Being uni-dimensional means having no depth or scope, which is eminently possible with a width degree like the MBA.

As I sat down to write this speech a few weeks ago, I reached out to many ex-colleagues and asked them, ‘What would they do differently if they did their MBA today?’ I got rich inputs.

Let me start with the origins of an MBA degree. Before the MBA degree, we had the concept of ‘apprenticeship’. The first MBA degree, in a sense, was offered at the predecessor of the current ESCP Business School, Paris, in 1819. The Wharton School offered a Bachelor in Finance in 1881. Harvard offered the MBA as we know it today in 1908 with 80 students. Harvard felt the need for this degree with the rapid mechanisation of factories and hence the need for a new breed of manager who thought efficiency. The early MBA syllabus at Harvard drew on the work of Frederick Taylor, the man-machine efficiency guru. Efficiency was the management mantra those days and most managers revelled in it. Europe offered the first full MBA programme in 1957.

Women were not admitted to the Harvard MBA programme till 1959, Insead allowed women in 1967. I am really happy that 46 per cent of IIM Nagpur’s batch is women.

I want you to think of the following five points as you go through the next two years here.

You have to be technology fluent in everything you do. This is a ‘must-have’ hard skill. One can call it Generative AI, ML, deep tech, digital, or whatever. You have to be simply good at it. Not being tech fluent will set you back. The World Economic Forum put out some numbers a few weeks ago. Twenty-five per cent of jobs as they exist today will get reshaped; either they will disappear or morph into something else with technology. Forty-five per cent of the current skill set will need change. The trouble with technology is that one needs to be constantly updating oneself. Technology is self- educative in nature.

Let’s look at the average Indian household as an example of digital self-education today. The average Indian household is more digitally savvy than the average company. The Indian household studies online, shops online, is entertained online, checks health measures online, and so on. This has happened in the last ten years. India will be at the forefront of digital innovation this decade, and you have to keep pace with it and lead it.

While the world is full of technology, it will not be a mechanical or uni-dimensional technology world. The more hard skills available via technology, the more soft skills you need. You will have to be good at soft skills to succeed. In the pandemic, everything went remote. Remote working has many benefits but we have come to recognise that three Cs are a worry with remote working, and all three Cs are important soft skills:

* Concentration

* Collaboration and

* Creativity

To this I will add a fourth C – i.e., Communication.

Communication is crucial. I attend a lot of calls and listen in to a lot of calls. I notice that people have started speaking faster and louder on web calls. Listening skills have dropped on web calls. There is nothing you can ever achieve if you cannot communicate well.

One of the things you will do is project work. If you truly want to collaborate well and with different types of people, then I would suggest that you change your project group for every subject/project. This will give you the chance to work with as many of the 260 classmates as possible. The worst thing to do would be to work in the same known project group. So, do not have uni-dimensional project group members.

Next, try and do projects that are live, where what you unearth and recommend is crucial for the company. Try and avoid desk research projects. Live projects are where your concepts will be tested and the rubber will hit the road.

3. I want to add two concepts as my next point – Network and DEI - Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Networking is good and will always help you in the long run. It’s the strength of your networks that will propel you career forward, not a degree or not just marks.

Rethink your network from day 1. Your network, I submit to you is your classmates, your seniors, your teachers, your visiting faculty, your live project guides in companies and so on. There is a feeling in some quarters that networking is bad, that’s absolutely wrong. Build a good network.

The key to building a network at your stage is to stay in touch with people, to be responsive, to be curious. A network works on reciprocity – of give and take. I have always seen that the most successful people give a lot more than they take. Some, of course, are only takers and they never end up with sufficient goodwill in the ecosystem. Be multidimensional – give a lot and take some.

Many seasoned HR managers confuse diversity as a lead indicator of inclusion. That’s dead wrong. In fact, inclusion is a lead indicator for diversity. Diversity ratios can be fudged, inclusion soft measures and feelings cannot be.

Let’s take this IIM-N batch as an example: it is rich in diversity – 46 per cent women, 57 per cent with work experience, people from different industry backgrounds and people from different parts of the country. Those stats will not make you an inclusive batch. You have to work at it.

This batch has diversity, you will have equity in the sense of courses. What I would truly like you to focus on is inclusion. In a social media world, we have compartmentalised everything into people like us and people not like us. Successful leaders are more inclusive than unsuccessful ones. Inclusion in a class debate is about listening to another point of view and acknowledging good points made. Inclusion is about giving credit where it is due. Inclusion seems difficult in a ‘rush for grades’ environment on campus but trust me, inclusive students do well. Sharing for me is a big first step to inclusion, share liberally what you have as knowledge and insights and you will get a lot more. Sharing makes you multi-dimensional.

As students we tend to see professors as adversaries. Nothing is more wrong than this. I would encourage you to spend at least an hour every day chatting with whichever faculty is available. Learn from them, their experiences, volunteer to work on their research projects. In many cases faculty are life coaches. I am still in touch with my professors Sudas Roy and Ramanuj Majumdar and I picked a life mentor in Professor Ram Charan when I went for an Unilever General Manager Course. In my career I have seen that professors tend to see an assembly line of MBAs every year and they have their own way of sifting who they think will make a mark. I have found them to be a great judge of potential.

4. All of you will do an internship, some in India and some abroad. Think through this internship carefully as companies today try and convert internships into a PPO. Look at a good internship as a first stepping stone. Do not treat the internship as a 60-day exposure. Treat it as 60 opportunities - to make an impression every day. When a company takes an intern, they want to see the right attitude to work, they want to see problem solving, they want to see inherent work ethic. Try and collect as many sponsors as you can in the internship period. If you see the internship as the last paid job you could do, then you will handle it differently.

5. ESG is becoming an important issue for society. Take a few subjects in this area as ESG like technology will be a horizontal capability in every company, i.e., it will cut across all functions. The good word of public is crucial to continue operations. Trust is multi-dimensional and comes from fulfilling promises to all stakeholders.

India has introduced the BRSR (Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting) this year for the top 1,000 companies. India is one of the first countries to do so. There is not enough talent in this area at the moment and specialisation here will help your career. ESG is about how what the company is doing is impacting its stakeholders of which society is a big art. After the Global Financial Crisis, the Harvard batch developed an MBA manifesto. Unfortunately, nothing much came out of it. I believe if a company adheres to an ESG manifesto, then one doesn’t need the MBA manifesto.

Every type of company in every industry is working on ESG solutions; volunteer for any work in that area.

I want to reflect on your world of 2025, when you will finish with the MBA degree in your hand.

India is the fifth largest economy in the world. India had soft power for most of its existence as a free country, now it has hard power too. This combination is rare and only USA has had both for many years. Your generation will be global managers and this unique combination of India will give your career tailwind.

A career is a marathon but run in short sprints of a couple of years. In the past people would think of companies and would decide to stay there. That model doesn’t work anymore.

Staying in one company and one industry is the surest way of not growing intellectually. It is uni-dimensional. Your generation will be multi-professional, multi-industry and multi company. You will have short bursts in each company and industry. Don’t be shy of this as long as you do your best for the company in the time you are there. Loyalty as a concept is dead and the pandemic killed it faster. If loyalty is dead and you could do maybe 15 roles in the future, then this should give you the courage to be intellectually honest.

Challenge the system to be better, speak truth to power, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain. To be intellectually honest you need to be good at what you do. Cowards cannot be honest.

An MBA from an IIM is an honour, it guarantees respect. However, it is but a degree, on its own it can do little in the long run.

You can work for a company or you can start a company. Don’t lose sight of being an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs do more for the economy and the country than paid managers. I hope some of you will be successful entrepreneurs.

Success and failure are part of life, so learn to be resilient. Think of your career as short bursts of achievement/success before you move on. People have tended to shy away from tough jobs, people want easy roles. Tough jobs are a privilege as they test your limits.

Sixty per cent of students do an MBA to improve their financial standing. All of you are high achievers, that’s why you are here. A number of people have contributed to you being here. Don’t take that support for granted, be it parents, teachers or friends.

* Money is an uni-dimensional variable.

* Popularity is an uni-dimensional variable

* Jealousy is an uni-dimensional variable

* Contribution is a multi-dimensional variable.

* Trust is a multidimensional variable.

When you contribute, you evolve, you grow. Adapting to one’s context is important for your overall success. Measure your success through how many people and institutions you have helped. The respect of peers is the ultimate respect you can get in a long career. Let me explain with an example.

I don’t know how many of you saw the last Federer match. It was amazing to see his long-term rival Nadal crying at his farewell. This same kind of respect was there between Bjorn Borg, John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors.

In pursuing your career, don’t give up on life, simply put, life is a sum total of hobbies that you have and enjoy. The hobbies can be sport, reading, writing, theatre, music, teaching whatever. Never think that you don’t have time to pursue your hobbies. If you have time to pursue your career, then you should have time for hobbies too.

Success at any time, at any level can be isolating. When you are successful, people place you on a pedestal, when you fail, they distance themselves. The funny part of success and failure is that both share a common thing – they are isolating. Experiencing success and failure makes you multi-dimensional.

I want to leave the Institute, the Director, the faculty with one last thought. Everyone goads you to be lifelong learners. Everyone gets this intellectually but very few people are lifelong learners. I have a radical thought. The pace of knowledge, the pace of transformation, the pace of change is immense.

Many professions need continuous re-certification. A pilot needs to get his license renewed every six months or a year, especially his eyesight. Why shouldn’t a management degree be re-certified every ten years? That will force us to stay relevant and also contribute, it will stop MBAs being uni-dimensional.

Whatever you do, don’t be uni-dimensional, be multi-dimensional, be an all-rounder.

Shiv Shivakumar

Shiv Shivakumar

(Shiv Shivakumar is Operating Partner at Advent International)

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