Attracting Major Opportunities and Making the Most of It – Dr Sai Hrushikesh Reddy Yadam’s (DBA 2021) Success Story
Dr Sai Hrushikesh Reddy Yadam joined SP Jain’s Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) program in 2018. In the years that followed, not only did Dr Yadam excel in his academic pursuits, he also transformed his career trajectory.
Let’s find out more about Dr Yadam’s DBA journey.
Q. What skills did you manage to develop through your DBA degree at SP Jain?
Dr Yadam: While pursuing my DBA degree at SP Jain, I developed advanced problem-solving skills along with a clean and structured planning approach. As I improved my critical soft skills, I also saw myself gaining more credibility at work. Besides, the program also taught me how to stay humble.
Q. How did the DBA degree help you in your professional life?
Dr Yadam: At first, I studied journals and reputed research articles, and also implemented a few new initiatives in the shipping and logistics company that I work with. I was working as the Deputy Manager (Strategy) and got promoted to Manager (Strategy). This promotion encouraged me to enrol in a doctoral program – I wanted to seek professional mentorship and improve my skills. In 2018, I was promoted as a Senior Manager in the shipping and logistics company in Mumbai.
Dr Arumugam Seetharaman (Dean – Research, SP Jain School of Global Management) taught the DBA class many theories and techniques for the course work. He taught us this concept called “TOWS Matrix” which changed my thought process and was a turning point in my life. I used this concept on myself and developed a 5-year plan that includes personal and professional goals. I also used it to design a personal balanced scorecard.
The next year, in 2019, I achieved a double promotion as a Deputy General Manager (BPM, India-Sri Lanka-Maldives + Projects Head, India + eCommerce, MEI Region countries) at a French Shipping line and in 2021, was promoted as the General Manager (Integration Office – Scope Middle East, Indian Sub-continent, East and the Far East) at Dubai, the largest shipping and logistics company. My career mounted to 5 promotions over 3.5 years.
Q. What were some of the major contributions or projects that you were involved in during your work tenure?
Dr Yadam: At first, my projects included business process reengineering, KPI architecture design, lean six sigma projects, business continuity plans, statistical regression models, MIS analytics, Cargo mapping study, 5-year business planning, balanced scorecard design, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and commercial gamification.
My contributions were also seen in customer journey mapping, social media strategy, 360 process design model, control tower design, and an ISO 9001:2008 certification. Later, I greatly contributed to e-commerce management, was the oracle ERP Project Head, handled the BI – Analytics dashboard, RPA implementation, Blockchain study, and IoT implementation.
In 2020, my roles grew larger concerning core model management, international brand integration, KPI improvement, customer platform deployment, customer experience projects, ERP deployment, global invoice projects, exploratory studies and last-mile delivery projects.
Q. What advice would you give future aspirants of the DBA program?
Dr Yadam: I would ask all DBA aspirants to focus on the coursework as it’s a foundation. Discuss your focus topic and ideas with your Supervisor. Seek guidance and narrow the topic related to your work so that you don’t need to live two different lives and, most importantly, implement most of the research work parallelly, at your workplace. Build solid relationships. Don’t feel shy to ask for help – the professors and staff at SP Jain never say no. Stay positive and enjoy the journey.
