Priya’s takeaways from the PGDM programme!

“

My three takeaways from the PGDM programme were –

• To always retain the ability to zoom in and zoom out, be very aware of the details, but not to miss the forest for the trees, to always have that perspective, which is much larger than the details of the project or the program that you’re working on.
• Secondly, just to ensure that all complex problems or big problems always have smaller solutions and very simple solutions that are located in the day-to-day.
• And thirdly what I took away from SPJMR’s Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) programme was to look for bosses who are a little bit unreasonable, who push you, who have the vision, and who can help you realise your potential. And that’s something that I hold very dear till now. I continue to look for mentors or to look for partners and peers who help push me and therefore push the quality of whatever we’re working on higher.

Beyond problem-solving!

What turned the way I thought was an interaction that I had with Dr. Srikant at that time, who helped me see that the kind of skills that we acquired at SPJIMR were not just limited to solving problems in the sphere of industry. The kind of education that we had at SPJIMR helped us solve even the large, intractable problems. And that’s where, in some way, my tenure at SPJIMR, with the strong emphasis on social change, with the strong emphasis on ensuring that doing good, also made strong business sense, and the strong emphasis on creativity and lateral thinking. At that time, I was exposed to the power of being able to influence much beyond what your authority lay in your career.

So I guess that was it. The dots started connecting for me. Then, in 2001, I witnessed an incident that I saw on the road and decided that my role as a responsible citizen could not end with just advertising. And I took the plunge and joined the development sector. Since then, I’ve been working with young adults. I’ve been working to bridge the gap between education and employment. Everybody talks about India’s demographic dividend, but how these 237,000,000 young people can contribute to a higher GDP depends on how well they transition from education to employment.

So that’s what I do now. The seeds of which I can trace back to my two years at the top B-school in India and the conversations I had with their world-class faculty and peers from diverse educational and cultural backgrounds. The alumni network of SPJIMR is very, very special. I started on my journey of being a social entrepreneur in 2012. The very first person I reached out to was Anuj Gandhi, a batchmate in 1992 who had been a supporter through this journey and is today on my board of trustees. Wherever I go, whether it is to a government meeting, I always find somebody from SPJIMR, and that always tends to open the door just that little bit wider. So, it’s a pleasure to be part of this network.

What’s stands out about SPJIMR?

I believe that SPJIMR is special in many ways. It allows you to reflect upon what your strengths are, and how you can contribute to the world at large, not just by way of being part of industry, but what is it that you can genuinely do to solve large problems. And my advice to all the young people at this top B-school in Mumbai is to be bold, really be courageous. Open their minds to all kinds of possibilities, not restrict themselves to stereotypical careers, that are expected after a management education, but be creative in what they want to do with their life. It’s worth the risk!