The Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA) held its 57th annual convocation today. It was conducted on-campus after a gap of two years. A total of 584 students from the two year Post Graduate Programme in Management (PGP), two year Post Graduate Programme in Food and Agribusiness Management (PGP-FABM), one year Post Graduate Programme in Management for Executives (PGPX) and PhD Programme in Management (PhD) graduated from IIMA.
The batch toppers from each programme were awarded gold medals in recognition of their academic accomplishments. Shubham Goyal, Vaibhav Agarwal and Nitin Kulshreshtha from PGP and Amit Kumar from PGPX received the medals.
This year, Chief Guests included Falguni Nayar, IIMA alumna and Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Nykaa.com, and Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairperson, Board of Governors, IIMA.
Delivering the convocation address, Falguni Nayar, said, “Don’t be afraid to take risks along the way. You are blessed to be entering a world which is now increasingly risk friendly. Spend the early years of your career taking the right risks and make some bold bets on yourself. Test what you like and what you don’t. Take on roles that put you outside of your comfort zone and challenge yourself. Discover new interests and hone on skills you excel at. You don’t need to have all the answers today about what you want from life but you do have the benefit of low opportunity cost in your current phase of life so make the best of it. And remember, no matter what anyone says, it is never too late to start all over again. Decision making will not always be easy, and often there will be no straightforward answer. So, trust your gut to an extent, it will guide you well.”
Sharing his experiences with the graduating students, Kumar Mangalam Birla said, “The fundamentals of business building are perhaps now truer than ever. External circumstances will most certainly change ferociously over the coming few years. There will be many shiny opportunities that will come your way, tempting you with their ephemeral promises. This holds true as much in the context of your careers. It is important, therefore, to stay the course. Identify which problems and what type of people excite you and invest time in them both. Ride out the short-term froth.”
“A good guiding principle in your choices is to go where the energy takes you. This reflection is best explained through a quote that hit my WhatsApp feed this morning— “Stick with people who pull the magic out of you and not the madness,” Birla added.
Addressing the students, Professor Errol D’Souza, in his traditional speech said, “For managers dear students the landscape has changed. It is no longer about short-term financial targets and efficient execution. Ever since the Great Financial Crisis, and even more so since the pandemic, there is some room for a swashbuckling Elon Musk but soft skills such as compassion and collaboration are going to be a top requirement. Your views on corporate strategy will be important but so will those on climate change, discrimination and inclusion, human rights, culture wars and a host of other issues. You will face challenges from outside the organization as well as from within. Welcome to tumultuous times. You are going to be wrong sometimes and you should embrace your vulnerability. Encourage dissent and constructive criticism. I am confident you have learned much from each other and from the campus and you will go very far.”
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