ISB 2011 Interview experience 2: EXPERIENCE : 2 years 3 months in Power Sector, GMAT : 740

Below is the interview debrief

The interview was scheduled at 11:10 in Taj Palace, Delhi with panel no. 2. There was a lady (l) and a gentleman (g) in the panel.

g - Do you know ABC?
me - No Sir. Never heard her name
g - She was selected into ISB last year from your company.
me - NTPC is a large organization. I haven’t heard about her

l - Where are you posted?
me - At Tanda, near Ayodhya in UP
g - How far is it from Delhi?
me - 500 kms

g - It seems you don’t want to go back to the public sector post MBA
me - Sir actually my goals are related to public sector. Starting an infrastructure consultancy ...and yes To achieve my goals, I need to work with an infrastructure consultant like L&T...and I don’t see any PSU in this area.
g - L&T is not just an infra consultancy, it's an infra giant
g - But why do you want to do MBA? L&T would hire you anyways
me - Sir but I need to gain managerial skill set in a short period of time to achieve my goals. L&T would hire me now as an engineer and even if I am able to learn some managerial skills in L&T, it would be related to a specific sector only, either financial or marketing. I want to gain a holistic understanding of business which I can gain only in an MBA

g - What do you want to do exactly in your company?
me - sir my company would provide consultancy to small infrastructure projects who can’t afford big consultants. E.g. My friend's father in Sikkim has a 5MW plant, so, he cannot afford to go to big consultants. That's where I would come and ones my brand is well established, I would go on to bigger projects
g- Was it a run of the river plant?
me - no sir, it's a thermal plant
g- A thermal plant of just 5MW?
me - yes sir, there are many captive power plants

g - how much investment do you expect for your company?
me - around Rs 2 cr
g- how did you arrived at this figure of 2 cr?
me - Sir, infra and office space would cover around 15-20 lakhs. I want to spend a major part in business development and marketing. I would distribute approx. Rs 80 lakhs on marketing and around same amount on business development and manpower
g - Is this just a back of the envelope calculation or do you have exact numbers?
me - sir, it's a back of the envelope calculation, but i believe there's a huge potential in this industry
g- how do you plan to get the investment
me - sir, I would approach a VC or an angel investor

l- What do you think are your advantages and disadvantages in starting this company?
me - I have a work experience in both power sector and public sector which has given me a technical expertise in this industry. By acquiring managerial skills and gaining managerial work ex in a company post MBA, I would have both technical and managerial know how and can understand the industry quite well.
l - No, but what would be your, market receptivity?
me - I would cater to small infra projects who cant afford large consultants. I think there's a gap here and i would pierce in here in the industry.
l - and the roadblocks?
me - I haven’t thought about it yet, when any problem would come, I shall think on it then.

g and l - Your recommenders have written about your artificial intelligence project, none of us are engineers, so can you explain it to us?
me - started explaining the project ( I think I went on too long and they seemed to be bored)...by this, we can save many trippings in the power plant and save huge financial losses
g and l - can you quantify it ?
me - now as we get very limited time for emergency handling, only 20-30 % emergencies are handled successfully. With this, we can handle almost all the emergencies and prevent trippings.
l - What % is saved after applying this model?
me - it's just a proposal and we haven’t applied it yet, so I can’t give you exact figures, but we can handle almost all the emergencies, atleast 70-80 % of them.

g- What’s your leadership style?
me - it's not a dictatorship style certainly, because in a dictatorship style, creativity of team and subordinates is crumbled. I allow enough room for creativity, but if there's some demand which can cause a loss to the company, then I restrict them and also explain them reason for it. So, it's more on a lenient side with restriction only when there's a loss to the company.

ISB 2011 Interview experience 3:

Panel-4 had a Lady and a gentleman. Both were alumnus of the school. Both had a very cheerful disposition. No grilling. Peaceful interview

L= lady, G=gentleman

Q1) Is your company a Mukesh Ambani or a Anil Ambani group company?
Answer: Anil

Q2) Explain ur profile in the business strategy group
Answer: Did that well

Q3) How did you save Rs. XXX crore for your company?
Answer: replaced a conventional methodology with an new innovative technology developed in south-asia.

Q4) Give specifics
Answer: (it is a very complicated technique. related ti power plants and structural engineering. tried my best to explain her in layman terms)

Q5) Did you achieved all this alone:
Answer: I was the first to spot the opportunity, to initiate the change. But a change of this magnitude cannot be brought by one man in isolation. Other group (engineering, contracts) have equal credit.

Q6) (she seemed to be happy with this answer) are you still associated with the project?
Answer: explained

After this, the gentleman took charge

Q7) Rs XXX cr of savings in a single project is too much. Savings as percentage of the total project cost?
Answer: less than one percent.

Q8) really!! what's the project cost?
Answer: Rs 20,000 Cr India’s largest power project

Q9)lady: so you are into creative writing and poetry writing?
Answer: yes, i write ghazals.

Q10) G: sing a ghazal for us
Answer:  I write ghazals. a form of poetry

At this, I thought I might have disappointed the gentleman. i thought he wanted some entertainment. "ISB ke liye kuch bhi", I thought. 

Though i have a terrible voice, i'll sing for you sir. (sang two lines of a ghazal that i have written this week itself. the gentleman complimented me for my voice 

Q11) Your other interest seems to be financial markets? (I have cleared 4 modues of NCFM with 93% marks)
Answer: (Shit!! gayi bhains paani me I have no interest in stock markets) Explained her that I did the course to gain some knowledge on financial ratios and balance sheet evaluation, as we have to evaluate the financial health of our vendors before placing orders.

q12) So are you into stock trading?
Answer:  no ma'am , I invest only in mutual funds. I don’t get the time to trade as trading websites are blocked at my workplace 
(this might give her the impression that i am trying to avoid questions. But I answered honestly. I am not a stock market geek.)

Q13) G: why do you want to pursue MBA?
Answer: general Management role in Energy industry


Q14) What do you understand by General management?
explained

Q15) But that's exactly what you are currently doing
(He was right. I am working in business strategy, business development, contract management. ) explained. Talked about higher responsibilities.

Q16) So I think you only want the ISB "thappa" (he actually used the word thappa ) 
Answer: told him that brand factor is very important, though there is more to a MBA than just the brand. talked about skills, networks etc.

Q17) Lady: Your title says 'Assistant Manager - Business Strategy'. But strategy isn’t exactly what you are doing. You are just into evaluating and developing new businesses.
Answer: talked about process improvement, procurement optimization, contract management.

I think I could have done better on this. Forgot to mention the two JVs (one manufacturing, and one steel JV) that I worked upon, also forgot to mention an initiative on our firm's backward integration strategy )

Q18) Gentleman: your salary has not increased much.
Answer: ( yaar, power sector is not as glamorous as IT or Finance. but thought against mentioning this) told him the other reason that when i joined the company, i used to get additional allowance as i was on a remote location. Had I joined the corporate office since the beginning, the difference would have been visible.

Q19) Gentleman: Do you really think we should go for nuclear power?
Answer: Gave gyaan

Q20) but why nuclear? Why not coal?
Answer: Vomited everything that I have learnt in past two years

Q21) G & L: you seem to be very passionate about the energy industry
Answer: J

Q22) L : not many energy companies come to ISB. do you have your own contacts.
Answer: ( I think she was checking whether I have done my homework. ISB & UT-Austin are the mecca for energy sector guys)
Told her that I have already spoken to my Vice president regarding study leave. (He is also one of my evaluator)
Gave her a list of companies that come to ISB (energy +construction + power equipment manufacturers+ green energy+ energy advisory firm  at ISB)

Q23) G: do you face any problem in multi-tasking? Will you able to do so at ISB?
Answer: (where did this come from? ) told him i have managed acads and ecs well at NIT. So it shouldn’t be a problem .


Q24) But have you faced any such problems before?
Answer: I did face problems in my initial days at ABC ( I think my evaluators must have mentioned this. it’s better to accept your weakness. I accepted and there was no further grilling.)

Q25) any questions from the school?
Answer: Is any one of you an alumnus of the school 
L& G: both of us 

At this point I realized that I met the lady during the my trip to ISB. It was a raining heavily. I offered her my umbrella and she offered us a lift in her car. I told her about our meeting. She was able to recall.

She answered my questions patiently, took my essays. I left the room. 

ISB 2011 Interview experience 4: EXPERIENCE: 4 years – IT, Research, Operations

Please find below the questions and the follow-up questions asked during the ISB interview: (Panel had VK Menon and 1 Alum):

1. Reason for company foreclosure?
2. If you were the CEO, what you would have done differently?
3. What was your role in the sellout of your company?
4. With how many companies you met during this process and whom you met?
5. Post ISB goal?
6. What is your plan B in case this goal is not successful?
7. How much money you need to setup your virtual university?
8. Any questions for us? (I asked about ELP)

Last comment: You have pretty interesting profile. Thanks..............