Meet The Top First-Year MBAs From India

Rohit Sudheendranath

Harvard Business School

Describe yourself in 15 words or less: An aircraft geek and a chocolate lover with a passion and curiosity to learn, explore, discover and grow.

Hometown: Mumbai, India

Fun Fact About Yourself: My sweet tooth drove me to develop my own secret chocolate recipe, which my friends can’t get enough of!

Undergraduate School and Major: Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, Chemical Engineering

Employers and Job Titles Since Graduation:

ITC Limited: ITC is a multi-business Indian conglomerate into the segments of consumer goods, hotels, packaging, agribusiness & information technology.

Assistant Manager, Strategic Projects, Chocolates

Assistant Manager, Operations

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: Helping launch ITC’s first luxury chocolate brand “Fabelle” in the Indian market. This involved business planning and strategy formulation, product development, consumer testing and research & setting up of multiple chocolate factories.

Looking back on your experience, what advice would you give to future business school applicants?

GMAT

• Have a structured approach for preparation:It is very important to plan for the GMAT. The time taken to prepare for the GMAT can vary from 2 weeks to 3-4 months. My advice would be to first take one of the practice tests on mba.com to have an understanding of weak areas which need practice. Use specific guides and resources to further strengthen weak areas. After adequate practice, take the second practice test on mba.com before appearing for the final exam.
• Take many tests: Many make the mistake of doing a lot of practice, but not doing a lot of practice tests (with the complete sitting of 4 hours). Not taking tests in a simulated environment does not give the temperament to sit for 4 continuous hours.

Essays/Interviews – Be true to yourself. It seems to me that the admissions committee wants to know who you really are and how you will fit into the classroom and community environment.

What led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA?

• Emphasis on the case method: The case method is the hallmark of the HBS learning environment. Over the course of 2 years, students at HBS study around 500 cases. The cases help students develop the habit of making decisions with limited data while evaluating and debating pros and cons to the minutest of details. This is what leaders do on a daily basis, and this was the strongest pull for me towards HBS.

• A very strong alumni network : Given that I intend to get back to India, a strong alumni network will help me to realize my long term dream.

Tell us about your dream job or dream employer at this point in your life? My dream job will be to work in the Operations & Digital solutions vertical of a strategy consulting firm. This experience will help me with my long term vision of starting a consulting firm in India which will use today’s digital revolution to unlock enormous value across the product value chain – from design, smart manufacturing, supply chain to business model innovations.

What would you like your business school peers to say about you after you graduate from this program?  I would like my business school peers to say that they have formed a life-long friendship with me and that I was able to contribute to their professional and personal development.