Preenal Bessoondyal

Mauritius

I graduated from Monash with a Bachelor of Business and Commerce majoring in Accounting and International Business. Monash has played an instrumental role in shaping me as a self-made man, creating my own identity with a greater sense of direction, purpose and dynamism and making me who I am today. I went on to complete an MBA in Global Business from Coventry University and then embarked on a new journey in January 2017 as the Strategic Planning Coordinator in the Strategy, Research & Development team at the Mauritius Commercial Bank (MCB) in Mauritius.

With the onset of this unprecedented pandemic, the ways of working have taken a new turn where I have had to adjust myself to this new normal: Work-from-home. This was really challenging for me since the lockdown came at a critical juncture of our strategic planning process which would have usually required the facilitation of face-to-face workshops with key leaders to define the bank-wide priorities for the new financial year.

Eating and remaining healthy during the lockdown period was the key pain point. Being a person who practices sports everyday, I was definitely disappointed that sports facilities were closed for three months. The plus points were that my productivity has been high and I’ve spent more quality time with the family.

This lockdown has definitely taught me to learn the importance of key things in life. As Marcel Proust has rightly said “Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom”.