Young Achievers – Pankaj Baid, Equity Research Analyst, CRISIL

In conversation with Pankaj Baid, Equity Research Analyst, CRISIL

What does a typical work day in your life look like?

Well, my typical work day includes a mix of some regular and non-regular activities. I start off with some regular activities that include publishing material/news flow on sectors of coverage and updating our regular valuation metric databases.

Non-Regular key tasks include building and maintenance of financial models, drafting initiation, sector and thematic notes, earnings preview and review analysis and maintaining various Media comp sheets and Macro Economic databases.

Which CFO do you admire the most and why?

Mark Loughridge, CFO, IBM is the role model for an industry which is evolving at a considerable pace. The mix of finance and strategy means he “defines the modern CFO”.

He helped simplify IBM’s message in a road map that was first created in 2007. It laid out IBM’s plans through 2010 for how to grow profit and earnings per share and how to invest its cash.

Not only that but he’s also gave a strategic direction to IBM when it needed the most.

What prompted you to choose a career in Finance and what motivates you to go to work everyday?

After completing an engineering degree in Information Technology in a prestigious university in Chennai, I felt the need to understand all aspects of business and learn more about how money is actually made. Considering the finance sector is still unorganized in most parts of the country, the sector still has a huge scope for development and automation.

Also having a family background in Finance industry, I wanted to get a solid understanding of the sector and hence, an MBA (Finance) from Symbiosis was fit for me.

Regarding the motivation aspect, I am quite self-motivated and have a fire to learn more at any point in life. Skills learnt are never wasted and would come handy in every step.

What has been your most significant achievement till date and key learning in your career so far?

Significant achievement in my life till date would be was being awarded the “Student of the Year” of the batch at SIIB, Pune where I completed my MBA with a specialization in Finance.

That was an achievement when I proved that handling multiple roles in the college (as the member of Placement Committee and Web Committee) along with the curriculum was not a tough job.

Hopefully, it was the second best achievement till date; because the best is always yet to come.

Do you think that an MBA is necessary to succeed as a Finance professional?

I personally feel an MBA is necessary just to get a structured approach to thinking – “Structured Common Sense” would be the term. It makes you approach a problem in a different manner and always urges you to get the best optimum solution.

To succeed as a Finance professional, the way you think, analyze and justify your rationale will be a differentiator rather than the knowledge you have gained in your MBA classes.