Ruchi Aggarwal, an alumna of IIM Ahmedabad and now the founder of Mumbai-based mentorship firm Mentoresult, recently reflected on a defining lesson she learned-not in a classroom, but at McKinsey.
"When I joined McKinsey, I realised my degree from IIM Ahmedabad wasn't enough," said the 30-year-old. "I lacked what they called the 'executive filter'."
She recalled her first client presentation at the consulting firm. "I had prepared 15 recommendations, thinking I'd let the partner pick what worked best. But mid-way, the partner cut in: 'Ruchi, just tell me the one thing we should do.' I froze," she admitted. "I was ready with a menu of options-but in the real world, senior executives want clarity, not a list."
That moment was a wake-up call for her, showing the gap between academic knowledge and real-world decision-making.
"At IIM-A, it was about how much you knew. At McKinsey, it became about how clearly you could communicate it," she said.
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Despite being among the top 10 students selected by McKinsey during campus placements, Aggarwal realised that academic excellence alone wasn't enough. "IIM-A gave me a solid foundation- great professors, brilliant peers, everything. But once I entered the corporate world, I saw how much more there was to learn on the ground."
After working at McKinsey for two years, she left in 2020 to launch Mentoresult, her consultancy firm focused on helping others bridge the same gap between theory and practice.
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