Asini Wijewardane (Babson, ‘20) moved from Sri Lanka to attend Babson College’s 1-Year MBA program. While the program was only 1 year long, Wijewardane accomplished a lot in a short amount of time by taking advantage of all the resources Babson had to offer. In our interview, Wijewardane shared some of the highlights of her MBA experience, and her aspirations for what’s next as an MBA Graduate.
MBASchooled: What was the most important lesson you learned in business school?
Looking back on my MBA experience at Babson, I felt I learnt so much in every class I was in, but the most important lesson that I learned was the importance of leaning in and taking action. Through lectures from entrepreneurs, investors, and experts alike, we learnt that there is no perfect formula for success – often success isn’t defined by your level of expertise in the sector, the level or comprehensiveness of market research, or even the perfect products or forecasts (probably not what you expect to hear at business school!). All those things may be important but what is even more important is to have the courage to shake off the analysis paralysis and act – lean in, take a step forward, possibly fail, learn and keep going. As one of my lecturers cited, the difference between a coward and a hero isn’t what they feel, fear, or think, the difference is what they do about it.
MBASchooled: What is an accomplishment or achievement that you are proud of from your time at Babson?
I worked on as part of Babson’s Management Consulting Field Experience. We worked with a social apparel company who wanted us to develop a marketing and retention plan for millennials, a segment they had had significant difficulty reaching. Although this was an industry and area that neither my team nor I didn’t have any experience in, my incredible teammates and I worked tirelessly to carry out extensive primary and secondary research to help us formulate a strategy and actionable roadmap for the company, while also developing frameworks to synthesize and present our research and recommendations indigestible and memorable ways to help get management buy-in. After four months, all our hard work paid off! The president and senior leadership of the company loved our final presentation, after which they even said they were all excited to start implementing our recommendations immediately, a result my team and I were all so extremely proud of.
MBASchooled: What part of you has undergone the most transformation as a result of business school?
My confidence. Firstly, business school made me understand that each of us have value to offer, we just need to understand what it is. For example, I entered business school having worked for 7 out of 9 years in the nonprofit sector, thinking I wanted to learn business tools and frameworks to take back into the nonprofit sector to propel social impact. However, I actually learnt more from my peers and professors. who came not just from the corporate sector but from different backgrounds and sectors. This made me realize the value that uniqueness and diversity of experience had to offer, which made me more willing and confident to share my own. Also, it made me redefine confidence. I had come from a world where everyone found confidence in their expertise, skills, and what they knew, often never admitting gaps or shortcomings and being the loudest or most certain voice in the room. However, at Babson, I was often more inspired by entrepreneurs who weren’t always the loudest or most knowledgeable. Instead they were the most honest about what they didn’t know, and about their weakness, failures and mistakes – and it was this vulnerability that often made them more human, more engaging, trusted – and successful ; and gave us all the courage to be honestly, and authentically, confident as well.
MBASchooled: How has your outlook on yourself and your own career changed as a result of the MBA Experience?
It has entirely changed my outlook on myself – in particular my confidence in my career choices. Though I came into business school wanting to learn how business skills could apply to the social impact space, through courses such as leading for social value and leading and managing sustainability, I learnt that there actually doesn’t have to be a ‘social impact’ space. The most impactful and effective social impact is likely to be made when all sectors work together. Each sector has value to add and something to learn and we should focus on the world’s challenges that need to be solved, not the framework within which they should be solved. Therefore it inspired me to think holistically about my career and how my skills could help create social impact in any organization, breaking the sector-specific tunnel vision I had about social impact – which will hopefully enable me to create much more meaningful and sustainable change with my career in the future.