"My Grooming At KIAMS Helped Me Immensely In Communicating With The Top Management In The Industry During My Internship"

‘One look is worth a thousand reports’, is an oft quoted phrase in the Army. It is something that Siddharth Modukuri strongly associates with.

Pune (I-Newswire) October 22, 2012 - ‘One look is worth a thousand reports’, is an oft quoted phrase in the Army. It is something that Siddharth Modukuri strongly associates with. A Bio-Tech Engineer, Siddharth wanted to tap into his managerial abilities, which prompted him to appear for CAT 2011 – which resulted in quite a windfall. He made it to three prominent B-schools of the country – one in Bangalore, another in Delhi and the third one was Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies (KIAMS). Rather than succumb to the charms of brand, hype or reputation, Siddhartha decided to find out more about the institution that would define his future for himself.

“The first thing that struck me when I visited KIAMS was the sense of space, the lush green surroundings and its amazing ambience. I spoke to some of my future seniors and faculty members, and that was it. KIAMS had won hands down on all points of comparison.”

A Hyderabadi to the core, Siddharth Modukuri is a part of Batch 14 of KIAMS, majoring in Marketing and Operations.

When it came to choosing his internship, Siddharth yet again chose the quality of the project over the brand of the company. He chose Sujana Metals - a company known for its strong foundation down south – which has a strong presence in steel, power, energy and connected sectors.

“I had the opportunity to work in steel retail selling. My project was the launch of TMT Bars in retail market. I did this internship in Hyderabad. It took me to a completely different level and was very different from what I had expected. We had to go around Hyderabad in the scorching sun, scouting for new retail shops for the TMT bars. I covered between 300 to 400 retail outlets. It was a little difficult in the beginning, because professional communications don’t work out in such markets. You have to talk the local language, at their level and on their terms; it was an absolute eye-opener. Being from Hyderabad helped me, otherwise two months is a very short time for the amount of work and learning possible in this space.”

Siddharth especially recollects how, in one go, he was able to convert 30 dealers for Sujana Metals.

“There was this big steel association at in a major city in Andhra Pradesh, and I had the opportunity to talk to the president of that association. There were 30 dealers in that association, and I was able to covert all of them to Sujana dealers in one shot. The backing of my boss, and my mentor at KIAMS, helped me live up to this challenge.”

Siddharth believes that the one big lesson that he learnt from his internship was to not get disheartened by the initial challenges. He feels that his grooming at KIAMS helped him immensely in communicating with the top management in the industry. He was reporting to the Senior General Manager and a certain level of professionalism was expected of him. Siddharth advises his juniors at KIAMS that it is the kind of project that will decide what one is going to learn… not the brand name.