Manish Joshi

IIM Lucknow-Noida Campus

“I am an optimist and a learning/ tech enthusiast who loves to collaborate for solutions.”

Hometown: Almora, Uttarakhand

Fun Fact About Yourself: I once assembled and ran an Ethereum Mining rig at my home. I am also enough of a blockchain enthusiast to be a “Legendary” member at the forum started by Bitcoin’s pseudonymous inventor, Satoshi Nakamoto.

Undergraduate School and Major: North Eastern Regional Institute of Science and Technology, Arunachal Pradesh

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited, Manager- Locomotive Design

Aside from your classmates, what was the key part of IIM Lucknow’s MBA programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? IIM Lucknow has an Entrepreneurship Incubation Center supported by an AI-Lab with a supercomputer setup. This provides a unique opportunity to get in close touch with the founders, some of whom are working right out of the campus. It also provides an opportunity to see how startups go from ideation to prototyping and funding.

What has been your favorite course or extracurricular activity at IIM Lucknow? What has been the most important lesson that you have learned from it? The course on Financial Management has been a favorite so far. Being an Engineer, I somehow always had my skepticism about what the “Finance bigshots” do. The lessons about a firm’s financial objectives, challenges, and decisions on value discovery, creation, and valuation have been enlightening and exciting.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: As part of the Locomotive Design team at BHEL’s manufacturing plant in Jhansi (Uttar Pradesh), our team got the challenge to modify a DC Locomotive so that it can regenerate electricity back to the overhead grid. A cross-country team was engaged in the effort, while the final prototyping and testing was done at our facility. We successfully assembled and proved the prototype’s viability. This opens up the opportunity for Indian Railways’ fleet of over 3000 DC based Locomotives to be retro-fitted with such a regenerative system that saves energy and cost.

Describe your biggest accomplishment as an MBA student so far: As part of the Accreditation Committee, I contacted Alumni from previous batches and hosted them for a virtual event with the professors and current students. This helps to rekindle contacts with the Alumni and allowed current students to interact and learn from their experiences.

What is your class’s favorite hangout away from school? Why do you gather there? I’m fortunate enough to have access to my car here on campus. Whenever I get the chance, I love to go for a drive around campus with my friends. No agenda, just a drive, to see where the roads lead us!

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point and what do you hope to do after graduation? I had a secure, well-paying Government job that many people in the country aspire to. Yet, I couldn’t see myself as getting old there and not building and creating on my own. To accomplish this, I decided to chart a path to an MBA and shift to the corporate world.

The country and world are at the cusp of civilizational change owing to rapid advances in AI, Health Sciences, and Energy usage. The way we live as humans may well change in the coming decades and a major part of that change will be driven by private corporations. After 8 years of marriage, we were blessed with a little daughter and hard as it is to stay away from her, I need this learning and experience to make things a wee-bit better for the world she will grow up in.

What advice would you give to help potential applicants gain admission into IIM Lucknow? This is a program for professionals with more than 5 years of experience. Dig deep into the story of your life and find out your strengths and the challenges that excite you. Be clear about the goals that you have in future and how an Academically rigorous MBA like the one IIM Lucknow is known for, will help you to achieve them.

DON’T MISS: MEET IIM LUCKNOW’S IPMX CLASS OF 2023