Expressnews
Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai, hosted its 16th and 17thconvocation for the 2020 and 2021 batch students at the Chennai Trade Centre on Wednesday. The chief guests for the occasion. Mr. C P Gurnani, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Tech Mahindra delivered the graduation address and Mr. Shyam Srinivasan, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Federal Bank, delivered the keynote address.
A total of 1145 students from 2020 and 2021 batches across two full-time and two executive programs including PGPM, PGDM, PGXPM, and PGPM (FLEX) got their certificates this year.
From 2020 batch, a total of 599 students graduated and from 2021 batch a total of 546 students graduated. Nearly 112 students from 2020 batch received gold medals and 92 students from 2021 batch received gold medals. Nine students each from 2020 and 2021 batch received cash awards and 13 students were recognised as Best Outgoing students.
Welcoming the students, Dr Suresh Ramanathan, Dean of Great Lakes Institute of Management thanked the families of the students for supporting the students through the toughest times in the history of our nation. Speaking about the past two academic years he said, “We have placed 100% of our students and our faculty have trippled their overall research productivity from 2020-2021 to 2021-2022, this is part of our long-term agenda which we wish to highlight. Our class of 2021 patiently endured hours of online classes and after coming to campus dealt with an unprecedented bio-bubble on campus for four months. We faced these turbulent times, but through all that we shared many memorable events on campus. We learnt many big lessons in dealing with disruption. Amidst facing challenges, during the pandemic, it was clear that a status quo was not the answer and we needed to be innovative. Keeping our students engaged during pandemic, while they were still waiting to come to campus was a priority for us and so we crafted a one-of-a-kind initiative called Term Zero, it brought in some of the top-most global faculty to address our students through zoom.”
Delivering the graduation address, C P Gurnani, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Tech Mahindra said, “You as a leader would play various roles, that of a coach, role model, you would have to become humble, but whenever in doubt, think of what your parents would do. In all the nice companies you work for, think about yourself as a leader. Would you not be working as a team? Would you not be challenged to innovate? Would you not be challenged to do with less? Would you not be challenged to create teams when you do not have the budget? Where do you draw that lesson from? Not from your life journey alone, but from life journey of your parents. Parenting as a style of leadership, if we can adopt, will make us better managers, better entrepreneurs, better professionals and gain extreme ownership.” He also elaborated on the 4 P’s in life that is Purpose, Passion, People and Performance.
Mr. Shyam Srinivasan, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Federal Bank in his key note address said, “One characteristic that defines a leader is to have grit, nothing substitutes grit and the ability to withstand any stress. Post pandemic we have understood that nothing is a straight line and no one knows how your career is going to shape up.”
Mr Srinivasan also spoke on the need to be a relentless genuine learner. “Learn, unlearn and re-learn. We thought we were prepared for challenges. In our banks we have very well documented business continuity plans, but not one of us visualised a pandemic of this nature would affect us and we needed to continue offering to our customers the seamless services. That is a skill you learn on job as you go on implementing and innovating, but what keeps us at the top is capability to keep learning.”
Mr. Mohan Lakhamraju, Chairman, Great Lakes Institute Of Management addressed the students and said it was the first convocation without the towering presence of Padma Shri Awardee Dr. Bala V Balachandran, founder of Great Lakes Institute of Management.
This was the most anticipated event for the students of GLIM. Most of the students and faculty would be meeting each other after the COVID -19 struck and classes went online. However, the virtual classrooms did not have an impact on the long-lasting bonds between the students and faculty as the convention centre was reverberating with the energy of alumni who were reliving their campus memories.
