A Real Go-getter - Dr. Ajeetav Nayak - Interviewed by Afsha Khan in January 2005

It doesn’t matter how long you walk, as long as you get somewhere. Dr. Ajeetav Nayak has definitely come a long way in life. Before he completed his MBA from FMS in the Class of 2005, he spent 5 years in Medical College Tiruvananthapuram, Kerala. Seems like quite a drastic educational cross-over doesn’t it? Yes, he HAS walked a long way and what is commendable is that he has grasped his experiences and learnt a lot from them. After speaking to him you realise that this man truly derived the best of both the worlds he belonged to. And his drastic switch says one thing about him- if he wants something, he is going to work at it and get it no matter what! The question then remains is how did he cope with the changes brought about in his life? Here we have Dr. Ajeetav Nayak in conversation with Afsha Khan.

Was an MBA always on your ‘to-do’ list, or was it something you decided on out of the blue?
An MBA was not exactly on my to-do list. When I entered the field of medicine it was with the intention of doing well and becoming a doctor and helping patients. But during the fourth year of medical school, I realised that an MBA might be something I would like to pursue and so I weighed my options as well as my skills and capabilities and opted to do an MBA in marketing from FMS. What I wanted was to combine my technical knowledge with administrative skills.

Considering that you had been out of touch with math since your entry into medical school, how did you initially cope with it? Are there any specific strategies you applied to crack the CAT?
Initially it was extremely tough, but I had been reasonably good at maths, which I studied till the 12th standard. I HAD been sceptical because I had been out of touch for 5 years. Data interpretation was my primary concern. I spent a whole month working on improving my speed at multiplication and division. For the reading and comprehension section I simply read newspapers like The Hindu and the Economics Times. I also read a lot of books on management. After giving several mock CATs, and doing quite badly, I realised that what one has to learn is to pick and choose the questions. Once you are sure of the questions that you can crack with ease, your scores get a lot better.

How did your family deal with your switch from medicine to management?
(Laughs) My parents weren’t aware of my decision at first and it definitely caught them off guard. One day when I had just finished my MBBS and returned home, my father began telling me about a book that would help me further in the next exam. It was then that I told him that I absolutely didn’t want to go ahead with this and an MBA was what I really wanted to do. He was very understanding about it and that was encouraging. Mum was not happy initially, as she felt it would be a waste of the past seven and a half years. But eventually when she saw my mock CAT scores she felt more confident about my abilities and determination.

Do you plan to use your management skills in the field of medicine?
If you look at how the industry functions, people who join the administrative and management cadre are those who, in most cases, come from technical backgrounds. But when you look at something as specialised as the pharmaceutical industry or the life standards industry, the number of technical people they get is very limited. So often you wont find a doctor doing an MBA and then joining the pharmaceutical industry. But a doctor doing an MBA and then joining the pharmaceutical industry is actually a very good idea, because being a consumer of their products you know the market needs and if I know how it works on the other side, I would be able to do a good job either way.

What according to you are the skills one must possess in order to establish a successful career in management?
It is quite important to analyse if you possess the important skill set required in order to do well. According to me the three important factors required are time management, interpersonal skills and decision-making skills. Time management wasn’t a problem for me and my interpersonal skills were not bad either, considering I was accustomed to dealing with a large number of patients everyday. Decision-making too came naturally to me, as working in a hospital requires you to make numerous decisions with barely any time to contemplate. After considering all these things very carefully, I figured I would do reasonably well.

Was there any particular reason you chose to do an MBA from FMS? Could you tell us something about your experience at FMS?
Well, when I was doing my research on good B-Schools, I was told that the three schools I should try for should be S.P. Jain, XLRI and FMS. FMS, I found out, conducts live projects with MBA students. Corporates approach us with live problems and ask for our feedback and opinion. It is a great practice and an excellent exposure for MBA students and I felt that I could derive a lot from such a programme. The professors are highly qualified PhD’s and being a small class of 90 students, the student-teacher ratio is almost 3:1. I found these points most appealing.

Is there a difference between what you learnt and what you do?
On the face of it, life in the corporate world might look different from the initial impressions you have of it in B-Schools. But you soon realise that it is essentially an extension of what you learnt in your B-School, both in the classrooms and outside the classrooms with your peer group. Corporate life makes you constantly sharpen and upgrade your B-School knowledge. It makes you implement the skill sets that you acquire in a B-School in the practical world. Another key issue in corporate life is man management and interpersonal skills. You get a first-hand feel of these in the study groups at B-Schools.

What according to you is a good B-School and how did FMS fulfil this role?
The most important features of a B-School are the kind of education it provides and the kind of returns it ensures. FMS as I mentioned before has an excellent educational faculty and each student is always ensured great placement. Apart from all this, everything else that you receive is a bonus. I personally got a pre-placement offer from Ranbaxy where I am working right now. That is my bonus.

Would you say that an MBA is essential to success?
An MBA simply ensures a placement in a good company. After that how successful you are completely depends on your analysis, capabilities and expertise. It definitely gives you a boost onto the path of success but what you make from then on is completely dependent on your personal abilities.

What would your advice be to MBA aspirants?
An MBA entrance exam is a real time simulation of your decision-making and time management abilities. The key issue here is to filter and pick the right questions that you are sure to solve and leave out the rest under a time crunch. Regular practice to improve your calculation speed and reading speed is a must. Keeping abreast of current topics and assertiveness helps a lot in GDs. Interviews are a measure of how well you know yourself (your personality, strengths, weaknesses, future plans etc) and how well you know your environment (current affairs, work atmosphere etc).