Anees Sayed

University of Minnesota, Carlson School of Management

“An analytical problem-solver, curiously looking for new challenges when not playing racket sports.”

Hometown: Hyderabad, India

Fun Fact About Yourself: Although I was born in India, I grew up in Botswana and studied in South Africa. I have lived in Southern Africa longer than I have lived in India.

Undergraduate School and Major: University of Cape Town (South Africa), Mechatronics Engineering

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Centre for Sports Science (Chennai, India), working as a Biomechanist (Human Movement Specialist)

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: I was appointed as one of the five human movement specialists in the world by the International Cricket Counsel (ICC): the global governing body for the sport of cricket. This gave me an opportunity to work with international cricketers whom I followed on television and the news. I had the responsibility to analyze their movements in the lab and provide feedback as to how they could change their technique to reduce their injury risk and perform more efficiently on the sports field.

But getting to that stage took months of planning and execution. I started the role of a biomechanist with limited work experience. I had the responsibility of managing the operations of a world-class sports testing laboratory, including a 20-camera motion capture system, which was the biggest sports motion capture system in India. I worked tirelessly to get the lab running, spending the first four-to-five months continually tinkering with the hardware and working on setting up an athlete testing protocol.

At the end of the first five months at work, the persistent groundwork ensured that my laboratory was successful in being accredited by the world governing body for the sport of cricket to analyze cricketers and I was the third person appointed as a human movement specialist by the ICC. I am very proud of this achievement as it led to an influx of athletes who wanted to get their technique analyzed in the lab. This kept me very busy, but more importantly led to increased revenue. This also opened the doors for my employer to tie up with various sporting bodies within India and collaborate with researchers from Australia and South Africa.

What quality best describes the MBA classmates you’ve met so far and why? Diverse is one word which comes to mind. My classmates have impressive careers as expected, but they have an even more impressive list of extracurricular activities and fun facts. They are very different to me in many ways, which means I will get to learn a great deal (both professionally and personally) from each one of them.

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? The experiential learning at the Enterprise program at Carlson was the deciding factor for me. During my school research and interaction with Carlson students, I found out about the Enterprise program and how the students got to engage and work with real businesses solving real problems. I wanted to have the practical experience to supplement the classroom teachings. The Enterprise program was important as it would allow me to gain invaluable experience in bridging my knowledge gaps and prepare me for my post-MBA career.

What club or activity are you looking most forward to in business school? Besides the Carlson’s Enterprise projects, I want to get involved with the Graduate Volunteers Consultants Club. This club would serve the dual purpose of serving a local non-profit organization (free-of-cost) and developing my consulting skills.

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point in your career? I wanted to shift from the technical role I was involved in, to a more client-facing and decision-making role. An MBA would not only give me the core knowledge to facilitate this career shift, but it would also help me hone my leadership skills, which would be a great boon for my post-MBA career.

How did you decide if an MBA was worth the investment? I looked at the ranking and returns on investment. The numbers do suggest that MBA degrees are expensive, but that is mitigated by higher post-MBA salaries at top ranked B-schools.

What other MBA programs did you apply to? Besides Carlson, I applied to the Indian School of Business, Foster School of Business, and Rotman School of Management.

How did you determine your fit at various schools? I prioritized small class size, university in a big city, and a collaborative culture. The small class size would allow me to know all my classmates well and to collaborate and learn from them. Living in a big city would allow for better networking opportunities with alumni, which would help me understand and learn about U.S. business.

As I was in India, most of my research on universities was done via email or video chat. However, I did manage to meet a Carlson student at a coffee chat in India. Speaking to current students and learning about their experiences allowed me to gauge the student culture and the opportunities available within the university to help me with my career shift.

What was your defining moment and how did it shape who you are?

My defining moment was taking a medical devices elective in the final year of my undergraduate degree. Prior to taking that course, I envisioned that I would be working in a manufacturing plant, most likely working on the machinery after graduation. But the medical elective exposed me to the world of medical devices and how engineering knowledge could be applied to solve medical problems. For example, one of the projects required us to take an MRI image and separate it into fat, muscle, and bone. While solving that problem, I was amazed to realize that I already had the skill set to make a (small) difference in healthcare.

This experience made me realize my passion to work in healthcare and more importantly created this mindset that the work I do can create impact and help others.

What do you plan to do after you graduate? I want to practice the skills of strategy and business analytics, amongst other skills, to gain insights on how to provide a better service to the customers and grow the business.

Where do you see yourself in five years? I would be looking for opportunities to grow, to create impact, and to keep myself intellectually stimulated within the organization. I would also like to dedicate some time to grow a small venture of my own.