My father has been the inspiration behind all my choices. I grew up in awe of him as I watched him run his footwear manufacturing business. Over excursions to the factory and official conversations, I grew more and more interested in the general business scenario, marketing and brand management. The fashion industry with its ever changing trends in itself seemed very interesting, so as soon as I completed my graduation I joined our family business.

I spent the first year gaining a thorough understanding of the product and various manufacturing processes. However, I always wanted to add value to the system and bring in something different that would help our business grow faster. But, in order to introduce new systems and ideas it was very important to first understand the current systems that were in place.

During my second year as marketing manager I travelled to Europe to gain first hand marketing experience. I got a chance to build relationships with our existing clients and introduce our company to new potential clients. This was a great learning experience and gave a boost to my marketing and negotiation skills. Also, during this year I decided to take up the challenge of introducing a personalized ERP to our firm, as it would make our work a lot more systematic and efficient.  This challenge helped me brush up on my software and process flow management skills that I had acquired during my computer science engineering program.

By the end of 2011 we had enough orders and capacity to plan a public listing of the company at the stock exchange. This meant that if we performed well, we would grab the attention of the big financial investors. I have always wanted to understand the processes and the criteria big private equity, mutual funds and hedge funds use to determine huge investments. To help me gain first hand knowledge of the process I moved to Shanghai for 5 months to join an investment research firm based out of London. During this period I was in touch with top 50 mutual funds and private equity firms across the globe and got a chance to understand their working procedures. It helped me grasp the various aspects the investors look at before investing heavily in a publically listed firm and I gained valuable experience of working in a multinational company.

After completing three years of working in my firm, understanding the product and the various procedures, I now plan to improve my business innovation and entrepreneurship skills and at the same time work on my marketing and operational fundamentals that are vital to be a good manager. I believe that an MBA will give me a chance to understand various aspects of business administration and give me the confidence to take our company to newer and unprecedented levels of success.