The ISB this year too attracted talents from varied backgrounds like healthcare, armed forces, real estate, shipping, public sector, manufacturing, adventure and sports for its flagship one-year management education programme. Business Standard spent a few moments with them to know what brought them to ISB.
E Deepa Reddy, was a commercial taxes officer with the Government of Andhra Pradesh, before she joined ISB.
Though she finds the government an exciting place to work, the rigid structure curbs her potential. "There is not much scope to grow. I was feeling claustrophobic," says Deepa, who put in seven years in government service.
Though leaving a government job to study at ISB was a tough decision, she feels that she will be better equipped after the study. "I want to work in public-private partnerships," she spells her plans adding that money will not be major factor that will drive her decisions after she clears the Rs 15 lakh loan she took for the course.
She was a core team member in various e-governance projects including dealer service centres, VAT computerisation and online filing of returns.
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Dr Radhika Vasanth Kumar, a gynaecologist and obstetrician for 20 years, thinks age is no deterrent to pursue higher education. At 50, the oldest student at ISB, she thinks she can contribute to the betterment of health delivery system.
Radhika, who has carried out over 1,500 deliveries in her career, observed that the non-medico-professionals managing hospitals is affecting the medical practice.
"I have no regrets quitting being a doctor. I want to be on the management side to impact more people." Before the ISB assignment, she enrolled herself for a diploma in health services. This triggered the need for a bigger qualification to scale up operations.
Devesh Dwivedi, an aeronautical scientist at the Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL), Hyderabad, quit his central government job to pursue a management degree. "I was designing some products based on directions from others.
Now, I want to manage the products or do consulting on high-end technologies," he charts out the reason behind his coming to ISB. An M Tech from IIT Delhi, he has been with DRDL for over four years. "The stint at ISB is to add quality to work,'' he tells about the scope of his future assignments.
In fact, the diversity at the campus seems to be unending. There is an NDA topper with 5 gold medals, a Carnatic vocalist who has performed at over 100 concerts, an IPS officer and a doctor Dr Shankha Brata Bagchi, who served as Kurnool Superintendent of Police, and former Indian hockey team captain and Arjuna awardee Viren Rasquinha.
There are also persons like Vaibhav Singh, who has travelled over 45 countries working as manager in a Swedish company. Singh, a chartered accountant, now wants to add management skills to be an effective manager in the financial sector.
Jehaan Shroff, an alumnus of Trinity College, London, and an advocate and drama trainer, is looking to "combine law and an MBA".