Akshit Mathur

Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow

“A jolly juvenile person passionate about new technologies and an ardent follower of Cricket.”

Hometown: Gurgaon, Haryana

Fun Fact About Yourself: I am a stationery collector and have more than 1,000 pens in my collection.

Undergraduate School and Major: Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore – Major – B-Tech Computer Science.

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: IT Product Designer at Ford Motor Company

Aside from your classmates, what was the key part of IIM Lucknow’s MBA programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? Apart from the batchmates with diverse backgrounds, the one thing that stood out as a key part of IIM Lucknow’s curriculum was its great industry connection with the real-world leaders. The invaluable knowledge we gain from the experiences of the leaders in the industry via the Leadership Talk Series and other industry partner connects is unmatched. To get to learn real life challenges and then linking those with our classroom concepts gives us an overall picture of how the real world operates when it comes to major decision-making. This is an important aspect as the industry is evolving every day and we as students get this first-hand knowledge due to the various programs organized in IIM Lucknow.

What has been your favorite course or extracurricular activity at IIM Lucknow? What has been the most important lesson that you have learned from it? I was chosen and elected as the Class Representative (CR) of our batch in IIM Lucknow. Ever since then it has been a great learning journey. First, it exposed me to various challenges related to handling things related to administration along with the ongoing academics. I was able to leverage and hone my people management skills and it taught me that it is not easy to manage a batch of 107 odd people with varied backgrounds and experiences.

From handling all the student driven committees to all the academic-related work with the office to other co-curricular activities, I understood that it is very important to seek help wherever you can and try to learn from other’s experiences. Sometimes, I used to take help of my peer who has been a program manager for 10+ years and I was able to learn a different perspective. All it taught me was the great value that comes with networking and collaboration.

An apple cut into pieces and left as it turns brown, but when the same is mixed with some flour and sugar, it can be turned into an apple pie.

What excites you the most about the International Immersion? The International Immersion program gives us an opportunity to go and explore the rich culture of three countries and how things vary right from the basic meet and greet to major business-related decisions. The international immersion program will expose us to learnings of some quality professors who have been teaching a varied set of students and have plethora of experiences to share. The thought that we will be able to sit in a classroom of a foreign land college and learn with the peer group gives me goosebumps and instills excitement every time I think about it.

Apart from that, the industrial visits will give us an opportunity to interact with leaders of foreign countries and will expose us to different perspectives that we can have to solve any real-time problems.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: I have been working with Ford Motor Company for the past 8 years. It’s the only company I have worked for and the culture of company was such that it allowed us to switch our domains within the company. This rotation policy helped me in working for projects related to Marketing & Sales, After Sales Service, and Global Data Insights and Analytics.

In my first assignment at Ford, I was part of the Dealer Management System as a Business Analyst. The role demanded me to gain knowledge of all the various IT applications that were in operation in the After Sales Service domain, and how dealers of Ford used these applications in their day-to-day operations.

During that tenure, we were using a third-party BI (Business Intelligence) tool that used to generate reports on a weekly basis about the dealer performance and this metric used to help the higher management to make strategic decisions. There was a Microsoft Update batch that was updated across the firm for all the employees. The BI tool that was used in our team became incompatible after the update. This could have impacted the business as the higher management could not leverage the tool to seek insights. I had majored in Computer Science and had a fair bit of idea about reports and data generation. I gave my manager a quick workaround using Data Base queries and, on an ad -hoc basis, the management team was able to view reports and was able to run business as usual. I was lauded for my efforts and I was also recognized with a promotion.

Describe your biggest accomplishment as an MBA student so far: As I was the Class Representative, I had to juggle a lot between my CR related activities and the regular academic work. The fact that I am able to manage all of it and I am getting to know each and every person in my cohort gives me a sense of accomplishment. I am able to network well with my batchmates and am able to learn a lot from their experiences. This has also helped me gain new perspectives and I use them every time I encounter any problem. To study the classroom stuff along with a plethora of other activities is what I consider one of my biggest accomplishments here at IIM Lucknow.

What do you hope to do after graduation? I have always been inclined towards technology and have worked in the IT domain in Ford Motor Company. I have been into Product Management role for the past 5 years and I intend to continue in the same space of Product Management. My short-term aspiration is to work as a Product Manager for a data rich company with great potential for IT. I intend to grow in the same space and become a Product owner where I am managing and releasing IT products that solves a real-world problem.

What advice would you give to help potential applicants gain admission into IIM Lucknow? The world we live in is VUCA world (Volatile Uncertain Complex and Ambiguous). It requires us to be ready for any challenges that come our way. As a current student at IIM Lucknow, I would advise the potential applicants to be always ready for challenges and keep that learning zeal intact while aspiring to do an MBA at IIM Lucknow. The great knowledge that gets imparted to us from the esteemed professors would make a difference in the real world. I would advise them to have a great interest in gaining knowledge about all the concepts along with the application of those concepts in the real world. I would advise them to work hard, get through the admission process, and begin a memorable journey that would transform their careers.

DON’T MISS: MEET THE INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT LUCKNOW’S IPMX CLASS OF 2024