Shubham Agarwal: Cambridge MBA, 8+ Years in Strategy Consulting at ZS

Shubham Agarwal is a strategy consultant with more than eight years of experience, an MBA from the University of Cambridge, and a background in engineering. He has taught over 1,500 students on consulting careers and personally trained more than a hundred of them.

Education and qualifications

Shubham completed his Bachelor of Engineering at PES University, starting in 2011. He began his MBA at the University of Cambridge in September 2021, continuing his consulting work at ZS in parallel for the duration of the programme.

Entrepreneurial experience

In 2015, while still in college, Shubham launched Project-ed, an on-campus startup that helped students turn practical ideas into workable models: structuring the idea, funding technical requirements, and assisting with patents, taking a share of income only once the idea was monetised. Within two years, Project-ed had expanded to colleges across India, including IITs and NITs. He continued running it for some months after graduating, but eventually shut it down: the path from raw idea to profitable patent was too long, many ideas failed to pan out, and the venture lacked a structured team and a solid revenue model.

Work experience

Shubham joined ZS as a consultant in 2017, entering consulting straight from an engineering degree. His experience with Project-ed and prior internships gave him a working understanding of business that helped him clear the case interview process.

At ZS, his primary area has been the medical and pharma sector. One representative engagement, during the COVID pandemic, involved a UK pharma client whose sales model depended heavily on in-person meetings between sales representatives and medical professionals. His role covered meeting the client's board, gathering and analysing sales data, modelling the revenue impact of various alternatives, and presenting a counter-strategy.

Mentoring experience

Shubham's consulting mentorship program is built around case interview preparation, live case study analysis and mock case discussion rounds. He also gives students assignments and case studies with one-to-one feedback, using them to help each student identify which industry vertical within consulting suits them best.

Approach to work

Shubham's view is that consulting does not depend on the degree you hold but on a problem-solving mindset and business-oriented thinking. He advises consulting aspirants to build a personalised roadmap and choose an industry specialisation early, to study detailed business case studies as the fastest route to understanding how businesses work, and to invest in communication and presentation skills.