Saurabh Khedekar - Class of 2008

Present Times

The ISB was probably the biggest roller coaster of my life. It has been quite exciting to get to work thereafter. Presently, I am associated with Aditya Birla group, in their leadership programme. As a part of this programme you are required to know about different businesses before you settle into a long time job role. I had the good opportunity working with the cement business, corporate strategy, the financial services and the longest time with aluminum company Novelis, the biggest Indian acquisition, until the Corus take over by Tata. Novelis is a $ 6 billion acquisition that ABG has grouped. The experience has been very enriching and now I’m settled into the merger and acquisition profile for the cement business of the group. It is connected, but at the same time diverse, because it is different business, each business operates in an industry which is completely different in nature. My job also demands travelling and that is something I truly enjoy.

Work before ISB

I was with Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC), working as a CA. It dealt with auditing, tax consulting, US / IFRS GAAP, a very typical CA job profile. The job had its own advantages and disadvantages. The positives were continuous enrichment technically and association with lot of different industries (Every industry has accounting, auditing, etc.) The minus ratio being, I did not get to do any hands on work with the business aspect of that industry as this kind of role you only offers a baseline with the financial/accounting aspect.

Learning from  the ISB

The ISB strives to place every student in a deserving league – a platform that allows you to do justice to your potential. Learning business dynamics, why the company is making money, why is it becoming famous, why its market capital is going up, what are its products, where it can get into and much more. This kind of orientation on the job is what MBA equips you with. The school’s orientation is more towards discovering and choosing the right path for that right job. While at the ISB I wasn’t sure if I would be applying all that I learnt and practiced, as I work now, I have had a chance to connect back with what we were taught.

Mergers and Acquisitions in today’s capital markets are all global. The global scenario is not very good and hence a lot of good assets/companies are available at a good price; that’s really helping Indian companies. We are sitting on a lot of liquidity and the promise of future growth. Talking of recession there are two parts to the Indian industry.

This classification extends not just in finance, but in all aspects. A part of the business comes from what is happening with India. On the other hand, a lot of Indian companies have grown very fast because India has become the sourcing hub of the world. While the India story is intact, the global story is on weak ground right now.

It is but natural that most of the companies have a mixed bag, a part of revenue coming from the US, Europe, Middle East and the other part from within India. Revenues from within India could have probably gone up a bit, because India is doing well. Since China and India are also dependent on global cash, which had recently dried down, the whole story of everything turning positive will take some time to restore. Despite all the growth we have shown so far, we still have a lot of growing work to do. At least, our generation is completely taken care of. It is going to be a Midas touch for us. Anything we lay our hand on, we are going to make money.

Career Choice - M&A?

It is more profile match kind of a thing. On the professional side, I like the job that gives me an all round perspective of the business. I am strong at the financial perspective, and since I already am a CA, the inclination towards M&A was obvious. In the present role, I am the acquirer, the person i-banks and consulting firms providing services too. This is thus an all-encompassing profile. As an acquirer you need to understand the business, its customers, the finances, its people, its competencies, its market, this holistic approach was something that always interested me. To get this kind of perspective and use my finance background effectively I think M & A is the perfect profile to work in.

Singer and a cook

Cooking is more by default. If you are a vegetarian and you have to live abroad, you have no choice but to cook. On singing as my hobby, it’s a very Indian value aspect of being brought up while pursuing art. Singing happens to be that art and I intend to pursue it more now.

Personal and Professional side

I must admit that managing both personal and professional life is a task. It comes in phases when there are times work takes over family and vice-versa. There has to be a discipline in life to balance both lives. The times we live in, our generation has to focus more on careers at this stage. However, if we have made good use of our college and school days well, then we have the liberty to go slow on our interests at this stage. Since this is the age where we have to concentrate and invest in our careers, it calls for bigger sacrifices and understanding. As of now it will be more work and less life. After a decade, it will be more life and less work.

I can talk about this for a whole day. The one thing that I cannot forget about the ISB was the company of 400 plus people I could look upto. Every moment you talk with each one of them about anything, you are really investing in yourself; you get to know new things and changing perspectives. No minute goes waste living at the ISB.