Alumni Speak

Speaker

Yagnesh Desai

Regional Head – PayU Finance,
PGPM’13

Tell us about your role at PayU.

I am the Regional Head for North & South, for the Consumer vertical of PayU, called PayU Finance. We provide innovative ways of lending to consumers through our product called “LazyPay”, which allows you to buy online now, and pay later. I am responsible for the over all business, P & L, Sales, Merchant Acquisition for these regions. If you have ever tried LazyPay on Swiggy or Zomato etc, it is because of this team’s effort.

How does a typical day look like for you at PayU

It involves stakeholder management, Cross functional collaboration, meeting key clients and lastly- Lots and lots of con calls (internal & external)

You are heading a team at PayU? What is your strategy for managing the team?

My strategy is pretty simple. I prefer to manage the team in the same way I would want to be managed by my leaders. You have to keep asking yourself that question. I prefer giving utmost freedom and responsibility, along with accountability.

You also had a stint as an Entrepreneur. Would you like to tell us about it?

Absolutely! Loved & cherished every moment of that journey. Although it shut down but, I hardly consider it a failure. I strongly suggest that every graduate in the initial years after an MBA should either do a startup or at least work for one. MBA teaches you to plan & manage but a start up teaches you to create & grow. Gaining experience in both sets you up on a fast track for professional success. In case you want to know more about the venture, let me know, can explain in detail.

Tell us about your Great Lakes experience. Your key takeaways and your most memorable moments.

It was Transformational, A roller coaster ride. One of the most memorable moments was attending Philip Kotler’s speech. Watching him live was just awesome. I took part in lots of inter school / intra school case study competitions, attended zillions of guest Lecturers. My key takeaway was that I soon realized that while Great Lakes was educating us on the basics of Business , it also opened up our minds and made us realize that learning is a continuous phenomenon.

What advice would you give to the future Great Lakers?

Professional career is a marathon, not a sprint. Don’t judge the success of your course on the basis of that first job, or that first CTC. The real benefit of MBA will be visible in 3-5 years post your graduation. Business is a combination of Arts & Science, so use this one year to develop your thought process of approaching problems. Once you do that, solutions will come. Please attend as many Guest lecturers as possible. There are some real gems hidden there. Trust me, you will realize it later.

Associations

  • Cornell University
  • Chicago Booth
  • Skema Business School
  • Universite De Bordeaux
  • IESEG
  • Frankfurt School of Finance and Management
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