“Good companies will meet needs; great companies will create markets.” - Philip Kotler.

This is how my MBA started at the Institute for Financial Management and Research. I belonged to a
non-commerce background that made me a stranger to the subjects that I was taught in my first
year of MBA. Amidst subjects that were overloaded with numbers, marketing served as a knight in
the shining armour.

I belonged to Mathematics background and this helped me to develop strong logical thinking and
analytical capabilities. These abilities have helped me in some number extensive subjects during the
first of my MBA however that’s the only one side of the coin. Interpersonal skills also play a
significant role in shaping one’s personality. Marketing is a perfect amalgamation of both the fronts
fuelled my inclination towards the subject. This journey helped me in learning various concept along
the way also lend a hand to improve my interpersonal skills. This interest fattened over time as I was
exposed to the various concept of marketing including various matrices, porter’s 5 forces, PESTLE
and many others. Case studies worked as icing on the cake as they brought me face to face various
marketing issues faced by companies and provided with insights to deal with various situations.

This ultimately led me to take up the first internship in the field of market research and sales. It all
began in the April 2019 when I joined Decathlon Sports India ltd. for 3 months. My internship aimed
to conduct market research for one of the passion brands of Decathlon i.e. FLX. Initial phase involved
conducting a competitive analysis for the FLX brand, this involved visiting various sports stores in
Decathlon’s catchment and understanding their portfolio of products. This provided me with insights
about the sales as well as customer preferences. The second stage of the process was the
exploratory research this involved questionnaire making and data collection. The questionnaire had
qualitative as well as the quantitative questions to capture all the possible variables that affected the
customer perception towards the brand. Data was collected by one on one interaction with the
people in Decathlon’s catchment this included visiting schools, colleges and many cricket clubs. The
third and final stage involved data analysis which was done by using F-test and qualitative data was
analysed by the help of frequency distribution. This whole process provided many insights about
brand recognition, Brand equity, purchase repurchase cycle of the customer, determining
influencers and decision-makers, inferences about digital front etc. These three stages helped in
narrowing down on the elements to work upon. The main objective was to improve customers
interaction with the brand and this increased significantly as the next event saw an increase of 50%
in participation. The other half of the internship i.e. Sales played a primitive role in understanding
customers and their needs. Regular customer interaction also aided in improving interpersonal skills
for 3 months. Sales being an indispensable part of marketing helped me to understand the
importance of customer and also helped me witness the power to follow up. This also helped me to
understand various marketing concepts such as customer lifetime value and customer journey.
The experience that I gained over two months has, on the one hand, put my face to face with the
nitty-gritty of a marketing role. This has also motivated me to get results by sheer hard work and
implementation of knowledge that I have gained over some time. This has motivated me to work
harder and provide results for the organisation with sheer dedication and hard work.

I will be obliged if I get a chance to work with your prestigious organisation and perform to my
utmost level.
1. I come from Bhopal Madhya Pradesh. Talking about the primary education I completed my
10th from Kendriya Vidyalaya Mandsaur and 12th from Kendriya Vidyalaya Bhopal. During
my primary education I got the opportunity to represent Bhopal region in KVs nationals in
cricket. I was also an active member of Scout and Guides, where I passed Dwitiya sopan and
represented my school in Kendriya Vidyalaya Indore. I completed my Under graduation i.e.
B.Sc. in Mathematics (Hons) from Institute for excellence in Higher education Bhopal. During
this period, I was fairly connected to the sports as I was the part of the sports committee of
the college.
2. As I come from mathematics background I have been subjected to the theoretical aspects as
compared to the practical one. Though mathematics helped in improving my analytical skills
but on the other hand never promoted creative and design thinking. As I wanted the best of
the both worlds, I thought of doing MBA as it can provide me fresh perspective of the
outside world and help me understand the nitty gritty of the businesses. This would have
also help me to hone my skills.
3. During the first year of MBA I got an opportunity to learn subjects from all specialization.
These subjects provided me the insights as well as helped me understand dynamics of the
subjects. Finance being closely related to numbers drew my attention. As I learnt about the
finance it came up to me as the amalgamation of various domains of a company. Finance as
a whole provided a holistic picture of the company. It also helped me in inculcating some
habits that has proved beneficial to me.
5. My internship aimed to conduct market research for one of the passion brands of Decathlon
i.e. FLX. India being flooded being cricket lovers provided me with an idle customer base to
carry out my research. Initial phase involved conducting a competitive analysis for the FLX
brand, this involved visiting various sports stores in Decathlon’s catchment and
understanding their portfolio of products. This provided me with insights about the sales as
well as customer preferences. The second stage of the process was the exploratory research
this involved questionnaire making and data collection. The questionnaire had qualitative as
well as the quantitative questions to capture all the possible variables that affected the
customer perception towards the brand. Data was collected by one on one interaction with
the people in Decathlon’s catchment this included visiting schools, colleges and many cricket
clubs. The third and final stage involved data analysis which was done by using F-test and
qualitative data was analysed by the help of frequency distribution. This whole process
provided many insights about brand recognition, Brand equity, purchase repurchase cycle of
the customer, determining influencers and decision-makers, inferences about digital front
etc. These three stages helped in narrowing down on the elements to work upon. The main
objective was to improve customers interaction with the brand and this increased
significantly as the next event saw an increase of 50% in participation. The other half of the
internship i.e. Sales played a primitive role in understanding customers and their needs.
Regular customer interaction also aided in improving interpersonal skills for 3 months. Sales
being an indispensable part of marketing helped me to understand the importance of
customer and also helped me witness the power to follow up. This also helped me to
understand various marketing concepts such as customer lifetime value and customer
journey.
6. I want to have a journey where I can learn and hone my skills, perform at my best to achieve
best result for the company. I want to accept challenges and grow by finding feasible
solutions. Ultimately, I would love to managerial responsibilities and get involved with
various domain of the company. My focus is on building a career with sheer hard work and
results oriented work.
7. According to me two of the most important skills that I consider as my strengths are
Analytical thinking and Interpersonal skills.
8. I came face to face with my biggest failure in my life came when I attempted cat for the first
time. My score was only 52 percentiles though the attempt was just to have an idea about
the paper but my score never justified the marks I scored. I focused upon the areas that I
was and gave as much as I can. This time was able to 89 percentiles but wasn’t satisfied with
the result.
9. According to me one of the qualities that I back about myself is that I always aim for the best
results possible and second is the willingness to learn. These two qualities have helped me
over the years to improve myself. The knowledge that I have gained here during the 2 years
will be an add on for me and will help me to be the one of the best asset for the company.
10. A company is a perfect mix of mission and values it holds. I would love to be a part of your
company as my vision tallies with the vision of the company and hence will push me to
perform to my fullest.