Indian IT Female Makes it to Stanford, Rejects MITWhat is the first picture that comes to mind when you hear the word ‘sapling’? Perhaps that of a small plant, being nurtured to growth. The growth part is spot on, but in this article, sapling refers not to a plant, but to a company founded by a very dynamic entrepreneur – Swetha GB. Swetha has travelled the world, added tremendous value to clients through SAP consulting, and then came back to India to found her own venture, or should we say to nurture her own SAPling. This is Swetha’s story, and the story of how she made it to two top programs at MIT and Stanford, a story of the relevance of the MBA for entrepreneurs.
Do MBA programs value IT applicants?
Overcrowded. Over-represented. Not valued. These are only some of the things one hears of IT professionals applying to MBA programs. To be frank, not all of it is false. IT applicants do belong to an overcrowded pool. However, saying that they are not valued is far from the truth. So many times, IT applicants give up on themselves before the school gives up on them. Similarly, so many entrepreneurs wonder how they will really be able to communicate what they wish to get from an MBA program. This process starts from within.
Swetha was always much more than just another IT professional. When she worked on implementing supply chain software, she made sure that she understood the domain, and not just the technology. She was at the forefront of client discussions, and travelled (and worked) abroad several times to better understand her clients. She began her career as an Application Engineer, and then gradually built up her expertise in SAP. Within the IT industry, many engineers are content just with mastering a technology, but Swetha went well beyond that. Her expertise extended to not just SAP implementations, but also the processes of industries as wide and varied as FMCG, manufacturing, and telecom. As it would be, this is the very expertise that would lead Swetha to entrepreneurship later.
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