Qualification: Engineer
Nationality: Indian
Work-experience: 4 years 9 months
Experience: Software/Systems Management, CRM
GMAT: 740
Applied in: R1
Location and time of interview: 30th August 2011, ISB

1. What is CRM ?
- Explained what it meant and gave an example specific to telecom.

2. Asked me to explain in a generic scenario ?
- Explained generally how it is to handle customer interactions.

3. Asked me to break down those interactions ?
- Explained Leads / Sales / Actual Customers and how it becomes a 2 way communication at that point and the idea is to keep a customer satisfied.

4. You have interacted with CSR’s, what do you think they expect from the system ?

5. You mention novels, what is the latest novel you have read ?
- Currently reading the 5th book in a series by George RR Martin, A Dance with Dragons. Did not explain further since he did not ask.

6. How do you develop a product ?
- Clarified what he meant by the question, he said just answer what ever you think !!
So I started with, look at the customer requirements/ look at my firms strengths and if I can actually deliver such a product/ convert those requirements into technical specifications and interface to the development teams/ interact with customer to make sure we are going down the right path / finally have a few rounds of testing before it is released to the customer.

7. If I remove the first phase of Customer Requirements/ There are no requirements, how will you go about developing a product ?
- I would look at developing something to the strengths of my firm, look at what is there in the market and use the consumer feedback. Example if my firm is good at say creating Smartphone OS’s, I would look at all the OS’s in the market today, look at consumer feedback and create a OS that combines the best features of the other OS’s and uses the feedback of the consumers.

8. What are the latest trends in Consumer Electronics ?
1) Explained how a single subscription account will be used across multiple screens, phone / tablet and television.
2) How tablets have the potential to take over notebooks as viable computing devices. Went on explain how it be depending on how the players in he market would work it out. Gave 2 options, 1 with Microsoft lauching the Windows 8 which potentially works with tablets along with full featured document editing. And how the use of a subscription service, where potentially the tablet will be used as a dumb client and processing done on the cloud. – Eventually how I believe tablets have the real potential to replace notebooks over the next 5 yrs.

9. Why ISB ?

10. How has you profile evovled over 3 years?

11. What is your Backup ?
- Today I am passionate enough and have a clear goal. So if ISB does reject me this year, I will apply to the asian schools NTU and NUS.

12. You application does not show any leadership capabilities ? Can you cite one example ?

13. Any questions for us ?
- Asked about the Campus exchange and how for someone like me the panel probably thinks, I would pick marketing electives, so you can put me in both say Mohali and HYD. What in term 6-7 I choose to take an elective from IT thats offered only in HYD, how would that work ?
Prof. Kannan now got up and started answering about how its a X/Y concept. So I asked that it mentioned the exchange would be a 1:1. He furhter explained if either number X/Y from either campus is differnt a max of 20 students from one campus can move the other. And explained the criteria of student distribution how they would try to maintain the diversity and quality across both campuses.

Overall It was a much better interview than the 1st time I had taken it. No Hiccups, no round about answers.