GMAT 730, 6 years work ex, 2 years Entrepreneurship

Question

Hello Sir/mam,
This is MANVEER SINGH SALUJA. I am 28, Male from India. I would like to know the competency of my profile. The details are give below:-

1) Brief description of your full-time work experience. What do you do?
-Total 6 years of work experience( 2009 till present)
-2 years experience in INDIAN OIL CORP ( 2009 - 2011) as Project Engineer. Was responsible for project commissioning , procurement and training.
-Then joined family business into Infrastructure projects as (General manager- projects) 20%growth per annum since joining.
- Revived another company after joining in as a partner in 2013.

2) Your GMAT.
2nd attempt( May 2015) - Got 730 with Q50 V 38 IR 2/8. AWA not recieved yet
1st attempt( Nov 2014) - GMAT 670 Q47, V34 , IR7/8 AWA 5 .

3) College info: 
Bachelor of Engineering ( Electrical ) Thapar University , India. GPA : 3.6 . Graduated in 2009. Ranked 3rd in batch.

4) Significant college and post-college extra-curricular activities or community service, especially leadership experience. 
College:
- General Secretary of various college teams, Editor of magazine, college website designer and Conducted many sports events.

After college:
- certified Scuba Diver, health enthusiast
- member of Sikh community welfare association, done various philanthropic activities in my community
- Member of toastmasters club

5) Important certifications like CFA, CPA, FSA, or CA.
- Certification in fundamentals of Project management , University of virginia, Darden
- Certificate in Entrepreneurship from MIT , online edx course.
-Certified automation Engineer

6) Your target programs. 
INSEAD
IMD
ANY TOP 10 US COLLEGES
TOP 3 CANADIAN COLLEGES

7) When you plan to apply? 
R1 2015

8) Your post-MBA goal.
General management , probably in a company focused on operations, infrastructure, real estate or oil and gas.

Admissionado · Answer

Dear MANVEER SINGH SALUJA,
Good to hear from you my friend!

First of all, I think you deserve a big congratulations for the huge GMAT improvement. You have done the right thing and your hard work has paid off.

Now before I can answer your query I will need a bit more information from you.
Can you answer the following questions, and then I will get back to you:

1. Can you write more about your experience in the oil company? Did you have any leads? Any promotions? What did you DO?
2. Please tell me more about your family business: How many people work for it? What industry? What is its turnover? What has changed over the last years? How have you developed yourself and the company over the last four years? Will you eventually inherit the leadership of the firm?
3. I need a bit more CONCRETE detail here: "Significant college and post-college extra-curricular activities or community service, especially leadership experience. 
College"... Specifically. What ACHIEVEMENTS do you have? What LEADERSHIP?

If you can answer me this, I will get back to you shortly,
Best,
Jon

manveersaluja · Answer

Dear Jon,
Thank You for the quick reply. Appreciate it a lot. Regarding some queries, here are the answers-

1. Can you write more about your experience in the oil company? Did you have any leads? Any promotions? What did you DO? 
 I joined as a Electrical Engineer in 2009 and worked till 2011. Indian Oil is a government company. Promotion is based on seniority. I would have become senior engineer in 3 years, but i left in 2 years , so no promotion. But yes , I can say, responsibility wise, I was promoted. When I joined i 2009, I was just looking after the running and maintenance of a certain type of equipment in the Oil Refinery. Gradually , my role was broadened. Eventually , I had a team of 10 people under me called as Engineering assistants. I was responsible for Planning, procurement, Estimation, Training, Equipment Database Development, Project Commissioning, Implementing reliable safety practices all over .

Key accomplishments were:-
 Part of Electrical Core Group, Responsible for erection and commissioning of Electrical Substations , for a $3.1billion petrochemical project at Panipat Refinery.
 Led a team of 7 members and coordinated with international vendors to complete the assigned project 3 months before target. 
 Post commissioning, initiated the activity of electrical equipment database collection and development of search engine for plant LAN Intranet at Indian Oil, Panipat, India, which led to 20% increase in problem solving
 Administered the procurement of Electrical supplies of upto $2million annually and coordinated their inventory management. Also responsible for contract closure and lining up of maintenance contracts.

2. Please tell me more about your family business: How many people work for it? What industry? What is its turnover? What has changed over the last years? How have you developed yourself and the company over the last four years? Will you eventually inherit the leadership of the firm?

Family Business is based in Andaman & Nicobar Islands , India. It is a remote set of Islands in the India Ocean cut off from Indian Mainland. It is a Military Hub of India and is the only place to have Army, navy, Air force and Coast guard together.

Our firm, SALCON ENGINEERS, is an Infrastructure Development Firm. We do Projects for the military. We have to quote Government tenders and if we are the lowest bidder, we get the project. Development requires all kinds of Engineering such as Civil , electrical, mechanical etc. Our market is totally based on Government funding. real estate is not much of a market as per capita income of majority of people is low.

Before I arrived, SALCON was working in a primitive fashion, with no accountability of profits. It was totally dependent on the involvement of my father. No scope of scaling up.

I have implemented business strategies , with whatever little knowledge I had, to make my company run in the auto mode . I conducted interviews, assigned new roles, bought new machinery to reduce labour costs, started an incentive based system and . Thus, were capable now of taking bigger projects and scaling up. We have project based strategies on procurement, scheduling, cost estimation and other calculations.

Turnover when I joined in 2011 - $0.8 million
Turnover for 2014-15 ----------- $ 1.5 million
Because now, we were capable of taking bigger projects.
approximately 20% growth annually. I have tried to maximize the market share.

No of employees- 
Engineers + Staff - 25
Labors- 100

We have made the company to a level now that it can run on auto mode without our personal involvement in day to day activities.

Also in 2013, I revived a dead company . Joined as a partner when its reported turnover was just $ 500 . Current turnover is $ 0.2 million and it supplies raw material to SALCON, leading to backward integration and more profit.

Eventually, I am not planning to join my company. The market is really dependent on Govt funds. And recently, the funds have not been regular. Future of this business model may not be sound. This model can be scaled only upto some level. We cant depend on government funds all the time. So, I plan to do an MBA, increase my exposure level, work for 5-10 years and may be start something in the future. Although, I will still be on company board.

3.  I need a bit more CONCRETE detail here: "Significant college and post-college extra-curricular activities or community service, especially leadership experience. 
College"... Specifically. What ACHIEVEMENTS do you have? What LEADERSHIP?

College:-
- Part of core team of College Annual Cultural fest. Responsible for bringing sponsorship of $ 40000.
- General Secretary of College Visual Effects and Stage management Team. Led 7 successful events in my tenure. 
- Editor of College Magazine, Team lead in organizing sports events 
- Organized various plays and programs for drug de-addiction in nearby villages.

After college:-
- Member of Sikh Community Welfare Association, Port Blair; Organized various Blood donation camps.
- Co- Founded the Andaman Bike Club; Our team has made several biking trips in the Andaman Islands.
- Co- founded the Andaman Photography Club. Organize various excursions only for photographers
- Avid Scuba Diver. Completed various diving certificate courses.

Hope you can guide me better now. 
Thanks
MANVEER.

Admissionado · Answer

Dear Manveer,
Good to hear from you again. And that's for the extra detail. It will be very helpful!

So first of all, out of all you have written above, the most interesting is the family business. It's not huge, but it's mid-sized and seems to have done well in the last years, and the improvements you have brought also seem quite significant. So I think if you can tell a very good story about this family business, and your dreams and plans for it after you take over, it will help you out the most.

Your additional leadership and Oil Company experience are both good, but also somehow more 'normal'. What I mean is that you should make use of them in your application, but they are less unique than your family business. I do like your involvement in the Sikh community.

I think that with a great application, you can apply to INSEAD, IMD, and Top 3 Canadian schools. I also think you can apply to Top 10 schools in the US, although I would suggest you expand that list to include Top 15 schools (or maybe Top 20).

I think overall your profile is good, and also unique (both because of the family business and your being Sikh and your involvement), but still applications from India are in a very competitive pool, and you aren't from a preferred school for Top 10 programs (IITs, maybe NIT).

But still, things look pretty good!

Best,
Jon

GMAT 730, 6 years work ex, 2 years Entrepreneurship

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