'A session filled with priceless insights, smiles and happiness,' this is what our MBA students said after attending Mitali's 'Guest in Classroom´ session at Hochschule Pforzheim. Ms. Mitali Bhagwat is currently a Strategic Marketing Manager at Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany in Merck Life Science KGaA and an alumna of the MBA International Management program. She started her talk by explaining her ambition: 'to unlock the power of data and enable accelerated drug development.' Also, how Merck is driving digital transformation in their healthcare, life science and electronics industries.
Mitali discussed the role of data analytics and the benefits that digitalization has brought, by driving a tremendously rewarding transformation, especially in an extremely cost-sensitive pharmaceutical field, where the development costs form a major chunk of the total product cost!
She also pointed out and explained the influence of some key factors like risk benefit ratio, data protection and public health policies in drug development.
The highlight of the session was her explanation of 'Uptimize,' a unique ecosystem designed and developed by Group Data at Merck for data analytics which helps to draw correlations and patterns of customer buying behaviours and mindsets by analyzing data. Mitali emphasized how her team's project, 'Predictive Formulation,' is a giant leap from the conventional 'Experimental Formulation'. It not only helps in reducing costs but increases the probability of success via high throughput calculations while enabling innovation, customer centricity, profitability and growth.
Mitali also prepared a surprise for the current MBA students! She quizzed them with contents and key points of the session, and those students who gave the right answers bagged exciting prizes!
Mitali wrapped up the session with some good advice from her own experience: “Always develop an open-minded attitude to the roles you play, build skill sets which are in line with your passion and job market requirements, make the most of all the lectures, assignments and thesis, be inclusive and integrate with the German     culture, and enjoy life along the way!”
We are thankful that Mitali was our `Guest in Classroom´ who passed on a lot of industry knowledge to us. Her contagious energy and enthusiasm have inspired us and definitely broadened our perspectives.

text and group picture: Aditya Yardi and Gnanendra Kumar Berigai Anand, Class of 2025
photo: Mitali Bhagwat