PDP – Prashant Agrawal Section – B PGID – 61920173

My major strengths and areas of improvement are as follows:

Strengths Areas of improvement

• Gain further expertise in data analytics

• Unstructured problem-solving experience
• Get exposure to problem solving for different
Functional • Pharmaceutical Consulting
industries other than pharma
• Data Analytics
• Develop consulting expertise further

• Team Management and Handling people • Improve communication skills

Behavioral • Calm under pressure • Improve public speaking

• Get out of my shell and network with people

The common feedbacks I received from 360-degree assessment are as follows:

Positive feedback Negative feedback

• Analytical skills and critical thinking ability • I should be more appreciative of my team members’ work

• Leadership and team management • Should take up more initiatives in the area of work

The most important thing which I want to focus on improving in this 1 year is –

Data analytical skills and problem solving

Why I want to improve –

I have worked in the pharma consulting (with ZS and Novartis) space where I worked on solving

the clients’ problems by providing them insights and recommendations through data analytics.

Now, after ISB, as my future area of work I am looking for challenging roles in the consulting or

analytics space (preferably outside pharma industry). Both these fields would require great

problem-solving and analytical skills. So, during this 1 year I would be looking to build on my

existing skills as they are very critical for getting into the roles I am aspiring for as well as to

succeed in those roles in the future.

How I am planning to improve and utilize the resources at ISB -

In order to build on my data analytics and problem-solving skills which I could utilize in the

analytics and consulting industry, I need to have in depth understanding of the important data

analytical concepts/techniques/tools and more importantly, how they are utilized to solve the

problems in the real world. Also, since I don’t want to limit my self to any particular industry, I

need to understand that what are the different kinds of data analytics/consulting projects/problems

in different industries.

Now, here at ISB I plan to utilize the following different resources to improve on the

aforementioned areas –

1) I would try to learn all the concepts in detail of the data analytical courses such as SMMD

and DMOP. In these courses, more than the grades, I would specifically focus on learning.
 2) I would participate in the case competitions so that I could get more exposure to solving

different unstructured problems belonging to different industries.

3) I also plan to take up an ELP(which would be of Non pharma industry and would require

quantitative and qualitative analysis) where I would get to work on a industry problem and

would get the opportunity to think holistically about a problem and then recommend the

solution to the stakeholders.

4) I also plan to join the consulting club where I would get exposure to different case problems

and would get benefited from the experience of the speaker sessions of the industry experts.

5) Also, I plan to solve at least one case every week from the books/resources available in the

LRC so that I can get enough practice in solving the unstructured problems.

Timing and measurement of the progress–

I want to see a significant improvement in this area in the next 5-6 months as improvement in these

would be critical for my on-campus placement chances in my desired area of function.

In terms of measurement of the progress, I would keep analyzing, at regular intervals, my approach

to solving problems that have I really improved in approaching the problems in a structured and

systematic manner and based on that assessment and self-reflection I would further make plans to

improve.

Potential obstacle

The biggest obstacle which I foresee in achieving my goal is time management. As I am looking

to participate in the case competitions, club activities, taking an ELP, I might get crunched for time

as I would also need to equally focus on my academics. In order to do overcome this challenge,
and to best utilize my time at ISB, I have decided that I would not contest for any POR which

would give me some leverage in terms of time. Also, I plan to fully utilize the term breaks and

work hard to pursue my goal in that duration.