Letters of recommendation: The Full-Time MBA program requires 1 professional

recommendation. A maximum of 2 recommenders can be added to your application;

online recommendations are preferred.

Reco Questions: (Online) ( No word count mention online reco form )

1. How long and in what capacity have you known the applicant?
2. Evaluate the applicants interpersonal and team work skills, including his/her ability to
work with peers, subordinates and supervisors. Is the applicant an effective group
member or does he/she work better individually? What role does the applicant assume
within the group?
3. Does he/she perform well under stress and accept constructive feedback?
4. Please comment on areas in which the applicant may need improvements or growth.
5. The School of Business is committed to developing outstanding leaders who can inspire
trust and confidence in others. Please comment on the applicants behavior within your
organization and in the community.
6. For non-native English speakers, please comment on the applicants verbal and written
English ability. Enter "Native English Speaker" if the question is not applicable.
7. What is your opinion of the candidates motivation and suitability for a career in
management?
8. Assessment questions ( please see online recommendation form )

1. How long and in what capacity have you known the applicant?
I have known Prashant since 2013. I am the In-charge of the Artificial lift team at IOGPT since
2013 and he has reported directly to me for the past 2.5 years. He has immensely contributed
on several high value projects for ONGC apart from managing various other tasks such as NABL
accreditation, ISO audits, Artificial Lift lab up-gradation and testing etc.

Prashant works in close coordination with me .As In-charge of the artificial lift department I deal
with, technical as well as commercial functions. Prashant has a strong grasping power and I
have given him exposure of both the functions. He is primarily involved with consultancy
projects and regularly interacts on various aspects of these projects. Moreover his active
involvement in commercial activities of the department makes us interact even more. As a part
of the commercial activities, he is involved in procurement and upgradation of various
commercial software and equipment at Artificial lift. He has prepared contracts for floating
tenders and has been involved in negotiating tender terms with the vendors .He is also involved
in arranging various industry and interaction meets at IOGPT for knowledge up-gradation.
He has immensely contributed on several high value projects for ONGC apart from managing
various other tasks such as NABL accreditation, ISO audits ,Artificial Lift lab up-gradation and
testing etc .Thus I can confidently say that he has constantly delivered excellent quality of work
under all circumstances.

2. Evaluate the applicants interpersonal and team work skills, including his/her ability
to work with peers, subordinates and supervisors. Is the applicant an effective group
member or does he/she work better individually? What role does the applicant assume
within the group?

At artificial lift department we work as a family not just as a professional team. I must say that
Prashant is the soul of this team. He is one the youngest members of team and has a
charismatic personality and a very optimistic outlook which makes him a great person to have
around. When he joined ONGC he had limited exposure to Oil and gas industry and has been
trained by the senior members of the artificial lift team. Today many of the members want him
to assist and lead critical projects and is always the first choice as a coworker on various
projects. I strongly feel that such a reputation is not only because of his excellent technical skills
that he has developed in the past years but also because of his courteous nature and respect for
his senior, peers and subordinates.

Moreover when he joined, his excellent communication skills & enthusiastic attitude got him
involved with various activities apart from his core consultancy project work. He worked as a
member of multifunctional team for organizing TAC , a high profile annual meeting attended by
the heads of various fields of ONGC. He was asked to manage corporate communication and
coordinate with offices of various heads at different fields and collate inputs for finalizing the
agenda of the meeting. His coordination and collation of inputs was appreciated and was
assigned additional jobs of managing the logistics and arrangement for the TAC 2014. The
meeting was a great success and that meant even more responsibilities. In 2015 , he became a
core member of the organizing committee and manages the entire arrangements for the TAC
meeting from logistics to outside vendors and from corporate communication to hospitality .
During theses assignments he has developed strong network of ONGC officers and he has
leveraged it at various occasions for field data acquisition, operations troubleshooting
implementation of projects recommendation, another reason why he is assigned challenging
projects .
Moreover he is also the part of artificial lift team of trainers that imparts regular training to field
engineers as well as senior officer as a part of knowledge up-gradation as well as to convey best
practices. He has evolved as a trainer and learnt the skills of delivering high quality training from
the senior members of the team. Today he has become an indispensible part of the team. He
along with a team of other artificial lift member actively works towards preparing updated
content for the training and have successfully conducted more than 15 training sessions in the
past 3 years. Recently he ,along with a the artificial lift team, has designed and delivered a
customized training program for Oil India Limited, a top E&P company operating in India

3. Does he/she perform well under stress and accept constructive feedback?
In the past 2.5 years I found that Prashant has inherent leadership potential .He handles
pressure situations with a great poise .I have seen him deliver several impromptu project
presentations to the top management of the various assets of ONGC .In one of the projects an
interim presentation of the project was to be given on a short notice at one of the onshore
assets of ONGC. The project had over 300 wells and needed elaborate compilation of facts
figures and analysis with a very short span of time. He managed to infer the essence of the
comprehensive analysis and recently presented it to the management in one of the assets .The
project came up to the expectation of the asset and he was appreciated for successfully dealing
with this complex project in relatively short period of time .Moreover as he has learnt a great
deal on the job ,while carrying out projects and trainings with seniors , I find him a highly
perceptive of any critical feedback and I thinks that's the reason he has been able to adapt in
this profile so beautifully and in such a quick succession .

Another incident that I vividly recall was the crucial time when a external NABL accreditation
audit for various labs of IOGPT was scheduled. There was severe leakage in the test apparatus at
Artificial Lift lab and there were hardly any resources and time before the audit. However, rising
to the occasion, Prashant along with the artificial Lift team worked through the entire night and
were finally able to resolve the issue before the audit. His dedication to the cause helped us in
getting the NABL accreditation.
I also remember the time when one of our clients OIL (public sector undertaking) had put up a
proposal for training their field engineers. An entirely new training program had to be
developed in a relatively short interval of time, based on their specific requirement, and
Prashant played a crucial role in developing & delivering the content for the fully customized
training program. The training was a huge success leading to further training requirements and
projects. Moreover every training conducted by IOGPT ONGC require participants to provide
written feedback .He has always received fantastic ratings owing to his superior technical and
communication skills , however I recall an instance where he added a hand-on software session
in his training session in response to feedbacks in the previous training sessions .

4. Please comment on areas in which the applicant may need improvements or growth.
Prashant was new to the field of auditing when he joined our team However, being a quick
learner, he was able to quickly learn the art of auditing and developed the requisite skills
required to be a good auditor. He has become a certified internal auditor for ISO 9001 ISO14001
and OHSAS 18001 and has played a vital role in carrying out internal audits for IOGPT. Over the
past few years, I have seen him grow as a management consultant. He patiently understands
the compliance issues pertaining to the standards and offers practical suggestions for resolving
the non-compliances, resulting in successful external compliance audits for the above
standards. He has also worked on improvement of work practices at IOGPT and proposed &
executed various activities such as paperless office, online data repository and new technology
presentations. However there is no end to learning and he can surely add to his quality and
management consulting skills.
Moreover he was new to the commercial aspect of the Oil and gas industry and had to learn the
art of making contracts where no lapses can be afforded .Prashant has strong analytical and
quantitative skills and has learnt the meticulous procedure for tendering apart from the ERP
system at ONGC, Today he manages several high value tenders for the artificial lift
department .This has added another dimension to his existing set of techno-commercial skills.
However courses in corporate finance would help him further understand the economics of the
industry and would be of great help to him in future as a top management professional in the
industry.

5. The School of Business is committed to developing outstanding leaders who can

inspire trust and confidence in others. Please comment on the applicants behavior
within your organization and in the community.

At ONGC he has constantly displayed signs of leadership and team skills. Because of his
dependable and result oriented nature, he has become an indispensable member of an Artificial
Lift team at IOGPT. Prashant acts as an in-house consultant to ONGC for several high stakes
projects - ranging from enhancement of the Oil and Gas production to development of new
fields too. His performance in successfully delivering challenging projects along with excellent
management of various audits and training has earned him A+ grading at ONGC for the past 2
years consecutively.

I recall an incident when he rescued one of the crucial projects of Ahmedabad Asset ONGC from
violating the schedule of the MoU between the Asset and IOGPT in 2014 .The data acquisition
could not be done officially despite several efforts due to severe workload and operational
challenges in the Asset. Since few weeks were left for its timely completion, Prashant took the
initiative to leverage the network of people he had in the various assets to get minimal data and
successfully completed the project as per the schedule. This resulted in even bigger consultancy
projects in the next annual work program of 2015from Ahmedabad Asset of ONGC.

Another trait which makes Prashant stand out is his hardworking nature and his ability to
handle pressure situations with a great poise. He was a part of the organizing committee for the
TAC , a high profile annual meeting for finalizing the annual work program at IOGPT. There was
change in the venue of the meeting at the last hour. The entire management of logistics and
resources in a timely manner was a daunting task to handle. He rose to the challenge and
efficiently managed a team of over 30 people including local vendors and staff and got the job
done. The TAC meeting went successfully and he was appreciated by the Head IOGPT.

I think his humble demeanor and helpful attitude towards his colleagues is reflected in the kind
of rapport he shares with peers and seniors at ONGC. Something I have not seen very often in
my career spanning more than 30 years .
 6. For non-native English speakers, please comment on the applicants verbal and
written English ability. Enter "Native English Speaker" if the question is not applicable.

Prashant has excellent communication skills and that has given him edge in conducting
extensive trainings and hosting events and meeting at ONGC. The language of oral and written
communication in ONGC is English and he has delivered more than 15 sessions amounting to
over 200 hrs of oral lectures to over 400 processional .Moreover Prashant has hosted several
interaction meets and events at ONGC academy and IOGPT. He has a flair for public speaking
and is able to convey his thoughts in a logical manner during long extempore talks and lecture.

Moreover he has completed more than 12 consultancy project reports and prepared several
manual and other training material on various artificiality technologies in English. Moreover,
during informal chats I got to know that he has been involved in hosting events and participated
in various debates from his school days and has carried that interest forward as a professional in
the corporate world

Considering his performance and skills in written and oral English, I find him as one of the finest
orators among his peers .

7. What is your opinion of the candidates motivation and suitability for a career in
management?

Prashant's ability to take initiatives with immaculate understanding of the larger picture speaks
volume about his potential to become a successful manager. Because of his proactive approach
and result oriented nature, He has been assigned several other roles apart from carrying out
consultancy projects involving complex simulations and analysis of various challenges at Oil and
Gas fields of ONGC . He is a Deputy technical manager of a research lab and a certified internal
auditor for various quality standards. He is also an excellent trainer for various artificial Lift
technologies and has played a key role in organizing several high profile meeting and events at
IOGPT.
Prashants forte is his people skills. He has been involved in organizing the TAC meeting , a high
profile meeting having the Top brass of all the assets of ONGC and the Head office for the past 3
years .He has been managing a team vendors ,associates and officers in setting up the show and
has developed a strong network of motivated individuals ,streamlining the various activities for
the organization of the meeting Last year , he played a crucial role in troubleshooting various
critical issues during the TAC and was instrumental in making it a success. .

He has a charismatic personality and a very optimistic outlook which makes him a great person
to have around and an inspiring and capable leader who has both the foresight and the active
mindset to achieve all that he sets his mind on.