Please write or upload a statement explaining your current goals, career plans and reasons

for being interested in a PhD program at the Graduate School of the University of Mannheim.
Discuss your study plans and your intended field of interest. Your statement should be in
English and not exceed two pages

I am extremely passionate about research and teaching as a profession. Since my college days,
teaching is something that excites me. Along with my corporate job, I have always been actively
involved in corporate and philanthropic teaching. I like to deep dive into a topic or subject that interest
me, read and learn more about it and deepen my understanding about it. During my MBA studies in
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras and my semester abroad in EBS Business School, Germany
I studied subjects such as Advanced Analytics, Statistics, Research Methodologies and got a good
exposure to research during my thesis writing. Along with that I worked as teaching assistant and
thoroughly enjoyed my time while assisting professors, teaching undergraduate students. After
considering my aptitude and the type of work that I enjoy most, I am convinced that I want to take up
a career in research and teaching. A PhD is just one step towards realizing this goal.

My academic and co-curricular record has been consistently good. Throughout school as well as now,
I have been at or near the top of my class. I have completed my engineering as university top and in
MBA I was among top 5 students of the batch. My formal introduction to research was during my
second year of MBA studies when I worked on Master thesis on “Consumer Resistance to Innovation”.
In IIT, there is a very strong focus on research along with learning which helped me to get a drill in
both theoretical research work and implementation during both the years of my MBA, thus laying a
strong foundation for post graduate research in management studies.

I am keen to study and research Innovation and Organizational Innovation Management in CDSB.
Innovation is an important engine of growth for our society. I developed my interest in Innovation
when I was doing my winter internship with National Innovation Foundation (NIF), India which is a
setup by Government of India to strengthen the grassroots technological innovations and outstanding
traditional knowledge. As a part of my project, I have travelled across many districts of India to identify
the grassroots innovators and help them to formalize and commercialize their ideas generating
material or non-material incentives. This helped me understand a successful innovation is not just
about the idea, but it is the combination of materializing the idea by coordinating with the existing
ecosystem, controlling the innovation and diffusing it in the right fashion.

Post MBA, I have worked with some of the banking giants such as JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank in
which I have worked largely in Change Management space. During my corporate experience I have
felt that there is a significant emphasis on implementing innovation across the enterprise which
involves large scale, highly complex organizational change. However most of the organizations lack
the right framework, communication, leadership and culture which are required to materialize a great
idea. Also I felt a strong need to develop some heuristics or data driven decision making for measuring
the change readiness of the organization and to predict the outcome of any change initiative related
to innovation. During my corporate tenure I worked on a whitepaper on “Know your Organizational
Change Quotient” which was an attempt to develop a data driven approach to predict change
readiness of an organization.
I strongly feel that Manheim CDSB PhD structured coursework will be a stepping stone towards a
successful research career. Going by the curriculum in introduces the “must to know” concepts of
academic research through intensive preparatory core courses, thus providing a strong
methodological foundation and the necessary skills for a career in research. The international
reputation of University of Mannheim in the domain of academic research and its advanced
curriculum, interdisciplinary exposure and comprehensive infrastructural support with a rich cultural
and historical root makes it a great choice for any bright researcher for enhanced learning and for
producing research insights of highest standards. If chosen for PhD, I eagerly look forward to be
mentored by CDSB’s faculties, whose expertise is uncontested and whose roles have been
instrumental producing highest quality researches and publications over the years.

During my PhD, I would like to work on publishing quality articles on various journals and would also
like to help my fellow researchers in their publications. I believe as a researcher, strong bonding and
networking with professors and other researchers will help me to broaden my horizon over and
beyond my thesis topic and learn more about recent developments in my areas of interest.

Post my PhD I would like to join a reputed institute as an assistant professor/lecturer. I would like to
sharpen my skills of teaching and learn about various pedagogy across different cultures. I would also
like to contribute to some industry related projects and research which would give me hands on
exposure on how some of the industry related issues can be solved using academic research and thus
bridge the gap between industry and academia.

I am aware that Manheim expects very high standards from its research students. On my part, I can
assure you of hard work. I believe that my enthusiasm will enable me to meet those expectations. I
am confident that I will do well during my research and will be able to contribute to the research
fraternity. Eagerly look forward to my admission and a long-standing association with CDSB.