Alumni Association Updates
Updates and Information on upcoming events from the alumni association.
MORE >>

alumi events


From onebattlefield to another

I am a military officer, a “fauji,” with over 20 years of service with the Indian Army. Commissioned into a 225-year-old elite Cavalry Regiment with a colourful history, I was really fortunate that the army accorded me with the opportunity of gaining hands-on leadership experience from the very beginning, which began with my first assignment as Troop Leader of a Troop of 30 men and three Main Battle Tanks.

I have now spent a career in the military and changed profiles every two to three years – from leading a tank troop, to fighting insurgents; from leading a highly mobile combat team in fluid mechanised operations to setting up a strategic high technology project such as the Spacecraft Control Centre from scratch; from development & deployment of Weapon System Simulators to being the staff officer and principal advisor to the Army Commander; from being the chief instructor in a battle school to leading a company of infantry in probably the most difficult terrain and environmental conditions in the world.

Somewhere along the line though, I wanted a different challenge. . Hence, I moved on to another battlefield – the corporate battlefield.
These were uncertain times, and believe me uncertainty can be scary. I knew what it takes to be good in the army, but I was uncertain of what I would encounter in the corporate world.Just as MBA programmes do not provide real-world leadership experience to the same degree that the military does, the military does not provide skills in areas such as Marketing, Sales, Finance and Entrepreneurship. I decided to get ready for this new challenge and to complete my knowledge spectrum, I decided to join a B-school.

Once I decided to apply to a B-school, a new set of challenges emerged. I encountered a culture almost as foreign as the onesI’d struggled to make sense of in the different parts of the country I’d served in. The culture clash began as early as the admissions interview. The relentless self-promotion required during the application process and the admissions interviews does not come easily to someone steeped in the military culture of selflessness and teamwork.

After I successfully got through the admission process, getting used to the daily grind of B-school was another shock. One day, I am responsible for the lives of 1000 soldiers and Rs500crore worth of weapons and equipmentand the next day it's me and my homework. It may seem much smallerbut it's a different kind of difficulty.Even though I knew what was required to succeed, I was worried that I'd be out of my league amongst the accomplished and ambitious group of people I encountered here.

There were some more profound cultural differences. In the military, leadership, camaraderie, and patriotism motivated everything I did. In the military, there is a common set of beliefs everyone shares at the same level. Here, it was challenging to figure out what people valued and what ideas motivated different people. One challenge you don't have in the military is finding meaning in what you're doing, and here wewere learning about selling soap and moving numbers around on a ledger. I really had difficulty finding meaning and purpose behind that.

Then, there were those who told me that an executive MBA was a poor compromise I’d made vis-à-vis the regular full time course. But when I look at my talented group of classmates from such diverse backgrounds and with an average of more than 18 years of experience in the corporate battlefields, I feel proud. When I see the quality of conversations and discussions, not only in the class and group discussion rooms, but also at the bar and dinner table…….when I see the camaraderie we have built in such a short time, it is in no way a compromise!

The most important thing, however, that I have learned here is that uncertainty is not necessarily a bad thing. Uncertainty means options. And here at PGPMAX, my options in life have opened up in unimaginable ways. The journey has just begun but I can say that, the journey from one battlefield to another has been a memorable one.

- Rohit Kataria