Ms. Aparna Ravindran ,
IBS Chennai (’03)

Team Lead
Accenture and

Mr. Pramod N Kutty,
IBS Chennai (’02),

Product Manager
OnMobile Global Ltd

Ms. Aparna Ravindran, IBS Chennai (’03) and Mr. Pramod N Kutty, IBS Chennai (’02), the Keralite alumni couple are settled in Bangalore. She is a Team Lead with Accenture and he is a Product Manager with OnMobile Global Ltd.
Their journey after IBS has been a whirlwind – “like the life in a metro…fast paced”, says Pramod.
Aparna started her career with Tata Elxsi, Bangalore, as Engineer Quality and was involved in implementation of CMMi level 5 processes in the Design and Development centre. She worked there for a year and moved on to Accenture Services Pvt. Ltd. as Software Engineer in the Delivery Performance team where she has been for the last three years. Aparna believes in hard work and dedication that she says has been imbibed by her ideal – her father. We got a taste of this when she didn’t hesitate for a second for this interview with Page 3 even while she was on an assignment in Melbourne, handling implementation of Quality Management framework and process consulting. Aparna plans to continue with what she is currently doing professionally as there is more to learn and grow and simultaneously work for a cause which is not materialistic.

While Aparna was busy pursuing her career in software engineering, Pramod was busy chasing his dream of being successful in whatever he does and of course he has achieved this success to a great extent. His passion in new media and marketing moulded him into a Product Manager with OnMobile Global Ltd, a Telecom Products Company in Bangalore. The organization was incubated by Infosys 6 years ago and today it is the No.1 mobile value added services company in India, catering to all the telecom and media companies in India and abroad as well.

Both husband and wife are striving perfectionists. Pramod goes on to say, “be it any domain, you need to constantly innovate. Product Marketing is all about Engaging, Educating, Entertaining and Exciting the consumer – all the time and every time. Make the product part of your life…Eat Product, Drink Product, Breath Product”. Quite enriching an outlook, isn’t it? Maybe a little hat ke also! Why not? Since that is what Pramod idealises in people –the dare to be different. And just like the perfect couple they are, their different roles demand almost the same qualities from them at the job front, and they are:

1. Effective and efficient communication,
2. Interpersonal Skills
3. Analytical Skills
4. Business skills

While Aparna and Pramod are extremely ambitious and busy with their professional life, they are not among the ones who don’t enjoy other things in life. They are closely in touch with their friends from IBS. And of course, as Pramod says, getting married to one of the friends from the alma mater helped the bond grow even stronger. Listen to them when they say in perfect accordance with each other about their vision of perfect life which, for them, would be a balance between good work and personal life. And their biggest lesson in life? For Aparna, it’s to always have a backup ready, a fall back plan and for Pramod it’s never too late to learn.

Successful as they are, it is obvious that they both face times when pressure reigns at their offices. And what do they do? What is their secret to effectively handle high pressure situations? Aparna says, “Perseverance is what takes you long way in an impervious environment”. Pramod is more illustrative. He says, “It's all in the mind…In today's world there is little one can do about it…its just not at work, but even outside…no way you can avoid it…so start taking it head on…effective and efficient planning is the only solution. Go ahead…move on…it’s not the end of the world…”

They sign off with their words to the young starters:

Aparna: Career is all about focusing on your aim/ambition in life; at the start never compromise your role for the remuneration since experience matters a lot in the long run. Money will follow as you climb the corporate ladder but attaining and progressing on the right role is challenging. You need to start it right then only you can decide on which path to follow.

Pramod: There is life beyond books…Dream and Dream KING SIZE.