Bengaluru: “Empowerment is a sociological, psychological and economic process, not a single one-time action,” said chief guest Malavika R. Harita, Founder-CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi Focus, in the city on Sunday. She was delivering the Foundation Day Lecture, themed ‘Real Empowerment’, at the 45th Foundation Day celebrations of Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB), here on Sunday.
“True empowerment needs change from within, not just lip service and smart media bytes. It has to work at several levels – personal, organisational, familial and societal. It is painful and long-drawn and needs willing participants on both sides, those who empower and those who are being empowered,” she explained.
She said that empowerment can be transformational, provided it is backed by knowledge, a clear direction and the absence of fear. “True empowerment of the spirit is what kindles the fire of self-confidence, the courage of conviction, the resilience to face failure and the determination to get up and keep going,” she said.
A panel discussion, titled ‘Raising the Flag’, which discussed the evolution of the Post-Graduate Programme in Management at IIMB was another highlight of the evening. Moderated by Dean, Alumni Relations and Development Prof. K. Kumar, the panel consisted of Prof. A K Rao, S. Jagadish, R. Narayanaswamy, Rishikesha T. Krishnan, Ganesh N. Prabhu and Sourav Mukherji.
As part of the Foundation Day celebrations, P.C. Musthafa (PGSEM 2007), CEO and Co-founder of ID Fresh Food (India), S. Vaidyanathan (PGP 1992), Co-founder, The Ganga Trust, and M.V. Rajamannar (PGP 1985), Chief Marketing & Communications Officer and President, Healthcare Business, Mastercard, received the Distinguished Alumni Award (DAA) 2018, presented by Ms Malavika Harita. Mr Musthafa is the youngest DAA recipient in the history of IIMB. In another achievement for the institute, IIMB’s Distinguished Alumni are growing by the year.
IIMB records 100% placement
The summer placements report published by the Institute pointed to 100 per cent placements. All the 427 eligible two-year MBA students of IIMB were recruited for summer placements by over a hundred companies making 442 offers. Roles offered included strategy consulting, niche consulting, business analytics, investment banking, capital markets, corporate finance, commercial banking, sales and marketing, business leadership, product management, operations, category management and general management.
“Timely resume and interview counselling as well as high alumni participation helped improve the summer placements this year,” said Prof. Ganesh N. Prabhu, IIMB Chair of Career Development Services.
Sectors such as e-commerce, marketing and strategy consulting stood out with Amazon making 36 offers, followed by Bain & Company with 19 offers. Other notable companies that participated are Accenture Strategy, Citibank, Swiggy, AB Inbev, Aditya Birla Group, Microsoft IDC among others.
