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SPJIMR alumnus Saurabh Ramesh Doshi shares how PGEMP broadened his leadership outlook within L&T
SPJIMR Marketing and Communications Dept.
Saurabh Ramesh Doshi’s career journey showcases an extraordinary transformation in mindset, skillset, and leadership approach. He started out as a manager of critical defence projects at L&T and moved all the way up to heading business development for one of the corporation’s most ambitious digital ventures, L&T-SuFin.
At the core of this growth trajectory was SPJIMR’s Post Graduate Executive Management Programme (PGEMP). His transition wasn’t just a simple change in job profile, but a strategic shift from being a domain expert to blossoming into a cross-functional leader. The programme prepared him with the important skills like strategic planning, stakeholder-focused outlook, and exposure needed to prosper in leadership roles within a complex, rapidly evolving organisation like L&T.
Image credit: SPJIMR
The early days: From project execution to broader vision
Having spent nearly a decade leading project execution roles at Larsen & Toubro within its defence vertical, Saurabh lived in a defined functional space. Then came the opportunity to join SPJIMR’s Post Graduate Executive Programme (PGEMP), and he realised how narrow his professional lens had been. The programme exposed him to general management domains, from finance and operations to human resources and organisational design, illuminating how each function enables business growth.
Image credit: L&T
A dream fulfilled: Executive MBA while working
Saurabh always aspired to an MBA, but circumstances kept him working full-time. In 2015, L&T offered him the chance to pursue an executive MBA alongside his job. He embraced the 21-month programme, managing deadlines, projects, and learning simultaneously. It was demanding, but it reawakened his academic confidence and gave him a broader strategic perspective, while he continued to deliver on the field.
Turning point: Moving to business development
After graduating in April 2017, L&T created a new line of business and recognised Saurabh’s fresh perspectives. He transitioned from project management into business development and marketing for the newly formed vertical in late 2016. Soon after, he was selected as Executive Assistant to the CEO & MD of L&T, S. N. Subrahmanyan, a role he held for three years, which helped him gain invaluable leadership exposure and organisation-wide insight.
Leading innovation: From L&T Defence to L&T-SuFin
In March 2022, L&T launched L&T-SuFin, a digital B2B e-commerce platform for industrial products and services designed for MSMEs across India. Saurabh took on a leadership role in the new venture, helping drive marketing and business development. He credits the PGEMP’s values-based thinking and cross-functional tools with giving him the confidence to take on this entrepreneurial challenge within L&T.
Holistic learning and lasting lessons
Saurabh deeply reflects on how SPJIMR’s PGEMP reshaped his leadership outlook. “The biggest learning for me has been the broadening of the mindset. I realise that the world outside is very much broad – how every field of an organisation is really important.”
Saurabh shares that SPJIMR’s focus on values-based decision-making and stakeholder inclusion fundamentally shaped his leadership style. He often cites how coursework in negotiation, operations, and HR helped him appreciate that organisational growth requires cohesive collaboration across teams. He credits the programme’s emphasis on values-based decision-making and stakeholder inclusion for anchoring his leadership style.
Advice for prospective students
He encourages working professionals considering PGEMP to view it as a transformative phase:
Be ready to unlearn ingrained routines and embrace new perspectives.
Apply learnings on the job, he implemented classroom insights immediately on projects.
Build strong internal networks, Saurabh credits the support of faculty and peers for accelerating his transition into leadership roles.
Takeaways for career and leadership
Drawing from over 15 years at L&T, Saurabh highlights several career competencies, including strategic thinking beyond execution, cross-functional empathy, adaptability to organisational change and values-led decision-making.
He believes that combining functional expertise with a broader general management outlook enables professionals to move from operational roles to impactful leadership positions.
A career shaped by exposure and onward growth
Saurabh’s evolution and career growth are an outstanding example of the transformative strength of combining real-world work experience with the right education at the right time. The PGEMP from SPJIMR, among many skills, helped broaden his thinking, ensure he made a deeper impact and prepared him for leadership within a multi-faceted, multi-national and evolving company.
His story is a powerful reminder that professional growth is not just about executing projects well; it’s about learning to lead inclusively, think holistically, and drive growth from within.