I am Sakshi from India. My parents work for India’s premier nuclear research facility which resulted in my family living in different parts of the country – some urban and some rural – throughout my life. While living in the rural areas, I saw a stark difference between the life of privilege that I led and the life of kids in the nearby villages and tribal areas who had little or no access to basic amenities. Thus, working on various causes associated with children has always been close to my heart and something I loved spending my weekends on.
Having been significantly exposed to different ways of life and national diversity from an early age, I was always a curious kid who loved solving complex problems and helping people around me. I learnt early on to stay humble, be resourceful and self-reliant. My personal attribute of solving complex problems has governed most of my career progression, from a software engineer at a multinational corporate to a product manager with niche e-commerce startups, where I could develop concepts from scratch and implement them to create impact in people’s lives. My ability to empathize and care for people has also shaped my leadership style which helped me manage people’s expectations as a product manager.
I believe that just as a blank canvas becomes more beautiful with addition of every hue, life is enriched with every learning opportunity and every person who facilitates it. Life at IMD is a natural extension to my previous life. I deal with diverse cultures everyday while keeping my core values alive. It’s just 3 months into the program, but I already see similar values resonated in my classmates, bonding us in a familial way. For me, this year at IMD is not just about the classroom learnings, but also about the people interactions – being considerate of people – emotionally & mentally – in stressful situations, and forming lifelong connections. I believe that IMD has been instrumental in magnifying the positives in me while guiding me to let go of the negatives and become a better person each day. Working in differently sized companies under various industry umbrellas, had given me a broader exposure to different work cultures, but IMD has taught me that an ideal work culture is all about respecting people, nurturing them and providing them opportunities to shine.
“Ten years from now it won’t really matter what shoes you wore today, how your hair looked, or what brand of clothes you wore. What will matter is how you lived, how you loved, and what you learnt along the way”.
-Marc Chernoff
Sakshi
