Pushkal Chinta

IIM Kozhikode

“Humbled by failures, seasoned by experience and hopeful forever.”

Hometown: Hyderabad, Telangana

Fun Fact About Yourself:  It took me 17 trials to perfect a Vegan version of my own almond biscotti.

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Beatitude Foods LLP, Managing Director

Aside from your classmates, what was the key part of IIM Kozhikode’s MBA programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? “Globalizing Indian Thought”, our mantra for IIM Kozhikode, resonates on both personal and professional fronts. Diversity, not just in my cohort but amongst the thought leaders who handle our pedagogy, truly delivers what’s promised of the programme. Last but not least, our Kampus amidst serene green hillocks adds to the transformational journey I aspire to immerse myself in during the course.

What has been your favorite course or extracurricular activity at IIM Kozhikode? What has been the most important lesson that you have learned from it? As Future Business leaders, we are most likely to chase our goals and organizational targets from the get-go. In this narrow focus on delivering the best, one might lose a sense of empathy and consideration. Hence, the Managing People and Performance in Organization course brings back the emphasis on the human element of business and how strong cultures with the right practices can help us achieve better.

Coming to extracurricular activities. the opportunity of leading Contemporary Circle. where we are able funnel different ideas and market trends to our cohort to meet the fuel the appetite of our rigorous MBA programme.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: I am a strong believer of “To do better when inconvenient defines us.” I had many situations where I was able to practice this, but the one, I would like to share is when I felt the most powerless. It happened after a couple months of pre-registration work for the firm and fund pitches for partnership. We had a firm, plan, raw materials, machinery, and workforce in place, and the country went into lockdown with the pandemic. As founders, we had to make the call to retain our workforce or call it quits before going into the market itself, as cocoa goods didn’t qualify as essential goods in a restricted logistics scenario.

A couple months passed, and the government permitted restaurants to work on a delivery basis, we quickly went back to the drawing board. We figured we could leverage this to start a cloud kitchen bakery. We made some changes to our facility, and as a baker myself, I trained our staff. Within two months, we were able to go live on Swiggy and Zomato platforms by Christmas and generated Rs 2 lakhs in sales during the festive season. This is by far the proudest moment of my life; we deviated from the plan, but kept the people who had invested with us throughout the crisis.

What has been your most memorable experience at IIM Kozhikode? Why was it so special? Within a week of arriving in the Kampus, we got together to celebrate of Vishu. Dressed in the Keralites attires and indulging authentic food really got all of us together.

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point and what do you hope to do after graduation? My vision, as well as my long-term goal, is to build a sustainable business to drive economic growth, generate employment, and improve the lives of people around me because giving back to society is essential. It is an integral part of who I am. I am certain I need to build a strong network, level up my abilities and widen my understanding of the global landscape of the business world.

DON’T MISS: MEET IIM KOZHIKODE’S PGP-BL CLASS OF 2024