MBA in Sports Management at K J Somaiya Institute of Management by Scott Moraes (Student)

K J Somaiya Institute of Management (KJSIM), Mumbai, is a private institution and Somaiya Vidyavihar University constituent B-school. that was founded in 1981. K J Somaiya offers some unique MBA specialisations such as MBA- Healthcare Management and MBA-Sports Management along with the general MBA programme. In this exclusive interview with Careers360, Scott Moraes, a professional Futsal player pursuing an MBA in Sports Management at K J Somaiya Institute of Management has shared his experience about the KJSIM course, admission process, internship opportunities and others. To know all about the MBA in Sports Management at K J Somaiya from a student’s perspective, read the full article below.

Careers360: Give a brief about yourself.

Scott Moraes: Hi, my name is Scott Moraes, and I am a professional Futsal player and an active player in the Men’s Senior Indian National Futsal Team. I have represented clubs and countries across 4 continents and in 6 different countries, like China, Brazil, South Africa, Qatar, England, Philippines, and Tajikistan. I am a football enthusiast and a huge football and futsal admirer. I have done my education in BMS (marketing) and have corporate work experience of 1.5 years in the digital marketing space. Also, I now have my own club and company, Kalina Rangers Sports Academy Pvt. Ltd., where I am the co-founder of the team. I handle the business operations, marketing, and sponsorship of the club and academy, and we also organise a lot of football events.

Careers360: Have you been associated with any sports during your schooling and graduation days?

Scott Moraes: Yes, I have been closely associated with football during my school and graduation days, with my first international debut coming in 2017 in China for the F5WC tournament, having qualified from India as the All India National Winning Team. I used to play a bit of cricket and basketball too but I Have a close association with Football and Futsal

Careers360: What made you choose to do an MBA in Sport Management?

Scott Moraes: My parents wanted me to have a sound educational background and were continuously asking me to do an MBA. I was not too inclined to do a general MBA as it was outside my scope of interest, but I decided to fulfil their wishes. I started researching sports management programs and found out that there are MBAs in Sports Management as well. This caught my eye, and this was something I was certainly inclined to do. I loved the idea that I could do an MBA in something that I’m passionate about and figured this was the perfect match for me and my career goals

Careers360: How did you decide on K J Somaiya to pursue your MBA in Sports Management, and why?

Scott Moraes: To be honest I was looking forward to doing it from KJ Somaiya firstly because of its brand name and secondly because of the MBA Degree offering in the Sports Management field. I did my due diligence and researched a lot and not many colleges & institutes were offering a proper MBA degree along with their Sports Management Program. There were many institutes but there were offering diplomas and not a proper MBA. So that’s why I was really keen on pursuing my MBA from KJ Somaiya, as a lot of people had good words about the college and I felt the campus was more sports-oriented than any other place

Careers360: Describe your experiences with K J Somaiya admission process. How did you build your profile?

Scott Moraes: At the start, I found the K J Somaiya admission process a little difficult because I was not informed that the Sports Management process and the form are separate so I had initially filled out the General MBA form. My NMAT score was decently good and I figured I would ideally get in but I didn’t receive any confirmation, then later I got to know that the sports management form was separate, after which I filled that and posted that it was a smooth process. I built my profile based on my achievements and the work I have done in the past and was just natural about the entire process

Careers360: Elaborate on the admission interview at KJ Somaiya. What were the type of questions asked?

Scott Moraes: The admission interview was way more relaxed and chilled than the general MBA interview. I guess because In the general MBA interview, a lot of very technical marketing questions were asked and in the sports interview, it had everything to do with sports. As much as I can recall, I was asked about my role in the company, operational challenges, my vision for the future and lots of personal questions about my footballing experiences around the world

Careers360: What were the initial challenges you faced at the campus?

Scott Moraes: To be honest it was a pretty smooth process and there were no such initial challenges. I could say the student council and the various committees' tasks and requirements were pretty challenging at the start as I had to juggle my national team camp and the interview processes simultaneously. Also, the initial challenge faced was getting used to the 6-hour daily lectures but I got accustomed to that fast.

Careers360: Describe the various activities and facilities that made an impression on you.

Scott Moraes: Even though I was not present I liked the idea of the group bonding trip at the induction of the program and also the opportunities bought by Prof Meena & Prof Vandana in terms of the decathlon warehouse visit, the Hotstar opportunity for the Cricket World Cup and the IOC among other opportunities. Also what I love about KJ is that it is a very sports-oriented college with almost all sporting facilities available and that made an impression on me

Careers360: What constitutes practical orientation and training for an MBA in Sports Management at KJ Somaiya?

Scott Moraes: Practical orientation and training for an MBA in sports management for me is maybe learning about the theory part of operational challenges or how to market an event effectively and then practically applying those learnings in curating events of your own and then managing them efficiently in terms of operations and marketing and sales. The best learning is are the ones practically executed and due to the amazing campus, loads of great sporting events can be hosted by the sports MBA students

Careers360: What types of internships are facilitated at the institute? Give details.

Scott Moraes: The great thing is that so far, there have been a wide range of various internships facilitated. Being an avid football and futsal fan, I am eagerly waiting for a football-related internship, but so far the internships offered have been through the IOC Volunteering Programme, where all the students got to learn about hosting these mega event conferences and the operations needed for them. Also, the Star internship opportunity was the best among the lot especially for cricket lovers, as it allowed me to work closely with the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup talent management and production teams. Also, our current internship at Champ Endurance is an excellent experience as it’s one of the biggest Cyclothon events in Mumbai where Jio is the title sponsor of the event, so these are great brands to have on our CVs, which will make it shine even brighter.

Careers360: What are your long-term goals, dreams, and ambitions?

Scott Moraes: My long-term dream is to work in the football space. My absolute dream is to be a sports entrepreneur where I have my own sports facility or sports turf in Mumbai and other cities where I run academies to nurture young talent and be a feeder academy for the Indian Football & Futsal National teams. I also aspire to have my own club in the Indian super league (which we’re working towards currently by playing Mumbai’s highest division and slowly building up to Ileague and then hopefully ISL). My long-term goal and ambition are to also be India’s number 1 futsal team and academy in India as this space as of now is less crowded and there are very few clubs/academies in this space. I understand that the demand for it right now could be lower than football (football academy space is very cluttered and low room for differentiation) but the forecasted growth and potential for futsal is huge as it’s picking up pace with the formation of the first-ever national futsal Indian team and hopefully within the next couple of years there will be an ISL type futsal league (similar to Pro Kabaddi model of auctions) which is currently in the works as I’ve got the information firsthand from the top brass of AIFF president Kalyan Chaubey. It is my ambition to be in the Indian Football circuit (be it in AIFF, AFC, or FIFA), and even if my entrepreneurial dreams don’t work out as planned I would love to Work at an organisation like FIFA and be among the top football authorities within FIFA & AFC.

Also, one more important long-term goal for my team, Kalina Rangers is to build the online presence we already have and grow the Instagram and YouTube audiences to a whole new level. Content curation is the main priority and I started our team's YouTube channel in the lockdown of 2020. Now it has over 6,000 fully organic subscribers and a monthly monetisation of 10-15k rupees per month, which is in autopilot mode because we just upload the raw matches. but the aim is to create unique content and grow the revenue of the channel to 1-2Ls per month, which I feel is very achievable in the near future. Also, our Instagram has a 100% organic following of 13.5k followers, and we get inbound brand deals occasionally, but my long-term goal is to fully monetize this page to create a revenue of 2-3Ls with the help of brand collaborations, brand sponsors, and brand deals. Also, we want to have an online merchandise shop for our club memorabilia

In short, my dream is to take my team, the Kalina Rangers, to the highest level possible and create a strong brand out of this

Disclaimer: This content was distributed by K J Somaiya and has been published as part of Careers360’s marketing initiative.