Sanket Jasani

University of Minnesota, Carlson School of Management

“A curious and rational optimist on a journey to learn, create, and overreach self.”

Hometown: Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India

Fun fact about yourself: I want to finish writing the screenplay that I have been working on and wish to direct a film at a time not far away in the future.

Undergraduate School and Degree: Computer Engineering from Gujarat Technological University, India.

Where was the last place you worked before enrolling in business school? At Tap and Type – a software company that I co-founded in India.

Where did you intern during the summer of 2022? Amazon, Seattle, WA.

Where will you be working after graduation? Amazon, as a Senior Product Manager – Technical (PM-T)

Community Work and Leadership Roles in Business School:

• Arts and Business Club (ABC), Board Member
• Carlson for Community (C4C), Tech Committee – C4C holds a variety of community service events throughout the year, as well as hosts the annual charity auction that raises money for Twin Cities based non-profits.
• Carlson Consulting Enterprise (CCE), Principal – In my final semester, I am mentoring two teams of MBAs, and undergraduates in their first semester of doing consulting projects. I support them in problem solving and navigating stakeholder management.

Which academic or extracurricular achievement are you most proud of during business school? Last fall, through Carlson Consulting Enterprise (CCE), I got the chance to lead a team of four in working with a Twin Cities-based client to first identify and then assess the viability of a $35 million dollar automation investment opportunity. I am most proud of delivering outcomes that were valued by to the client through this semester-long engagement. The stakeholders I got to work with were the senior vice president, and vice president-level executives from the client company. This experience helped me hone my leadership and problem-solving capabilities. In working with my project director, Marja Fox, I found a mentor for lifetime.

What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career? I am most proud of how my company’s software products impacted a community of small business owners in my hometown in India. My customers gave up entrenched habits of using paper records and moved to cloud software which empowered them to make data-driven, confident decisions.

Why did you choose this business school? Experiential learning opportunities through the Enterprise programs were the primary reason that drove me to choose the Carlson School MBA. By being a part of one of the four available Enterprise programs, we get an opportunity to work on real world projects for two or three semesters. This gives Carlson School students seminal opportunities to implement classroom learning in solving real world problems. I have done three semesters with the Consulting Enterprise and it has been a transformational experience.

What was your favorite course as an MBA? My favorite course has been “Pricing Strategy” by Professor Mark Bergen. Pricing the product or service is a fundamental aspect of any business. In this class, the professor, through various case studies and real-world examples, taught us how to think about pricing a product or service, and helped us identify various factors that go into deciding the price. A reason this class resonated with me so well was because it helped me see gaps in the pricing model of my startup that I had founded back in India.

What was your favorite MBA event or tradition at your business school? The Carlson 4 Community (“C4C”) charity auction is my favorite MBA event as it embodies Carlson’s belief in “Business as a Force for Good.” The whole Carlson community, including professors, students from different programs, and career coaches come together for this event to raise money for a beneficiary. This year, in 2023, we raised $50,000+ for Operation No Limit — a Twin Cities based nonprofit that works toward enriching the lives of at-risk youth through education, and life and social skills development.

Looking back over your MBA experience, what is the one thing you’d do differently and why? Carlson School MBAs have access to other programs and resources beyond business school at the University. Looking back, I wish I would have engaged more with the community outside of the MBA program to enhance my interdisciplinary knowledge. I took an elective from the Business Analytics program in the third semester and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The University of Minnesota has other great departments, such as astrophysics and computer science, and I realize that getting access to such a wide variety of sources of knowledge would be difficult going forward.

What is the biggest myth about your school? The biggest myth about the Carlson School is that it is a regional school. The Carlson Class of 2023 has student representation from multiple nations and from all across the U.S. Moreover, while Carlson has an exceptional relationship with Twin Cities-based companies, if one is interested in working with employers beyond the Twin Cities, armed with a Carlson degree, one can excel in any establishment wherever in the world it may be.

What did you love most about your business school’s town? Lakes! Minneapolis is known as the City of Lakes. During the summer, I have walked around the city shorelines and in winter, I’ve walked across the lakes once the water has frozen. Although the winters in Minneapolis can be brutal, there are ample outdoor activities one can engage themselves in and walking on the frozen lake was quite an experience.

What surprised you the most about business school? That you learn as much as or more from your peers as you do from your professors. Almost every class I took had a group project component. I interacted and collaborated with a diverse set of people in doing these group projects. I was awe-struck knowing the diverse background of my talented peers. Some of them are musicians, entrepreneurs, teachers, medical professionals, artists. Learning from all these peers who came to Carlson from different walks of life has been just incredible.

What is one thing you did during the application process that gave you an edge at the school you chose? Actually, I had interviewed with Carlson a year before getting admitted and I didn’t make the cut that year. I sought feedback from the admissions team, worked on strengthening my weak areas, and got admitted the next year. Reaching out to the admissions team and to students at Carlson helped me better understand the program offerings and my fit.

Which MBA classmate do you most admire? Jacob Young. Jacob and I worked closely when we were on the same team for a consulting project. Jacob is an Army veteran with a quiet demeanor and impeccable work ethic. I learned so much just by observing him in team settings and stakeholder meetings. Our entire team and client stakeholders voiced their appreciation for his problem-solving and leadership abilities. During team meetings, he would respectfully listen to each member’s viewpoint even if they had opposing ideas. He is an excellent team player who brings the best out of others around him.

What are the top two items on your professional bucket list?

1. I am very excited to get back to Amazon where I did my internship. I look forward to solving challenging technical problems and creating an impact at Amazon scale by obsessing over customers.

2. I wish to continue working at the intersection of technology and business, and develop innovative products and services utilizing emerging technologies to solve real-world problems.

What made Sanket such an invaluable addition to the Class of 2023?

“Sanket has shown remarkable growth over his three semesters with the Carlson School’s consulting experiential learning program. It has been a privilege to watch him discover and unleash his own brand of leadership. He is steady, conscientious, humble, and proactive. In his first semester, Sanket demonstrated outstanding resilience in working through unusually difficult team dynamics to deliver an impactful customer satisfaction project. He followed that up by leading a supply chain automation project to revolutionize heavy goods handling at a national retailer, showing sophisticated team development capabilities to bring out the best in his high performers and stand firm behind clear expectations. Now, in his third semester, he is ably guiding others to find their leadership fingerprint. I look forward to seeing where he goes from here.”

Marja Fox
Associate Director, Carlson Consulting Enterprise

DON’T MISS: THE ENTIRE LIST OF MBAS TO WATCH IN 2023