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Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar The Twelfth Convocation was held on March 10, 2003. This convocation acquired special significance since it was being held in the newly constructed auditorium which was inaugarated that day by the Chief Guest Mr. Kumarmangalam Birla. In a glittering ceremony diplomas were awarded to 32 students of the Executive PGP program, 123 students of the PGP program and 44 students of the PGPRM program. The convocation was declared open by the Chairman of the Board of XIMB Mr. Rajiv Kaul after which the Director, Father Abraham presented the Director's report. The awards ceremony was preceeded by the administering of the oath to the passing out students by Dean Academics Prof. W. S.Williams. The Faculty Council Gold Medal for the "Best Student" of the Class for the Executive PGP Programme, The C.M. Kandoi Medals awarded to the top 2 rankholders of the PGP Programme went to Mr. Anchit Kalra and Ms. Karishma Anand. The Faculty Council Gold Medal for Academic Excellence also awarded. The Chief Guest Mr. Kumarmangalam Birla addressed the invitees and the students after the award of the Diplomas. His message contained invaluable advice to the budding managers. He shared with the students the six traits that a manager should develop and those that are not taught at a B-School. The first skill that he believes is extremely important is the ability to work in teams. He stressed the criticality of team spiritedness for success in professional life and lamneted the fact that prevelant high levels of individualism prevent a person from becoming an effective team player. In order to be a good team playerhe said that one must be:
The second thing that he stressed upon was the necessity to have an eye for detail. He said that in their obsession with strategy young managers often overlook the God that lies in detail. The third issue that he raised was that of working across cultures. He said that with increasing globalisation, ability to work in cross-cultural environment is becoming more of a necessity than an asset as it was viewed earlier. The fourth point that he mentioned was that managers should not hesitate in using their "sixth sense". Intution or gut feeling, he said, is developed over years of experience and should be used by managers to complement the analytical & thought process. The fifth item that he mentioned was the very high fear of failure tha we normally suffer from. He also highlighted tha fact that success is very often preceeded by failure and the failures offer us an invaluable learning opportunity. He finished off his address by stressing upon the need to redefine the parameters of success. He mentioned that success for most of us is very narrowly defined in terms of wealth and prestige, but in doing so we overlook the fact that it is the "whole" person that has to be successful and not just the part that functions at work. He said that in the end it is happiness that most of us are after and for that we need to define success more holistically. The convocation came to a close with Father George, Dean (Admin & Fin) delivering the Vote of Thanks. Contributed by - |
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