Jack of All, Master of Many -Satarupa Bhattacharya

A student at one of India’s premiere B-schools, Faculty of Management Studies and probably India’s youngest brand manager, Ved Agarwal is all of twenty-two years old and typifies the ‘new’ MBA dream. Definitely not your conventional classroom nerd, he pursued Bachelors in Commerce at St Xavier’s College, Kolkata. While doing his graduation he successfully completed marketing-strategy oriented projects for Reliance Telecommunications and Greenply Industries. Interestingly, not only did he work behind the camera (creating advertising campaigns) but also in front of it. Ved was the face of outdoor campaigns for NIIT and Reliance Communications. Taking his passion for marketing a step further, Ved initiated the Advertising and Marketing Unit at St Xavier’s College.

A lover of fitness and speed, Ved has been playing regular cricket for the Indoor Cricket League at Kolkata and has been equally passionate in his love for karts. He was placed 7th at the Ford Merchants Cup Karting Championship in Kolkata. So in a nutshell, here is someone who not just seems to have his finger in every pie but also manages to grab a good share of it!

Marketing has been a passion for Ved for a long time now and so, studying at one of the most acclaimed marketing campuses in India – FMS – has been the most ideal way-forward for this energetic young man. He shares his interests and the experiences during the journey to B-school in an interview with Satarupa Bhattacharya:

Tell us a bit about your academic background.

I’ve been extremely fortunate to have studied at top notch educational institutions throughout my academic life. I did my schooling at Don Bosco School, Park Circus, Kolkata and then my graduation in Commerce at St. Xaviers’ College, Kolkata. I also did a short course in Marketing at The London School of Economics, London.

I must first categorically mention that I was always a mediocre student. I studied Science with Economics during high school (Classes 11-12). Though I thoroughly enjoyed physics and higher calculus, I realized that this wasn’t my calling. I decided to listen to this rather strong gut-feeling and pulled off a 180 degrees turn on my ‘road ahead’. I dropped my admission at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor for a 4-year Engineering Degree and opted instead for a Bachelor of Commerce course at St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata.

Thanks to my college timings (6am – 9.40 am), I had the more active part of the day to myself to pursue the things I wanted to. I primarily used this to learn the nuances of my passion – marketing and advertising. So, while I was studying commerce from 6 am to 9.40 am, I was fuelling my passion from 10am to 6pm.

You have not just been an avid enthusiast of marketing, but also a practitioner with significant assignments to your credit even during your graduation days. How did you develop this interest so early? Tell us a little about the projects that you did prior to joining MBA.

Right from the first year of college, I was keen on studying the aspects of marketing and advertising from a closer perspective. The learning started at Emami Ltd. where, for two months, I carefully and meticulously observed the functioning of one of their Brand teams. Then I did a project for the plywood major - Greenply Industries Ltd. This 4-month project was of particular interest because it involved my active interaction with external parties such as the advertising agency. Next, I worked at an Advertising Agency in Kolkata as a Client Servicing Executive for about 6 months. Being a part of the entire process from Ideation to Execution, interacting with clients, working on strategies, getting to understand the finer and deeper aspects of media buying, creative execution and all of it was fantastic!

The next project was working on Shillong’s most premiere hotel – Hotel Polo Towers. I was entrusted with the responsibility of repositioning the hotel and executing brand-building activities for them. This was a critical project as it required that I take charge of the entire gamete. In a span of 5 months, the deliverables were met with tremendous satisfaction.

My most challenging project was with Chocolate Hotels. The hotel group had roped me in for their new boutique hotel project, Chrome (www.chromehotel.in). I handled the overall brand responsibilities for the project. It involved everything from naming the hotel to understanding its brand features, to creating a befitting communication and experience strategy. The 18 months spent working with multiple teams - Advertising, PR, Events and the Media Planners to name a few – was the most educative experience in itself.

With so much in your kitty already, why did you feel the need for an MBA?

To be able to study business at an institution like FMS is an honour in itself. Having said that, I think that an MBA adds tremendous value by providing structure and process to the flow of thought; it promotes better understanding and significantly improves problem solving capacity.

I firmly believe in change and the philosophy of continuous improvement and as such even after the MBA, if I feel like I am stagnating at any point, I would definitely study more. However I must emphasize that as far as academic inflexion points go, this MBA promises to be one of the most important ones.

What was your weakest area when you started preparing for the written tests? How did you work on (or around) that?

When I kicked off my preparation for the myriad entrance examinations I was grappling to find a stronghold in any of the three sections. Without losing hope, I revisited the fundamentals of quants and verbal ability from various books. With practice I started to get some foothold in ‘Number Theory’. One practice which I started early during the preparation phase was indulging in mental calculations, whenever my mind was unoccupied. This taught me to think fast with the help of numbers and boosted my data interpretation skills.

I had heard a lot about the complexity of the reading comprehension passages. To tackle this I used to read assorted articles. I would also read editorials from the Guardian online website. Some of these editorials required in-depth understanding of the subject matter and secondary reading. This helped me to build my inferential skills, which I think is one of the most important skills required to tackle CAT reading comprehension exercises.

The FMS entrance examination is a different ball game altogether. The focus here is on speed and accuracy. I found the logical reasoning section quite challenging and time consuming compared to other sections. I had read Norman Lewis’ Word Power Made Easy front to back and also played with Barron’s occasionally to get a good grasp over vocabulary. Needless to say the verbal ability section was a cakewalk and during the test I was over with it in 15 minutes flat!

What was your experience of the GD/PI rounds in FMS like?

Till the process actually started, I was extremely tense but once I entered the GD room everything went off smoothly. I realized that whatever tips or tricks that you learn in mock GD sessions are good to know, but it can all go wrong in just one moment. As long as you (and the candidates in your panel) remember that it is a “group discussion” and not “group debate,” everything will be just smooth.

I can’t recall my GD topic verbatim but it was related to cricketers and the media. I opened the GD (which is considered a brownie point as long you are not rambling) and to my pleasure, the group played with my opening statement for the next few minutes. I said to myself – “Now relax for a couple of minutes”. I entered the discussion two more times after that and I thought that I had done my part. There was one particular guy who was extremely loud and kept cutting people off in the middle of their sentences. Needless to say, he didn’t make it to the final list.

The extempore followed by the group discussion was nothing great. My topic was “An apple which falls from the tree falls near the tree”. I spoke for about a minute before the panel asked me to stop. The interview mainly explored my college academics and extracurricular activities. I led the interviewers to my comfort area – marketing and after that, everything was smooth!

How would you advise a fresher, who may not have as many interests or pursuits as you did, to develop and project his profile at a B-school interview?

In the competitive education environment that exists today, a top notch B-school will not settle for anyone who is not THE best. Thus it becomes quite imperative for any candidate to project his or her best self to the interview panel. In my view, a B-school looks for a candidate who is ‘a jack of all and master of a few’. Needless to say, you need to have good academic standing but not at the cost of extracurricular pursuits.

If the candidate has enough time on his hands, then he could certainly develop new hobbies. By developing, I mean actually pursuing it and not just reading about it. Hobbies have always been a favourite even with the interview panels. So, one must ensure that he knows even the minutest detail pertaining to whatever he claims to be his hobby. I can recall a friend’s interview where he said that reading was his hobby. The panel then asked what his favourite book or magazine was, to which the friend named some business magazine. The very next question was ‘Who is the editor of that magazine?’ and the rest is history. In a nutshell, if one says that he has an interest in something, he must be prepared to answer anything related to his interest.

During the mock interviews et al, you will be taught how to guide your interview as you want it. Here is where you introduce the panel to your interest and show them your assumed skills and knowledge. In the end, academics is just a part of your profile and the rest is what you are. Remember that you need to be different from the others.

Did you ever have any regrets about not being in one of the IIMs, which are even now considered in popular perception to be the Mecca of biz education, at least as far as India is concerned? What according to you is the strongest USP of FMS?

I have never had any regrets about not going to an IIM. When you think of the top business schools in India for Marketing, you surely find FMS ranked among the first few. People have fixed mindsets when they only want to be in an IIM or nowhere. I had none of that. Let us also not forget that FMS started the fire of management education in India as early as 1954. I am glad to be studying here.

My task would have been a lot easier if there had been one USP of FMS. There are many differentiating factors that make FMS a top choice for MBA aspirants. But if I had to pinpoint one of the many it would be the small batch strength in the school. Unlike most of other B-schools, everyone at FMS knows each other and the level of interaction between seniors and juniors is unbelievable. This meaningful interaction is the seat of knowledge transfer. The mentor/mentee and buddy programmes result in lot of bond building between the two batches. At a recently concluded alumni meet, I was amazed to see the comfort level between the seniors and juniors. Even if such interaction is present in other B-schools, I am not sure that the strength and intensity of what I have seen at FMS can be replicated anywhere across the country.

Were you working when you planned to apply to B-schools? How did you balance test-prep with your other pursuits, professional and extra-curricular?

Yes, I was working then. Apart from college and work, there was Indoor Cricket and Karting which were always on my radar. I was a regular player at the Indoor Cricket League and also at the Karting Championships of Kolkata. I would also dedicate time to the Marketing and Advertising Club I initiated at St Xaviers’ College. I even undertook a couple of modeling assignments for Reliance Communications, NIIT etc which required me to spend considerable hours at photo-shoots.

I knew I had too much on my plate. But then, the task of managing all of these wasn’t all that herculean. The simple tool of time management and prioritization was all I used. I allotted a fixed number of hours every week to preparation for CAT, in tune with the big picture wherein I would complete everything well in time. I would religiously stick to this plan. This helped me map my progress consistently day-on-day, week-on-week. I would also always leave enough buffer hours to meet my requirements for the extra-curricular activities that I have mentioned above. In case of a conflict, I would simply weigh priorities and decide.

Finally, what kind of a role do you see yourself in, post completion of your MBA degree?

I see myself in a role where I shall be at a position to bring about change in the sphere of greatest influence. Designations don’t really excite me, but being able to create significant impact with differential thought is very appealing.