Around the same time last year, like any other engineer, I was apprehensive about my future and the Marketing role that I would need to take up. Being cajoled into taking up engineering, it was stressful to find a school which would consider my passion for both, an analytical bent of mind as well as for consumer behaviour.

For me, there are three things that stand out about the Northpoint – Nielsen PGPMR program.

  1. The diversity of the students allows you to learn from people with work experience ranging from zero months to several years and having worked in different industries. I was privileged to learn the art of being polished and making presentations from a fellow student who was a hotel management graduate. Another colleague at Northpoint, having worked in finance as well as in research, taught me how to structure my thoughts and think with depth to make maximum impact.
  2. Openness!! Anyone at the Nielsen Northpoint program, be it the chef who served us food, the Colonel who took care of the campus, the Northpoint faculty who structured the program and of course the Nielsen mentors, are all extremely approachable. At any given point in time, I could ask them any question ranging from marketing, advertising, and insights to leadership and human resources.
  3. Finally, the attribute that stands out for me the most is collaboration. Northpoint is the catalyst that enables your ideas to flow. The stereotype of the lone innovator and the anecdotes about inspiration are clearly not true. Edison was not a lone inventor. He built the first modern day industrial lab. Steve Jobs was not a lone genius. His alchemy was urging and circulating ideas among his people. To reliably innovate, Northpoint gives you a platform that facilitates teams to better disseminate ideas, share information and most importantly, work together.

To the incoming batch, my candid advice would be to say focussed on attaining two things:

Firstly, make Determination one of your biggest strengths. No matter how tough circumstances get, stay focused on your goal and believe that you can definitely achieve it! You will be very critically evaluated on your performance but it’s worth it because it will transform you into a robust professional.

Secondly, develop a problem solving ability. Develop attention to detail. Look for the core idea and structure your thoughts in a logical manner. Then assess if you can introduce any process improvements which are different from what the current system is.

On that note, here’s wishing all the Northpoint novices an effective, awesome and memorable year ahead. It only gets better from here!

Written by

Chinmay Shenoy,

PGPMR 2013-14

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