HR BLANKS FILLING & GENERAL QUESTIONS

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Prepare answers to the following questions

1. In not more than 250 words, please describe yourself as a person and tell me about
yourself.

I am Rishi Madhav Chandran and I hail from the beautiful port city of Kochi, also known as the
Queen of the Arabian Sea. Having lived there through my formative years until the end of my
schooling, I then moved to Trivandrum to study Industrial Engineering at the prestigious CET and
then worked with Wipro Ltd in Bangalore. I currently live at our beautiful hill-top campus of SIBM
Pune, where I am pursuing my MBA in Operations specialization.

I describe myself as an avid dreamer, never settling until I arrive at my goal, and passionate about
the process to achieve it. I strive to ensure to complete my work with the required quality- be it
while submitting our deliverables to our client at Wipro, or organizing and putting together a big-
budget event with my college mates. I also remember to have fun once the work is done and enjoy
its rewards.

After a long day of work, I love to play the guitar and record music with my fellow musician friends.

I am also a devout Formula 1 fan and I thoroughly enjoy watching live motorsport and catching up
on the latest developments in the F1 world.

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I describe myself as an avid dreamer, never settling until I arrive at my goal, and passionate about
the process to achieve it.

As a child I was awestruck by aircraft, then by racing cars and yet again by successful businessmen
and executives who lived their life in grandeur.

It took me a couple of years to realize that the common thread behind efficient airlines that owned
my favourite airplanes, or teams and media houses that ran Formula One racing teams and the
biggest companies in the world were all run by effective leadership and smart managers.

My childhood dreams slowly transformed into refined aspirations and goals, knowing that in order
to achieve them, I must persevere and keep believing in my dreams.
I strive to never give up on my dreams- be it doing well in academics or be it learning a new skill like
playing the guitar. I ensure to complete my work with the required quality. I also remember to have
fun once the work is done and enjoy its rewards. After the initial tough phases of learning how to
play the instrument, I now love playing the guitar and enjoy making music with fellow musicians in
our free time. Apart from my passion in music, I also love to travel- I would never say no to a trip,
especially when I’m driving!

Organizing and conducting events, leveraging my skills in leadership and working in a team is also
something that is close to my heart.

2. Walk me through your CV.

As a student who was fascinated by how companies ran and had a profound interest in technology, I
chose Science with Economics to graduate from High-School. My yearning to learn more about the
niche field of Supply Chain and Operations saw me then graduate with a degree in Industrial
Engineering from the College of Engineering, Trivandrum. Those four years taught me valuable life
lessons and skills, including one of my passions- taking leadership to organize and conduct events,
which included our flagship college festival and TEDx events. Among the multiple interesting subjects
that we were taught in my undergraduate course, Data Analytics captivated my interest with its
powerful range of applications. I proceeded to undertake multiple exciting projects and certifications
in this field- including Data Science, Machine Learning and my final year project in creating a Python
optimization algorithm for Indian Railways. I was honoured to receive academic honours for my
performances, including the General Proficiency Award, CBSE Award for 10 th Grade toppers and the
coveted Principal’s Honour Roll for exemplary all-around performance in academic, co-curricular and
extra-curricular activities.

I worked with Wipro Ltd for 21 months in the Engineering R&D unit for a leading automotive client. I
worked on Python Scripting and Jenkins to develop and test software systems for upcoming electric
four-wheeler vehicles in the North American market for our client. I was rewarded for my efforts
with the Innovation Day Prize for Q4, 2021 for my efforts to optimize and save man-hours using a
Python code script.

I love to play the guitar and I have a certification from Trinity College London. I enjoy jamming with
fellow musicians and I have won numerous musical competitions. I also have won quiz competitions
and am a founder–member of a Rotaract Club in Kochi, an NGO in which my family takes an active
part.

3. What are your strengths and areas of improvement?

From my undergraduate days and in my close to two years of professional experience at Wipro and
an Internship at TCS, I polished the trait of being able to bring consensus in a team, including our
manager and teammates on steps taken to achieve our end goals, and taking leadership to drive
collective team efforts.
When our team was tasked with brainstorming new ideas to streamline our daily workflow at Wipro
by our manager, I took a lead in bringing together team members, leveraging our freer work
schedules during the client holiday shutdown period to promote innovative discussions that brought
out multiple brilliant ideas. We encouraged team members to bring out their specific skillsets in
different stages of developing the new innovations- be it in the ideation, conceptualization or
execution phases, which resulted in the team providing multiple process optimizations and quality
improvements that were deeply appreciated by our manager and the client alike.

Many a time, I see myself being more scrupulous and focusing on the nuances of the task at hand
than is necessary. I have been working on learning how to better focus my efforts depending on the
objective and the larger problemn. Throughout my professional experience, I have improved the way
I allocate time and effort to tasks at hand and extended this learning in planning my day in the most
optimum way possible.

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From my undergraduate days and in my close to two years of professional experience at Wipro and
an Internship at TCS, I polished the trait of being able to bring consensus in a team, including my
teammates and manager on steps taken to achieve our end goals. Being in charge of large teams and
taking responsibility while organizing big events in college, I have been able to inculcate the spirit of
teamwork to reach our targets, through effective communication, public speaking and leadership
skills, traits that I believe are my strengths.—Site examples

I have developed my critical thinking and efficient decision making abilities to tackle situations that
confront me in personal and professional life. I sharpened my abilities of analysing a situation,
gathering relevant data in an unbiased manner and developing a rational and reasonable solution.

Many a time, I see myself spending more attention on the subtle details and nuances of the task at
hand than is necessary. I have been working on learning how to better focus my efforts depending
on the objective and the evolving situation. Throughout my professional experience, I have improved
the way I allocate time and effort to tasks at hand and extended this learning in planning my day in
the most optimum way possible.

4. Why MBA? (max. 200 words)

Growing up learning from my role model in leadership and management- my father, I decided that I
too one day wanted to emulate leading a team to perform excellently. The prospects of being able
to drive innovative solutions that made an impact on society by solving a problem that makes a
difference, from the exciting corporate world, excited me.

An MBA will give me a holistic overview and approach to solving and leading a business team, giving
me the opportunity to gain crucial skills across various functions.
I studied Science with Economics in high school, and Industrial Engineering as my undergraduate
degree, where I tried to better understand how companies and markets function, keeping in mind
the relevance to be competent in technical knowledge as well.

During my employment with Wipro Ltd, I found myself new role models in the management, and I
grew intrigued to learn even more about how the corporate machine ran. Being a Project Engineer
and Analyst- achieving the targets set by my manager, I yearned to be at the forefront, interacting
with clients and driving thoughts on the exciting new ideas that my team would implement.

After close to two years with Wipro, I felt it is the right time in my career to upskill myself in the
critical skills one learns from an MBA to better align my career with my long-term goals. The wide
opportunities available to an MBA graduate would perfectly position me to re-enter the corporate
world- with the requisite amount of industry connection and branding one receives from a reputed
B-school like SIBM, Pune.

5. Why have you chosen your specialization? (max. 200 words)

The changing world centred around agile and responsive companies, efficient Supply Chains and the
immense scope of analysing data being generated made me realize the importance of being skilled
in these domains.

After I graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering and worked on multiple exciting
Data Analytics projects, my interest was piqued to further study more about Supply Chain and
Operations fields. My undergraduate subjects in Industrial Engineering ensured my base was well set
to upskill myself and obtain a Master’s degree focused on Operations Management, and I set out to
hone and develop my technical and leadership skills, adept for the present industry requirements.

The niche skills that I would be equipped with during this program are sure to give me the
competency to contribute positively to my role in an industry, which revolves around the design of
effective Operations strategies and Supply Chains.

The important functions like creating strategies for a firm, employing problem-solving skills and
evaluating and designing business processes that create the best value for a firm excite me.

6. Describe your short-term career goals. (max. 200 words)

In the near future, I want to build up my technical, interpersonal and managerial skills to attain the
competencies required to execute the responsibilities that I take up in my first job as an MBA
Operations graduate. I am looking forward to upskilling myself in the various verticals that are
essential to the smooth running of a business- be it Finance, Marketing, HR or Operations. I am
striving to gain the fundamental concepts across these domains, while having an in-depth
understanding of Operations and Supply Chain fields.

I aspire to be an MBA graduate with the ability to learn new technical skills rapidly as I believe this is
what companies look forward to today. I want to build on my base of technical skills in Operations
and Data Analytics. I will work on my learning agility and to adapt rapidly to the requirements.
I realize that one must be adept at handling Data in any domain of Management and I am looking
forward to improving my skills in Data Analytics as well.

Analysing and solving problems by employing critical thinking is an area which I also want to further
improve my skills that were gained through my experiences in being a part of and leading teams.

7. Describe your long-term career goals. (max. 200 words)

In the long term, I aspire to realize my goal of making an impact on society and be in a position to
give back to society by way of my skills in subject matters and leadership. In order to do so, I aim to
reach a position in the industry that allows me to distribute my time and efforts among professional
and personal commitments effectively without compromising on either work or earned leisure.

I take inspiration from my parents who devote their time off work to passionately be involved in an
NGO they co-founded with other corporates and other charitable organizations, which employs their
collective abilities and resources for the larger benefit of society. My part-time experiences in these
organizations taught me the values of service above self and a belief that one is remembered more
for one’s contributions that affect the larger community positively.

I aim to be in the top management to drive the growth of my company in a decade, influence
positive change and be an inspiration to others by example- by way of my actions at work and in
social circles outside of work. I would show the way for the firm as a whole to achieve targets set by
ourselves, our customers and stakeholders, in a way that does not compromise our ethics and
morality.

8. Great leaders have a strong purpose driving them. What is yours? (max. 200 words)

I have always been inspired by brilliant ideas and companies that serve a vital service to society
which thereby contributes to societal betterment and development. This has been my ambition and
purpose as well-to one day be a part of such a business.

The Uber’s and Amazon’s of the world fascinated me in the way they identified a pertinent need in
society and created their business model around the same.

An opportunity to work with such firms that make such an impact on society, is what drives me to
work towards reaching a position in these kind of firms, where I can drive innovative solutions
through effective management.

The best services in the world, according to me were created by the private sector through
innovation, research and optimization. My aim is to reach a position where I will be having the
requisite skills and managerial acumen to be able to lead a team in a company which creates value
and a positive impact on people’s life.
9. Please share your most significant contribution/achievement in your career or academics or
extracurriculars so far. (max. 200 words)

During my undergraduate college days, my friends and I decided to organize a TEDx event in our
college, which had not been done previously. We took the initiative to apply for the licence and
obtain all the administrative sanctions, overcoming various hurdles associated with this being the
first TEDx event of our college and a lack of awareness in the college administration.

I took on the mantle of Sponsorship and Partnerships Head of the TEDx event, being in charge of
raising sponsorships, maintaining corporate partnerships for the event and in budgeting.

The various challenges faced by my team included the stringent restrictions on sponsor advertising
and branding laid down by TED and the high cost per attendee that had to be bridged by funding in
order to execute the event in the grandeur that we had conceptualized it to be.

I spearheaded strategies to be followed by the team to overcome the challenges and successfully
conduct the event- starting with sourcing of contacts and approaching prospective sponsors through
networking, student databases and leveraging our strong alumni base and industry connect.

We circumvented the restrictions on branding opportunities by organizing large-scale pre-events

While the entire world was moving into a lockdown I too was asked to work from home. The new
normal took some time to get adjusted to, but I soon fine-tuned my working schedule to capitalize
on its benefits, increasing my productivity and finding more free time.

This opened up avenues to utilise my extra free hours each day for other beneficial activities. I
altered my long term career plan to prepare for MBA entrance exams while still working, instead of
dedicating multiple months after resignation from work.

I planned my daily activities to optimize my day in order to complete my work, find time for leisure,
and most importantly create the time to study and prepare for B-school admissions. I feel this
decision to manage both work and studies in a single work-from-home day was a huge achievement
that enabled my career to be re-focused on my aspirations to join an MBA course in the earliest
possible time.

I successfully managed to complete both work commitments and a systematic preparation for
exams, having secured admission to many top B-schools and finally joining SIBM Pune, while I also
received accolades at work for implementing innovative solutions to improve our daily work
deliverables.---no exception in a batch of 250 SIBM students/ alternative?

10. Tell us about the most challenging experience you have had so far. (max. 200 words)
While organizing a big-budget event, we encountered a logistic nightmare with our planned airport
pickup for a high-profile corporate guest not being available at the scheduled arrival time due to an
unforeseen driver issue. The guest’s support team was contacting us incessantly demanding an
update on the situation, with the guest having landed already. My team was responsible for
arranging the guest logistics before the hospitality team took over.

With the rains pouring and the time being slightly late into the night, we could not immediately
arrange for alternate modes of transport easily.

We had to then scourge our contact lists in search of a solution, while reassuring the guest and his
team of a speedy solution. We then arranged for one of our friends with a personal vehicle who was
in the vicinity to rush over to receive the guest and ensured the guest was kept updated on the
status of our arrangements.

After spending six months and a significant amount of effort preparing for MBA entrance exams, I
could not give my best during the CAT exam due to pandemic induced mental stress. I was extremely
distressed and disappointed with my performance and it led me to introspect into what went wrong.
I had to spend many days recovering from the mental stress associated with it.

After a few days, I had to pick myself up and I analysed my mistakes. I realized this was only one
exam and I had more opportunities to give my best. The lessons learnt had to be applied to the
following exams that I had registered for.

I succeeded in applying the lessons learnt to improve my mental preparation and remain composed.

I changed my approach by reducing work load and changing my schedule to better manage studies,
work and leisure.

As a result, my scores in the SNAP exam especially was great and I secured admission into of my
dream colleges, SIBM Pune.---alternative?

11. Please share with us the setting and the environment in which your formative years have
been spent including something about your neighbourhood, friends, family etc. (max. 200
words)

My formative years were spent in our quaint apartment building in Kochi, where we lived in a
closed-knit community, some of whom are my close friends even today though we moved out to our
current house. Living in a flat, we had a shared sense of belonging and security among our
neighbours. My parents both would go to work in the day time and my brother and I would return
from school to be with our “Chita”, an extended family member who would run the household and
take care of us. She taught me most of my values of being responsible, taking ownership and
discipline which I take with me even today. Until my parents returned home in the evening, we
would follow a system of completing our studies and work first before being rewarded with playtime
with our friends in the building downstairs or a fixed time to watch TV. My parents taught me the
values of hardwork and dedication as I watched them first-hand grow in stature in the past decade
or two, in their jobs and in social circles as purely a result of their good work. My parents ensured we
lived a comfortable life and I too imbibed the values of being grateful for what we have, maintaining
a respectable and polished outlook, and always aiming to achieve the highest in everything we do.

12. There are certain incidents, events, contributions, achievement of some kind or even a
family detail which we are proud of. Describe something that you are proud of. (max. 200
words)

My father in the past few years has decided to move away from his rigid corporate role and devote
more of his time to social service and an NGO that we have co-founded. His efforts have inspired the
whole family to be a part of these noble activities- my mother, my brother and I joining in on our
free time.

As a family we are active members of the Rotary Club- one of the world’s largest and earliest service
organizations, with both my parents taking senior positions globally and my brother and I being
founder-members of the student-led Rotaract club of the parent Rotary Club. We have proudly
contributed our skills and resources for various activities over the years- ranging from taking care of
destitute patients, providing quality education and healthcare to less accessible regions, disaster
relief, providing aid to orphanages etc.

A personal initiative among our friends and family was the creation of CanCure, an NGO that
provides cancer treatment, screening camps, dialysis and a care home- all free of cost, for patients in
need of them.

We as a family are proud members of these organizations and contribute our efforts for their
efficient functioning. We have developed the values of service above self and being known for our
contributions to the larger society and not just our personal milestones.

13. Why are you considering a change in the employment by means of your MBA? (For
students with work experience) (max. 200 words)

My interest in Operations and Data Analytics had me fixated on my long-term goal of leveraging my
technical and managerial skills in these domains. After my graduation, I was lucky to secure my
employment with Wipro in the Engineering R&D Business Unit, which taught me valuable skills in
how modern firms operate and how Engineering functions are supported by IT Services and Data
Analytics. I obtained valuable insights into how a large company runs and how effective managers
use various tools at their disposal to improve team productivity. These further increased my interest
to learn about the exciting world of management.

Working in the Product Development and Testing team, achieving the targets that were set by my
manager, I felt the need to be at the forefront, interacting with our clients to better understand the
larger problems that we solve and to drive innovative ideas and frameworks that our team would
work on.

Understanding the core problem that we need to solve, and effectively communicating and working
with the different teams excite me.

I am eager and ready to learn new technical skills pertaining to the specific line of work while being
proficient in management and leadership skills.

I believe an MBA is the most efficient way to approach these goals with the relevant course content
and industry interaction that one obtains during the program, perfectly positioning me to re-enter
the exciting corporate world with the wide opportunities that are available to us.

14. Do you have any regrets in your life so far? Is there anything you would have done
differently? (max. 200 words)

During my undergraduate days, my friends and I formed a musical band that won many accolades
and was contracted to perform in public performances as well. We enjoyed the popularity and glitz
associated with performing in front of huge crowds. As a musician, formal recognition of one’s work
is when one records and releases their own composition musical piece that is a result of her original
work and musical acumen. We failed to complete a project in this regard, as the easy fame and
glamour of the big shows lured us away from it.

We realized that there is more to life than just the easy popularity of crowd-pleaser shows. We had
to show materialistic and relevant accomplishments to earn the hard-earned respect of
professionals, through hard work and perseverance even if does not seem easy.

If I was able to change it, I would have wished that we completed our own composition piece and
earned a formal certificate from a recognized musical event/institute.

15. Have you ever adopted a non-traditional approach to manage a project/situation or to

While preparing to organize a high-profile event with my friends, we were faced with a serious
disagreement between our Head of Design and Head of PR and Communications which threatened
to throw all our plans in disarray. As a Co-Organizer of the event, I sat down with the respective
parties and gathered their respective views on the issue. The conflict was with regard to the way
instructions went from the PR and Communications Team members to the Design Team members
directly, resulting in over-work and perceived harsh treatment of the Design Team members, in
order to fulfil deadlines. By changing the work-request flow structure for the PR Team- which would
now flow through and be ratified by the Executive Committee consisting of all the Heads before
reaching the Design Team, and by giving sufficient time and freedom of expression in the work of the
Design Team, the conflict was resolved in time. This solution that I suggested also involved a reverse
flow of inputs coming from the Design Team, which could be deliberated between the teams and
brought to a favourable conclusion. We then went on to conduct a smooth and well-acclaimed
event.

17. What is your dream company and why do you want to work for that company?

A company that leverages the best practices and technology in Supply Chain and Operations, and
embraces the immense scope of analysing and utilizing data excites me to contribute to its growth.

More than a particular service line, I look forward to learning how these technologies are leveraged
across industries and I am looking forward to working in such a company and being a part of relevant
and game-changing practices.

Another aspect that I look for in my dream company is the healthy work culture that is nurtured and
the opportunity and avenues available to grow in the company, rewarding hard work and dedication
to the organization. Promoting a good work-life balance, without compromising on the quality of our
work deliverables is something that I believe in. My dream company would see me enjoying my work
while taking care of my mental well-being and overall personality development.

Travelling is something that I enjoy and a job that entails moving around geographies would be an
added perk that I would not complain about

I would like to work for United Airlines as a Supply Chain Manager. The airline and aviation industry
is one that I was fascinated with since my early childhood and a job that gives me an opportunity to
work with managing the systems, processes and operations of an established airline will be most
interesting to me. The various components that go into the smooth functioning of an airline have
been observed by me as an “avgeek”, as we call it. A chance to work on these hands on
professionally, would be a huge learning experience for me.

A large airline generates huge amounts of data and the various supply chain and operations activities
including parts and inventory management, MRO scheduling, route optimization, crew scheduling
etc are very interesting fields of work to me.

As someone who loves to travel, a company like United Airlines gives opportunities to its employees
to move among various cities around the world to experience cultures and the joy of aviation. The
best part is that employees get to fly free on the United Airlines network across the globe! ---then
why us?

18. Tell me something that is not in your resume.

Building on my experience in event organizing, I also enjoy taking up responsibility to lead, plan and
conduct large group tours. The various complexities with respect to financing, negotiating rates,
planning the timeline, researching new places, optimizing and enriching the itinerary to
accommodate the best experiences in the most efficient way possible is something that I am
passionate about. During my college days, I took charge of the organizing of many group tours,
including of our batch trip of close to 60 people, to the Himalayas and Northern belt from Kerala and
back.