Meet UCLA Anderson’s MBA Class of 2020

Abhinav Goel

UCLA, Anderson School of Management

“The Nice Guy” – accommodating, empathetic, team player. Strong advocate against bullying and workplace harassment.”

Hometown: New Delhi, India

Fun Fact About Yourself:  In high school, I was on national television on a news channel to share my strategies for preparation for the upcoming board examinations. I had to enact being buried deep in my textbooks and playing badminton with my siblings (to show how I kept myself stress-free). I learned that an acting career wasn’t really for me!

Undergraduate School and Major: International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad – Computer Science Major

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Product Manager at SHEROES, a 50-employee startup building technology products championing the cause of women in India

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: At a previous FinTech startup, I was faced with the task of convincing senior executives of one of India’s largest manufacturing companies about the benefits of our product which I had conceptualized. At one such meeting to review the pilot version of our product, there was strong cynicism from the client team. However, I observed that there were two executives in the room who seemed excited about the product. I started addressing their questions first. Soon I won their confidence and it was no longer me alone who was advocating for the software. At lunch, I approached the remaining executives and addressed their concerns one-on-one. After eight hours of negotiation, the team finally signed off on the pilot to be rolled out for one million corporate employees, which eventually lead to the creation of a full-fledged revenue generating product line.

What quality best describes the MBA classmates you’ve met so far and why? I’m amazed by how inclusive and open my classmates are. Being an international student with no prior experience of working outside my country, I was anxious about how I’d fit into a class of such diverse and talented individuals. My classmates have gone out of the way to make me feel like I belong here. We had a session where we divided into small groups and talked about really sensitive issues related to our backgrounds and lifestyle preferences. The empathy and understanding that my classmates demonstrated was really touching.

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? Growing up, I watched a TED talk by Jane McGonigal which introduced me to how gaming could incentivize people to bring about positive changes in the world. That, coupled with the fact that my father never let me play for more than an hour, really made me eager to explore these ideas. However, I never really could think about pursuing a long-term career in the E-sports industry because of its infancy in India. UCLA Anderson was the perfect gateway for me to venture into this space, primarily because of its strong ties to E-sports powerhouses like Riot and Blizzard. It’s location in Los Angeles also brings me in close proximity to some of the largest video game conferences like E3, GDC, BlizzCon and Pax West. The school has a specific group for coaching people who want to venture into the E-sports industry and Days On The Job (DOJ) treks to gaming companies in California. All these avenues reinforced in me that Anderson was the right choice for me to take the next step in my career.

What club or activity are you looking most forward to in business school? I look forward to driving significant contribution to the diversity and inclusion initiatives as part of the Women’s Business Connection and the Anderson Student Association. I strongly believe that a culture which embraces people from all backgrounds is essential for the success of any business

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point in your career? Working as a product manager in two early-age startups for the last few years, I realized that I really needed to develop my skills in leadership and get a holistic view of how a business runs to be able to make strategic decisions about the future of the organization. I didn’t want to delay my MBA anymore because I was already 28, which was the average age of students at most business schools. Also, as I mentioned earlier, the E-sports industry is pretty much nonexistent in India and hence this was the right time for me to get a head start in my career in the E-sports industry.

How did you decide if an MBA was worth the investment? Growing up, my father taught me how to evaluate the return on investment on experiences whose impact would be not be apparent until many years down the line in my personal and professional life. His support and confidence in me encouraged me to think about MBA as the next step in my career. I spoke to a lot of friends who had finished their MBA’s about their experiences, both in India and abroad. In the process, I concluded that I wanted to attend business school in the US for the cross-cultural diversity that the schools here bring. Apart from the business education, what really tipped the scales in favor of an MBA was the opportunity to master soft skills like negotiations, exercising power and effective communication that are critical to a successful career.

What other MBA programs did you apply to? MIT Sloan, Stanford GSB, Duke Fuqua, UC Berkeley

How did you determine your fit at various schools? I concentrated on schools which had a strong focus on technology, irrespective of location. To begin with, I did a lot of research on the various schools that were of interest to me via online blogs and primers (the ones on mbaMission were really helpful). Once I had short-listed some schools, I started reaching out to alumni via LinkedIn and conducting informationals to understand in more depth the opportunities and the career landscape at the respective schools. I even took a week off from work to visit some of the schools on the east coast, something I recommend everyone should do if time and budget permits. Not only did school visit give me a sense of the culture and atmosphere, it also made me realize the importance of being in a big city to enhance my experience at business school.

What was your defining moment and how did it shape who you are? Unlike most people, my defining moment came pretty late. I left a cushy job at Amazon to work for a small start-up at a lesser salary and a completely different role than what I had been doing before. It took immense amount of courage to make this transition despite my friends’ and family’s strong opposing views on this matter. Looking back, the next few years were one of the best years of my career in terms of the amazing people I got to work with and the level of personal and professional growth I attained. I became more comfortable with taking risk and following my passion.

What do you plan to do after you graduate? I plan to take up an internal strategy or operations role at one of the E-sports powerhouses on the west coast. I’m more focused on companies developing the current generation of massively multiplayer online games (both mobile & desktop) which have a bouquet of e-sports events to their name. Target companies include Valve Corporation, Riot Games, Blizzard Entertainment and Epic Games.

Where do you see yourself in five years? E-sports is India is still in its nascent stages, with the largest tournaments only having a prize pool of a few thousand dollars as compared to millions of dollars in the United States. However, India has a growing population of consumers interested in E-sports and the infrastructure to support large-scale sporting events. In five years, I see myself building a community of talented and passionate individuals who will make India one of the largest hubs for E-sports events in the world and bring it on the map of the world’s largest video game developers.

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