Previous Occupation: Sales & Marketing at Nokia, and Operations at Karadi Tales

Present Occupation: Business Development (Retail) at Apple

Sector: Technology and Consumer Electronics

Work Experience: 9 years across product development in media research and sales & marketing for consumer electronics and multimedia

Interests – Professional/Personal: Professional –Technology and retail trends
Personal – Reading and creating comics

Tell us about yourself – your profile, recap your professional life after ISB including your career progression.
Prior to ISB, I worked at Pan Arab Research Centre in the media research product development area for two years.

Upon graduation from ISB,I was able to switch to the sales & marketing domain and joined Nokia. I spent five fabulous years living across the country handling various roles such assales manager for Bangalore, Chennai, Coastal Andhra Pradesh & Kerala, and account manager for organized retail and marketing planning for Nokia's XpressMusic and E-series brands. I then spent a year running the operations at Karadi Tales, an Amar Chitra Katha Media company where we reintroduced some of India's most loved stories in new media formats. Since 2010, I am part of Apple India's retail team.

Describe your fondest memory at ISB.
I helped build a great yearbook with the Class of '05 magazine crew. Those were baby steps, but a significant start in understanding how to manage teams, deadlines, content, production and logistics.Surprisingly, through the process,I even learned how to manage myself better.

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 would have spent more time understanding the Indian marketplace better and reaching out to alumni who had field experience in FMCG and consumer durables. I would also have borrowed more books than DVDs from the LRC and taken the course on “Leadership Lessons in World Literature!”

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?Somewhere, spending time at ISB convinces you that it is okay to take risks. It gives you the confidence you need to reach out and work on a wide variety of things outside your comfort zone.This confidence often helps me roll the dice at work and so far, allowed me to make some great career choices.

How do you think ISB has contributed to your career growth?
ISB has given to me all the knowledge and skills that I needed to break into diverse roles. I also value the strong ISB alumni network that has been a huge help in building connections and assisted me in my career choices.

If you have to sum up ISB in one word: Opportunity

What are the areas that you can contribute to at ISB?
I am happy to share thoughts on my work with students and perhaps also serve as a sounding board for alumni with similar profiles in salesand marketing, who need to discuss ideas.

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