly named as Akiro (meaning Sun Shine). My wife and son have taught me other values such as sharing, caring, and the beauty of including other people as part of oneself.

Briefly describe your personal and professional achievements (including recent awards/ special projects).
Professional Achievements:
I like to share 3 of my projects that are quite meaningful to me:
• I took over a struggling business account that was running at $3.5M annual run rate and converted it in to firm’s largest portfolio in 3 years with $30 M annual run rate, focusing on client relationships, selling, and leadership.
• My son and I are learning music and martial arts (Karate, Aikido Jujitsu) together for last 3 years and have reached Blue-Belt level.
• My wife and I started a successful small-business venture in 2012 that is now running at a $2M run rate. I also co-founded an early stage data science start up in 2014.

Tell us about your profile prior to attending ISB and recap your professional life after ISB, including your career progression.
I was an IT project lead at CapGemini before attending ISB and was able to shift to IT sales and client services roles after ISB graduation.

How do you think your time at ISB has contributed to your career and personal growth?
ISB has certainly helped me view things in a much broader way and venture in to areas that wouldn’t have been feasible otherwise. The alumni and faculty network is quite helpful in addressing blocking issues in my career and personal growth. I’ve also developed some good friendships and, more importantly, I wouldn’t have married my future wife if I weren’t at ISB. Also, ISB experience and credentials have played a bigger role in my securing Stanford's SEP (Executive) programme.

What do you enjoy most about your current career position?
The ability & opportunity to nudge and make decisions on a regular basis and impact even smaller outcomes keeps me excited at my work. Also, the journey of motivating and inspiring people/teams towards worthwhile goals/projects with risks is very enriching and humbling.

Briefly describe a typical day at work, in a way that illuminates the kind of challenges and opportunities your role involves.
On a typical day, my time is split in to three major activities: information seeking (meetings with peers, team, supervisors), nudging (leading someone to make certain decisions); decision-making (top-down decision) – many of these activities increase my managerial leverage and team’s output. I’m also involved in building solutions for clients’ issues and influencing them to buy.

What is the next new thing in the industry or vertical you are working in? Are there any trends that you can identify?
I’ve been working in sales and technology for last 15 years and I moved to Silicon Valley to launch couple of start ups in Data Science field. AI, Data science and similar emerging technologies that will impact human lives are my current focus areas.

What was the main highlight or most memorable aspect of your programme at the ISB?
Definitely the friends and network I continue to interact with until today. I thoroughly enjoyed the PAEV program where our team researched and built a model to valuate private firms.

If you could offer a word of advice to the current class at ISB, what would it be?
Be completely involved in the program and absorb as much as you can without letting your nerves wrack. It will be a wonderful roller-coaster ride if you focus more on learning, doing, exploring, and helping; and less on comparing yourself with others. Also, focus on what mode of work/career you will enjoy and direct your efforts towards that goal.

How do you feel you can contribute to ISB?
I can mentor the current batch and even teach if possible.


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