Mr. Ramanshu Ganguly (PFM 2010-12) works as an Assistant Vice President at Sambodhi Research and Communications Pvt. Ltd. He currently leads most of the energy access, agriculture, livelihoods, and governance-based research and evaluations carried out by Sambodhi. He is also responsible for a significant part of the business development activities for the non-health division of Sambodhi.
Email – [email protected]
Q. How has been your journey from IIFM to this role?
A. The journey since IIFM has been exciting, adventurous and has made me learned tremendously about how the world is significantly different from what we learn in our classrooms. As Professor A.K. Dharni, IFS at IIFM always mentioned, you need to unlearn a lot to make the best out of your professional life.
I guess I did had to do that. I started with Fino Payments Bank (Fino Paytech then) and got placed at different corners of the country trying to convince rural customers to get affixed to formal financial services. Struggling with languages and grappling with targets, I learnt that what we read about concepts are a lot different than what makes sense to a family of six in rural Bihar trying to make ends meet.
I was driven by this desire to channelize these learnings to the implementation. This desire prompted my move to Sambodhi in 2014 and I am happily working here since that time. I have had the excellent chance to look at developmental initiatives (across a wide range of sectors) closely as well as from distance and feed the learnings back to the implementers and policymakers as well. It was at Sambodhi where I got exposed to the USE of quantitative techniques, research methodologies-regressions and it started making sense when I started using them and saw their implication in real life. Sambodhi has helped me groom myself as a professional in this space, appreciate the needs of the space-both downstream and upstream.
Q. What were some of the key milestones/learning in this journey that you would like to share with us?
A. The key milestones would be:
a. My exposure to rural India while in FINO.
b. Sambodhi’s platform to learn and train people on the use of data in determining strategies is fabulous. It is difficult to isolate a moment here since all projects give you a new lesson which is the best part.
Q. What is the most satisfying part of your current role?
A. My exposure to the development space and the exposure to understand data and churn information out of it. Sambodhi exposes me to an excellent mix of academic and consulting work which makes learning a lot more fun.
Q. Has your learning at IIFM helped in shaping how you approach your professional roles?
A. Definitely!! The subjects; the assignments; sudden deadlines; close deadlines-the week-long stressful examination period coupled with a bunch of extracurricular activities. Professional life is just as chaotic. IIFM taught me to have fun in this chaos. Once you start enjoying this chaos, you are a lot more prepared for life later on.
Q. Who (or what) are the biggest influences or drivers in your careers? What would be your advice to freshers and IIFM graduates who are looking to choose similar sectors/roles.
A. My advice to IIFM graduates will be to focus on understanding and learning thoroughly. We mostly get absorbed in trying to complete an assignment, score good numbers on a test. But rarely do we try to truly understand what we are and why. You need to understand and be thorough with your objective at hand. It will then help you to do your job much better. ALWAYS THINK!!
Q. What are your favorite memories during your IIFM days?
A. Overnight bike ride with friends to Panchmarhi apart from the bonfires on the cliff inside IIFM campus are the top two among many happy memories.
Q. In hindsight, what was the biggest contribution (courses, faculty, library, friends, alumni.. Anything else!!) or take away from IIFM that you think played a critical role in shaping you as an individual or professional?
A. Friends and faculties.
Q. As an alumnus, what’s your advice to freshers or those who are joining IIFM to get the best out of the 2 years there?
A. Enjoy your time here. Use the mental space to build yourself as a person – play as much as you can; go around and explore as much as you can, learn as much as you can.
Q. What is your typical day at the office? (We want to know what your day job looks like..)
A. Well, we start early by having a to-do list and ticking the items off as it goes. I am involved a lot in proposal and report writing.
Q. You would like to share about your typical weekends.. Hobbies.. Family..
A. Roadtrips.
Q. IIFM is driven by alumni’s passion and commitments towards its goal. How would you like to contribute to IIFM or IIFM alumni, students?
A. I can be involved in talks with IIFM students if need be.
Q. What do you think is different at IIFM now vs when you studied there? What do you think is a positive change and what is not?
A. I think students are more outward-oriented now. They are better prepared and have a stronger idea of how the professional space looks like.
Q. Any suggestions on who from our alumni you want to get profiled/interviewed here?