Ankur Pandey

The backbone of M360°, Mr. Ankur Pandey, also known as the one-man army, for whom words such as “No” and “Impossible” don’t exist, spoke to us about his IBS journey, views on placements and advice to students. Let’s know the words of wisdom from the “Techno-Manager”

Please tell us something about your IBS journey.

I started my journey at IBS in June 2015. I was fairly good at academics and was sure of taking marketing as my specialization. I have always believed that more than academic knowledge, practical knowledge is more helpful. I used to participate in a lot of college activities, undertook many live projects but the turning point in my journey was Marketing360°.

Initially, Marekting360° was supposed to have its presence Facebook only but now it has its own website. Could you please throw some light on it?

Marketing360° was started with an intention to improve the reading habits of students. It started as a classroom activity. When Marketing360° started, we were a team of 5 members. Initially, we had thought that it will be only present of social media, predominantly Facebook but when we proposed to start it, we thought that there could be a website also where we can collate and curate marketing news and students can read them. This is how the website started. It was unplanned but now it has proven to be the greatest asset of Marketing360°.

We all know that managing a website is a tough task. Please tell us about the challenges you faced and how did you overcome them.

The website was created with an intention to capture the target audience i.e. students. The website of Marketing360° has undergone a lot of changes. It started as a flip book. In the flip book, we were not able to segregate the news with respect to their category. So if a reader wants to read all news from the automobile category or telecom or FMCG or wants information on concepts, it was not possible for him to get everything under one tab. This was the major challenge of the flip book. Then we decided to change the design of our website. Every Marketing360° member puts in a lot of effort and it was important to recognize their contribution. In order to do that, we started giving credits to the members for their work. So if a content team member curates an article, it is posted against their name, the images developed by the creative team member gets uploaded against his name and the tech team member who posts all the news, he gets credit for that. This proved to be a motivation for all team members.

Importance of Marketing360° in your overall development.

We all learn about concepts such as AIDA, PLC, STP etc. but the practical application is unknown to many. Marketing360° helped me to apply all the concepts practically. For instance, AIDA means creating awareness, interest, desire and finally action. M360 helped me to put it in practical aspect. Awareness was created by doing promotions. Interest was generated by creating the website and social media page. With the help of promotion and web page, the desire was created amongst students to join M360. Now we have a lot of team members and getting a good response on our webpage, so the action is done.

Basically, M360 has taught me one major important skill that is “Time Management”. As easy as it sounds, time management is an important skill which one needs to manage and I thank M360 for it.

Experience of working in corporate and some tips and tricks to excel in the workplace.

What we think about working in corporate is way too different from the reality. When I joined HDFC, it took me almost 2 months to understand how the teams work. In a corporate, all teams are interlinked to each other to form one unit. The success is the unit and not of one team.

I strongly believe that the kind of work you deliver speaks for you. Your punctuality, adherence to deadlines, determination, dedication, and consistency, everything counts for you. But along with all this the kind of rapport you share with your colleagues, your attitude and our behavior are also taken into account. To excel in the workplace, both skills and personal relations are necessary. I rate both of them equally to succeed in the corporate world.

Advice to students.

I believe that knowledge is the ultimate power. It is very important for every student to be updated with everything happening in the world. Before being a Finance or a Marketing or an HR student, we are all management students. Being a management student, it is necessary to be updated with every news irrespective of the specialization we choose. Being updated with the recent trends and disruptions is mandatory.

I would strongly recommend every student to undertake live projects, write research papers and maintain a strong balance in their academic and co-curricular activities.

Ankur Pandey has completed his PGDM from IBS Mumbai and is currently working as Product Manager with HDFC Bank.  He has done his B-Tech in Electronics and Telecommunication from Gautam Buddha Technical University. In his spare time, he plays football, reads technological blogs and marketing news.

Interviewed by: Priyanka Upadhyay