Location: Hyderabad
Date: 21st October 2018
Interview time: 16:00 hrs GMAT: 710 Exp: 5 years 8 months
Re-Applicant
Last year: Rejected after interview
The campus is an hour away from where I stay and I wanted to reach the location by 15:30 hrs. I started early to have lunch on my way and about 14:40 I get a call from the ISB team saying that the panel is running early and I was 10 mins away from location and I rushed to the location. After my registration I called the number from which I had a gotten a call and informed them about my arrival and 5 mins later I was called upstairs and I felt nostalgic and was thinking about the last time. Around 15:00 hrs I see a girl walking out of a room and a minute later I was called and I I have a legal name that is different from how I am called in real life and I told them call me X in short and I went into the room and pleasantries were exchanged. Two panel members (P2). Lets call them A and B. B informed about my name and how I like to be referred as X
B: How are you feeling?
Me: Hungry and nervous
A and B: why so? (surprised look)
Me: I started early to have lunch but i got a call saying that the panel was running early and I came
B: but are you comfortable?
Me- yes this is more important than a meal, please go ahead
B: ok so you did engineering and did all these i.e walk me through your resume
Me: gave them answer . made a mistake and the panel caught it and were like what.. I took my time to explain..
I was holding onto my passport and the panel told me you don't have to hold it and I replied I was nervous
B: Ok what work did you do at these companies
Me: Answered
A: you have venture (family business) why don't you join there
Me: answered
B: Current role and what does your company do
Me: Answered
B: oh so do you have a product that you sell?
Me: yes explained
B: is it like skype
Me: answered
B: oh if not like skype so it is like product M
Me: yes that is our competitor but in india it doesn't have that much presence etc
All in like 5-7 mins
A: okay what is your most ruthless business principle
Me: i didn't get you
A; repeated the question with an example
Me: I gave an answer which wasn't in sync with the question
A: ok forget that so how are you trying to compete with Y
Me: answered
A: but still product M is from a million dollar company how are you going to do? It will buy your company etc . I don't care about 1,2,3 features of your product, I have a company of my own.
Me: told them we work in economically backward countries and price is low so we always have customers for our product
A: ok you are targeting country K
Me: yes
A: Do you know when the million dollar company started? any guess?
Me: about 2000
A: yes, so about 15+ years of brand and what are you going to do
Me: answered
A: okay now product M is launched there what will you do ( country K)
Me: gave an answer
A: okay now you know product M is getting launched what will you do
Me: answered, mentioned price as a factor and certain features
A: okay let us say that product M is offering the same features then what you do
Me: product M is not designed that way, we already have it ready so you can save time by choosing our product
A; okay after 4 months the product is launched and now what do you do ?
Me: will focus on brand loyalty and referrals to increase business
A: but again it is a million dollar company they can buy you out. what do you do. you are offering for 100 rupees but the other company is offering at 90 rupees
Me: answered
A: okay now you are hired by the million dollar company for double the salary how will you market product M and take over the market share of your company
Me: answered
A: now switch roles you know that someone in other company is trying to overtake your market share
My face looked so sad and dejected. A apologised sorry X, I am putting you in a difficult situation, your work title is this and you need to make such decisions. I infact thanked him for such questions. I took a 30-45 seconds to prepare my answer whenever a cross question was thrown at me. I had a pen and paper in front of me and noted down bullet points and expanded on that
Me: will give additional features and market the product
B: (after a long time ) okay but wouldn't that take additional cost
Me: yes but we do have features that people don't use and we would showcase those as new features and showcase it as better
B: so you are telling me that you will out-innovate a million dollar company
Me: i will try to , we may not have the resources or finance but I will do my best because a million dollar company is trying to compete with us we will do our best.
A: okay so now it's a million dollar company the best is to sell it
Me: discussed about not selling
A: okay now the company wants to buy your product and how will you motivate the team to sell/not sell
I asked for a minute and noted down points
Me: answered on how to sell and motivate the team
B: but you did not address the employees for the product what about me
Me; Oh i forgot, answered
A: so you know how to sell your product better?
Me: yes
both A and B: are you taking the learning to work
Me: i was answering no to a question and there was coincidence to this question above and I said no thats not what i meant and i explained myself
B: why ISB
Me: answered
B: ok so you want a network
Me: yes i want to expand my venture so i need that
B: you were mentioning that you need some skills from MBA.. can you mention what skills
Me: yes i want to be an entrepreneur
B; so by just joining will you become one?
me: i may not but ISB will put me in the right direction
both A and B looking at each other: any questions:
Me; the interview was really wonderful I got to look at things bla bla .. I am sorry that I could not hold back my words.
A: i understand it is okay
Me: asked my question
A and B: replied
we shook hands and I told mr.A that it will always be a memorable interview and i walked out. i forgot my passport and went back to get that and I could see them discussing on something
It was 35-40 minutes interview with too many cross questions and tough situations. every point I made was being countered. Yes i did fumble and made some mistakes, there's no perfect interview but I came out feeling not bad. I do not know what to make out of this interview as well. As always may be I could have done better?
Looking at the larger picture - no why mba no goal related questions . I wanted to get into consulting and no case related questions etc
only why isb resume questions and product competitor questions
Over the course of 6 years I've had a few interviews but this one stands out for the way it was conducted and thanks to Mr.A first and Mr. B as well . I asked the company Mr.A owns and he told me about along with the address.
This is as much as I could remember about my interview and fingers crossed for Nov 15
not sorry for keeping it long :D
regards,
HK
PS - excuse typos
Updated on: 29 Oct 2018, 05:51
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