“Do what you love, Love whatever you do” – R.Sreenivasan, Director IWSB : Welcome address at the Convocation 2012

A photo by Vasu.. on Flickr.

Distinguished guests, students of the Class of 2012, parents and all the family members of the Graduating Class, members of the IWSB Board, the media, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the IWSB’s Third Convocation and Graduation Ceremony.   At the outset, I would like to welcome our Chief Guest, Deep Kalra, Founder and CEO, MakeMyTrip.com. I welcome, one and all present here, this evening.

——–

The pioneer of online travel in India, Deep Kalra founded MakeMyTrip in April, 2000. Drawing on his experience from his years at GE Capital, AMF Bowling Inc. and ABN AMRO Bank, under his stewardship, MakeMyTrip has become the largest online travel company, as well as the largest e-commerce business in India.

Deep is a member of the Executive Council of NASSCOM and chairs the NASSCOM Internet Working Group. He is also a Charter Member of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) and serves on the Board of TiE, New Delhi. Deep is also a member of CII’s Tourism sub-committee and a regular speaker at numerous internet and travel conferences across the world. He currently serves as an independent Director for IndiaMart.com, a leading B2B website. Deep is also a founding member of “I am Gurgaon”, an NGO focused on the improving the quality of life in Gurgaon.

Deep holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi (1990), and a MBA (PGDM) degree from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (1992). His interests include adventure sports, swimming, yoga, quizzing and traveling to places off the beaten path.

Deep is one of the faces of the transformational India and it is an honour and a privilege to have him with us today. I welcome you Sir, as the Chief Guest of today’s occasion.
———-

 

A photo by Vasu.. on Flickr.

I would also like to welcome our Chairman, R.Satya Narayanan, Vice-chairman Mr. Gautam Puri and Members of the IWSB Board who have come down specially to be with us today. Thank you all for coming.

It is a very special moment for us with 59 students of the Class of 2012 graduating today. The students at the IWSB have a very pivotal role to play in the progress of the school and the Class of 2012 have shouldered their responsibility in an excellent manner. I would like to highlight some of the achievements of the last academic year.

 

CURRICULUM

Our focus at IWSB has been to offer a curriculum that stokes entrepreneurial thinking and leadership, and also in tune with the fast changing global business trends and this has been one of our significant strengths. Our students benefit from this exposure and the industry values this a lot.

We have had over hundred entrepreneurial leaders coming to the campus during their two years as part of our ‘My Journey series’ every week. Each one, when they experienced the incisive questioning about minute details of running business by students, during the interactions and Q&A, have always asked me and our faculty, what do we do to foster this kind of spirit among students? Thanks to the faculty who have made this happen.

Some of the notable new courses offered to the students this year include  -Financial Engineering, Managing Entrepreneurial Firms and Family Business, International Marketing, Retail Management.

NEN, National Entrepreneurship Network, has selected IWSB as their academic incubation campus for designing new programs. IWSB and NEN are working closesly on this front for the coming academic year.

Also the TYE, The young entrepreneurs program, with TIE that is designed and executed by IWSB has successfully completed its second year. We are in talks to offering this to the college going youth too across the country where we will technology to a great extent.

IWSB continues to use technology to aid teaching. We have extensively used WEBINARs as the means to reach to vast student population across the country in facilitating understanding of business and entrepreneurship. We have significant road map ahead in this direction.

A photo by Vasu.. on Flickr.

The Curriculum Review Committee, chaired by Academic Dean, Prof. Veeresh Sharma will soon release a draft of their recommendations that are currently being reviewed by faculty, area leaders and others. We hope to have the final recommendation of the committee in the next couple of weeks and we wish to implement in the coming academic year.

ENTREPRENEURIAL Endeavors and companies on Campus

We have been very delighted to have quite a few entrepreneurial talent on the campus. Our 2012 graduating batch saw –

–         JMD Pratza by kanu Mangotra in the food space

–         Arete Investors by Rishab Pruthi, Gaurav and Kriti Kankani

–         NOW by Sumeet Sharma, Arpit Kala in the convenience shopping

–         Antral by Sumit Gunjan and Arvind in education

and

–         Maharani by Anurag from the first year  in handicrafts exports

I am sure we will see many more emerging in the coming year

 

A photo by Vasu.. on Flickr.

FACULTY

IWSB has been able to make a mark among the Young B-schools (IIMA research report of last year) in the short span of time, only because of outstanding faculty. Each of our faculty bring with them a deep passion and commitment to facilitating and bringing the best out of our students. They walk the talk. We have faculty like, Prof Navneet, who runs an integrated Marketing communication firm on the campus. We have entrepreneurial faculty to facilitate entrepreneurial students.

Our recent faculty achievements and publications in top ranked journals, by Prof Raju Mazumdar in finance area, Case publication of Prof Krishna in marketing, are testimony to the excellence that we pursue in business education.

Our permanent faculty figure stands at 14 and have had equal number of visiting scholars too who have contributed immensely to every student who is graduating from IWSB.

India Immersion Program and Exchange programs

IWSB is getting recognized as No.1 entrepreneurial campus in India and abroad too. Apart from NEN naming IWSB among the top 7 entrepreneurial campus for the third year running, world class business schools are touching down at IWSB campus. We have had informal exchange agreements for this year with a couple overseas universities and corporate bodies on India Immersion, which we will be formalizing this year. We should have about half a dozen of these agreements in the coming year for Student, Faculty exchange and research initiatives.

We have hosted two universities –

• State University of New York, with 18 students and faculty;
• University Leadership team from San Diego State

On corporate leadership front in India Immersion, we have hosted –

• A dozen business leaders from Hitachi, Japan
• Leaders Quest brings Five hundred BCG consultants to India that Satya and I would address, of whom 15 will invest a day with our students on April 23 and 24 this year. I am looking forward to the batch on the campus and also Alumni, including this graduating batch to take advantage of this program

We are working on introducing FIELD program modules across the two years, of which this year, they started with Live projects/ The Experiential Learning Programme, that provided students an opportunity to work for companies, apart from the typical internship programme. All of the participating companies have reported a high customer satisfaction. Many of these projects are implemented. Our students continue to work on projects for not-for-profit organizations with similarly great results.

EVENTS

Events at IWSB serve multi purpose objectives. The students augment their class room learning with several learning events outside the classroom. The various student clubs organised events like the –

–         Shodhyatras

–         Eduthon: A 10Km Run for educating underprivileged

–         Rangmanch – The dramatics society

–         IWPL – The Sports Club

–         Tasveer- The Art and Culture Society

–         Blood donation camps

The enthusiastic celebrations of events like Holi, Dandia, Diwali, Krishnashtami and painting competitions brought the entire IWSB community together as a family.

E-Bootcamp, which we launched last year, will be an annual tradition for the School along with the Annual Business Plan competition, Srijan.

These events serve as a platform for the students to interact with industry leaders, and academicians apart from interacting with contemporaries from other institutions.

AWARDS

Our students and alumni participated in several national and international competitions and have brought laurels to the school. Notable mentions include

–         Jaydeep (Alum PG10) – A winner at IIT Mumbai, has been invited for Stanford University’s Social entrepreneurship Summit in April

–         Anurag – Business plan competitions at IIT Kanpur, Mumbai and a few other places

I congratulate each one of you for your efforts and success.

The IWSB Excellence Scholars symbolize the extraordinary ability, leadership, commitment and quality of participation of the PGP students in the IWSB campus life. I congratulate each one of them for a well-deserved recognition.

PLACEMENTS

The IWSB graduates continue to script new success stories as far as placements go. The increased interest amongst young and fast growing companies, who see IWSB graduates as tailor-made for them, and also increase in leading national and international recruiters, is a testament to the rich entrepreneurial leadership talent at the school.

As is the news, a couple of our students will be placed internationally.

A formal announcement on the placements, once completed in the next couple of weeks, will be made. I would like to thank our friends in the industry for their continued association with the school.

CONCLUSION

While we have made considerable progress on several fronts, being a school in infancy, we still have a long way to go. The Board and industry have been a solid source of support in our work. The Faculty – Resident and the Visiting Faculty have contributed significantly to the development of the school. The resident faculty and management staff at the IWSB have always stood out with their innovative ideas and dedication in building this school. I look forward to building on these contributions.

A photo by Vasu.. on Flickr.

Now a few words for the graduating class –

I congratulate each one of you for completing the two arduous years successfully at the IWSB. I do hear many of you sharing, how these two years have been transformational. I still can vividly recall the outbound we went two years ago on our induction program as you all entered the institution. Congratulations to the Scholars of Excellence and those who have made it to the Awards List too. We are very proud of you. I wish you all the best as you embark on the journey of realizing your dreams. As you set about charting new career paths, I urge all of you to pursue what you enjoy and enjoy whatever you pursue. I am sure you will be of immense value to the organizations that you contribute and also to the society at large. You are, and will always be, an integral part of the IWSB family, and we look forward to sharing in the joys of your accomplishments as corporate leaders, entrepreneurial leaders and worthy citizens of this world.

I leave you with a quote from our ancient literature –

“You are what your deep, driving desire is. As your desire is, so is your will. As your will is, so is your deed. As your deed is, so is your destiny.”

And I quote Swami Vivekananda –

“Just believe in yourself, the world will be at your feet”

I look forward to seeing you all again and again on the campus! When the new batch walks in, we wish to have all our Alumni for the re-union sometime in October! I am sure I will see you all being there sharing your experiences and insights with the new batch.

Our wishes and love with you all, for ever!

Thank you.

“Embrace the mindset of endeavour and not that of entitlement” – Satya, Chairman, Board of Governers, IWSB, at Third Annual Convocation of IWSB, 2012.

Deep Kalra, Founder MakeMyTrip.com; Satya, Chairman, BOG, IWSB at the 3rd convocation of IWSB

Satya, Founder CL Educate (formerly Career Launcher), as the Chairman BOG, Indus World school of Business delivered a short but very impacting address –

I still vividly recall Azim Premji, addressing us on our convocation at IIM Bangalore, two decades ago. Today, Deep is on the campus to address you. Azim, was heading Wipro, then known for consumer goods and not as much for technology. Perhaps Wipro was just of the size of MakeMyTrip today, that Deep has founded and anchored.

I would just like to share my biggest learning in life.

PLEASE EMBRACE THE MINDSET OF ENDEAVOR AND NOT THE MINDSET OF ENTITLEMENT.

Entrepreneurship dismantles all these entitlements.

We may have got many degrees from best of the schools; our parents may be well known; all these do not hold water.

What is that you can move by what you are; nothing is very sacrosanct than endeavor. At the end of the day, I recall the mindset of endeavor. We are recognized by what we deliver at the end of the day!

You should be known by your religiosity of the day. If I don’t move the moon, the day has not been worthwhile.

Attitude and Work-ethic beget what you deserve.

Thanks and Best wishes.

“Once you figure out what is your MOZZO! You will make it” – Mr. Deep Kalra, Founder and CEO, MakeMyTrip.com @ 3rd convocation 2012, IWSB

Deep Kalra, Founder MakeMyTrip.com, Guest of honour for 3rd Convocation at IWSB is being felicitated by the Dean - Acads, Prof Veeresh Sharma

I commend and congratulate the faculty for creating the environment, that has seen these youngsters blossom and take off.

I also congratulate Parents! You need to be proud of your young wards that are going to make a difference to the world.

It is a special day when Tendulkar got his hundredth hundred. You will remember your special day. You will look back with contentment and joy. Some of you were so eager, that you wanted to grab the certificate from me or even forgot to get the photo clicked. Keep that enthusiasm going!

Satya and I have some karmic connect. We both started at the same time. I got to know that we graduated from the same institution, St. Stephen’s college, just a year apart! Then our connection at TIE and today, I am here.

This is the second convocation ceremony I am attending. The first one was when I passed out of IIMA! Today is a special day for me too, as I am giving my first convocation address as a chief guest.

At the end of this ceremony, flinging of your caps will happen. Is this the culmination or a beginning?

It is the beginning of your career, in one of the brightest times of India. You have had wonderful two years on IWSB campus – going through the grind, ups and downs – courses, my journey interactions with over 100 leaders and so on.. You are experiencing a WOW moment now!

It is an opportune time for me to share a few lessons that I have learnt thus far, which could be of value to you in your journey ahead –

• Learning never stops.
  • Formal education may have, but the amount you learn from your peers, colleagues, market place and environment would continue. You need to be keen. You need to figure out every moment, the secrets of success and keep incorporating in your script as you travel.

• Discover what makes you tick, what makes you happy.
  • The sooner you realize the sooner you make it happen. People talk about ‘getting into the zone’.
  • Before parents get worried, chart your untreaded path. It took me eight years to figure out what I want to. And here I am in front of you. Had I not found out my ‘love’, perhaps I would not have been here sharing my learning.
  • Create opportunities and grab opportunities. If you do what you really love, sky is the limit. Once you figure out what is your ‘Mozza’, you will make it.
  • It is not necessary that you have to become an entrepreneur. I do see a few of you are keen. You can use your degree as a noose or as a ropeway to higher goals. There are many of my classmates who have joined big corporates – one of my batch mates will soon be a CEO of Wipro. Finding your calling is the key.
• Life ahead will get tougher. I keep promising my family that I will slow down. But the journey becomes so exciting that you get hooked on.
  • Next 10 years you should look forward to work hard and sweat it out. Gather whatever you can to strengthen your armory.
  • Subsequent 10 years you will start working smarter along being harder.
  • Then perhaps being smarter will suffice
• READING is the key
  • I keep reading and re-reading. Do not give up. Books like ‘Seven Habits of highly effective people, I must have read a dozen times. Every reading as I progress in life makes a new meaning. I keep applying in new ways and in new places too.
• Value of Analytics
  • In the businessworld and the decision support systems that you will create or use, Analytics will play a very important role. You use analytics all the time to understand behaviours and create opportunities. You should focus on it. Every one has got data! How you analyze and make a meaning out of it will derive and drive your business.
• Resilience Vs Stubbornness – Back yourself and your instincts
  • There is a fine line between the two. There have been at least two occasions in my early years of MakeMyTrip, that I thought of hanging up my towel.- 9/11 happened and SARS followed. The travel world collapsed. Tough times they were. We kept going…
  • If I look at people around me, Satya (founder CL Educate); or Sanjeev Bikhchandani (founder Naukri), who delivered last years Convocation address here at IWSB, all have the same trait – of bouncing back with passion and perseverance.
  • Back yourself and your instincts – Be yourself. It may take a little longer, but you will reach your path and the journey will continue to be wonderful one.

I would like to conclude this precious address by quoting one of my favourites – Jeff Bejos, The founder of Amazon –

“WORK HARD! HAVE FUN! MAKE HISTORY! TWO OUT OF THREE IS NOT AN OPTION”

Best of luck!