Personal Information
Previous Occupation: Manager, Forsberg Agritech (India) Pvt. Ltd.
Present Occupation: Project Manager, Techno Serve
Sector: Development Consulting
Work Experience: approximately 6 years
Interests – Professional/ Personal:
Reading English literature and classics, listening to Indian classical music and swimming.

Can you tell us a little about your family background/ history?
I come from a family of economists turned entrepreneurs where entrepreneurship is synonymous with rural upliftment. My mother heads her own company that manufactures food processing and separation machinery. Influenced by Dr. Kurien (of Amul), with whom she worked as Executive Advisor, she developed a unique model to manufacture smaller capacity machinery that enables farmers to mill their own raw material and directly sell it in the market instead of relying on middlemen, who end up exploiting the farmers. Similarly, using our educational trust and our family run primary and secondary school as a base, my sister launched an educational project – Kakshaa, where she develops digital content for rural primary children using drama, muppetry, animation and live teachers to teach state-level syllabus concepts.

Briefly describe your personal and professional achievements (including recent awards/ special projects).
Leveraging on our already existing manufacturing unit and facilities, I developed a new category of machinery that makes pellets and briquettes from biomass. These machines utilise dry agricultural waste to make pellets and briquettes commonly used as a renewable source of energy. This fit in well with the existing product line as it helped utilise the waste from our milling machinery such as rice husk and supari dust. My first taste of success was from Bharat Petroleum, which not only lent credibility to the quality of our machinery but also acted as a great referral. However, it became difficult to continue working on my venture after moving to Mumbai post marriage. As a result, I started working with TechnoServe to continue my commitment to the world of social work and development.

Tell us about your profile pre-ISB, and recap your professional life after ISB including your career progression.
My pre- and post-ISB professional life has been somewhat ironic. Pre-ISB, I left the corporate world to work in my own company and build the foundation for my entrepreneurial venture. I worked with KPMG in Mumbai for three years, after which I decided that I had enough of working for others and would much rather put in the same effort towards my own enterprise. Post-ISB, I was doing exactly what I had set out to do – work in my own company, but I had to move back to Mumbai and join the corporate world! At TechnoServe, I have had the opportunity of working on various donor funded projects such as IFC, FWWB and others. Each of the projects has been unique in nature, in terms of strategy development and implementation methodology aimed at delivering the greatest impact. When I joined TechnoServe, I began by learning the dynamics of development funders and working as a team member on various projects. In the past nine months I have come a long way in understanding the world of development consulting and am managing and working on several donor funded projects.

Describe your fondest memory at ISB
I think my fondest memory at ISB was pulling the famous all nighters with friends, where we did more talk and little work and eventually had to sprint to the Drop Box at the 11th hour!

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 think the greatest impact that ISB has had on me is that it helped put perspective to situations and problems and helped me develop a structured thought process. However, the most creditworthy impact has been the ability to multitask. All those millions of assignments and deliverables have made real life at work and at home much more manageable.

How do you think ISB has contributed to your career growth?
Pre-ISB, I had many fantastic ideas but was finding it difficult to implement them. However, ISB helped me sieve through many of the ideas, measure their feasibility and approach my entrepreneurial venture and role in my family business in a more structured and relevant manner. It was only after ISB that I was able to identify the necessary steps and activities required to kick start my project! In terms of my career at TechnoServe, ISB’s credibility has not only carried weight with employers, but I have also found that a lot of the course material has been extremely helpful in various assignments. It is amazing how all the learning comes back to you when you need it!

If you have to sum up ISB in one word:
Experiential.

What was the main highlight of your programme at the ISB?
The main highlight of the programme was the various speaker sessions organised by ISB. With its credibility in the higher education sphere, ISB attracted very well-known and reputed individuals from the corporate and industrial world. These speaker sessions were very informative and motivating. I think this was the one single aspect of ISB that I enjoyed the most – having access to discussion forums and speaker sessions of highly accomplished individuals.

Word of advice for the current class?
ISB is an ocean of students, all with different talents, capabilities and ambitions. I think it is very important to figure out who exactly you are and what are your expectations and takeaways from the MBA programme. In the absence of this, it is extremely easy to get swept up and carried away, diluting the effect and impact of the programme on your personal and professional life.

What was your favourite course/ class at ISB and why?
I particularly enjoyed the Family Business course taught by Professor Kavil Ramachandran. This was not only extremely pertinent to my background and future, but also helped put into perspective many situations unique to the family business environment. One of the most effective aspects of the course was the platform for shared learning among students. This was extremely helpful in understanding similar situations and learning from example. Having said that, Gender and Equality was also one of my favourite classes. I absolutely loved the power with which Professor Stacy Blake facilitated the class.

What are the areas in which you can contribute to ISB?
I would be happy to help in any manner that I can. My contribution would probably be most effective in areas related to the agricultural domain, farmer producer organisations or any other social or development areas.

What do you enjoy most about your current career position?
The best thing about the work I do is that I consult and work on strategies that help the people who really need help! Moreover, each project is different from the other, which helps to avoid saturation in learning and allows freedom and creativity in working towards the most practical and impactful solution.

What is the next new thing in the industry or vertical you are working in? Any trends that you can see?
Working in the development world is synonymous with empowering the poor. My current organisation works towards building business solutions to poverty, which has a lot to do with working with farmers in the agriculture domain. With new investment policies and initiatives by governments in the retail space, a lot of the focus will soon shift to sourcing agricultural produce directly from the farmer, thus eliminating the middleman. This may eventually change the entire picture of the existing value chain for agriculture produce. The agriculture space will be less dependent on traders and middlemen, and farmers will organise operations by forming farmer collective groups. This change has already begun with the legalisation of farmer cooperatives under the structure of Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) and Farmer Producer Companies (FPCs). As part of TechnoServe, I have been working on several projects that aim at facilitating operations of FPOs and capacity building of FPO members.

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