Apart from business challenges that business school students will face in their corporate career, the other key challenges are poverty and climate change, said T Krishnakumar, President (India and Southwest Asia), The Coca-Cola Company, while addressing the first graduation day of Rajalakshmi School of Business (RSB) on Saturday.
“Earlier, economic challenges were the only thing we had to contend with. Now, finite resources leading to environment management also have to be taken care of by graduating students. The job of the students is to link economic challenges to the environment and the community,” he said.
Calling education the biggest non-perishable asset, Krishnakumar said that it gave one returns and leverage. Reminiscing about his college days, KK, as he’s popularly known, pointed out that when he graduated, the competition was less and everything was simple, but now students have entered a world environment that is complicated and volatile.
“The most important mantra today is relevance. As new graduates and managers, you (students) should be relevant to today’s world. Earlier, a manager’s sole goal was the shareholders’ wealth management, but in today’s world, other stakeholders like the community and the government have become important,” he added.
“Economic profits alone cannot be the goal, henceforth, economic profits along with social awareness should be the new goal,” he noted. Listing out the guiding principles for students, KK said students should look at everything as an outsider; they should at all times work with utmost integrity and face challenges rather than run away from a job.
Director of RSB Subhendu Dey, in his annual report, said that as part of the overall learning of the students, RSB had created the ‘Future Leaders’ Programme’ aimed at fine-tuning the personal attributes and attitudes with a focus on applicability of knowledge and hence, achieving tangible results, rather than merely learning domain-related concepts.
“This programme deals with qualities that enable individuals to envisage a dynamic vision for the future, to harness the potential within them to deliver the vision into a successful reality and to contribute to society. One of the learning groups of the first batch of students formulated an effective strategy to connect mushroom farmers in rural areas with a leading supermarket. Their effort has enabled selling of the agricultural produce as a branded product, helping improve the earnings of the small farmers,” he said.
A Satish Kumar, chief mentor, RSB, welcomed the gathering and Thangam Meganathan, Chairperson, Rajalakshmi Institutions, delivered the vote of thanks.