Personal Statement for MS in Marketing
“Creating a strong business and building a better world are not conflicting goals- they are both essential ingredients for long-term success.” This quote by Bill ford perhaps held the most relevance during the recent pandemic induced lockdown. Using my business acumen to curate a digital fundraising campaign for marginal dairy farmers to avail free veterinary services for their precious cattle made me realise the potential to apply business strategies to social issues and make them traverse the premise of corporate social responsibility to be promoted as a front-line business. The experience made me realise that I lack the business management skills that I can employ to promote social organisations more austerely. With an academic background in commerce, I feel that a graduate program in business management/marketing will provide the perfect impetus for my career aspirations.
Hailing from a service className background, the business has always been a fascination for me. The idea of being independent and not working under someone anchored in me since my teenage. A sense of purpose will always be present in entrepreneurship, which acts as the motivation needed to wake up and go to work. I was adamant enough to follow my passion which helped me to narrow down my career options. Ambiguity and confusion never crossed my mind when it came to deciding my future. Luckily, my scholastic prowess allowed me to pursue my desired economics and commerce stream. My incessant hard work and love towards the subject helped me accomplish a seat in my dream college, the prestigious Shri Ram College of Commerce in Delhi, where I came across some brilliant minds who gave me a different outlook on business entrepreneurship. All this ushered me to correspond to a research paper titled "Corporate Social Responsibility expenditure trends in Indian Economy" at the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, where I worked as an intern. I also took up an internship at India's first homegrown LGBTQ Network app, where I handled market research and communications alongside signing up with four potential business stakeholders on board.
Given my passion and interests, after my undergraduate, I moved progressively and started working for World Bank and Microsoft award-winning start-up ‘MoooFarm’. Here, I was responsible for business development, marketing and customer acquisition. Here, I initiated some exciting campaigns, such as providing digital veterinary help to the farmers during the lockdown, which was crucial for the farmers and small-scale dealers. Initially, due to the pandemic, there were many hurdles, but gradually the balls got rolling. Today, over 20000 farmers from three north Indian states are registered users of the app. These projects helped me gain first-hand experience, paving the way for me to collaborate with international business and help grassroots level that has enhanced my knowledge of business management and its permeability. It also gave me a lot of motivation and purpose to move forward towards my objective. This experience provided a new dimension and a sense of purpose. During this phase, the primary skills I attained were learning quickly, being a team player, communicating clearly, creating confidently, and thinking originally. Concurrently, I was part of the peacebuilding research and consequently pursued a part-time diploma in "Conflict Transformation and Peacebuilding" from the renowned Lady Shriram, University of Delhi.
Further, I participated in the theatre for my passion for social change. I also handled the Deputy Coordinator's position (of India's largest fest with a budget of 10.2 million INR and footfall of 25000 people) to explore my leadership skills in marketing and organising. This multi-tasking attitude of handling two extremes helped me find the opportunities which lie at the intersection of my passion and skills. As a result, I have maintained a balance of both personal and professional trajectories.
"Business opportunities are like buses; there's always another one coming". Being a very opportunistic person, this quote had a significant influence on me. My rationale's central provenance was how simple the leading brands of today commenced and grew out of nothing. It made me perceive that even a person like me coming from a humble background could effectuate it big with the right adroitness. Retrospection of my knowledge and aspirations reveals the need to polish my marketing skills to promote social causes to a greater reach and instigate a snowball for social change. In this pursuit, I posit that international education will broaden my outlook and equip me with practical business management and marketing dexterity. Also, meeting new enthusiastic minds globally across the country will definitely provide me with insight that will add to my present business skills. Assignmenting in Australia would give me global exposure and adapt to a heterogeneous society to develop my people skills. It would play a requisite role in providing me with networking opportunities and international exposure for acquiring my goals. Lastly, I also believe that this opportunity will help me grow professionally and personally.
