Nitin Sethi

Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

“A stand-up comic at heart with the mind of an entrepreneur.”

Hometown: Panchkula, Haryana – India

Fun Fact About Yourself: I have performed stand-up comedy in more than 3 languages.

Have worked for ITC (a large FMCG conglomerate), Urban Company (a consumer tech startup) and for McKinsey & Company.

Undergraduate School and Major: IIT Roorkee, Electronic and Communication Engineering

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: McKinsey & Company, External Advisor

Aside from your classmates, what was the key part of the Wharton School’s MBA programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you?  I was most excited by the rounded focus of the academic programming at Wharton – ranging from core business topics of finance but spanning to the most relevant fields today such as Climate Change and AI. The balance of academic and experiential learning, along with Wharton’s unique focus on teamwork and leadership (as evident in the Team based Discussions) was of special interest to me.

What course, club, or activity excites you the most at the Wharton School? With a background in AgriTech, I am excited to take on the BEES major and be part of the ESG initiative to identify solutions that can ensure a sustainable future of food for a 10B global population by 2050. Prof. Nicolaj’s ‘Strategy-and-Environmental-Sustainability’ will help me understand challenges and opportunities for new business posed by environmental sustainability.

I am also excited about developing myself as a leader at Wharton. GMC-Rwanda will enable me to resolve conflicts and rally disparate stakeholders towards large goals. A combination of learnings from ‘Influence’ and ‘Negotiations’ will enable me to navigate power dynamics in the agri-ecosystem, while ‘Quantico-simulation’ and ECPF will provide opportunities to apply and refine these techniques.

When you think of the Wharton School, what is the first word that comes to mind? Why? Accountability and Intentionality were two words that I instantly connected with during my convocation. Since majority activities on campus are student-run, accountability is the foundation of effective performance at Wharton. The experience is designed to trust students to be responsible members of the student community and looked at as not consumers but co-owners of the experience. Given the vast variety of opportunities, I constantly find myself and my peers prioritizing those avenues in which they find true purpose and those which are best suited to their long-term goals. The sheer thought behind each action that every member of the Wharton community puts in is truly inspiring.

As I reflect back through my time here so far, I am able to constantly validate that accountability and intentionality are the two tenets of the MBA program at Wharton.

Looking at your recruitment, what was the moment when you realized the Wharton School was the right MBA program for you? Why? While I was partly undecided about my immediate career choice post-Wharton, I have been clear about the impact I wanted to create in the world through my work in the long-term.

It was during my first pre-term week that I met many people from different backgrounds who also shared my passion for environmental sustainability and technology. Here, I realized that the bouquet of opportunities at Wharton seemed most suited to not only build the right skills and knowledge to progress towards my goals, but also for me to build a perspective on what different trajectories I could take to achieve my goals.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: One of the biggest challenges with doubling the partner base for the Urban Company (Home services startup based in India) was the scarcity of trained professionals. Few, if any, pursued or wanted to learn bathroom-cleaning, given the strenuous nature of the job and the discriminatory treatment cleaning partners faced due to caste-related connotations. Even existing partners perceived their work as “in-between” gigs to make quick bucks. Fewer still were committed to delivering impeccably, as service NPS continuously dropped.

We took a partner-centric approach to scale supply and improve category NPS. We were convinced that in a two-sided marketplace, satisfied service partners would ensure contented customers. To shift the perception of cleaning partners from ‘unskilled labor’ to ‘skilled professionals’, I redesigned the service to automate manual scrubbing, resulting in a 30% reduction and 50% increase in hourly earnings. Innovative chemical formulations eased the stain-removal process and enhanced service outcomes, reflecting in the 5-p.p. growth in category NPS. I partnered with the product team and launched communication campaigns on the app, urging customers to treat partners with dignity, offering them drinking water and allowing them to use restrooms. These initiatives brought down partner churn to <10%, marking a significant improvement.

Finally, my team of roughly 75, trained and onboarded approximately 5,000 professionals in  under 5 months, servicing 300K+ customers during our peak month (Oct ’22) to generate ~$3M in revenue and deliver UC’s first profitable month. In the process, we evoked positive customer experiences (50+ NPS score). While achieving our target was gratifying, I felt more fulfilled by the intangible wins in this journey. Designing our systems and infrastructure to upskill partners on hard skills (new kit, SOPs) and soft skills (customer expectations management, professionalism) has been a truly rewarding experience that made me realize that empowerment is the highest form of service.

What do you hope to do after graduation (at this point)? I shall now be recruiting for consulting and take on projects in the fields of energy, sustainability, agri-food businesses and technologies to build depth in these areas post Wharton. In the long term, I would like to build or lead a business solving on a large, meaningful opportunity in this space

What other MBA programs did you apply to? I applied to all of the M7 schools – HBS, GSB, Wharton, Kellogg, MIT Sloan, Booth, CBS

What advice would you give to help potential applicants gain admission into the Wharton School’s MBA program? Put out your authentic self in the application. This process will take self-discovery to build a large, meaningful vision for which the Wharton MBA experience will prepare you. Be confident in your experiences and communicate how your unique strengths and perspectives can add value to the Wharton community and the world as you embark on your journey to realize your vision.

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