Career Transformation Journey
I am among those few who have the Tier 1 Institutes of the country as their Alma Mater, and my
journey is nothing short of a roller coaster ride. The journey that started in 2010 with the
preparation for IIT-JEE is heading towards the lanes of Electronic City in Bangalore, after a year of
XLRI chapter in between.
I am Gaurang Agarwal, and I am very excited to share my career transformation journey with you all.
XLRI has played an important and integral role in shaping me into the person I am today, helping me
transform my career. Before delving into the XLRI journey, let me take you my initial or what I call
my “Formative Years”, which became the foundation of my career.
I am an alumnus of IIT Dhanbad and have my B.Tech. in Mining Engineering. No, I didn’t choose
mining, but it chose me. Those who have been to the gruelling process of IIT counselling know it well
��. After four years of Engineering, I have had the opportunity to work in one of the largest primary
producers of Aluminium in India, Hindalco Industries Limited, as an assistant manager in Operations
and Strategy. I was responsible for strategy building and implementing Lean manufacturing practices
alongside several digital initiatives across all the bauxite mines of India owned by Hindalco.
I assisted leaders in mining through optimum utilization of resources by deconstructing
requirements and forming a detailed strategy with multiple stakeholders to deliver the results with
minimum deviation on the ground. It also involved working alongside KPMG on several cost
reduction initiatives in Hindalco. Working with different stakeholders and alongside KPMG instilled
in me the capability of narratives, persuasion, stakeholder management.
Being involved with the employees of all the levels, I could understand the problems a core sector
such as the manufacturing or mining industry is gripped in. I gained domain expertise in the industry
concerning IT integration, people management, Project Management, Regulatory and statutory
requirements.
But still, it all seemed to be very superficial even after the five years of experience. Understanding
the nuances of other functions such as finance, commercial, corporate strategy, downstream
business required a holistic and a 360-degree approach to see things from the bird’s eye view, which
is the art of macro-management. To understand the complete upstream to downstream of a
business and why the leaders do what they do, it was necessary to take a leap of faith to get the
answers in the fastest way possible. MBA from the renowned B-Schools in India could quench my
thirst, and thus I landed at XLRI, the oldest B-School in India.
XLRI’s ExPGDM program is a concoction of everything I could ask for. I needed a fast-paced learning
program that could provide me with skills and the ability to sharpen my current skill sets to be ready
for the world I wished to enter.
The support system of the institute in the ways one can imagine surpasses one’s set benchmarks,
and I can vouch for that. The immense industry connect series by which we learned through the top
industry leaders, and in class, all the learned top-notch faculties sharing their knowledge and
experience helped us hone our thinking process and mindset according to the current industry
demands and needs.
One of the greatest learning ones can get out of the B-Schools as XLRI is peer learning, and on top of
that lies the immense possibility of networking. The learnings through the projects, assignments,
discussions outside the class gave me the confidence to inching towards my aspirations.
My aspiration, having come from the core industry, was to become a consultant to help the core
sector improve at the pace other sectors are improving in terms of Digitisation and IT integration. I
knew that the domain expertise combined with the skillsets I gained and honed at XLRI would give
me a strong launchpad for my wings to fly. My desire to fetch a role where I could learn immensely
and get a chance to work on multiple projects were fulfilled on the day I received the most coveted
message from Placecomm. With the “Congratulations!” from the friends on being selected in Infosys
BPM as the senior consultant – solution design marked a major and a significant milestone in not
only my journey but also the XLRI’s journey as an institute that has nurtured yet again another
responsible leader for the greater good of the country.