“Research Vani’ is an exclusive platform for B Schools being offered by Harshavardhan, Manging Director of Medha towards helping students bridge the gap with industry in terms of employability skills.
Sounds familiar? This has actually been the two sides of the conversation I have been hearing from B-school management and the hiring managers from business/corporates since the past 18 years that I have been hiring and on-boarding B School graduates!
While good academic grades, a decent knowledge of management concepts and being eager to learn are good attributes from a hiring manager’s perspective, ‘being ready’ to be able to plug-in with minimal disruption to the business model/schedule ranks higher on a hiring manager’s priority list.
“Focus is on the value a student adds to the organization in terms of domain expertise/awareness, familiarity with tools and technologies commonly used in a business environment, and the ease with which they ‘fit’ into the organizational culture.“
My Profile
As a business leader, having built and managed offshore research and marketing teams at industry leaders such as TCS, IBM and Deloitte over the past two decades, I have been a key stakeholder in ‘connecting’ talent with opportunity. All through the journey, I had an opportunity to visit, teach, interview and hire some of the best talent at business schools through the country.
In my current role as Managing Director at Medha Research and Consulting Pvt. Ltd., I am a trusted business advisor for my clients, adding value through market/ industry/ client-specific research, strategy consulting and transforming data into meaningful and actionable insights.
Students
- I work with business schools towards encouraging and engaging students to prioritize a practice-driven and result-oriented method of learning, as opposed to focus on theoretical concepts.
- Leveraging my industry experience of more than 22 years, I help them understand industry requirements, design and implement customized-programs towards building their domain knowledge, business acumen, and a strategic thought process, along with an opportunity to work on case studies derived from real-application-specific assignments.
Examples of areas where I have helped with practical industry-specific insights which complement theoretical concepts:
- Real-life and (often real-time scenario based) case studies
- Strategic Management
- Domain-specific Insights
- Supply Chain Management
- Marketing Management
- Brand Management
- Consumer Behavior
- Research for Marketing Decisions
- Market Research
- Key Note Addresses/Presentations to Students
- Business/Managerial Communication
- Executive Presence
- Interpersonal Skills
- Presentation Skills
- Navigating Corporate Landscape & Culture
Faculty and Placement Officers
- I work with faculty, complementing their conceptual knowledge with real-time applications in industry, empowering them to add a realistic and real-time perspective in their teaching methodology.
- I help placement officers and teams understand realistic needs of industry and key employers, ensuring a higher and a more effective engagement with recruiters.
Value I Bring
- A successful career as a Marketer and a practicing business leader validates my understanding on ‘Marketing’ and ‘Strategy’ specific concepts, empowering me to share insights and learnings acquired from my own experience.
- A pedagogical experience of having designed, demonstrated and delivered domain-specific and management-concept related workshops within IBM, Deloitte and TCS.
- I empower students with domain-specific insights, helping them understand the structure, operational model and key business dynamics of an industry they may eventually plan to be a part of.
- Placement-specific insights and takeaways based on my own experience of recruiting B-School graduates across
leading business firms over a span of 20 years. There is more to comprehensive preparation for a campus interview than merely rehearsing answers to a few obvious questions! - Having been a trusted strategic business advisor to business and marketing leaders for more than two decades, I understand their needs along with their expectations from students they would prefer to hire.
- Adaptability to work with college management and faculty on short-term specific/targeted programs designed to hone communication, presentation and interpersonal skills and build executive presence.
Methodology
Learning is a continuous process, whether formal or informal. The process of learning is far more effective when it occurs by design rather than by chance.
I believe in empowering students on domain knowledge of their choice, helping them understand the structure, operational model and key business dynamics of an industry they may eventually plan to be a part of. Focus is on ensuring active involvement of students through workshops and use of simulation models as opposed to lectures.