Keerthana Ravigulan

As a supply chain analyst with a background in chemical engineering, Keerthana Ravigulan, MMA '24 Candidate, was well aware of the value of data-informed decisions. But she wanted to take supply chain management to the next level and learn how to use data to tell a broader story.

“Supply chain is very process driven, and I wanted to find ways to make the process better and bring value to the business with data,” says Ravigulan, CPG Supply Chain Analyst with Mark Anthony Group.

“My goal is to be an expert in improving processes to drive efficiency, and the MMA is helping me do that,”

Courses like Prescriptive Analytics and Art of Modeling provide real-life case problems around how to optimize transportation and logistics. They also delve into the logic of how to handle these situations, modeling them in Excel or Python – none of which are the types of classes you’d typically find in an MBA program, she says.

“I didn't have much of a coding background, but you don't need to be an expert in coding to do the program. And courses on modeling operations, and other subjects within the Ivey Essentials, the prescriptive analytics simulation – all those courses can be directly applied to any supply chain space or logistics problem.”

But to Ravigulan, some of the most exciting courses have been the ones that focus on leadership, operations, strategy, and marketing.

“These are all courses that I have never taken in university before, coming from a more technical undergrad,” she says.

“They are skills I'm applying to my work, around how to handle different conflicts, make different decisions to be a better leader, and looking at how my marketing team makes decisions. It's given me a more holistic view of the business world.”

It’s a wider perspective that’s being reinforced through the Case Study Method and classroom discussions, where real life examples are examined and debated.

“There isn’t one solution to a case sometimes, and finding the pros and cons to different resolutions, talking about them in class – it helps me absorb everything more,” she says.

Classmates bring expertise from fields as varied as insurance, gaming, aviation, engineering, finance, and Human Resources.

“We all come in with different experiences, so while I may not be the best at coding or understanding the Big Data class, I might be more of an expert in the operations class, and we all learn from each other. It's interesting to see how someone from a different industry would approach a problem.”

While taking on Master’s degree and working can be challenging, for Ravigulan, it’s been a matter of prioritizing what’s important.

“This year I made the decision to put professional development and self-improvement as my priority. Some other aspects of my life have had to deprioritize, and I’m trying to stay extremely organized – but all while understanding that this is a choice that I made,” says Ravigulan, who also volunteers with the Canadian Tamil Professionals Association, and was recently promoted to a Director on that organization’s board.

“But I'm also making a lot of friends along the way, and I love learning from the professors. I think at the end of this I will be a completely different version of myself, and I’m excited to see how I’ll think, how to solve problems, and trust it’ll help me be a better leader and a manager one day.”