Scholarship winner embraces future in sustainable fashion
Kishore Reddy, who joined LBS’s Masters in Management programme in August 2020 after winning the One Young World (OYW) & London Business School (LBS) Scholarship, has landed a place on the graduate management scheme at H&M, one of the world’s largest fashion retailers with over 5,000 stores worldwide. Kishore will start in August 2021, shortly after he is due to graduate from LBS and will move to Stockholm, where H&M have their headquarters.
Kishore explains:
“People don’t usually think of fast fashion as operating in a sustainable way, but H&M is heavily committed to creating a positive impact and looking after their 180,000 employees. It has loads of other initiatives, including a trial for a recycling system called ‘Looop’ which transforms unwanted clothes into new garments and which runs on sustainable energy, so I’m super-excited to be joining them.
“It’ll be a one-year programme, which will see me rotating across four or five departments such as business operations, strategy, and supply chain management to get wide experience. There will be just ten people on the programme and they will all come from different countries so, as with both LBS and OYW, there is a really international approach.
“I think it’s a great time to be joining H&M, as they are developing their omni-channel experience to connect their physical in-shop and online retail offering. In the short term, I think this will mean a greater focus on digital growth of their business and I hope to be closely involved in that.
“Winning the OYW & LBS Scholarship and attending LBS were really important in helping me get the job, so I’m really grateful for everything here. The recruitment process involved six stages, including various interviews culminating in a 1-1 online interview with a senior executive from H&M. During the process, I also had to put together case studies and answer technical questions. My LBS studies in strategy, marketing and business analytics were particularly valuable and I’ve learnt so much at LBS.
“LBS’s Career Centre was great and very flexible in how they helped me. This included introducing me to an LBS alumna, who gave me lots of practical tips about the interview process and also how I could clarify some of my questions for H&M in a constructive and positive way. I found this really useful.”
But Kishore hasn’t only landed himself a place on a graduate scheme with a major international company. He also took part in a panel discussion with the European Development Days conference on 15 June 2021 on ‘Human Capital and mobility at the service of the green economy’.
In July, he is also due to attend the OYW summit in Munich as an ambassador.
“I’m very fortunate in having lots going on and am really looking forward to this summit and travelling to Germany. I am firmly committed to bringing about positive social impact and it will be fantastic to be connected with so many changemakers at this year’s event."
