Hi, I'm Akansha. I started my education at Cambridge, where I studied veterinary medicine and natural sciences. Then I did an MBA at LBS and Columbia Business School. Before Bain, I was a veterinary surgeon, so a little bit of an atypical path, I guess!
As a veterinary surgeon, I learned quite a lot very quickly; it was a really exponential learning curve. But after about nine months in practice, it plateaued and I found myself getting bored. I wanted to do something different, and consulting just seemed a really good fit. Everyone I spoke to said you work with lots of different industries and clients and types of projects, so that's why I came to Bain.
"My favorite project is probably one I did earlier this year. It was a three-month case-based transfer with a healthcare services company."
The company had grown really fast over the previous couple of years but needed help moving forward. We did a lot of market analysis to identify a series of different growth opportunities, and then sized each one to see how the company could grow in that area over a three- and a five-year time horizon. We also agreed on an action plan for each of the prioritized opportunities. It was exciting because the company actually recruited people to take on each opportunity, and we helped onboard those individuals.
I'm a big fan of social impact work, and we get a lot of support to do that at Bain. I've recently become a school governor, and before that, I was a tutor, working with inner-city schoolchildren to help them do better academically. I worked with one student who had never received more than an E on any of his grades, and he ultimately went on to get an A star in his A levels. He's now studying biological sciences at the University of London. It's amazing to have the opportunity to work with individuals and feel you can have an impact beyond working with a company, something that's just a bit more personal.
