ISB 2017 Aspirants

Dear All

Please evaluate and advice

10th CBSE- 95%

12th PSEB- 85%

IIT Delhi Textile Technology- 7.43

Work Exp:

I have been working in Flipkart since June 2013 and at the time of application to ISB which is next year I will have done 3 years of work exp.


Business Finance Analyst, Lifestyle, Flipkart.com (Jan, 2015- Present)

Responsible for creating long term and annual operating plan (AOP), in a two member team, for Lifestyle, including major overhaul for entire Profit & Loss (PnL) statement, included working with 6 different functions and teams

Revamping the current PnL, iterating with respective owners; base lining for AOP basis historical data o Key role in defining AOP guidance & timelines along with governance & tracking model and review structure

Creation of policy document outlining intent, structure, process and governance policies for AOP construction o Formulated daily sales and margins tracker across Lifestyle for better visibility and control on sales

Ensured regular updates are sent out for better planning and control on business o Enhanced the update frequency to daily level by setting up robust processes

Established process for timely accrual of credit notes bringing better control on margin estimation

Business Finance Analyst, FMCG, Flipkart.com (June, 2014- Dec, 2014)

Drove the planning of sales and margins for The Big Billion Day sales for 4 functions and ensured effective tracking of actuals; 30x times sales with no leakage in margins against estimated o Formulated offer wise sales and margins for 4 functions and ensured effective implementation of plan

o Customer segmentation and identifying potential market for FMCG goods to increase market penetration

o Inventory Health: Drove the liquidation plan on old inventory stock to generate 5% goodness in margins

o Worked on betterment of inventory health using factors like inventory coverage, aging & liquidation

o Liased with 3 category teams to make an action plan on aged stocks; Structured procedures and provided visibility on effect of plan

o Formulated the liquidation policy which was implemented by other category teams across company

o Set up daily track on performance of plan; improvement of Rs 3 Cr in margins o Worked with analytics function to start and oversee financial reporting dashboards & automation of the same

o Created monthly sales & operations plan by working with retail finance, demand & capacity planning teams

 Business Finance Analyst, Electronics, Flipkart.com (June, 2013- Dec, 2014) Drove the planning of sales and margins for the first ever Diwali Sales in Flipkart single handedly for 3 function; sale s increased by 15 times creating an iconic property- Diwali Day for Flipkart for every year o Improved the sales of Mobiles from 4 Cr /day in June'13 to 30 Cr/day in June'14

o Planned the launch of exclusive models: Motorola, Xiaomi; managed the accounts of the exclusive portfolio

o Set up process and format of making Howlist, Monthly Plan, Weekly Category Review, Monthly Review, Daily Sales Update for the first time in company

o Analysed sales at vertical level, based on analyses took decisions on DAB implementation to increase attach rates

o Rigorous analysis on brand/product level sales and planned initiatives; merchandising plans, stock transfer to Market Place, effective implementation of Exchange Offers to increase iPad sales in particular and as a result unit sales of iPads doubled (1400 units in Jan'14 to 2800 units in May'14)

o Ensured effective and controlled pricing on products which led to margin goodness of ~5% (Rs 2 Cr)

 Employee of the Month Award: Ace Award, Oct'13, after just 5 months into the role; lauded for effective and robust planning for The Big Diwali Day for the first time in company and taking the baseline of Mobiles 2.5x times in one month

SCHOLASTIC ACHIEVEMENTS

 Publication: Gupta A., Gupta A., 'Success Framework of Pure Click Transactional Models' for Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Retail Management (2012)

 ASES, Stanford Summit: Selected as Indian Delegate for Asia-Pacific Student Entrepreneurship Society Summit (2011)

 Awarded 'Best Student of Year' for consistent excellence in academics and extra-curricular activities in school (1996-2007)

INTERNSHIPS & PROJECTS

 PricewaterhouseCoopers India, Kolkata (May, 2011 - Jun, 2011) :

o Identified distinctive parameters viz. demographics, income & qualification to analyze recruitment process of 20 companies Achieved reduction in hiring cost by INR 30 Lacs p.a. and increased use of e-sources in hiring from 5% to 8%

 Technopak Advisors Pvt. Ltd., Management & Strategic Consulting, Gurgaon (May, 2012 - July, 2012)

o Worked in strategy making team to advise international denim brand for strategic market entry in India o Conceptualized marketing plans based on target consumer insights and trade mapping of unorganized denim industry

 Financial Analysis of Major IPOs in India, IIT Delhi (Jan, 2012 - May, 2012) :

Plotted financial performance of four biggest IPO's: Reliance Power, DLF Ltd., ONGC and Cairn India Ltd.

POSITIONS OF RESPONSIBILITY

 Director, Entrepreneurship Development Cell, IIT Delhi (Apr, 2011 - May, 2012) :

o Coordinated Delhi Zone, Techsparks'11, North India's biggest startup showcase

o Led 15 member team to facilitate execution of cross departmental activities of logistics & marketing

 Coordinator, Publicity, Literati 2011 - Annual Literary Festival, IIT Delhi (Apr, 2011 - Sept, 2011)

o Led a multi-tier team of 10 students for publicizing the largest literary college fest in 100+ colleges all over India

EXTRA CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES

 Entrepreneurship : Presented thewittyshit.com concept at numerous entrepreneurial competitions winning critical acclaim at the following

o Winner, Eureka! People's Choice Award, IIT Bombay, Asia's Largest Business Plan Competition (2010-11)

o Winner, Business Plan Competition, Techno Managerial Fest 'Innovision', NSIT (2011)

 Sports

o Represented Flipkart in cricket in several corporate tournaments with three runner up positions

o Won Gold and Silver in Flipkart Premier League Cricket based on IPL format in 2014 and 2015 respectively

o Vice Captain, Nilgiri Hostel Cricket Team for the year 2012-13

2017 aspirants, 

Expect the ISB essays to be out later this week or next week. 

Namita Garg

http://www.mbadecoder.com

ISB Essays are out:

Essay 1:

If we were to admit just one more student, make a compelling argument as to why that student should be you by describing a (only one) challenging experience you've had in your personal / professional life. How were you tested? What did you do that sets you apart from others? What did you learn? (up to 400 words)

Essay 2:

Describe a (only one) defining moment in your personal / professional life when you had to make a risky decision, and explain what you did, why and the outcome?

OR

Describe a (only one) situation in your personal / professional life when you had to interact with people from diverse backgrounds. How did it affect you and what did you learn?

Essay 3:

What are your post-MBA career plans and how will your past experiences and the Indian School of Business programme contribute to taking you there? (up to 300 words)

Essay 4(Optional):

Explain any career breaks / provide any other information not covered elsewhere in the application that could significantly impact your candidature at ISB. Note: It is not necessary to write this essay. Please use this space only if there is something really significant that you would like us to know. (up to 200 words)

Time to pull up the socks!

All the best!

Cheers 😃

My profile is 

X-76 Xii - 75 , B-tech -70. 10 years in IT industry and worked across product dev and consulting. Currently Manager at an IT service company, responsible for service delivery for a track and also engaged as an SME for pre-sales & a people manager.

ECs: 

Last year won the regional business corporate challenge at my company and participated in national finals.

Awarded certis by CEO for being a top performer and CIO certificate for contributing paper in company's conference. 

Represented company in National Business Simulation Challenge organized by NHRDN.

Shortlisted for pre-final rounds of Capgemini super techies twice. 

In Top 0.1%ile of contributors in my Developer Network. 

Done himalayan cycling and other multi day cycling tours.

Other prizes in national level events in college.  

Haven't written my GMAT.Any feedback is welcome.

Also is ISB good for some one with 10 years of exp.

Essay topics out already! And the deadline is in Oct 😃

Loads of time to get your application right, people! All the best!

Have fun introspecting and coming up with compelling essays...!

ISB has announced the start of the application process. All the best. The deadlines are extended compared to the previous years. 

Round 1 : October 15, 2015

Round 2 : January 5, 2016

http://pgpapp.isb.edu/user/KeyDates.html

Hi! This is Sharad and following is my profile...

Xth - 83.4%

XIIth - 87.6%

Bachelor of Fashion Technology from NIFT - 7.07

Work Exp. - 4 yrs 9 mnths by Mar'16

Profile: Working as a Product Development Merchandiser for Triburg (India's best apparel buying house) and managing the entire sourcing activity from Fabrics to Garments for Destination Maternity Corp. (World's largest maternity wear retailer).  

College Grad Project: Designed an Ergonomic Chair for relieving Sewing workers from Musculoskeletal Diseases

ECA: College Football Team...won the Inter-NIFT Football championship

Pls. rate my profile and what should I do to make it look better...plus how much score should I target in GMAT? 

I had taken GMAT in Dec 2012 and May 2013. I had chosen few schools to which my GMAT scores should be sent to. I can also see that my GMAT scores were reported as I chose in my mba.com profile. Hopefully, the schools which received my May 2013 GMAT report also would have got my Dec 2012 score report. With those score reports with the schools, can I now apply to those schools ? Or, do I have to request that the same GMAT score be reported to the schools  afresh ? Please note that these GMAT scores are still valid. I am just not sure if I have to request the scores be sent again since the schools received them round 3 years ago.

Hi. Kindly review my profile below.

Currently working with a BIG4 capability centre for 1 year 8 months as a research analyst. Have won an organisational award, led a technology deployment initiative, part of a team that created a benchmarking tool, and leading an information initiative on the company's social platform. Before this worked with a scientific organisation for 3 months and wrote a thesis on Intellectual Property.

Founded an organisation two years ago focused at imparting public speaking and life skills to school students. Have been associated with an IB school for the last 1.5 years, having produced results wherein students have won accolades at international public speaking platforms. Before that was involved with different schools.

By education, I am a Mechanical Engineer, GPA 8.5/10 (highest honor). Graduated from Lingaya's University, Faridabad in 2013.

Scored 83% in X and 83% (Best of 4, Best of 5=79.2%) in XII

Was the HR and Operations director of an NGO for 6 months. Created a 200+ volunteer base in less than 2 months and organised two fundraisers to support the NGOs activities.

MY GMAT score is 710. Let me know what are my chances for MBA schools? And what could be the probable schools within my reach

mahajan gone .. insider info was correct

unable to  view my feedback !? any suggestions ?


Hi, This is Abhishek and following is my profile...

Xth - 78%

XIIth - 74%

Bachelor of Engineering - 78% (College Topper)

Work Exp. - 1 yr 5 months as of now

Profile: Working as a Software Engineer at Persistent Systems.  (Working in a competitive environment dealing with clients and meeting deadlines)

Planning for GMAT in August 2015

Please. rate my profile and what should I do to make it look better..?

Hi,

Shrivathsan Here..

I have 1yr and 10 months experience.

I am planning to write GMAT (Yet to prepare for GMAT) for ISB.

What time to give GMAT exam and apply for ISB if am aiming for 2016 or 2017 ?

Which will be better for me Applying for 2016 or 2017 ?

I have no clue where to start as there is no one to guide me.

Please guide me.

Hello, 

Please assess my profile and suggest: 

X- 93%

XII- 91.6%

B.Tech (Computer Engg from Netaji Subhas Institute of Tech (NSIT))- 79.7%

Work Ex: 3 yrs (by the time I join) 

- Company: Amadeus Software Labs (Global leader in Travel Technology) 

- Working as a Business Analyst for an e-commerce product for leading airlines across the globe

- Customer facing role; involves requirement gathering, in depth product expertise, handling on site customer workshops and attending customer conference (visited France, Brunei, Taiwan, SriLanka for customer visits and training)  

- Independently managing the end to end delivery of the project to the customer which involves coordination, planning, risk and gap analysis and proposing solutions. Some of the customers handled till now include Japan Airlines, Singapore Airlines, SriLankan Airlines, 

- Awarded twice for my project delivery and the contribution  to the team; Involved in hiring and training new joinees in the team

- Developed in depth knowledge on the travel domain with some UI expertise for different devices like mobile, tablets, desktop 

Extra Curricular: 

- Was one of the founding member of college newsletter; grew from a journalist to being the Content Editor; co-headed a team of 15 people

-Chief Editor of Rotaract Club of college; organised multiple events 

- Was awarded 2nd prize for my presentation on Organic farming among participants from 72 other countries in the Global Environmental Youth Convention (GEYC) held in Dubai. 

- Essay was selected to be published in a book presented to then president Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam.  

- Worked as a Start up volunteer for Teach for India (TFI) in Delhi 

- Worked as an intern in a start-up Aspiring minds 

- Senior Public relations Coordinator at the Natinonal Level Annual Cultural festival in college 

GMAT score- 710 (Q-50, V-35, IR-8) 

The options I have right now: 

1) Apply to ISB with this score and profile

2) Retake GMAT again and then apply 

3) I have converted MDI, IIT-D and might convert IIM-K. Join one of these. 

Can you please suggest what is the best possible option from here? 

Hello Sir,

Please help out here..

I applied this year and was not called for interview..

This year I completed my 4 Years in R&D of an Automobile giant in India (biggest)..and now I am planning to leave my job to join my father's business of transportation and to have my own start-up.

10th - 88, 12th - 68, BE - 73, GMAT-690

An average extra curricular and co-curricular...

Shall i re-apply or leave ISB as an option here?

Hello Folks,

How you doin?!

Good to see 460 followers already!

I  was very active on  ISB threads in last 2 years (so much that I am know as "The PagalGuys" here at campus... I wasn't expecting this though) 😃 😈 

I  know how it feels to be an applicant in such a competitive pool and  also how to handle the Re-applicant pressure! Just hang in there and give your best shot!

Believe me... its worth all the efforts!

I'll try be a regular on this thread as much as possible and help out in any way I can! 

Best of luck!

Cheers,

Shankey Poddar (ISB Co'16)

Hello Co2017 aspirants! 

I am also from the Co16 and like @Shankeyp, i will also try to be active on this thread as much as I can. I hope our presence here will help you guys in some way as you prepare your application. 

For anyone out here who is not sure about how good your profile is or whether your gmat score is good enough or not - I am an IT guy with a GMAT of 680 and I made it as a re-applicant this year. So stay positive, introspect, come up with an overall strategy for you app and field a compelling application. 

If you would like to know anything about the course or about student life and what goes on in the Campus, ask away and I'll do my best to answer your queries. 

All the best people!

Dear Re-applicants,

I have received lot of queries around how to improve profile while applying as a re-app...

While again, it depends on person to person... something I learned from mentors on this forum was:

"Just do what you really wanna do, something you have been thinking of doing for long time but couldn't due to other commitments. Don't do things just for the sake of putting it on your profile.(Its not worth your time)

Think of it like, what if MBA never happens?! What are the things which will take me a step closer to my post MBA goal (with or without MBA) ?! And just do it... "

Taking this advice seriously, I did things which really helped me...not only with admissions but also with my career and life at ISB...some of them were:

- I signed up for and seriously completed MOOCS on subjects which always intrigued me (Not only it helped me at my work pre-ISB but its also coming handy at ISB)

- I started  new initiatives for employee engagement at work (I had great time doing all that, I built recognition and good network amongst 1.5K folks ...plus I got few awards for doing this)

- I took extra work responsibilities in direction of my post ISB goal. (this helped  me understand those things better and my post MBA goal improved from a generic one to become more specific-- this was by the way highlighted as weakness in my essay when I applied first time)

- I got promotion at work (well this was something I started to working on much early...so I got it right in time for my re-app)

- Took feedback from ISB and tried to fix issues they highlight in my application (this is very very important)

- I also tried to improve my GMAT by going for it twice in the year (although I ended up with same score of 700 again)

About me: I am EC engg with 4.5 years of work exp in IT/Telecom domain, 700 GMAT, avg acads, a failed startup, some good awards and lot of enthu. 😃 

One more thing... network as much as you can with current applicants, students, alums, etc to understand ground reality and be realistic in your application.

Hope this posts help!

Cheers, 

Shankey Poddar (ISB Co'16)

Hi, This is ANKIT and following is my profile...

X th - 90% 

XII th - 91%

B-TECH - 9.05 GGPA

Work Exp. -  2.5 YEARS as of now

Profile: Working as Asst manager in NTPC LTD.

Planning for GMAT in August 2015

Please. rate my profile and what should I do to make it look better..?

Hello 2017 aspirants! Some of you might know me, most probably don't. 

I'm a student of the 2016 batch and have been pretty active on this forum in the past year. Feel free to reach out incase you need advice about your application, essays, etc. 

Best of luck to you all! (Hope to see a few of you guys during the O-week next year)