Empowering the Youth
“Shaping Young Minds Programme” organized by the All India Management Association (AIMA) in association with Coimbatore Management Association (CMA) was a platform to inspire the youth and enable them to interact with many business icons of India
India is the only country in the world that boasts of having a majority of its population young and employable. With a young force alive and kicking, the responsibility of guiding it and inculcating it with new ideas rests with the elders.
In addition to providing the new management professionals with inspiring insights into the future of their management careers and empowering India Globally, the 4th edition of “Shaping Young Minds Programme”, a SYMP, organized recently by All India Management Association (AIMA), in association with Coimbatore Management Association (CMA), was held at PSGIMSR Auditorium and other management schools.
Management Students from PSG Institute of Management, GRG School of Management Studies, Avinashilingam University, Sree Saraswathi Thayagaraja College, RVS Institute of Management Studies and Dr.N.G.P. Institute of Technology and other college students participated in the event.
Piyush Pandey, Executive Chairman & Creative Director – South Asia Ogilvy & Mather, India
“Every moment of life has something to offer, if only you are alert and keep an open mind. It’s all about the perspective. If you find life boring, it only means that you have not given the magic touch of emotion to alter it. Back in 1990, when I moved from client servicing to creative department, I thought my colleges gave me the most boring client, who was supposed to be Madhukar Parekh, Chairman of Pidilite Industries. I found him boring, his company boring and his product boring. But, one fine day I changed my view by doing something to the most boring product, which turned my career very exciting,” said Piyush Pandey. He continued, “you never know how things could turn. The advertisement campaign which I did for Pidilite’s Fevicol Brand turned a huge success. And the rest is history. Don’t ever prejudge things, keep your eyes and ears open, sniff out the opportunities and grab them. There are thousands of opportunities that lie around. I often tell my teammates ‘If you cannot convince the lady next door, then you cannot convince someone who is sitting in France or other countries in Europe’. Be brave, learn to dream big. Once you dream don’t dare to do it. There are challenges that may arise when you take up something. But, when you accept the challenge with ease, then things will definitely fall in line. Most of all, to be successful in your career, you need a team. Without a good team no one can succeed. You must motivate one another in a team. Though Brian Lara was a great batsman of the West Indies, he could not win matches because he did not have a good team. It’s not about you alone, it’s all about the team work, and when you come together the magic happens.”
Dr.Arvind Lal, Chairman & Managing Director, Dr Lal Path Labs Ltd
“Thomas Alva Edison failed nine thousand nine hundred and ninety nine times before inventing an electric bulb. He never gave up and never was afraid of failure. But, we Indians as a race are always afraid of failure. This is where the westerners share a philosophy– they are not afraid to fail. The mantras are simple. Develop and fine tune your own ideas and keep them short and simple. Most of the successful ideas of the world are fairly uncomplicated. Have a great attitude in pursuing things with fire. Indians are good at giving ideas and advice, which as management students, you should avoid. To overcome all, do proper research, plan and then execute. It’s a national disease that we do too much of planning and too much of research and fail to put our energy in execution. In simple terms, follow what the Nike slogan says ‘Just Do It’. Of all, the private life needs to be given the utmost importance in order to get a peaceful growth. ‘When wealth is lost nothing is lost, but when health is lost everything is lost,’’’ said Dr. Arvind Lal. And he continued, “‘A healthy mind is the healthy body and vice versa.’ The current generation is suffering from lifestyle diseases due to lack of exercise and most importantly its food habits. The junk food culture has ruined the health of our nation, especially the youth, resulting in an increase in the number of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD). To prevent ourselves from being afflicted by such diseases, a good sleep with proper exercise that can burn calories will make us healthy. There is a misconception among people that yoga is an exercise. But, the fact is that yoga can make you flexible and your limbs supple, but cannot burn calories. Apart from other exercises, walking, jogging, swimming and cycling for about half an hour a day will make your body less prone to diseases.”
Dr.Shikha Nehru Sharma, Managing Director, Nutri Health
Dr. Shikha had her own advice to offer the budding managers. She said, “if you are in a leadership position stop listening to the ideas of others. Take your own decision even if it entails risk. When you are in a business, the credit of success will be claimed by everyone, but if you fail, the blame will be yours. Never stop finding solutions. The global companies seek only solution-finders not knowledgeable people. I started working as a doctor in preventive health care with a private organization aiming to find solutions for urban health problems like heart disease, diabetes and cholesterol. I took the challenge and became the head of a project, which became a huge failure in a span two years. I lost lakhs of rupees personally, besides causing a huge loss to the hospital as well. It affected me intellectually as well as emotionally. In order to overcome my failure, I started engaging myself in 3 jobs on a day simultaneously from day to night as doctor and television anchor. It taught me a great lesson, ‘If you want to follow your dreams and passion, stop feeling bad’. If you stop worrying about failures, you will end up rising again with a new vigor. When god nudges things, it means you are moving towards the next step. When you follow your dreams honestly without giving up, the whole universe will help you. We are often scared of being left alone. But, in reality we are alone only in thinking. Each one of you are born with a gift. If you do not let that gift come alive, it will die a slow death.”
Ambassador Dr.Deepak Vohra, Special Advisor to the Prime Minister of Lesotho and Guinea-Bissau
“New India is powered with youth. Have faith and confidence in yourselves, the country is growing very fast and this is the best time for you, the youth of the country, to prove yourselves. In 2020, India will become the youngest country in the world to have a majority of the population young. The world countries respect India mainly because of the youth population the nation has. In addition, economic powers of world countries are shifting from Europe to Asia for the first time in the last 250 years or so. Military power, political influence, exploding technology and cultural power of the Asian Countries have grown tremendously and India is the best example for it. The President of USA participating in Diwali, the festival of lights and the International Yoga day being celebrated there show that India is slowly becoming the global economic power. According to Citi Group, by 2050 India will become the largest economy in the world, with 86 Trillion GDP. The Great Nation is already there as the Super Power which we will build much stronger still in the years to come.”
Firdose Vandrevala, Former Executive Vice Chairman, Essar Steel India
“The world is changing so fast today that anything older than five years will be rendered obsolete. Without meticulous learning one cannot progress as learning, along with innovation, is a continuous process. JRD TATA, at the age of 80 started a programme called ‘The National Institutes of Advanced Studies’. When he was asked about it, he mentioned about ‘the desire to learn something new every day’. Success doesn’t depend on the knowledge and competence of an individual alone. It also depends on the rapport you have with the team around you. One cannot be a master of everything under the sun. If you are not an expert in a particular field, don’t try to learn it yourself. Instead, find someone who excels in it. However, a person or a company can become world class having intangible assets rather having the best manufacturing facility, the best IT System and the best business processes as tangible assets. There are three C’s or the three intangibles a management student should never forget. They are Concepts, Competency and Connection.”
