Previous studies:
B.A. and M.A. English Literature, University of Pennsylvania
Spoken languages:
English, Hindi
Bonjour, नमस्ते, Hello!
I’m Arvind, currently a student in the GMBA at ESSEC’s Cergy campus, where I’m doing a GMBA with a specialisation in Luxury Brand Management. I’m originally from Mysore, India, but went to the US to do my undergraduate studies, and ended up staying for over a decade.
After graduation, I worked at a major global advertising agency in New York City for six years, with multinational clients from a variety of categories including beauty, hospitality, FMCG, consumer banking and others. I then spent a few years in India working in venture capital investing before taking a sabbatical to travel around Western Europe, visiting the continent’s best luxury goods ateliers and learning about savoire-faire from the most eminent craftspeople in shoemaking, embroidery, watchmaking, porcelain, and so on—a truly incandescent adventure!
My BA and MA degrees are in English Literature, so I’m a humanist at heart, and tend to be interested in the anthropological and philosophical basis of business. That’s part of the reason I wanted to do my MBA in France, a country that is keenly aware that economics is not an end in itself but should rather be subservient to the interests of society as a whole. This is very different from the Anglo-Saxon—and especially American—model of equating GDP growth with social welfare.
The ESSEC GMBA is a truly cosmopolitan experience, and I have immensely valued the chance to round out my cultural understanding of the world through my studies here. I would love to help prospective students think about whether ESSEC would be right for them, and act as a resource during the application process and beyond. If you’re seriously thinking about an European MBA, I invite you to write and say hello!