Great Lakes Institute of Management, Gurgaon, Convocation 2019 presided over by Mr Suresh Narayanan, Chairman & MD, Nestlé India Ltd.

May, 2019, New Delhi: Great Lakes Institute of Management, Gurgaon, a premier management institute in the country, held its 8th Annual Convocation for the Class of2019 at Airforce Auditorium, Subroto Park, New Delhi with 239 students successfully graduating in a ceremony graced by Chief Guest, Mr Suresh Narayanan, Chairman & MD, Nestlé India Ltd.

The graduating class of 2019 was elated to receive their convocation address and graduation certificates from Mr Narayanan, a veteran in the FMCG industry, who has held Top Leadership positions at Nestlé Singapore, Philippines and Egypt, Mr Narayanan joined Nestlé India as Chairman & MD in 2015. He not only brought Nestlé India successfully out of the Maggi crisis, but also, in a span of a year, helped Maggi noodles fully regained its market share.

Delivering the convocation address, Mr Suresh Narayanan shared the wisdom gathered over the three decades of his corporate life experience, summarized in the 10 principles. The 10c’s principles, as he calls them comprised of Clarity, Competence, Credibility, Courage, Concentration, Constraints, Compassion, Creativity, Continuous Learning and Contentment.  He encouraged students to be passionate, to work hard, to be highly knowledgeable, and focus on building credibility, as in the tough trenches, a person is recognized by the quality of work and not by the degrees earned. He inspired them to have the courage to do the right things even against all odds, to respect human values, and be remembered as a leader by people for how he makes them feel and not for how many targets he achieves. He advised them to concentrate on the job at hand and to embrace creativity as a part of the spirit. He told them that the constraints are unnecessary barriers that we build in our lives, so one should remove mental blocks, prioritize and have time for recreation. He concluded his speech by adding that “the learning never ends and as we move ahead in life we should be thankful and must exhibit gratitude, keeping aside ourego”. 

Congratulating the graduating batch through a video message, Padmashri awardee Dr Bala V Balachandran, Founder, Dean and Chairman, Great Lakes Institute of Management, advised them to not be afraid of taking the toughest job. “As, if you manage to accomplish the task, you will always be remembered as a hero and if you fail, then you would have learnt a lot from the experience and you would be known for exhibiting courage,” said Dr Bala.  Dr Bala shared with them his golden rules for a successful career, saying, “one should follow one’s Passion with Compassion and should always try to succeed with integrity”. He told them to always have the winning attitude as it’s the attitude that matters and not aptitude. “During this transformation from learning stage to professional stage, uncertainties are inevitable but always remember that “winners never quit and quitters never win”, opined Dr Bala.

Dr Debashis Sanyal, Director, Great Lakes Institute of Management, Gurgaon then took over the lectern and listed the highlights of the institute’s developments. Receiving the prestigious AMBA (Association of MBA’s) accreditation, being ranked among the top 5 emerging business schools by the NHRDN, liaisons with reputed foreign institutes such as ESCP Europe Business School and University of Texas, were the key milestones achieved by the institute. Concluding his report, Dr Sanyal urged the students, “to keep learning and growing, remembering and giving back to parents, the institute and teachers, and to the society, for the success you achieve in life.”

Concluding the day’s proceedings, Mr Mohan Lakhamraju, Vice-Chairman and CEO of Great Lakes Institute of Management, addressed the graduates by describing a newfound acronym to MBA – Mastery, Belongingness, Attitude. Mastery comes from developing an expertise in a particular aspect and learning to do it well. Belongingness comes from developing meaningful relationships with people and maintaining those relationships. The right attitude is necessary to stay positive and do things the right way. With this message, he conveyed his compliments to the graduates and brought the convocation ceremony to closure.

As a part of the convocation ceremony, a number of academic honors were handed to the meritorious students. In the PGPM batch, gold medals were awarded to Kothekar Pushkar Waman for academic excellence and to Bruno Varghese Nellisery for being the Dr Bala V Balachandran outstanding performer. In PGDM batch, gold medals were awarded to Hari Shrushth Shukla for academic excellence, and Garima Gupta for being the Dr Bala V Balachandran outstanding performer.

The graduating class of 2019 witnessed the excellent placement season for Great Lakes, Gurgaon, where the companies across diverse industries participated in the final recruitment process offering high quality profiles for both the programs. Some of the leading companies that participated in the process were Aditya Birla Financial Services, ADP, Axis Bank, Boston Analytics, Cognizant, Deloitte, Fractal Analytics, KPMG, NIIT Technologies, Volvo Eicher Commercial Vehicles and so on. For the one year PGPM batch, the highest CTC offered was 17.02 lakhs p.a. and average was 11.21 lakhs p.a. while for the PGDM batch, highest CTC offered was 14.55 lakhs p.a. and the average CTC was 9.1 lakhs p.a.

About Great Lakes Institute of Management, Gurgaon: Great Lakes Institute of Management, Gurgaon, established in 2010, has emerged as one of India’s most innovative business schools pioneering the adoption of cutting edge technology in business decision making. In the year, 2019 Great Lakes, Gurgaon received the prestigious AMBA accreditation and became the youngest Indian B-school to receive it and it was also ranked among the top 5 emerging managementbusiness schools by the National HRD Network (NHRDN) for the year 2018-2019. It is the second campus of Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai, which is ranked among the top business schools in India (3rd by Outlook & 4th by Business World among one year MBAs, 9th by Business India, 14^th by Business Today and 18th by NIRF rankings by Ministry of HRD among top business schools in India in 2017-2019). The Gurgaon campus has extensive engagement with corporates catering to their human capital requirements while also befitting from the perspectives of senior leaders actively participating in design and delivery of our programs. Great Lakes, Gurgaon, was the first b-school in India to offer an Analytics specialization in 2013 and to launch a world class executive program in Analytics (PGPBABI) which is now ranked No.1 business analytics program in India for 3 years in a row. Great Lakes, Gurgaon is also the first business school in the country to offer specialization in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. The Gurgaon campus offers two full time programs - PGPM & PGDM - apart from executive programs. With a strategically located residential campus in the corporate hub of Gurgaon, students have access to extensive perspectives from CXOs as well as gaining practical experience through live projects helping them develop into Business Ready managers ready to deliver from Day 1