Pranav Rastogi
Class of 2011
Co-founder and CEO, Fiord Education/The Health Trip, New Delhi, India


Previous Occupation: 
1) Senior Hardware Design Engineer, Cisco Systems, San Jose, California
2) Co-founder & CEO, World Possible, San Jose, California
Present Occupation:
1) Co-founder and CEO, Fiord Education, New Delhi, India
2) Co-founder and CEO,The Health Trip, Bangalore/New Delhi, India
Sector:
Previous - Technology and Education
Current - Education and Healthcare

Tell us about yourself – your profile, recap your professional life after ISB including your career progression.
I have been blessed with great education throughout my life – from Doon School, where I got an opportunity to discover my talents and gain confidence both in academics and on the sports fields, to Georgia Tech where I received a very well rounded technical education in Computer and Electrical Engineering. This learningled me to pursue a career in Hardware Design Engineering at Cisco Systems in California. Having been selected in a "Choice" programme, I was given an opportunity to meet with various business units in the company and choose the project/team/manager I wanted to work with. This added freedom and choice enabled me to pick a great team and project, where I was given plenty of hands-on tasks thus opening doors to numerous future opportunities. Soon I was involved in other Cisco corporate matters and started an internal Cisco-IDEA (Initiative for Development and Education in Africa) programme and led several teams to deploy technology tools to address education gaps in Africa. It would not have been fair to limit this initiative to Cisco hence a social-venture was started in Silicon Valley, “World Possible” through which we ran many such projects in Africa, South America and the Pacific Islands. Through these programmesI met several noteworthy individuals– from Sal Khan of Khan Academy, and professors from MIT and Yale to Wikipedia and leaders in Africa and South America.

This experience propelled me to achieve bigger goals but in a more tailored and focused manner in the Indian economy. Moving back to India I pursued my MBA from ISB, Hyderabad and it would be an understatement to say that it was one of the best years I've had. From great friends to classes, from ISL sports to the sheer enthusiasm and energy level in the student body was mesmerising. I learnt a lot from each experience and interaction while at ISB.

I was lucky enough to meet some very motivated and entrepreneurial individuals in ISB and that keeps me busy these days. I'm involved in two startups with my batchmates and we are working hard and smart to see this through. The experience of doing a business in India teaches you a lot. From market research to product design, from finances to BD, from sales to HR, from execution to evaluation, all the stages of a startup and the sheer amount of learning that is embedded in each of these roles makes it an experience to cherish for a lifetime.

Describe your fondest memory at ISB.
ISB was a lot of fun and I have too many memories that I can’t shortlist any! To mess around with my peers, to be mischievous and to be carefree was one of the best things during ISB. From celebrating Holi in winter, to sending spam emails from "unattended" laptops!, from birthday dunkings to ISL sports competitions, from case competitions to on campus festivities, from some inspiring lectures to some "gaseous gyaan"...it was all part of the one big fond memory called ISB. The experience was legendary to say the least!

With the knowledge and experience gained at ISB, when looking back, tell us something that you would have done differently while you were a student here?
I don’t think I would have done things that differently. I think ISB provided a perfect mix of classroom learning as well as learning from peers. On the other hand, if given a chance to repeat/go back for another year I would love to spend more time with everyone from my batch and get to know them better. I would like to hear their stories, dreams and aspirations. One year is not enough to get to know 570 people. That possibly might be the only thing I would do differently. We might have to come up with some sort of algorithm to optimise this problem and fit meeting and knowing about 570 students in a span of 11 odd months (after all we all are well familiar with the strategy and consulting frameworks).

In your personal life, how have you changed post-ISB? Do you see yourself doing something differently because you went to ISB? What has left a lasting impression?
I see myself doing a lot of things differently. I think ISB has definitely enabled me to think on a macro level, to strategise/plan and then get down to the micro level of execution. I now find myself intuitively being able to think through problems in a more structured fashion. No task on hand is daunting now; it is all about putting the thought/idea down on paper and then constructively thinking through every scenario and voila! -- You have a solution and approach that takes into consideration various facets.

Another very important personal take-away has been to learn to "selectively ignore." There is information glut these days – we are bombarded with information from varied sources, ideas, interactions with people, opportunities, travels, meetings, dreams, failures, achievements etc. We soak this information every day and this may not be a very healthy. Our natural instinct guidesus to soak everything lest we miss out on something important and this leads to information clutter. This is where I feel that ISB trained us: We can parse through the information overload and only pick that which is relevant to us. A great lesson in selective ignorance:One should ignore the things that don't matter to him/her and focus on the ones that do. This is where ISB played a great role. The classes, placement talks, visiting guest speakers, sports, various clubs, conclaves, and case competitions, within a span of a year pushed us to make relevant and meaningful choices. This is one of the biggest take-aways from ISB.

How do you think ISB has contributed to your career growth?
Interaction with various professors and students at ISB has enabled me to understand the forces that operate in the Indian market. The passion and energy that rubbed off from my peers in ISB has helped achieve bigger goals. ISB helped me become an entrepreneur in India --if it were not for ISB, I would have been studying in some good business school in the US racking up huge loans that would have taken four-six years to repay, thereby minimising my dreams of being an entrepreneur.

If you have to sum up ISB in one word: LEGEN-wait-for-it-DARY

What are the areas that you can contribute in to ISB?
These are very important times for the ISB community. The School has established itself as a premier B-school in a very short span of time and with the opening of the Mohali campus this year it is expected to make headlines. ISB alumni must convey the institute’s brand in our companies, amongst friends and family, and across borders. Our honesty, integrity, business knowledge and ethics should reflect in our interaction with the community. Personally, I would love to get involved in the ISB Delhi Alumni chapter to further strengthen the ISB brand in North India amongst aspirants as well as with corporates. I'm a sports addict so I would love to be associated with ISL and would love to play and interact with students. Finally, I hope to be a good brand ambassador and hope to recruit from ISB for either of my ventures.