IIM Ahmedabad (IIMA) alumna and Nykaa CEO Falguni Nayar, speaking at IIMA’s 57th annual convocation, said: “Don’t be afraid to take risks along the way. You are blessed to be entering a world that 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. 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.”
584 students graduate
A total of 584 students graduated and the convocation was held at the lush green lawns of the famed Louis Kahn Plaza on the campus, after two years. Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairperson, Board of Governors, IIMA; Prof Errol D’Souza, Director, IIMA; and other Board members were also present at the convocation.
387 students from the two-year postgraduate programme in management (PGP); 47 students from the two-year postgraduate programme in food and agribusiness management (PGP-FABM); 136 students from the one-year full-time postgraduate programme in management for executives (PGPX); and 14 scholars from the PhD programme in management, received their degrees.
The Dean (programmes), Dean (faculty), Dean (alumni and external Relations); along with programme chairs led the ceremonial procession that was joined by the faculty members and students from the PGP, PGP-FABM, PGPX, and PhD programmes. The students wore sashes in light blue, green, orange, and yellow, representing their respective programmes.
Valuable lessons
Birla declared the convocation open, and the ceremony began with the institute’s tradition of an invocation recited by a member of the IIMA community.
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. It is important, therefore, to stay on the course. Identify which problems and what type of people excite you and invest time in them both. Ride out the short-term froth.”
Addressing the students, Prof Errol D’Souza, in his speech said, “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.”
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 were recipients of the scholastic medals.