Meet The MBA Class of 2022: Priyadharshini Venkat, IESE Business School

Priyadharshini Venkat

IESE Business School, University of Navarra

Spiritual, political, passionate, people person who’s seeking to maximize the potential of self and others.”

Hometown: Mumbai, India

Fun Fact about yourself: I’ve done six Vipassana courses. (A Vipassana Course is a meditation retreat where you learn and practice Vipassana meditation in complete silence for ten days)

Undergrad school and major: Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies & Goizueta Business School, Emory University – Bachelors of Business Administration (Finance)

Most recent employer and job title: 321 Education Foundation, Kaizen Manager

What makes the case method so attractive as a means to learn and become a better manager: Being an avid debater, I think and learn best through discussion and debate. The case method allows for a diverse cohort to draw on their varied experiences and share and engage with different perspectives that facilitates deeper learning. The case method also pushes you to identify different positions on an issue, to weigh the pros and cons and then to clearly articulate your stance on the issue with sufficient reasoning. All of these are critical skills to being a successful manager.

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: Given that post-MBA I want to continue to work in the social sector, I want to learn how to best run a social enterprise that combines both social and financial values. IESE has a strong social impact focus with opportunities such as ‘Social Internship’ and ‘Social Entrepreneurship Experience’ which will equip me with the knowledge and skills required to be successful in my chosen field.

What club or activity excites you most at this school and why: I’m very excited about IESE’s Entrepreneurship opportunities where you can either work on a current idea you already have or work to develop another organization’s idea. I learn best by doing and I’m looking forward to the opportunity to put into practice all the skills I’ll learn in the classroom.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: My proudest accomplishment was as a teacher at Teach For India. My 83 students came from economically disadvantaged communities. Many of them struggled with low self-confidence because of their poor academic performance or the belief that they would never amount to much. I worked relentlessly with my students to improve their academic performance and raised funds for extracurricular classes so that they could also find success outside the classroom.

My greatest moments were seeing my students who academically struggled, proudly show their parents how they surpassed their academic goals or to see students who lacked self-confidence, win city-wide debate competitions or represent Teach For India at national and international conferences. My highlight however, was receiving calls from my students three years later telling me that they got into junior colleges, the first in their families to do so.

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point in your career: Though I loved the organization I worked at – and enjoyed my work as a Data Engineer at an education non-profit – I wanted to increase the impact that I could have in the Indian education sector. I have a strong interest in how to build great organizations and wanted to build my expertise and ability in this area so that I could run impactful and scalable programs that improve the quality of education in India. I believe that an MBA would equip me with the required problem solving, strategic thinking, and leadership skills required for to add value in the Indian education space.

What other MBA programs did you apply to: IE, Oxford

What was the most challenging question you were asked as a part of the admissions process: “Why do you want to do an MBA?” The question itself was not difficult but I had to convince admission officers that Business School – and not Policy School or Education School – would best equip me for my post grad school goals. What I appreciated in my IESE interview is that my interviewer, at the end of the conversation, connected me to alumni from IESE who had gone down the path I wanted to take.

How did you determine your fit at various schools: I started by putting down what kind of learning environment I wanted to be in. For me, that was having a diverse peer group, having a rigorous academic workload, and having a strong school culture (I defined culture as positive, collaborative interactions between peers and with professors). To determine which schools met my criteria, I did research on course structure, school rankings, clubs on campus, and the school’s alumni in sectors and geographies I was interested in. To learn more about culture, I spoke to students from the school, especially friends of mine who studied there who would be honest with me about what they liked and disliked about the school.

What was your defining moment and how did it prepare you for business school: My defining moment was when I decided to join Teach For India to teach low income students instead of applying for corporate jobs right after my undergrad. I’m very grateful for that choice because it took me on a path of personal and professional fulfillment and learning. I’ve grown tremendously as a person and have learnt through my students and the teachers that I have worked with that each one of us can do unbelievable things if we’re given the right support and encouragement. My experience in the education field has given me purpose and direction which will help me leverage the appropriate resources in business school to scale my impact.

What is your favorite company and what could business students learn from them: On a global scale, I look up to organizations like Amazon, Apple and Google. I think these organizations are models for product development, organization strategy, and leadership. On a personal front, my favorite company is the one I worked at for 5 years, 321 Education Foundation. I believe it’s one of the best places to learn about how to build a mission-driven, high-performing organization with great culture. If you’re interested in studying how to keep adapting to a constantly changing environment and yet deliver phenomenal results, this is the organization to study.

DON’T MISS: MEET THE MBA CLASS OF 2022 AT IESE BUSINESS SCHOOL

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