Pankaj Sanodiya

Michigan State University, Broad College of Business

“Visionary and creative individual passionate about supply chain management, sustainability and art.”

Hometown: Seoni (Madhya Pradesh, India), A small town in central India

Fun Fact About Yourself: I am a close-up magician and have performed multiple magic and mentalism shows with a big audience. I am also a sketch artist having a collection of 50+ artworks.

Undergraduate School and Major: National Institute of Technology, Bhopal, India (Material Science and Metallurgical Engineering)

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: IBM, Package Solution Consultant

Aside from your classmates, what was the key part of the school’s MBA programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you?  As someone who is passionate about supply chain management, I was quite impressed with Broad’s renowned supply chain concentration curriculum that involves leading-edge academics and real-world learning.

What has surprised you the most about the Broad MBA program?  Even though Broad’s class size is very small, it is incredibly diverse having students from different geography, background, experience and culture. I am very surprised seeing that my class has people from a variety of professions, bringing a plethora of diverse experience along with them.

What quality best describes your MBA classmates you’ve met so far and why?  I would say two words: collaborative and knowledgeable. MSU has a very close-knit community where everyone works as a team. Although it was difficult to work in a team this year due to Covid-19, we were able to work collaboratively even in a virtual setting and helped each other learn skills.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: Implementing procurement technical solutions for a top-5 consumer goods client that had operations in 100+ countries and learning the skill of working in a diverse environment collaboratively.

Describe your biggest accomplishment as an MBA student so far? It was learning how to network and make professional connections.

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point in your career?  After developing technical solutions for over five years and gaining industry expertise, I wanted to learn greater fundamental knowledge of supply chain management so that I can change my function and work in a supply chain business role.

What was your defining moment and how did it prepare you for business school?  During the time I was working for one of the clients on a supply chain IT problem, I found it extremely interesting. That was a defining moment when I decided that I want to build a career in supply chain. Working on that project helped me understand the industry from a business perspective.

DON’T MISS: MEET MICHIGAN STATE’S MBA CLASS OF 2022