Please describe your current role at Reliance Retail as a General Manager, Supply Chain?

Currently heading the Central Planning, Network Design & Inventory function for Pan-India Distribution Centres, Fulfilment Centres & Stores for Reliance Retail-Pharma.

Also, to constantly guide and monitor the operations Centrally from Processes & systems perspective.

As a Leader, definitely keep motivating, appreciating & provide timely guidance to my Team members.

What drives you to succeed in your career?

The Desire and Aspiration to contribute to the society which keeps me motivated always. And being in Pharmaceutical industry, directly contributing to the Lives of patient, I always feel we are not selling medicines, but Saving Lives. This Purpose "Live a fulfilling Life & To make a meaningful difference to the Life of others" keeps me motivated to Succeed in Life & Career.

Hence, I also keep actively participating as a Speaker in a lot of Supply Chain/ Pharma Conferences to learn & share the insights from industry and experience.

What do you think are the key skills required to succeed in Retail or Supply chain domain in a company such as Reliance? What skills should management students be equipped with?

Supply chain/Operations is all about right Fundamentals, Processes & Systems, Data/ Root cause Analysis. Hence, data analysis, Decision making & most importantly Common Sense are some of the key skills required.

What significant changes has the supply chain industry gone through during the Covid pandemic?

Principles and Fundamentals of Supply Chain have remained the same. Lot of Organization have worked on their Agility, Resilience, Analytics & become much more mature with speed from a Reactive Supply Chain to a Proactive Supply Chain to an Orchestrated seamless Supply Chain, much like a symphony.

How did your year at Great Lakes prepare you for a corporate career? Any interesting incident/experience you would like to share?

The RIGOUR, Time Management skill (due to the daily pressure of back-to-back classes and then doing the daily assignments overnight) brought in the learning of handling pressure.

The excellent faculties who brought in the Best-in-class knowledge and experience of their respective fields was definitely the best and gave a lot of industry knowledge and exposure.

Most memorable/ interesting experience was the advice of our Placement head Mr Balaji & Mr Shridhar and that really worked for me as I wanted to switch the industry & move from IT/Consulting to Pharma Supply Chain (which wasn't an easy one).

What are some of the key skills you developed at Great Lakes that have helped you through your professional journey?

Difficult to name just few, as I believe it was the complete all-round development that I had as a Better Management Professional ready to take on the next journey of my career/ Life.

But most important one would be Priority Management, Time Management & being a good Motivator, which is even helping with my current Leadership role at Reliance.

What does being a 'leader' mean to you?

Leader is someone who "Develops & Creates New Leaders", Mentors and Guides the Team to Dream Big & achieve their individual Aspirations besides the larger goals of the Organization.

What is your message to aspiring management professionals who are currently students at Great Lakes?

"DREAM, BELIEVE & EXECUTE", Always Dream Big, Believe in yourself and Execute the same with agility…

Keep investing in your own development as that is the Biggest investment & Great Lakes is definitely the right choice you have made…