ISB interview experience

Date: January 23rd,2009
My interview was scheduled at 4:00 PM, but I was present in the campus by 2:40 PM and I promptly visited my friend at ISB and spent some time chatting with him. I was suited-up and was feeling totally confident and tensed at the same time. The butterfly effect :)

Then went to the admissions cell at 3:30 PM and was given the word "moment" and was asked to write an essay of 100 words on it.

Then I was called inside the interview room. I was interviewed by Ms. Hema and Mr. Vikram from the ISB admissions committee.

Hema(H) , Vikram (V) and Yours Truly (ME).

I enter the room, handshakes and formal introductions.

V: Are you from Andhra ?
Me: Yes sir, my parents live in hyderabad, not so far from the ISB campus :) . But i have been making a living in Bangalore since 5 years.
V gives out a smile.

V: So Nagi, Do you think Saina will win the next olympics ?
ME: Sir, I have seen her play in the last olympics. She no doubt is mighty talented, but she also has to improve on her weakness. I could see that by the 2nd game she was tired and was giving away points rather than the opponent winning them. So, if she is able to work on it, which i am sure she is , she stands a good chance to win the next olympics.

Nods by V and H.

V: Do you use a samsung phone ?
Me: Yes sir.
V: Is it because you work for samsung, you are using this phone?
Me: Slight smile. Sir, I have been using samsung phone since a long time.

At this point, Hema takes over.

H: Who has the highest share of phones in indian market?
Me: Maam, its Nokia.
H: Can you tell us why Nokia is #1 today?
Me: I was prepared for this one. Spoke about Nokia's tie ups with distribution partners(and Nokia priority dealer shops), focus on low-cost mobiles(like 1100,3310,3315) and india's mobile kick-off in 2003(introduction of CDMA and CPP regime,incoming call made free).

Lots of cross-questioning. I think i have fielded them well. Somewhere in between, I mentioned that a new music player or a new camera is not the next thing in mobile business. Its going to be "social connectedness". Also, discussion came to samsung's Omnia phone and the aamir khan ad in the TV.

Nods from both V and H.

H: So, what was samsung doing all this while?
Me: Spoke about samsung's strategic focus on high-end mobiles in the early 2000's and giving the initial lead to Nokia. Now, samsung has realized this and entered the low-cost mobile game.

H: So Nagi. Imagine you are the head of samsung, wat would u do to attack the indian market ?
Initially I didn't understand the question properly. Politely asked her to repeat the question again, for which she took an anology of badminton. She told her to imagine it like a badminton game, where you know you are already one game down, and u know the competitor's strengths, advantages. What is your go-ahead strategy.
I mildly smiled at the anology. But internally I was stumped at this one. I didn't expect this.
Me: Its a tough situation and unfortunately there's no one-size-fits-all solution for this.
I would look at it in a more segmented fashion. I would divide the market into rural and non-rural.

For the rural market, since the users would use the mobile for mostly voice calls and hardly any SMS, I would remove the all the features from the phone(like player, camera etc) and would reduce on the cost. Also, looking at the geography of the villages (villages are interspersed and each village typically has some 500-600 families on average), I would also focus on the marketing and advertising,by employing people with local language skills.

For the non-rural market, told them that people would definitely buy a phone with good features when provided at a low cost. Told them about the "Android" platform about google. Also, referred to the "social connectedness" aspect of it. Also mentioned about the first mover advantage in such a market.

V: Is there any phone with "Android" platform?
Me : Yes sir, there's already a phone(G1) from HTC for T-Mobile. Told them that a million units have been sold in one month. This substantiated the early mover advantage in my previous answer.

Nods from H and V. Both look convinced.

H: So Nagi. Tell us about your Consultancy work?
Me: Told them that I do business development role for a PR company. Told them that i talk to clients, develop sales pitches for the clients.
H: What exactly do you do in the sales pitch?
Me: Told them about the nature of the diplomatic talk involved.

H looked convinced.

At this point, I thought of mentioning ITC e-choupal initiative for the rural market in india. Thought of mentioning this, but didn't . Didn't want to disturb the flow of the conversation. But this definitely would have added value to my answer. So, should I be rejected, I seriously hope that the answer for the CEO question doesn't contribute to that. Otherwise, I would be always be cursing for not getting this point into the discussion.

H: Post ISB?
Me: Told my well-rehearsed answer :)

H: Do you have any questions for us?
Me: Mentioned about the bidding process and expressed my concern of not being able to get an elective of my choice.
H and V: Explained about the rationale behind the process which is in place and told me that 95% of the people get the course of their choice.

H: There's a class going on in Max Lecture Hall. Please attend that if you don't have any other plans.
Me: Sure Maa'm. I would be delighted.

Handshakes and bye-bye's.

Just before leaving V asked me whether I still play badminton. I said Yessir, I do and left the room.


I don't know time flied(40 mins). I was left with a pleasant feeling after the interview.

Next post on the class experience :-)