‘Apeejay ecosystem provides multiple opportunities to students to build a personality beyond academics’

Mr. Manas Khanna is an Apeejay School Panchsheel Park alumnus. He is a strategy consultant with TATA strategic management group. In an exclusive interview, he shares his best memories from school, work life journey and gives life lessons to school students. Edited Excerpts:

Please tell us about your current work profile?

I am working as a strategy consultant with Tata Strategic Management Group, the in-house strategy team of the TATA group. My sector focus is aligned towards consumer goods & retail industry. The team closely works with TATA group companies on varied strategy mandates ranging from growth strategy, market entry strategy, retail expansion strategy, business planning etc.

What was the inspiration behind choosing this field of work?

After Graduation was over (I did engineering from BITS Pilani in Electronics and Instrumentation) I joined an organization called Z S Associates. It was here that I had the flavor of consulting for the first time. I decided that this is the line of work that I am interested to pursue. I really enjoyed my tenure at Z S Associates. But at that time I also realized that I needed an MBA to augment the core consulting skill set and get some business perspective. So I gave the CAT exam and did an MBA from IIM Bangalore.

What are your best memories from Apeejay Panchsheel Park?

There are so many good memories that it is actually very difficult to pinpoint one. Multiple memories come to my mind, the amazing teachers I had the fortune of learning from, the friends I made along the way, all the annual day events, prefectorial board meetings, cultural fetes organized in the school.  I have very vivid memories of the annual day events. We were a bunch of 7-8 students who were very actively involved in the annual day. Some were part of the instrumental team, musical performances. I was involved in the compering of the annual day. We stayed back in school and did those practice sessions. It was fun to spend time with classmates during the practice. Then on the annual day, it was beautiful to see how everything would unfold in front of the audience and our parents. I was actively involved in public speaking events during my school days. I participated in several debate competitions and enjoyed comparing events.

What life lessons would you give to a student at Apeejay Panchsheel Park?

I and my group of friends were very focused on academics in Classes 11 and 12. It is very important but school life also brings many other things such as making friends, building an overall personality through exposure beyond academics be it through sports or extra-curricular activities. Now when I look back I think I did not tap into that potential fully. I think academics will always happen but everyone should use their school to build a personality beyond academics. The Apeejay ecosystem provides multiple opportunities to the students for the same. Apeejay Panchsheel Park organizes so many events annual days, science fares, sports events.

What is your take on entrepreneurship being taught to school students?

This is something which is very important in all management and engineering courses. The Indian startup ecosystem is beginning to spread its wings so getting that input at a young age is essential. Entrepreneurship of course means different things to different people. At school level, it might mean financial independence or understanding the basics of finance or the market. From that standpoint, getting the knowledge is definitely very important. It builds a good foundation. The school syllabus must have this.