Traveling to and understanding how business operates on each of the seven continents is a life and career goal for Srinivas Gade 21EMBA, director for new product development at Acuity Brands. “I want to experience the culture and business practices from many places,” he says. Self-described as a “constant learner ready to leap forward in life,” Gade points out that, “While our global economy continues to grow increasingly more connected, experiencing something in person changes your perspective.”
Named to the “2021 Best and Brightest List of Executive MBAs” in Poets and Quants, Gade prizes the lessons he learned while a student at Goizueta. Born in Hyderabad, Telangana, India, Gade is a family man and hobby cricket player who attained degrees in mechanical engineering before enrolling in Goizueta’s Executive MBA program.
“In this competitive and ever disrupting business landscape, my goal is to find the right ‘moat’ for me and the business that I would like to lead,” he says. “Ultimately, I would like to lead an organization where we encourage challenging the status quo in finding creative solutions. If I can do all this in a family-like environment while creating value for all involved parties, then I can say I have succeeded in life and gotten my return on investment on my MBA.”
Guided by the teachings of Omar Rodríguez-Vilá associate professor in the practice of marketing, Gade gained invaluable insight into cases, tools and techniques, subjective and objective data-driven decision making, and marketing. He reflects, “We learned not to ignore the power of marketing on social impact in areas of sustainability, social purpose, and diversity. Looking at a project through various lenses to put aside biases allows me to solve customer pain points.”
Wanting to share and learn from peers in diverse industries, Gade values his relationships with Goizueta classmates. Now in product development of lighting, controls, and building management solutions for Acuity, Gade handles “cradle-to-grave” operations including data analysis, root-cause problem solving, new product design, prototype creation, manufacturing, mass production, and sales support. “In an environment where speed is of the utmost importance, using the structured problem-solving approach we learned has helped me succeed.”
Though the COVID-19 pandemic may have inserted digital obstacles into traditional networking and teamwork, Gade is grateful to know his cohort. He reflects on his Executive MBA experience by encouraging other executives. “I wish I had done this earlier in my life.”
Are you ready to challenge yourself to embrace your career potential, work with a dedicated career coach, and increase your post-MBA salary growth by up to 42%? Explore the Goizueta Executive MBA program, ranked #11 nationally in 2019 by the Financial Times and in 2020 by The Economist. Learn more today.
