“No one should be limited by circumstances they didn’t choose.”
Ramya Ragupathi
Founder & Director, Oh My Goodness!
MBA 2014
In three sentences or less, could you tell us a little more about yourself?
I am the founder of Singapore’s only gluten-free certified food company that is also halal and food safety certified, as well as a social enterprise. I am also a yoga practitioner and teacher.
Any fun facts?
Talking to, and engaging with strangers – especially when I am travelling (solo) – is my absolute favourite thing to do. I am as multi-faceted as it gets: equally left and right brain, equally intuitive and data-driven. I love my spreadsheets as much as my yoga mat, the oven and the dance floor.
Why did you choose INSEAD?
I had a crush on the school since my mid-20s (I did the MBA at 33). It was the only school I knew that was truly diverse and really celebrated it – not just in terms of nationalities but also on the personal level.
It values different people, backgrounds and stories, and this becomes apparent very quickly in the people you meet over the year.
The academic performance was important but, at the same time, the least important factor in determining one’s value – just the way it should be.
How would you describe your INSEAD experience?
Just like everyone said it would be – a year like no other.
Has the INSEAD MBA benefitted your career?
I think this question inherently makes two assumptions which I’d first like to counter: Unlike what many might automatically assume, I did not go to INSEAD to double or triple my salary or to improve my career in any way. I just wanted to change my life – that’s it. And I did!
I also don’t believe in the concept of “career”: I do many things, all at once. I do them all as best as I can. I enjoy them all. I change things up whenever I feel like. I am not chasing a title, position or salary. And I love it.
So how has INSEAD benefitted what you do now?
It gave me the best possible excuse to quit a very comfortable, successful career – with everyone’s blessings, including my bosses’. Secondly, it gave me a support system – a fan club, if you will – of unrelenting, blind faith without which I may not have believed in myself as much as I needed to at the very beginning of Oh My Goodness!.
What keeps you up at night?
Figuring out where to find money for payroll this month. Nerding out on food science and healthy living articles.
What is your motto?
I have a few:
Do whatever you want – but nobody gets hurt.
A classic: (Don’t) do unto others what you don’t want others to do unto you.
Yoga and a sense of humour are the solutions to all of life’s problems.
My newest motto, and also the hardest to hold on to on a bad day: A combination of “everything in your life has prepared you for this moment” and “everything happens exactly as it’s supposed to”.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
My life overall – I have an amazing life, doing what I do and being who I am despite the circumstances I grew up with.
What does it mean to you to be limitless?
Never believing you are limited by your circumstances – you can always overcome them. You just have to decide you’re going to. Never taking the first ‘no’ for an answer. Drawing and re-drawing your own boundaries (again and again) – and not letting others draw them for you. Being true to yourself – always.
