Interview: Vimal Chaudhary, Winner of first Shapoorji Pallonji Rising Star Award at IIM Indore

Vimal Chaudhary, an MBA (EPGP) graduate from the Class of 2014 and Associate at JP Morgan Chase & Co. is the winner of the first ‘Shapoorji Pallonji Rising Star for Academic Excellence’ that has been instituted at IIM I for graduates of EPGP. Abhishek Shah, a current EPGP student at IIM Indore interacted with Vimal Chaudhary and Ranjit Gajare (EPGP, Class of 2011 and Assistant General Manager at Shapoorji Pallonji) at the convocation at IIM Indore where Vimal received the award. 

Abhishek: Vimal, what was your reaction on winning the first Shapoorji Pallonji Rising Star Award?

Vimal – Big Surprise! It was a big surprise as it was revealed to me only a couple of days before the convocation. Receiving the award, after a year of hard work, was extremely pleasing and joyful. Becoming the maiden recipient of the award made it even more special. I express my gratitude to Shapoorji Pallonji for the recognition.

Abhishek – How did the award come about?

Vimal – I was completely oblivious to the award. I was just committed to putting in my best effort to enhance my skills and capabilities. I am thankful to all the professors for offering us very relevant courses and sharing their knowledge freely. I am also grateful to my batch mates for the learning I have got from them during my interactions with them in class and group assignments – most of them come from diverse backgrounds which made the learning in EPGP a rich and gainful experience. 

Abhishek – According to you, what does it take to win the award?

Vimal – The One Year Full Time MBA (EPGP) is an intensive and challenging programme. Students are almost always occupied with classes, presentations, case discussions, assignments and so time management and prioritization are essential in order to manage all your responsibilities. At the same time, I think grabbing every opportunity to relax and rejuvenate, especially in-between terms, also becomes very important. 

Abhishek – Your thoughts on how the award will help students?

Vimal – It is a great initiative by Shapoorji Pallonji to encourage students to strive for academic excellence. I am sure the award will bring in a healthy competition among the students and will motivate them to go the extra mile.

Abhishek – Ranjit, how did the idea of instituting this award happen?

Ranjit – Incorporated in 1865, Shapoorji Pallonji completed 150 years in 2015. This brought us to a point of reflection where we contemplated on various initiatives to set a new direction for the organisation. We were also very keen to find out what measures we could take as a group to support the community. That is how the idea of felicitating meritorious students in some of the country’s top institutions came up.

The award is the outcome of a team initiative. It all began with the formation of a steering committee for the 150 year celebrations. The Head of HR at Shapoorji Pallonji was instrumental in overseeing the 150 year celebrations.

This award was one of the program items that the committee decided to go ahead with and I, along with another team member, took up the initiative of reaching out to the institutes and forming a plan and budget for it.

The award was instituted to coincide with the 150 year celebrations at Shapoorji Pallonji. I, along with another team member, took up the initiative of reaching out to the institutes and forming a plan and budget for it. We are initiating this award in four IIMs (Ahmedabad, Indore, Lucknow & Kolkata) and four IITs. 

We are initiating this award in four IIMs (Ahmedabad, Indore, Lucknow & Kolkata) and four IITs (at IITs, it is going to be a merit cum means award for two students- Rupees fifty thousand each).

As of now, the idea is to continue this with this award for five years.

Abhishek – What are the reasons for targeting the award at the One Year MBA programme?

Ranjit – We realised that we were hiring more from the One Year MBA programs. The general realisation with both the managers as well as HRs has been that candidates from the one year program come with a certain amount of maturity which is necessary when you are working closely with the senior management as well as when you are required to take effective business decisions.

We also realized that there were several awards for academic excellence in two year PGP programs at IIMs, but virtually none for the One Year MBA programs. So we decided to introduce this award for the toppers in the One Year MBA programmes across four IIMs. 

Abhishek – Any last thoughts you would like to share with future aspirants?

Ranjit – Well I think this award is a testimony to the worth of the One Year MBA programs and I think they have a huge future. In the Indian management education space, this might have taken some time to come but the realisation of their worth has already started to happen and I think we will continue to see more and more interest from organisations in this space.