Amit Kumar - Class of 2008
Programme Manager- Retail Business Services (RBS), Amazon,


Amit Kumar, famously known as ‘Mirza Ghalib’ of the Class of 2008, is well known for his love for Hindi music and Sher-o-Shayari. Presently pursuing a career in the online retail industry, Amit is now doing well both at the professional and personal front. Get to know the singer, technocrat cum online retail professional through this article.

Company, Career and Challenges

At present, I am working as a Programme Manager with the Retail Business Services (RBS) group of Amazon. The RBS group is an integral part of Amazon online product lifecycle and buying operations. The team is designed to ensure Amazon remains competitive in the online retail space with the best price, wide selection and good product information. The team’s primary role is to create and enhance retail selection on the worldwide Amazon online catalogue. The tasks handled by this group have a direct impact on customer buying decisions and online user experience.

In my current role, I am responsible for managing the global roll out of a new business process for the Retail group of Amazon. This is a very high impact and high visibility role within the organisation as it directly impacts the 20 plus billion dollar online retail business of the company. The key activities that I execute are to define the business requirements for the new process and quantify the business benefits of the new process. To identify opportunities for automation and identify the business requirements for the new products that needs to be developed.

I draft and finalise plans for the global roll out of the new business process. On the international front, I assign responsibilities and set timelines for deliverables for multiple groups in India, US, UK, Germany, France, Japan, China and Canada. Apart from this, my job includes coordinating with multiple stakeholders across different regions to ensure that all groups are well prepared for the global roll out of the new business process.

The key challenges that I confront is to line up the priorities of different groups within the company, towards ensuring the successful roll out of the new business process and also to ensure that the multiple virtual teams in different countries coordinate with each other so that the processes is managed without any issues.

Take on recession and IT

In my opinion, the IT companies should focus on three major areas during the present recession. Firstly, invest in building strong domain competencies. This will help IT companies to build solutions that are more aligned to the business needs of their customers. During economic downturn, the customers will be willing to invest in only those IT solutions that are aimed at providing solution to the immediate pain points of their business.

Secondly, expand the business to new geographies.The Indian IT services companies should look at expanding their business to new regions in Asia, Middle East, Europe and Africa. They should also focus on expanding their business in the Indian market. Thirdly, invest in new technologies. The companies should invest in developing solutions around new technologies like Cloud Computing, Software as a Service, Unified Communications, Virtualisation, etc.

ISB and the ‘Technocrat Ghalib ’

The one year spent at ISB had a great positive impact on my life. I have benefitted from my ISB experience in more ways than one. First and foremost, the ISB experience has made me more confident. I have gained a lot of confidence from learning about practical applications of different management concepts. This helps me to communicate my ideas in a much more effective and efficient manner.

The ISB experience has improved my negotiation skills. The ‘Negotiation Skills’ course at the ISB helped me understand the practical tools and techniques that I should use while negotiating. This helped me a lot in my professional and personal life. Last but not the least, the ISB experience has helped me build a lifelong network with amazing people, great faculty members and diverse alumni base. The ongoing interactions with the ISB network have provided great opportunities for continuous learning even after graduating.

My Moment at ISB

When the ISB was ranked 20 in the FT Global MBA rankings! This happened to be my best memorable moment at the ISB. I was exhilarated for being a part of this celebration. The excitement and celebration of the entire community after getting the remarkable news was truly the most treasured moments of my life at the ISB.