Siddharth Rao

Yale School of Management

“Curious explorer—an eye for detail, a heart for humor, a belly full of laughter.”

Hometown: Bengaluru, India

Fun Fact About Yourself: I’ll surprise you with my cooking skills, one way or the other! I like to believe that while working alongside some of the great Master Chefs of ITC Hotels, I picked up some culinary skills. Must try on my menu: shahi paneer and dosa with sambar.

Undergraduate School and Major: IIT Madras, India

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: ITC Limited, Manager New Product Development

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: At ITC, I established a new product development cell and led the team to develop a pipeline of 30 new products that helped advance ITC’s spices business from a basic commodity supplier to a value-added consumer product player. This was a tough transition for our agribusiness which wasn’t consumer-focused. To encourage consumer-centric innovation, I took my team on culinary tours and consumer home visits to study food culture and cooking techniques across India. I teamed up with the Master Chefs of ITC Hotels to co-create innovative products, resulting in the launch of our business units’ first-ever range of value-added consumer products.

What quality best describes the MBA classmates you’ve met so far and why? One thing common among the classmates I have met is that they are all very warm and cohesive. Even though individuals come from strikingly diverse backgrounds, the SOM community is tightly knit. I think SOM’s small class size and the fact that it is situated in a cozy city play a big role in creating this strong sense of community.

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? Primarily, I chose Yale for its unique integrated approach to teaching management. Working at ITC, I realized how organizational challenges are complex and cut across the boundaries of functions, industries, and geographies. For example, while designing a barcode traceability solution to address a food safety concern in ITC’s spices value chain, I unearthed so many intertwined issues in inventory management, cost accounting, and the impact on the farming community, and ended up implementing a much more comprehensive information management solution. I chose Yale SOM because the school truly acknowledges this need for developing a holistic perspective and cultivates it through its unique integrated curriculum.

What club or activity are you looking most forward to in business school? I am most excited about working with the Yale Center for Customer Insights. I am curious to learn about consumer behavior and understand how people make choices. I am keen to take Professor Ravi Dhar’s Discovery Project for the real-world learning experience it offers and learn to convert consumer insights into innovative solutions.

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point in your career? In my seven years of experience, I gained an exposure to various aspects of a business. I experienced business operations from sourcing to manufacturing while managing the supply chain. Later, in product development, I got introduced to R&D and customer-facing activities. I joined ITC as a technical resource and grew to lead teams. During this transformational experience, I realized that to grow further and become a better-equipped leader, I needed to gain a comprehensive business understanding and broaden my worldview. This is when I decided to pursue an MBA to accelerate my career growth.

How did you decide if an MBA was worth the investment? This has been one of the most difficult decisions for me personally. Ultimately, I realized that it’s worth the investment for the value I’ll derive out of an MBA in terms of accelerated growth opportunities and exceptional people I’ll get to meet – not to mention the transformational experiences that will stay with me for a lifetime.

What other MBA programs did you apply to? Kellogg, Wharton and LBS

How did you determine your fit at various schools? Primarily, I researched programs that offered specific experiences that matched my career interests. I got in touch with students and alumni who had taken up those particular activities—be it a career trek, a club leadership role, or an internship, and learned about their experience to make an informed decision.

What was your defining moment and how did it shape who you are? The first time I moved out of New Delhi, the city I grew up in, was my defining moment. All my life, up until the age of 18, I grew up in the same neighborhood, went to the same school, and knew the same bunch of people. When it was time to go to college, I had an option to go to IIT Delhi and stay within my comfort zone. But I decided to leave my bubble and explore the world beyond. Since then, this quest for exploration has taken me to new places, introduced me to people from around the world, and given me the experiences that have shaped me into the person I am.

What do you plan to do after you graduate? Post-MBA, I aim to take up a management consulting role in a leading global consulting firm. As a consultant, I am keen to work across industries and functions, understand how business leaders think, and determine how I can bring about positive change in large organizations.

Where do you see yourself in five years? In my experience, I have seen how consumer focus can help companies gain a competitive advantage. I am inspired to build on to my learnings and help simplify the everyday lives of ordinary people. My career goal is to take up a leadership position in a multinational CPG firm and drive consumer-centric innovation strategies in emerging markets. In the coming decade, the Asian middle class will add more than a billion new people. I am curious to understand these new consumers and innovate to meet their specific needs.