Vivek Aggarwal

Category Manager, Flipkart
Batch - PGDM; 2017-2019

Q1. Please describe your role and responsibilities at your current job at Flipkart.

My role is to evaluate and keep track of different points in end to end customer journey from creating a product/brand recall by running campaigns ensuring inventory and stock availability and from finding avenues for category expansion to ensure seamless after sale service. A normal day starts with a listing of actionable items and discussions with various stakeholders to identify bottlenecks or opportunities for process improvement and discuss any sorts of challenges which are being faced by any of the stakeholders.

Q2. How did COVID/ Pandemic affect your work/ team's work? What are some ways that students/professionals can use to overcome difficult, unprecedented times such as these?

Pandemic really affected all the jobs. Working hours increased, screen time increased and the most challenging aspect was that we were all working in silos. There was very limited interaction with workmates and it posed a lot of challenges on staying motivated. Something professionals can do is hold regular, unofficial meetings with workmates to catch up and play some small games once a week or in two weeks so that team interaction can increase and teams can stay motivated.
Key is to - Stay Connected.

Q3. Has your way of thinking in the business world changed post your journey at GLIM? Can you give us an example?

There's no doubt to the fact that MBA from glim was a transformational experience and the residential program just supplemented the learning. One thing in particular that changed post MBA was I started looking at the bigger picture instead of just the end product. Be it thinking about touch points in the supply chain of a product I just bought or just thinking with long term strategy in mind instead of short term benefits in decision making. And another skill I developed was time management. Managing multiple projects or stakeholders at once was quite similar to completing multiple project submissions just before deadlines. MBA certainly was a transformational experience

Q4. What advice would you offer to current and future students?

Make the best of these two years. Learn as much as you can, participate in competitions and make lots of friends. These two years might be the last time for many of you to experience student life. Make the most of it. And as Uncle Bala used to say -"Your network is your net worth", do invest in your network while you are at campus.