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Priyom Sarkar
Class of 2010
Associate Director, Viacom18 Media
Present Occupation: Associate Director, Corporate Strategy at Viacom18 Media
Sector: Media
Work Experience: ~8 years
Interests – Professional/ Personal: Reading, travelling, public speaking
Can you tell us a little about your family background/ history?
The only child of my parents, I was born and brought up in Kolkata. My father is an entrepreneur and has a business in the iron and steel industry. My mother is an artist − a painter − and runs a handicrafts institute.
Briefly describe your personal and professional achievements (including recent awards/ special projects).
Having worked in consulting, I have been part of companies large and small, teams entrepreneurial and bureaucratic.
One of the most interesting projects I have led involved designing the India entry strategy for a foreign player in the Indian Oil and Gas (O&G) exploration space. To develop market insights, I interviewed top executives (CXOs) and leaders of almost all the notable players in the Indian O&G ecosystem, including operators (Cairn, Reliance Industries Ltd [RIL], Oil and Natural Gas Corporation [ONGC], BG Group, etc.), regulators (Directorate General of Hydrocarbons), and shipping companies (Shipping Corporation of India, Garware Offshore, Transocean, etc.). Based on our analysis, we designed a predictive model which estimated exploration activity over the next 10 years in India and the corresponding economic impact for various players in the ecosystem. The model provided a successful growth roadmap for our client.
At Reliance, I prepared the business plan and financial model for a pan-India rollout of fourth generation (4G) telecom services. This service is going to be truly groundbreaking, and with its impending rollout, we should soon see an information revolution in India. Prior to that, I managed the governance and finance streams of the Business Transformation Programme at RIL, one of the largest programmes of its kind in the world.
I am presently working with the leadership at my current firm to shape the transformation initiative here.
At ISB, I graduated in the Dean’s List and was the President of the ISB Toastmasters Club.
Outside work, I have been awarded “Competent Communicator” and “Competent Leader” awards by the US-based non-profit institute Toastmasters International for public speaking and leadership.
Tell us about your profile pre-ISB, and recap your professional life after ISB, including your career progression.
For most of my pre-ISB career, I was a consultant – first in India and then in the US. I was part of the Performance Improvement consulting team at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) serving clients in the manufacturing and financial services industries. Post-MBA, I moved into corporate strategy, handling investments and managing large strategic initiatives in the O&G and telecom sectors. Because of my consulting background and also through the knowledge base I gained at ISB, I have been able to work across industries and apply the best practices learnt in one industry to another.
I recently joined Viacom18 Media as an Associate Director in its corporate strategy team. As part of the Group CEO’s office, I work on strategic projects and mergers and acquisitions (M&As) across business units such as television (broadcasting), films, consumer products, digital, etc.
Describe your fondest memory of ISB.
The convocation was a proud moment, in particular, getting my graduation certificate from Kapil Sibal (then Education Minister) in the presence of my parents. My fondest memory, however, is actually of something that happened post my stint as a student. During the one-year reunion of my class, I came to ISB and ran into Professor Sumit Kunnumkal who had taught us Decision Models and Optimisation (DMOP). Though he had only known me for one term and we had not spoken after that term (or even outside class during it), he instantly recognised me and called me by name! This is representative of the love and personal attention shown by our professors, barring none.
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?Graduating through the rigour, competition and camaraderie at ISB has definitely boosted my self-belief. After routinely interacting with the heads of businesses and befriending such a diverse and intelligent set of students, I am at ease with any group of people I come across. Moreover, some of my closest friends are from ISB. ISB has definitely changed me as a person.
How do you think ISB has contributed to your career growth?
I think it has taken my career to a different level; it has given me not only the skills but also the credentials to hold my own in any situation. On a technical level, the depth and breadth of the courses at ISB have allowed me to work across various industries and functions. To this day, I find myself referring to my ISB class notes. Moreover, the alumni network has been helpful time and again for business development leads, referrals and guidance.
If you have to sum up ISB in one word:
Exhilarating.
What was the main highlight of your programme at the ISB?
During my first two or three months at ISB, I was in a daze – in awe of the professors, in love with the place and amazed by the quality of talent among my batchmates. I finally realised what was happening around me and got off the auto pilot mode by the third or fourth term. The highlight of the programme was definitely the competitive strategy case on Southwest Airlines by Professor Prashant Kale in the second term. The way he built it up, with the interrelationships among various factors leading up to the sustained superior performance of the company, seemed almost like a detective thriller!
Word of advice for the current class?
There was a concept in economics I learned at ISB called the “impossible trinity”. It states that three conditions: a fixed exchange rate, free capital movement and an independent monetary policy cannot hold true simultaneously. This theory has an ISB corollary as well: grades, sleep and social life cannot co-exist! So I would recommend that the students choose their priorities carefully and enjoy themselves accordingly.
What was your favourite course/ class at ISB and why?
Professor Dishan Kamdar’s Negotiation Analysis class (NEGA) would certainly rank as the best. I use the tools and techniques learnt in that class almost every day in my interactions with vendors, clients, business partners, and so on.
Was there anyone during your time at ISB who acted as a mentor for you? Tell us a little about this relationship and why it was valuable.
I learned a lot from all my batchmates during my year at ISB and still continue to do so. Many professors have been role models and continue to inspire me.
What are the areas in which you can contribute to ISB?
I can help students in mock interview sessions, giving career guidance and speaking at industry information sessions.
What do you enjoy most about your current career position?
Two things I enjoy most about my profile are freedom and impact. Being part of the Group CEO’s office, I am actively encouraged to think of innovative ways in which to grow the business and try out new things. Also, as part of a growing company in a sunshine industry, any work I do has a material impact in shaping the future.
What is the next new thing in the industry or vertical you are working in? Any trends that you can see?
There are a couple of major shifts happening in the media industry, especially for broadcasters: 1) digitisation, and 2) the rise of on-demand programming.
Broadcasters will now be able to realise far higher revenues than in the past, i.e., the revenues that were not declared by local cable operators earlier. Thus, the share of advertising revenues will go down with the share of subscriber revenues going up. Secondly, due to the rise of on-demand programming, average revenue per unit (ARPU) has increased as subscribers may pay higher prices to skip unnecessary ads, thus lowering ad revenues further. Subscribers have thus become much more important for broadcasters. Moreover, with rise of TV Everywhere services worldwide, people now want to watch what they what, when they want and where they want.
The challenge is that broadcasters, which were typically B2B businesses dealing with either distributors or advertisers, have to deal with consumers more directly now. This means that they now have to reorganise and become more nimble, make faster decisions, hire people or teams that understand consumer behaviour and develop analytics capabilities, among other things. This is aided by improved ability to get registered subscriber information because of digitisation. There are exciting times ahead for the industry and the next few years may radically change the landscape.