The first-ever One-Year MBA in Digital Enterprise Management (DEM) from IIM Udaipur introduces the working professionals to leadership styles and management fundamentals emerging in digital business enterprises. The course curriculum includes a Live Project experience for the students. These projects are real-life business problems scoped by industry experts and academicians enhancing decision-making skills of students. Let’s find out what Radhika Gupta, a current DEM batch student, has to say on live projects.
Please provide an overview of the project. What is the problem that you are trying to solve?
Typically, in banks, large amounts of data about various parameters are present in multiple systems or databases, mostly in silos. It is not easy to draw meaningful insights from data present in various systems to make specific business decisions. The tech project’s objective is to recommend a reporting infrastructure that can provide stakeholder access to different customer data attributes. Therefore, it also enables strategic decisions, including risk mitigation plans and customers’ repayment behaviour by facilitating the client banks’ customers’ assessment using various metrics through customizable dashboards.
What has been your biggest learning from the project so far?
Understanding the nuances of the fintech domain in the context of digital transformation has been my most significant learning. I had prior experience working in the cards and payments domain. By doing this project, I can identify many more use cases where digital transformation can help the firm meet its strategic and business goals.
The live project is helping me in the following areas,
- Understanding the Needs of the Client Better
- Project Management
- Problem-solving
- Teamwork
Continuous collaboration with clients helped me uncover the requirements, which aided in scope refinement and prioritization.
The live project is akin to the internship, and therefore the planning of the tasks to be done is very different from the conventional academic project. Adherence to timelines is of utmost importance, and consequently, we defined milestones for the project. The project is teamwork and requires us to divide the project into phases and share the task amongst us that matches our abilities. The whole process was similar to the one adopted in IT projects in software firms.
The core of any project is essential to solving a business problem. This project is no different. For instance, the project’s scope initially was vast, given the nature of the Fintech domain. However, accomplishing everything in a single shot is not feasible and therefore, we discussed the matter with our project sponsors. Collaboratively, we detailed out the whole scope and narrowed it down to one line of business.
If I have to highlight one of the most pleasing aspects of my project, it would be teamwork, undoubtedly. We are a very diverse team in terms of qualifications, experience and inclinations. It is a positive catalyzer as this allows us to share the work in a manner where we can play to our strengths. Due to diversity in the team, we can brainstorm and choose from multiple ideas for any task. It leads to very enriching discussions which aid in knowledge building.
How is it different from your previous professional experience?
This project is different in aspects of team diversity, the digital transformation approach to address the use case and the responsibilities. In my experience, the variety was limited to gender. The approach to try out various solutions to arrive at one final solution is different from a predefined solution approach.
How is a live project preparing you for the industry?
The project is preparing me to adapt to the new normal. As a team, we are working in virtual setups to complete the project deliverables. It will be the future of work in the industry, and I think I am already equipped to work in such scenarios. The project has also prepared me to interact with different stakeholders coming with varying thought processes and perform decision-making in a complex, fast-paced environment.
About the Author
Radhika Gupta is currently a student of Digital Enterprise Management at IIM Udaipur. Prior to joining the course, she has worked as a Business Analyst andProduct Owner over 8.5 years across domains like B&FS, Logistics, Payments and Publishing. She is an aspirational consultant for firms actively pursuing digital transformation. In her free time, she likes reading fiction and business novels and listening to alternative and pop music. You can connect with her on LinkedIn.