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Chairman of Board
Rajat Gupta’s speech to the Graduating Class of 2008
Let me add my welcome to all of you and of course a very special welcome to parents, spouses, friends, and so on.
I am extremely thankful that Dean Robertson, who spoke before me, who I know arrived at 4 am, has made this journey to attend your graduation and our first board meeting. Thank you again.
Now I have to say a little story about Mr K P Singh I remember it was about six years ago, I said to him that this (ISB) was an interesting venture we are entering into and we would like his support very much. At that point in time, he was in the midst of thinking about the DLF Group and where it was going and he said, ‘Rajat I will absolutely support it but in its good time’. And as they say you have to wait for all good things. So when I asked him this time around he immediately agreed. It has been an extraordinary period for the group and he has enjoyed and seen the results of a lifelong effort in creating DLF as the world’s leading real estate group. So my congratulations and thanks to K P Singh for coming here.
I was thinking about what message I would like to give the ISB community, all of you who are graduating, all of our alumni, all of the faculty, all of our board. There are many things to celebrate, the twentieth ranking and so on. But I have to say that celebration comes with some caution. Pride and self-confidence must be balanced with humility, good accomplishments with many, many things yet to be done. We set out to create a world-class business school, we are in the top twenty, does that mean we are a world-class business school? Perhaps not yet. Those of you who have studied marketing, I would say that our brand is a little ahead of delivery. So in fact we have to keep working harder and harder to keep up our reputation. That is a risky period of time. It would be easy to rest on our laurels and say, we are there. We are not. This is an inspiration and this is a time to recommit ourselves to make sure that the ISB is a truly world-class school. That means that we really need to do the right things by the school, make sure the faculty development carries on its course as we build outstanding faculty, we attract students like you and keep improving year on year as we become leaders in many, many areas of thought leadership in the country. As we invest in partnerships with industry, as we improve our placements, as we improve our facilities, this is not a time to rest, it is a time to re-double our efforts to make this an outstanding institution. So my word is celebration combined with caution, combine pride and self-confidence with humility, accomplishments but lots to do going forward.
A few reflections as you leave this place and graduate. Thirty-five years ago roughly, I was in the same place that you are today and I just want to reflect a little bit on that journey of thirty-five years, in just a few minutes. I am sure that you are all thinking about, have I picked the right job, am I doing the right assignment? Let me say to you it doesn’t really matter. All of us, all the time worry about how can I optimise my career and so on and so forth but the most important thing that I have learnt is that if you have a learning mindset, if you have an idea that you are joining an institution or whether you are starting your own enterprise you will be learning, you will be getting this valuable experience and you will become a better person yourself. And that is the most important thing not whether you have job A or job B, or job C.
The second one is that when you go out not only think about doing your job well but think about taking some initiative beyond your responsibilities. The sign of a good leader is that they are not only satisfied with what they are supposed to do but they look around the corner, they look beyond their responsibility, they take initiatives that drive the organisation forward. Do that in whatever you are doing.
The third thing I would say is - I know we all want to be successful, and you will all be successful but work hard in making other people successful. No matter how brilliant you are, no matter how accomplished you are, if you are going to rely only on your own efforts you will only go so far. You need to co-opt lots of people. The best way you can co-opt lots of people is to make them successful. They in turn will make you successful beyond your dreams.
The next thing I would say is that you are entering a phase where you want to make your course successful, your career successful and that is very reasonable. But start the habit of giving back, early. I know at this stage in your career, you have to build your own family, your own career, but at the same time you can give back. You can give back however little, however small, whether in financial terms, whether in time, whether in caring, but get into the habit of giving back to society. Much has been given to you, you must give back.
All of us can get tied up in this race to succeed but what is more important beyond success in many ways is living by your values. It is very easy to compromise them to please others, to go up the corporate ladder, but remember this, that you can always please others for a short time by doing something that you don’t believe in but you have to live with yourself for your entire life. So live by your own values, be true to yourself.
Graduation is often called commencement. You are of course starting a new journey in your life. I congratulate you for all your accomplishments and I wish you the very best. And I close with the same thought that I have closed every other graduation, with an expression of personal philosophy that is very difficult to practice, I don’t claim to practice it fully myself fully, but it is a wonderful inspiration to me nevertheless. It allows me and everybody who practices it to deal with successes and failures with equal grace, with being at peace with yourself. And that is the philosophy of being a karma yogi, the essence of which is expressed so beautifully in a ‘shlok’ from Bhagavad-Gita – "you have a right to work never to the fruits thereof, not only should you do the right things but you should always do it with the right intentions and if you do your very best then it does not matter what the results are."
All the best! Thank you.
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