MBA Student wins ‘Economic Paper Case Competition’
Congratulations to Abhilash Ramesh (Full-time MBA 2022), who has been selected from over 6,000 entries for his paper on economic policies to empower women and promote inclusive economic development.
With a background in Economics, Abhilash has always had a fascination with “the mechanisms and theories revolving around markets, impact, and economic development.” Entering his paper into the competition presented an opportunity to “use new ideas to address a real-world problem.”
Abhilash’s paper explores the need to “promote and implement gender mainstreaming interventions to achieve gender equality and promote empowerment of women.” Focusing specifically on the construction sector, the paper proposes a number of recommendations, including: drafting gender action plans, producing gender budgeting proposals, and exploring gender specific benefits, measures and facilities.
With previous experience in management and strategy consultancy for various multi-lateral organisations as well as central and state government bodies, economic policy evaluation and analysis have always been an integral part of Abhilash’s work. His paper draws upon his previous experience as well as his learnings from The Leeds MBA: “While undertaking feasibility and impact assessments for projects across various sectors, it is imperative to assess the extent to which existing policies align with the core objectives and scope of work. The ‘Economics of Strategy’ module taught in our MBA curriculum certainly helped me in understanding the core principles and methods to address economic problems.”
As well as receiving competition prize money, in early June Abhilash will have the opportunity to present his paper to policy makers for their consideration.
My hope is that my recommendations and proposed interventions are accepted by the policy makers and new policies are implemented as a result, thereby creating a tangible impact on society.
After graduation, Abhilash hopes to take up a management and strategy consultancy role in a government or public advisory vertical with a global consulting firm. “In order to gain key roles in management and strategy consulting, you need to gain fundamental knowledge of management and business strategy. The Leeds MBA has certainly addressed this next step in my professional development. The networking, gaining of multi-faceted skills and holistic business acumen, along with expanding my management capabilities is something I have gained during my MBA journey at Leeds.”
