MDI GD-PI experience

My MDI GD-PI was on 28^th of March. For all my GD-PI I stayed at my friends house ,because my every GD-PI was in Dadar in the morning and commuting in morning from Dombivli to Dadar is a huge pain. I was certainly not keen on going to MDI as my preparation was completely IIM, Lucknow centric. I could see Lucknow even in my dreams because of my insane preparation. My senior(NK) in office also was not ready to let me go to MDI, but I was of opinion that there should be some backup plan to fall on. Both NK and Varun were not willing to leave me for the GD-PI. The night prior to that we three were drinking till late night and then had nice bhurji-pav. I remember to be sleeping around 2:30 in the morning. I was just hoping that I wake up with no hang-over.

I woke up early. I think from past few months I am getting up, before the alarm rings (I hope, I continue this good habit even in B-school). I wore a baggy white shirt which I bought just the previous night. I tried every shirt but nothing was fitting me, I think I should start searching in kids section[:D]. One of my student, Ayush, had GD-PI in same panel. It was because I and Ayush were together we two didn't got bored. We discussed few topics and then along with other aspirants we went into the GD.

GD topic:
“Chinese products are threat to Indian market and hence India should ban Chinese products”
I think in every GD, I was the one who started it and spoke the most, here too there was nothing different. I spoke about Indian and Chinese economy, imports-exports between the two, India providing helping hand to Chinese agriculture, ban on tiger trade, effects of ban on Chinese products and many other topics. It was again a nice GD with almost everyone giving good points.

I was ninth in the list and hence had to wait for around 2 hours for my turn. Every interview was going around 15-20min. The interview panel was same as the GD panel. There was one sir and a madam. I entered in,

Harshal: Good afternoon

Sir: Good afternoon, sit. You worked in Career Launcher. What was ur profile?

Harshal: My prime job was to mentor students. Being a small company I was able to work in sales, marketing, operations, e-learning product design and customer servicing.

Sir: That means you are jack of all

Harshal: Yes, because if I am not jack of all I would not able to decide in which subject to master in.

Sir: What is mentoring?

Harshal: Being a mentor, my prime responsibility is to teach them concepts about math and DI. Apart from that I have to be also a constant motivator for them. There are some students who are self motivated which just need directions while those who are not need constant motivation.

Sir: Can you give one example of motivation?

Harshal: Sir yes, I have two. One of my student was preparing for CAT. He was a working in a company as well and hence had very less time to study. Though he was very dedicated and hence used to study religiously for one and half hour everyday. It was September and his mock scores were not increasing and were constant at around 75%. He started thinking that he is not going to make into CAT. I told him to continue with his regular preparation with some slight modifications. Effects were visible in the following mocks and finally that guy converted into IIFT and had also a wait-list in FMS.

Sir: Impressive. Why you want to do MBA?

Harshal: I want to do MBA so that I can start a business of my own.

Sir: What kind of business? Do you have any plan?

Harshal: Yes sir. I want to start a K-12 school. As you know India has around 1million school out of which only 7% are private which caters around 40% of children. At the same time quality of education is also not upto the mark. I would like to start a school which will be in semi-premium segment, with fees around 35,000-40,000. (I was stopped by sir)

Sir: Don't you think this is expensive and will create a divide. (At this point of time, I felt like saying even MDI is very expensive. Don't you think its not worth that much.)

Harshal: No sir. I am targeting a different segment. I am trying to target the households which earns around 5-10lakh a year. According to studies people spend around 5% of their income on education of children. This spending is going to be around 8% by 2012. So these people will be my probable customers. (listening to this answer madam was on fire)

Madam: But education is must for all and the way you are going to impart education will create divide among people.

Harshal: Madam, I am looking for business and hence my prime target is to generate revenue. (I think this was very rude answer. I could have answered in better way.)

Madam: Which means if a poor person goes to private hospital, he won't be treated because he doesn't have money.

Harshal: Its not that way. If I am doctor of the hospital, being an employee, I will take ownership to treat a needy person.

Madam: But why would doctor treat him. His main responsibility is towards the company he is working for.

Harshal: I think not. Being a doctor, the person has taken an oath that he/she will treat every person. Hence the prime responsibility of doctor is to treat the person and giving the patient importance before the company.

Madam: But this case is different. Your model will definitely create divide among people.

Harshal: For that I am planning to have 10-15% reservation for EBC(eonomically backward class). But this won't be implemented in the early stages as in the early stages it will be very difficult for me to manage finances. Hence first I will ensure that my business is financially stable and then I would like to take the social responsibilities.

Sir: How is MBA going to help you in business?

Harshal: I know entrepreneurs cannot be made, they are born. I do have the risk taking abilities which is very important for a person to be a businessman. But when I start my business I need to address two issues, one is entrepreneurial problem other is functional problem. Entrepreneurial problem means how to raise finance, how to build a team, how to mitigate risk and so on. Functional problem means which product to launch, pricing, way of marketing, market survey and so on. This is where MBA will come handy.(I prepared this answer after reading a report of Mc Kinsey about Lack of entrepreneurs in India)

Madam: What do u read?

Harshal: I read anything.

Madam: Anything means what?

Harshal: I read anything which comes in my hand. Magazine, newspaper or articles on net. The topic also can be anything. Like I was reading about history of Afghanistan and who is responsible for Taliban. I found it very interesting, but was not able to read completely as it was around 30-35page report. Then I also read partly about trafficking in India.

Madam: About human trafficking?

Harshal: Yes, because I was writing a blog on “Legalizing prostitution” (this is how I lead the interviewer to my strength)

Madam: What are your views about it?

Harshal: In India prostitution is partially legalized, means a girl can sell herself but she cannot market herself during selling, means pimping or brothels are illegal. Prostitution as a whole is Rs 40,000 crore industry. But what does the prostitute get, just $2 per customer after working for 12 hours a day and serving 6 customers a day. They can fight for their human right but they cann't fight for their labour right as they are not covered under labour laws. If prostitution is legalized prostitutes would be covered under labour law and this would help in improving their condition. At the same time we would be able to provide them with insurance and also keep a check on STD and AIDS. But this all sounds good when things are implemented properly. In India we have huge gap between ideation and implementation. Already there is high level of corruption in India. If it is legalized then powerful people might take advantage of law and the lives of prostitutes would become worse. There are some evidences of misuse in Amsterdam and Germany where it is legalized.

Madam: I am not clear about the implementation gap, but rest your views are fine. Anyway thank you.

I am in waiting list of MDI I don't remember the exact number, its somewhere around 250. Anyway I found this interview pretty interesting as I was able to speak a lot. I think waiting list is justified because of the rude answer I gave back. Because the statistics I was giving and the plan I was having were related to different causes, I realized that later. Had I given that answer carefully, I am pretty sure I would have also made it into MDI. But anyway who cares when I am going to Hell[:D].