Shriya Savlani

Warwick Business School

“Persistently curious and on the lookout for a new adventure. I aspire for perfection!”

Hometown: Amritsar, Punjab, India

Fun Fact About Yourself: I was a national champion in roller skating and the fastest female roller skater in India in 2010.

Undergraduate School and Major: Panjab University, Bachelor of Engineering (Electronics and Communication) – UIET

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: AXA XL, Specialist (Data analytics and modelling)

What word best describes your classmates and give an example of why? Insatiable. I say this because they all have a constant drive to learn more. With an average cohort experience of more than 8 years, it’s amazing to see how each and every person in the classroom is curious to learn. Age and experience have never hindered their desire to excel and the diversity of perspectives within our cohort gives them this opportunity to learn.

Aside from your classmates and location, what was the key part of Warwick Business School’s MBA programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? Warwick Business School’s diverse cohort, in terms of countries, age and prior experience, was a major reason that led me to choose this programme. Apart from that, the WBS LeadershipPlus module also fascinated me. The module is spread over five two-day sessions across the first six months of your MBA and has helped me understand myself and my leadership style better. The module has been instrumental in creating an understanding of how relationships with colleagues impacts productivity and how this can be improved.

It is important for me to be better at my work and to understand how I can be a support to the organisation I work for in the future. Innovative ideas and the best output from a team comes when they feel understood and are motivated.

What course, club or activity have you enjoyed the most so far at Warwick Business School? I have co-founded the Product & Tech@WBS Club and I am impressed by the support we got from the Careers team in creating awareness about product management, data analytics, and other tech-based opportunities available to MBA participants. I have enjoyed planning events and hands-on sessions for my peers to equip them for the roles available in this field. Hearing from some of the best in the sector and organising coffee chats with them has been a source of learning for me too. I am privileged to have been instrumental in helping my colleagues to understand this sector better.

What has been your best memory at the Warwick Business School so far? Why? The whole experience of being here so far is something I am going to remember for a lifetime. Yet, if I need to point out to one specific incident it would be the second day of our first week on the MBA programme when we had our Dean’s welcome dinner. Meeting my classmates, professors and alumni for the first time on an informal stage helped me ease into the MBA, as I could see the support I would have throughout the year. It was the day my dream was realised and will continue to be a treasured memory throughout my life.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: The first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic was a huge transition to everyone’s professional life. The same was the case for me as I embarked on an important project. In a non-COVID world, the months of April ’20 to June ’20 were reserved to onboard the fourth and the biggest business region (North America) and reserving data model. I was involved in the design, development, and enhancements of the model and was set to travel to AXA’s Atlanta office to present it to the Actuarial team. But, as COVID-19 would have it, I was left to manage the integration sitting in my humble abode in India with a 9.5-hour time gap between the two countries. This project was a huge success and was especially important to me as I was now leading a team. A special mention of the project from the Actuary Head of the North America business was a testimony of the team’s hard work and perseverance.

What do you hope to do after graduation? I have data analytics work experience in insurance industry and I have previously studied engineering. Hence, this is why technology has always been a point of interest for me. I plan to stay in financial services and tech related roles in the future. More specifically, I want to do product management and financial services/tech consulting.

What advice would you give to help potential applicants gain admission into Warwick Business School’s MBA program? Be authentic and be proud of yourself. You have already come a long way and acknowledging your achievements is the best thing you can do for yourself. Be very clear and transparent about what you learnt from different milestones in your life and how would you would better them now.