I was born and raised in a lower middle class family in India.

My father was sole bread winner of

family of five and with limited monthly salary of $100, my parents had to manage needs and wants
of the family. I remember the first day of every month, when my mom used to take me to store
nearby to do grocery shopping for the month. She used to prepare list of items and sort them
category wise (Food, Clean, Fuel, Personal etc.) and value wise. Then she used to optimize the total
available budget with the need so perfectly that she never used to run out of money to fulfil our
needs. It was my first hands on learning on ABC classification, segmentation, linear optimization and
basic concepts of Supply Chain.

After completing engineering in Electronics and Communication, I wanted to develop managerial

skills and combine it with the gained analytical skills to solve Industry challenges and hence I joined
NITIE for Post graduate program in Industrial Engineering. I got a chance to work with excellent
minds on activities ranging from developing sustainable mushroom cultivation business for nearby
tribal community, participating and winning National case study competition, organizing annual
cricket tournament, participating in flash mob and performing group dance during annual cultural
fest. Through my education, I realized that supply chain is at the heart of any business. As
organizations continue their effort to cut down cost, bring efficiency and improve customer
experience, they turn to supply chain professionals for the help.

During my post-graduation, I also got chance to do internships with P&G, Reckitt Benckiser and
Hershey which provided me first-hand experience of managing supply chain functions like Logistics,
Procurement and New Product Development at large scale. I am working, since graduation, with
healthcare giant Johnson and Johnson since past 4.8 years during which I got a chance to manage
secondary transportation for Consumers Sector with annual budget of $8 MM and also demand and
distribution planning of $50 MM worth business of Pharmaceutical sector. With strong support from
my leadership team, I was entrusted with gradual additional responsibilities and I took it as a
learning and worked hard to deliver business outcomes which is reflected in more than ten
leadership awards in past 2 years. I have worked on projects and developed innovative solutions like
Control Tower, Connected visibility and Direct Dispatch which has provided me good understanding
of End to End Supply Chain.

As my future career aspiration, I would like to develop myself as a global leader identifying and
solving challenges in supply chain. Supply chain is ever evolving field and although the basics remain
same, the tools or the needs change and hence I am looking for MIT’s support to develop
perspective to manage this change and prepare for future at Global Landscape. I wish to interact and
learn from lecturers, colleagues, seniors and from their experiences by creating and being regular
part of MIT community. In long term I would like to support people in SCM community to fulfil their
desires, realize their potential and use our combined skills to solve global Supply chain challenges.

Statement of Objective- Vikas Chandra