Do you want an honest look into life after graduation? This interview kicks off our series of Alumni Spotlights with recent graduates where they share how Entrepreneurship has impacted their careers and the skills that they use day-to-day as well as their advice for underclassmen.
Our first guest is Pranshu Kumar, a 2019 Miami grad who majored in Software Engineering and minored in Entrepreneurship. He was instrumental in leading Igoodea, Startup Weekend, and WCIW during his time at Miami. Since graduation, he has been working as a Business Technology Analyst and Strategy Consultant at Deloitte Consulting in Cincinnati and remembers his time at Miami fondly.
Tell us a little about your role; what do you do day-to-day?
Broadly speaking, I serve as a bridge between the business and technology functions for clients. Some things I’ve done in the past include building technology roadmaps, visualizing data, building cost models, drawing tech-architecture diagrams, and crafting a lot of slide decks – for anything from deliverables to workshops to project proposals. Most recently, I had the opportunity to develop the 1st draft of a tech-integration strategy on my current project, where I am part of a team overseeing the merger of two billion-dollar companies seeking to make healthcare more affordable.
Sure enough, there is also a lot of note-taking – seemingly mundane, but I see it as an opportunity to attend high-profile meetings and have been maintaining a personal document to keep track of what I learn from listening in on these interactions and negotiations.
Additionally, I am on two internal “side projects” as well: For one, I am co-leading the development of a proposal pack – essentially a slide deck with resources and information about our healthcare business – that Deloitte’s leadership can leverage to speed up project sales. For the other, I am supporting the design & development of an interactive tool that will help clients find and screen potential companies to acquire.
What experiences through the ESP program prepared you for your role and for the professional world?
My journey in Entrepreneurship began with Startup Weekend in my very first semester – I decided to take part on a whim, and the experience changed my life. Not only did I fall in love with the entrepreneurial mindset and process, the weekend gave me a chance to attend Professor Mark Lacker’s startup accelerator class at The Brandery in downtown Cincinnati. Developing business models and continually iterating & validating our solutions while being mentored by founders and investors was a transformative experience (coming from an engineering background, that was new for me and it served as the perfect complement to my budding technical skills). Thanks to connections formed during these experiences, I landed internships at two startups during my first two summers, which provided valuable exposure into business strategy and operations from the C-suite level, something not easy for interns to get at big companies. It was at these internships where I found my passion for bridging the gap between technology and business and decided to pursue strategy consulting.
Additionally, taking the Entrepreneurial Consulting capstone with Dr. Jim Friedman my senior year (I had already accepted Deloitte’s job offer by then) served as a practice round for what lay ahead. Starting with a vague problem statement from a client, breaking down the problem to validate its root cause, consolidating insights from research and interviews, and ideating for multiple solutions before presenting a few. This proved to be the hypothesis-based consulting approach I have come to adopt at Deloitte.
What skills did you gain from ESP that you have continued to use after graduation?
Thriving in ambiguity has perhaps been the biggest skill I gained from ESP. Not waiting for exact instructions to at least take a first pass at a task has helped me differentiate myself from peers. In fact, dealing with ambiguity was one the first lessons from training at Deloitte: we were going through a simulated client meeting, when the “clients” asked us for a deliverable based on a few files they had sent over email. I remember how taken aback most people were because there wasn’t an explicit ask in those emails for creating something. Drawing from ESP, I had made sense of what the intentionally disparate information was implying and that was acknowledged. Since then, there have been many instances in real client work and internal projects where my proactive solutions not only sped up our response time but also took pressure off my team leaders because they didn’t have to describe my task to me. This made it easy for them to review and suggest updates or refinements based on their experience.
Also, I can’t overstate the importance of being a good listener and empathizing in the consulting world. One can find treasure in the words or body language of a client. I was never naturally good at openly empathizing with others until I went through the entrepreneurship program. Even now, I rely more on observation than on conversation (just given my nature) but I’ve learned to pick up the hidden nuggets of insights in the interviewee’s words, or lack thereof. This was especially useful in my first client project at Deloitte where I conducted over 50 executive interviews and built a tracker to “group and theme” observations, which we analyzed for insights before drawing up our recommendations.
What about the transition to the professional world was surprising or challenging?
The level of big-picture thinking has been far higher than what I had thought it would be, especially at the start of my career. While ESP was the perfect sandbox to think through all the areas of running a company, it does tend to focus on small-scale aspects (by design). Working with C-level executives of large companies has added an extra dimension to my understanding of the world – how interconnected everything truly is when making strategic business decisions – from the economy & regulatory environment to consumer behavior and technology modernization.
What advice would you give underclassmen in the Entrepreneurship program?
Experience as many things as you can, especially during your first few semesters. You have nothing to lose. Seek opportunities outside of class, discover your passions, challenge yourself. Focus on what skills you bring to the table and how you portray yourself. In the workplace, those are more important than a grade. Make friends, have fun and you are bound to leave with memories that you will probably cherish throughout your life.
Does anything stick out to you from your time in Entrepreneurship?
The camaraderie in ESP was so strong that it’s hard to pick a single instance. It’s really the people who made my time in ESP memorable – some of whom are now my best friends. Whether it was snacking in the conference room over random conversations (there used to be a kitchen in there during the good ol’ days), or playing around FSB, or soaking in the energy of Startup Weekend with professors and mentors, my time in Entrepreneurship was the highlight of my Miami experience.
Interviewee: Pranshu Kumar, Interviewer: Maryanne Smith