[Rotman] India, US, Canada, and Africa

[Rotman Series: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Harmanpreet is an international student from India and holds a Bachelor of Computer Science and Engineering degree from the National Institute of Technology in Jalandhar, India and will be joining Deloitte’s technology consulting practice once he is finished his MBA at Rotman.

Harman had the interesting experience this past summer of working in Ghana, Africa and I’ve asked him to provide a short reflection of the experience which follows:

Before joining Rotman School of Management I was working as a technology consultant in one of the leading investment banks in New York.

To fast pace my career I decided to pursue MBA and because of some personal reasons chose Canada as place for that. I chose Rotman because of its excellent faculty and its location proximity to finance and consulting industry. I must say it has been an eye opening experience. The people I met, their vast experience, the work they have been doing in past amazes me.

I decided to take a bit different route to enrich my MBA experience. While working full-time in professional world it is very difficult to get an option of doing something completely different.

During summer break, I went to Ghana to work for Suame Magazine Industrial Development Organization (SMIDO). It is an industrial development organization of the biggest industrial cluster in sub Saharan Africa. SMIDO is an umbrella organization of various businesses in Suame Magazine area and is committed to ensuring the development of Suame Magazine into a technologically advanced industrial estate and representing the various economic groups that operate within the area.

Working in a under developed economy is a real challenge. But the satisfaction that I got from work that changes someone’s life is incomparable and this feeling kept pushing me to put more and more efforts into whatever I was trying to achieve.

My most important contribution while there was to approach a gold mining company with a proposal to sponsor apprenticeships for people displaced by their mining operations. It was ecstatic when the mining company accepted the proposal.

After summer experience my whole approach to business has changed. I used to think that business means making more money for you and for your shareholders. Now I believe that purpose of business should be to benefit human society rather than to accumulate wealth to satisfy egos.

It was an experience that I will cherish for rest of my life.
-Harman Singh

[Rotman Series: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5]