Meet UNC Kenan-Flagler’s MBA Class Of 2020

Khalid Syed

University of North Carolina, Kenan-Flagler Business School

“A curious, creative and an empathetic problem-solver with a weakness for sports, travel and food.”

Hometown: Hyderabad, Telangana, India

Fun Fact About Yourself: I penguin walked for six days, 37 miles on a frozen-river trek with the average temperature of -4 degree Fahrenheit and extreme temperature of -31 degree Fahrenheit.

Undergraduate School and Major: IIT Hyderabad, B.Tech in Electrical Engineering

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Nestaway Technologies, Senior Manager

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: The last two years at Nestaway has been the most challenging for me as I played the role of product and process owner who focused on enhancing the customer experience. However, I was fortunate to have a great manager and an incredible group of colleagues; we rolled out some critical products and processes that improved the customer sentiment by 40% over six months. This played a critical role in closing the Series D funding round of $51 million. For my contributions, I was given a skip level promotion from senior business analyst to senior manager and was offered to return after my MBA. It brings a great sense of satisfaction and accomplishment when your efforts are recognized and rewarded by your colleagues.

What quality best describes the MBA classmates you’ve met so far and why? Over the last couple of days, I have met some incredible achievers from investment bankers to Army veterans to an Antarctica expedition leader to a medical doctor, among many others. Despite having such successful careers, the common theme among them was “The Carolina Way.” They are so down to earth, collaborative and accommodating in nature that for someone like me who has been to U.S. for the first time. It took me no-time to settle down my nerves. I am excited to be a part of this class and look forward to make life-long friendships.

Aside from your classmates, what was the key factor that led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA and why was it so important to you? Apart from the careers and placements statistics, the key factor that struck to me about Kenan-Flagler was the strong alumni engagement. During my research about the school, I interacted with many students and alumni and found almost everyone to be grateful to the alums for helping them achieve their dreams. I strongly believe that a close-knit community is the perfect atmosphere to bring the best out of an individual and I found UNC Kenan-Flagler to be the ideal place. The strong bond that I have felt and experienced among the community drives the alumni to advocate and champion our school to the employers and to the world.

What club or activity are you looking most forward to in business school? Having worked in fast-growing start-ups, I look forward to be a part of the Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Club. To advance my knowledge in product management, I aim to join the Business Technology Club and understand the tech landscape of the emerging markets. I am very much excited about the STAR Program, where we get action-based, hands-on experiential project learning. I am also eager to join the Net Impact Club and devise sustainable-business practices to help local nonprofits scale.

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point in your career? I realized that in order to keep my growth curve moving into the senior leadership positions of an organization, a comprehensive understanding of the broader business functions was the need of the hour. I also believe that to be a good and effective leader, one has to influence cross-functional teams without direct authority and I hope to inculcate cross-functional business skills to stitch efforts across departments. Eventually an MBA will prepare for my long-term goal with skills to lead teams with empathy, to innovate for growth sustenance and to hold a vision that truly disrupts organizational inertia.

How did you decide if an MBA was worth the investment? I have been fortunate to have some incredible mentors who have always guided, inspired and encouraged me in my endeavors. I always look up to their exceptional assessment of hidden risks, strategic thinking capability and managerial leadership skills which they attribute a lot to their MBA studies. This coupled with my interactions with other MBA grads convinced me that MBA is going to be worth the investment. An MBA program is the only place that will also open up plethora of opportunities to network with the global leaders of today and tomorrow which will be critical in achieving my career ambitions. However, despite all the advantages, MBA is still a big investment and UNC Kenan-Flagler was generous to give me a partial scholarship that helped me in making the decision.

What other MBA programs did you apply to? University of Michigan Ross School of Business, Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, Indiana Kelley School of Business, University of Southern California Marshall School of Business

How did you determine your fit at various schools? I wanted to get into a top 20 school as it is important for me to have an MBA from a big brand as it is an association for life. I believe that growing as a team is much more important than growing as an individual and I wanted to be a part of a school that shares the same belief. I was looking at advancing my career in product management for which it is difficult to find a tailored curriculum. Therefore it was also important for me to be a part of a school that provided the option of tailoring your own flexible curriculum to strengthen the competencies and improve the weaknesses. I also looked at the full-time and internship statistics for my target companies at different schools and complemented it by the input from students. Taking all these parameters into account I found UNC Kenan-Flagler to be perfectly suited for me and I am very happy to be here.

What was your defining moment and how did it shape who you are? Tears rolled down my mother’s cheek when I cleared IITJEE, one of the most competitive exams in the world. After failing to clear IITJEE on the first attempt, I was advised by many to join a lower ranked college as I was getting a good scholarship. However, with the support of my family and friends, I chose to take another attempt at my dream of studying at IIT. My family and I put in loads of effort and I successfully cleared the exam – but more importantly made my parents proud. It was a defining moment as I realized that with sincere effort and the right attitude one can achieve great heights despite failures and obstacles. Now I guide students, who are just like me, to dream big and never ever give up on it.

What do you plan to do after you graduate? The common theme underlying my work at multimillion-dollar companies and a start-up has been using technology to address consumer problems. Leveraging my experiences, the knowledge and skills that I will gain through MBA, I aim to manage a product P&L at a tech company. I am particularly interested in the internet of things vertical and I hope to scale products that simplifies daily life problems across geographies. However, I am sure that an MBA will expose me to brand new knowledge and a wide range of opportunities, which, if I find exciting, I am open to trying them out as well.

Where do you see yourself in five years? I see myself at a senior leadership position in product management at an IoT company. The Indian IoT market is projected to skyrocket from $1.3 billion currently to $60 billion by 2025. As a senior member of the company, I hope to capitalize on these opportunities by introducing innovative concepts such as intelligent smart-home solutions and devices to measure calorie-intake for health monitoring. On the social side, I see myself giving back to the society for all the great opportunities that I was provided in life. I hope to be in a place to inspire people to dream big and uplift the lives of the unprivileged by expanding technology to the corners of the world.