MBA @ Queen's University; Reminisce Over Memories

Queen’s University is one the prestigious MBA universities for enthusiasts who love the hustle and working in teams, situated in Canada. It helps students by inculcating all life excelling values in their students and helping them towards conquering their chosen field.

Scoreleap invited Mr. Phani Korasala, Queen’s alumni to be our esteemed speaker for the online webinar to share his inspiring journey with us. He is currently managing Walmart's digital transformation across 26 countries since 2018 as a Director of Product Management. Phani moved to Walmart as one of the first leaders to handle digital merchandising. He is responsible for delivering high performance products UX, and a strong analytics team to deliver global footprints. He has also held various leadership positions as a product, strategy and UX manager in various organisations.

Scoreleap MBA Admission Services helped him throughout the application process for Queen’s University.

Question 1: How was your personal and academic experience at Queen's?

Phani says: I think I would start with academic experience as its the standardised answer, it has been very fulfilling to be honest. One of the primary reasons that I chose Queen’s MBA, it’s a team based MBA. @Queen’s, every project starts with the team and ends with the team, there are very few individual assignments. It really helped me in adapting the North American culture and their way of working as I largely interacted with teams while doing the projects. It is obviously very exhausting but predominant of the course work just moves in a blink of an eye as it is just one year course with a lot of work. The personal experience @ Queen’s in my opinion is very subjective and varies according to one’s life experiences and background. For me it was surprising and it took me kind of a while to settle with ‘team culture’ and living in groups and you figure out a way to live with them however different you are.

Question 2: It's been almost a decade since you got your MBA, do you feel people are more aware of the power that an MBA degree holds?

Phani highlights: Do organizations value a degree of an ‘MBA’ - yes they obviously do. Predominantly the students who enroll for this program are self motivated as they willingly do this and organizations seek that aspiration and hence they value that. Organizations have figured a better way to leverage MBA in their teams, empowering their teams and making sure they have a fresh mind of an all rounded MBA graduate.

Question 3: If you had a chance to retake your courses, which course would you retake? What do you miss the most at Queen's?

Phani mentions: I think management accounting is one course that I would probably want to really retake because I enjoyed the course and its complexity. Centrally what it is that you put your n=business perspective around accounting, it was probably the most challenging and the professor was really hard on us but in a good way. I would have taken an advanced course in equity especially in large organizations. People bring a lot of startup thinking in teams while working with fresh ideas. I would want to grasp the knowledge of what it takes to build organization from the grounds to get a headstart. One thing I miss the most is working the long hours, you pretty much do that now but now you are on your own, I miss that fast paced but chaotic life. We would sit together for long hours to solve a case or brainstorming on a new project and that feeling is what I miss being @Queen’s. There was no organisation pressure and the feeling if we push the team further it would break down. You’ve got to balance and it takes time to instill that kind of attitude to work longer within organization but as students we did not have any of that and would work as a team all day long that is what is cherishable for me.

Question 4: How has the teachings at Queen's unfolded itself to your professional career. Were there instances where you could connect with the lessons taught and implement them practically?

Phani says: Of course, A lot of analytical acumen that you develop while doing the course helps you further ahead in life. Nobody uses the formulae in life but practicality and analytical thinking is what we all should develop. Now with technology you can do everything with the tools but the MBA has helped me in learning logical reasoning. It gives you a strong foundation and gives you an overview of how things work and aligns everything you do with your business objectives. Participating in case competitions helps you put your academic learning in use and that is what has helped me as I could step back and look at everything from the business point of view.

Question 5: MBA is an expensive program and the MBA aspirants are worried about the Return of Investment. What you have to say about the ROI of an MBA degree in terms of post job offers?

Phani says: It’s a very personal value equation as it is very subjective and as the dreams vary when they enter MBA. Definition of ROI changes from individual to individual but the one thing that I can say is ‘It is what you take’. One of the things that I would probably say be very clear of what you want out of it, you might not be able to get all back exactly but you can put your foot into it. All your money and finances you spend probably you should be able to get it back in 3-5years, it is not easy as it sounds but if you do your plans right and put in the effort you should get it. MBA allows you to put your trust from day 1 but you should build your credentials on your own.

Question 6: How has Smith's Connect helped your journey at Queen's and post Queen's?

Phani advises: I will admit that I have not been able to leverage the alumni network and it's my mistake. LinkedIn is the platform for networking post MBA and during the MBA. People are pretty much active on Linked in ,one thing that I would personally advise is start networking with the managing/placement cell people in like 3 months or so into the MBA. @ Queen’s there were a lot of events even during covid with presence of current grads and alumni, they spend a lot of time organizing events as they want their grads and alumni on top positions. At the end it's all about connections as it makes your jobs easier. I would also like to suggest that you start your journey early and connect with people on linkedin. It makes everything easier. Keep regular touch bases and it's okay if people don't respond or reject but keep going.

Use every single resource and make sure you make an impact.

Scoreleap is thankful to Mr.Phani Korasala from the bottom of our heart, as he has been with us today and given our student applicants some very important insights into the journey of the MBA at Queen’s University.

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