The Application with Sushma Shankar
What happens when you get a group of Oxford Executive MBA (EMBA) students together in a pub? An idea is born, or more precisely in this case Deep Planet was born.
In this episode of The Application Kathy Harvey sits down with Sushma Shankar, an engineer and the Co-Founder of Deep Planet, an agritech company that uses satellite data to help farmers improve the productivity and sustainability of their farms in the face of climate change.
Deep Planet had its genesis when Sushma, Natalia Efremova, an AI expert and David Carter, a finance and operations expert, gathered together to work on their EMBA Global Opportunities and Threats: Oxford (GOTO) project about water. Their aim was to use their combined knowledge and experience for the benefit of the planet and the people who look after it.
They started with the wine industry where rising temperatures, unpredictable weather patterns, and increased water scarcity threaten the very foundation of this age-old tradition. But the longer term ambition is to be a climate tech company focussing on more than just one individual crop.
Sushma speaks frankly to Kathy about the challenges of being a female leader in a sector traditionally dominated by men and how she has grown stronger and more resilient over time.
This is an area that colleagues have done research on here at Saïd Business School. If you are a female founder you might be interested in these two pieces by members of our faculty:
The Application is a podcast that tells us about our alumni – their background, what was the driver that caused them to apply for the Oxford Executive MBA (EMBA), what the turning points in their lives are, what their identity is and the tension that often embodies so much of our professional lives.
This year we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the programme and to mark this milestone, Kathy Harvey, Associate Dean, has stepped back behind the microphone with a number of our alumni to reflect on their journeys before, during and after their Executive MBA.
The Oxford Executive MBA is a transformational programme, that will challenge you to explore the answers to complex business issues. Learn how to innovate, how to lead responsibly and how to navigate change to transform your own business practice.
