Sheenabh Dhar

Indian School of Business

“Passionate problem solver with diverse experience across finance, edtech, and impact-driven initiatives.”

Hometown: Ludhiana, Punjab

Fun Fact About Yourself: I love rock music and play my electric guitar whenever I get a chance.

Undergraduate School and Major: Shri Ram College of Commerce. Major: Commerce

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Josh Talks, Vice President of Strategy

Aside from your classmates, what was the key part of the Indian School of Business MBA programming that led you to choose this school and why was it so important to you? ISB’s wide range of electives, especially those in strategy and marketing, taught by world-class faculty drew me to ISB.

I feel that I had specialised too early in my career, focusing on corporate and investment finance. During my undergrad days, I exclusively picked courses and read books on finance, intending to take up a role in M&A and private equity upon graduation. While such laser-sharp focus helped me achieve my dream, about four years into my career, while working at a private equity fund, I realised that I enjoyed solving problems with functional variety. Thus, it dawned on me that an operator role requiring a multidisciplinary approach to problem-solving would be more to my liking.

With this realisation, I quit my role in finance and joined an impact media and edtech startup as the Chief of Staff to the CEO. Three years into the role, I honed my ability to approach problems in a structured manner, breaking them down into their constituent paths and solving the individual components. As I reflected on my future career trajectory, I felt that I would greatly benefit by complementing my structured approach with deep functional education in non-finance subjects, such as strategy and marketing and that pursuing an MBA program would be ideal to gain this education.

Looking at ISB and speaking with the school’s alumni, I felt drawn to the quality of education that it offered. The school offered a chance to learn from eminent faculty with deep expertise stemming from years of research in their fields. Furthermore, with its wide range of electives, from Business Analytics to Rural Marketing, I thought of the school as a sandboxed environment that would allow me to synthesise my years of professional experience and learn alternative, but tried and tested, ways of approaching problems outside my domain of functional expertise. The extensive coverage of case studies of Indian companies with the protagonists of the case sometimes being called directly to the classroom is also unique to the school. Facilitating this broadening of perspectives is the School’s incredibly diverse and supportive student community, ensuring that you always have the opportunity to discuss the application of classroom concepts in diverse contexts.

What has been your favourite course or extracurricular activity at the Indian School of Business? What has been the most important lesson that you have learned from it?: Coming from the world of edtech, I was attracted to the course on Marketing of High-Tech Products and Innovations taught by Professor Prakash Bagri, the ex-CMO of Intel South Asia. From bringing an actual fabricated silicon wafer to the classroom to discussing insights from his years of experience at Intel, Professor Bagri made sure to engage the classroom in thrilling debate while grounding us in first-principles thinking.

The most important lesson I took away from the class was that counterintuitive to the popular belief that one should target large markets. Instead, one should target niche beachhead market segments when bringing an innovation to market, as it is critical to deliver superlative value to customers to drive adoption, which is only possible when focusing on the needs of niche segments.

What makes Hyderabad such a great place to earn your MBA?: Hyderabad is a beautiful city with great weather all around the year. The ISB campus itself is an oasis of tranquility with its dense green foliage encouraging daily walks around the campus. One can also not forget about the incredible food on offer by the city!

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: One of the most fulfilling experiences in my career has been contributing to establishing the Jobs for Women platform at Josh Talks. Under this product, Josh Talks is helping women from Tier 2 and beyond cities get their first job after a month-long intensive training programme, ultimately assisting such women in attaining financial independence. I contributed to the platform by designing and developing its business model and obtaining initial funding for it.

Describe your biggest accomplishment as an MBA student so far: One of the highlights of my MBA experience was having the opportunity to share the stage with a partner from a leading private equity firm and hosting a fireside chat with him for the benefit of the cohort. As an introverted person with stage fright, the experience helped me gain courage on stage and evolve professionally.

What is your class’s favourite hangout away from school? Why do you gather there? My top two favourite places to unwind would be going kayaking at the Durgam Lake, about 5kms from the campus or visiting the Glass Onion, a restaurant in the middle of a golf course right across the campus.

What do you hope to do after graduation? After graduation, I hope to work at a global strategy consulting firm, advising clients as a generalist problem-solver.

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