Great Lakes Institute of Management hosts Narayana Murthy as part of its ‘Distinguished Thought Leadership Series’

~ The Padma Vibhushan awardee sheds light on key topics like entrepreneurship, state of Indian I.T sector, role of luck among others~

19^th February 2021, Kolkata: Padma Vibhushan Mr. Narayana Murthy, Founder, Infosys graced Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai in a virtual fire-chat session organized by the institute. Mr. Murthy addressed a strong audience of 750+ participants and shared his insights based on the experience and observations over the years.

During the session, Mr. Narayana Murthy touched upon some key topics. He started off with his definition of an entrepreneur and explained that entrepreneurs come with bright and powerful ideas.  His latest venture is all about unleashing the power of young Indian minds. He highlighted few qualities than an individual should possess to become an entrepreneur. Some of these qualities include competency, leadership, learnability and a sound value system. He further elaborated and said that an entrepreneur should transform the power of ideas into job and wealth creation. He then touched upon the topic of whether the Indian I.T companies have moved up in the value chain system? He said that, Indian companies have been doing work that is of high value for their customers and are now focusing on higher per capita productivity. But the sector still remains as reactive problem solvers which needs to change and a more proactive approach is the need of the hour.

He then spoke about the role of using luck to one’s advantage. Hard work plays a key role in shaping your career. He said, ‘’Chance favours the prepared mind’’. When you fail as an individual, it is important to introspect your failure, analyse, decide on the next step and then act accordingly. He then spoke about how entrepreneurs can handle multiple roles in their initial stages of entrepreneurship. He was quick to add that his philosophy of choosing a team is to pick bright youngsters, review constantly and give them an opportunity to grow. He also emphasized on developing checklists and have constant dialogue with the team which can help and improve upon what you are doing at that point of time. High learnability, discipline and hard work are keys to enhance productivity. Mr Murthy also said that, he personally prefers learnability over experience for skills.

He next addressed the concern wherein I.T. sector pays higher remunerations than some other sectors and we are losing great talent in the sectors. He addressed the companies from different sectors and said, they need to sit down and ensure that the workplace provides a learning experience. Companies should visit campuses and sell jobs to students and provide better compensation. He added that, students nowadays prefer careers where there is learning involved. Also, curriculum in colleges need to keep pace with the industry demand and in-company training programs should be a key area of investment for the companies to groom talent. He then stressed upon the New Education Policy and rued the lack of constant research and innovation in Indian educational institutions. He mentioned that the New Education Policy (NEP) is certainly going to improve the quality of education. He called for a change in the mind-set of the society and said that the focus should be upon instilling curiosity, problem solving, open-mindedness, respect other’s opinions and not afraid of learning among the youngsters. He said that there is a need to embrace these traits in our cultures and then change will follow.

Speaking during the event, Dr. Suresh Ramanathan, Dean, Great Lakes Institute of Management, said “We are honoured to have the magnanimous presence of Mr. Narayana Murthy. His wisdom, knowledge, experience and vision is unparalleled and today’s event was a chance for our students to pick on his thoughts and learn from the man himself. His idea of originality, problem-solving, creativity, importance of values and sense of balance can truly go a long way in shaping our society and empower the youth of tomorrow. I also want to thank our esteemed audience who were part of this momentous occasion and we will continue to invite leaders who can be a source of inspiration for our students and other generations.”

About Great Lakes: Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai founded in 2004 by Padma Shri Awardee Dr. Bala V Balachandran is one of the premier B-schools in India. Great Lakes has, within a short span of 15 years emerged as a top-ranked business school. Great Lakes has 50+ full time faculty and 150+ visiting faculty including over 25+ international faculty from top global schools like Yale, Kellogg, Stanford, and Harvard. Further collaborations with world’s leading institutions like University of Houston, University of Bordeaux, Hongkong University of Science & Technology (HKUST), University of Missouri, Kansas, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago and Babson College etc., have helped Great Lakes in globally benchmarking its programs.

Great Lakes, Chennai, was accredited by Association of MBAs (AMBA), UK in 2014 and became the youngest B-school in India to receive this prestigious international accreditation. In 2015, Great Lakes, Chennai also received international SAQS accreditation and in 2017, its two-year PGDM program was accredited by National Board of Accreditation (NBA). For the years 2018 -2019, Great Lakes was ranked No.1 in India by Analytics India for its Analytics program. Great Lakes, Chennai was ranked 5th by Outlook India among top private MBA institutions, 9th by Business India, 15^th by Business Today and 18^th by NIRF among top 10 Indian B-Schools. It was also placed in Super League 2 category by Business Standard in the year 2019.

Led by exceptional academic faculty, steered by an outstanding advisory council, and buoyed by the international collaborations, Great Lakes has been constantly innovating to stay ahead of the needs of our businesses and community. It is the first B-school in India to offer full time specialization in Analytics and first to introduce AI and Machine Learning specialization. 

Great Lakes has a 30-acre LEED Platinum rated green campus in Chennai and a second campus in Delhi-NCR. In the year 2019, Great Lakes Gurgaon campus received the prestigious AMBA accreditation and was also ranked among the top 5 emerging business schools by the National HRD Network (NHRDN) for the year 2018-2019. Great Lakes Gurgaon was also ranked 13^th by Business World for its one-year program in the year 2019.

Great Lakes offers One Year full time MBA (PGPM) for experienced professionals, Two-year MBA (PGDM), Part Time Executive MBA for senior managers, and Weekend Executive MBA Program. Great Lakes alumni currently numbering 8800+, work at world renowned organizations both in India and overseas across 30 countries.