From L-R: Mr. Sharat Dhall (on the dias), Dr. Himadri Das, Director, Great Lakes Institute of Management, Gurgaon, Mr. Mohan Lakhamraju, Vice-Chairman, Great Lakes Institute of Management and Dr. Umashankar Venkatesh, Program Director, PGPM, Great Lakes Institute of Management, Gurgaon
GREAT LAKES INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT, GURGAON COMMENCEMENT OF ITS 6TH BATCH OF PGPM (2017-2018) PRESIDED OVER BY MR. SHARAT DHALL, PRESIDENT, YATRA
New Delhi, 19th May, 2017: Great Lakes Institute of Management, Gurgaon, a premier management institute, commenced the academic year for the class of 2017-18 of its Post Graduate Programme in Management (PGPM) with 120 students in a commencement ceremony held at USI Auditorium, Vasant Vihar, New Delhi. The ceremony was addressed by the honourable Chief Guest Mr. Sharat Dhall, President, Yatra Online Pvt. Ltd.
The ceremony began with the lighting of lamp by the honourable Chief Guestin the presence of Mr. Mohan Lakhamraju, Founder, Great Lakes Institute of Management, Gurgaon and Vice Chairman, Great lakes Institute of Management, Dr. Himadri Das, Director, Great Lakes Institute of Management, Gurgaon, Dr. Umashankar Venkatesh, Program Director, PGPM and Professor (Marketing), Great Lakes Institute of Management, Gurgaon along with board of directors, staff and students from the new batch.
Congratulating the new batch, Mr. Sharat Dhall, President, Yatra Online Pvt. Ltd. expressed that “As you are about to start a new journey in life, here, I would like to share with you all that the ability to communicate is one of the most important skills in life, as when you will go out looking for a job you will be gauged on the basis of your ability to communicate ideas. Secondly, self-belief and confidence are a must have traits of a successful manager. One should not just communicate the idea but should have immense confidence to prove oneself and execute it with immense faith”.
He shared an example of Hindustan Lever, where they practice reverse mentoring, where the young trainees coach senior management on social media and technology with organizations being quite open today for new ideas. “Thirdly, the world is changing fast today, you need to reinvent yourself and learn new things all the time. Technology is disrupting everything and that is happening quite fast”, added Mr. Dhall.
Addressing the students through video conferencing, Dr. Bala V Balachnadran, Founder, Dean and Chairman, Great Lakes, said that “The key to be successful in life is having immense amount of energy and we will able to surmount all hurdles in life to come out with flying colours. World is changing with disrupting technologies, not only learn in classroom but also learn from external environment. The world is changing fast and you must make yourself competent enough to go on. Also, you must demonstrate passion with compassion and develop ability with humility”, said Dr. Bala.
Addressing the new batch, Mr. Mohan Lakhamraju, Founder, Great Lakes Institute, Gurgaon and Vice Chairman, Great Lakes, expressed that, “We are in phenomenal times from macro-economic perspectives”. Mr. Lakhamraju also shared an insight that, “when the countries reach GDP per capita of about 2000 dollars, over the next decade there is a tripling and quadrupling of this that happens purely derived from consumption, it happened in the 80s in Asian Tiger Economies and in Brazil in 90s and in 2000s happened in China and it is going to happen soon in India as well. Crossing GDP of 2000 dollars is the first time it puts disposable income in the hands of a critical mass of people and when it happens there is a very little dependence on what Government does as growth becomes consumption driven. When that happens in India you will be in the prime of your career and you will be successful as long as you do well in whatever you do. So, you should be optimistic.”
Wishing the new batch best for their journey, Dr. Himadri Das, Director, Great Lakes, Gurgaon, said, “here at Great Lakes we have a tradition of giving a unique name to every new batch and we would like to call our new batch the GLADIATORS and I hope that all of you will live up to the name that signifies valour, courage, willingness to take risks and accept challenges, and fighting till the end. Further, Dr. Das gave a brief introduction of Great Lakes Institute of Management and shared that Great Lakes has an excellent faculty and has an optimal blend of academic rigour and business relevance. He also added that, “Great Lakes enjoys deep industry engagement which makes our students industry ready, we have senior industry experts coming to our campus for lectures. We believe in co-creation and co-delivery of curriculum, where we collaborate with industry experts for creating curriculum as well as for delivering it”.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Umashankar Venkatesh, Program Director of PGPM, Great Lakes, Gurgaon, said, that “this new path is also going to be quite challenging because you will be asked repeatedly to hit the ground running as there is heightened expectations from all stakeholders. Results are what everybody is focused on and survival is of the fittest, making it very challenging as there is a growing feeling among stakeholders that businesses must be socially aligned. This is an intense one year period for you and you must immerse in the process completely to extract maximum. There will be immense learning opportunities for both personal and professional growth”.
