Previous Occupation:: Field Engineer, Schlumberger
Sector: : Pharmaceuticals
Work Experience: About 12 years
Personal Interests: Running, squash & strength training. Nothing is more exciting than having fun with my kids

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

I work as Global Brand Director for Novartis Pharma AG in Basel, Switzerland. I lead worldwide commercialization of two brands. I have been with Novartis since graduating from the ISB, and have played various roles in Marketing, Sales and Business Development & Licensing. I have two major responsibilities at work: To grow sales of an in market brand to > 1 billion USD and to prepare global launch of another potential blockbuster.

I was fortunate to join Novartis in its Marketing and Sales leadership programme. This gave me the opportunity to do rotations in various functions within Novartis and to transition into Pharma from a very different industry (Oil & Gas). Since completing the programme, I have worked on all aspects of Strategic Brand Management at every stage of the life-cycle of a brand.

What was your key takeaway from the ISB?

I met some very bright people at the ISB and developed great friendships. I met remarkable leaders who were part of setting up this great institution. Looking back at the journey, I feel proud of what ISB has accomplished. Few things I took away from my time at the ISB: Know what you want and be persistent to get it; Be open, learn from others, and have a long term view. Conserve your energy. Life is not a sprint, it is a long race; Strive for a balance; And make the most of your time at the ISB, in many ways this may turn out to be the best year of your life.

How has the ISB contributed to your career growth?

The ISB provided me the opportunity to transition into an entirely different industry. I absolutely love what I do: Commercialising breakthrough ideas that come out of the research labs and impact lives. I am quite certain that I would not be working at Novartis had I not gone to the ISB. 2002 was a tough year and Novartis only hired three students from three B schools worldwide in my programme. In terms of skills, you have to continuously learn every day. But the ISB did teach me with the framework of what I have to do in my day to day life. Global Marketing is pretty much the Markstrat course in real life. But the most important contribution of the ISB to my personal and professional growth was providing a platform to meet and learn from the inspiring people who frequently visited the campus.

Having been a part of the ‘Founding Class’, how do you see the ISB then and now?

Though I don’t come to the ISB that often, I do get to meet and learn from people who join Novartis. I do see our ranking going up every year in the Financial Times ranking and I follow our visionary first dean Pramath Sinha on Facebook and Twitter. I can feel the action and the energy and I have no doubt that the ISB is on the right track to become the top school outside of the US in the next five years. I think we still have a lot of work to do in building our brand outside India, and despite all the rankings, very few people at the top in the corporate world know of the ISB. So though we have accomplished a lot, we still have a long way to go.

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

The ISB is in a unique position to leverage brand India. The talent coming out of the ISB is intellectually very bright and at par with the top schools in the world. The area of improvement for ISB is in bridging the gap between the classroom and real world to create impact right from the get go. The ISB should start to leverage the alums to talk about their real world experiences and may be even develop short programmes about handling the challenges of a career shift

What do you think is the alumni’s role in building the school?

Alums can play different roles, depending on where they are in their lives and careers. We can at least be brand ambassadors of the school in our respective organisations, and support new ISB talent to realise their full potential. I also feel that there is an opportunity to contribute to the learnings of current batches through our experiences post ISB by bringing real life perspectives.

© 2010 Indian School of Business, Disclaimer.