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Shikha Sharma's commencement speech at IIM-A | Axis Bank | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: Shikha Sharma's commencement speech at IIM-A
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[Music] [Applause]
thank
you good
evening uh chairman Mr Kumar mangalam
Bera the Board of Governors members of
the IMA
Society Professor asish Tanda and distinguished
distinguished
faculty thank you for inviting me here
today to the proud parents and family
members and the graduating class of
congratulations it's a real privilege
for me to return to campus stand at this
end of the podium and speak to you on a
day which is likely the most memorable
day in your life so far
it's hard for me to believe that it's 37
years that have passed since the day I
was sitting where you are today I
remember a myriad of emotions from that
day Pride at having got this far anxiety
about what the future might bring and
eagerness for the next phase of
life as I drove in today I noticed that
a lot has changed about the
campus but there's much that proven a
ageless this iconic Lua Plaza has
retained its elegance and charm Through
the Ages and as I sat there through uh
this presentation I could see the full
power of the
plaza the Howard steps in the main
entrance well I can almost taste all the
bun omelets I've had here all those
years ago these are the elements of the
I am Amad experience that have always
stayed with me and will stay with you
too cherish them while you still
can 2 years ago you chose to seek a
management education at I am on the B
that choice has given you many
privileges you've been exposed to the
most advanced toolkit for modern
business managers the case study method
has given you technical skills that the
best managements in the world are
looking to build you've been stepping to
the shoes of professional managers
horning your skills on real life
situations very similar to what you'll
be handling soon and you've enjoyed the
company and camaraderie of friends who
will be your peers throughout your professional
professional
life this is a formidable toolkit I can
vouch for it but remember that it's
merely that a
toolkit once you step out of the safe
Cocoon of campus and into the real world
the the outcomes you achieve as a
professional will depend only a small
part on how well you put this toolkit to
use in large measure your success as a
professional is likely to hinge on
choices you make in your
life you are poised to enter the real
world tomorrow the choices you make
there will Define who you
become as Dumbledore told Harry it's our
choices Harry that show what we truly
are far more than our abilities and so will
will [Applause]
[Applause]
yours as I reflect on my own life I
believe that are three choices that are
particularly shaped who I am today
choices that you might face yourself
soon today I want to talk to you about
those three choices the first in life
you will encounter folks in the road
ever so often
and when you do you will find yourself
answering an unasked question do you
want to stay with the path well known or
do you want to venture forth into
uncharted waters unmapped
territories the choice of which road you
take will shape who you become for me
more often than not I chose The Road
Less Traveled and it has indeed made all the
the
difference it started early in my career
with an opportunity to be part of the
startup team of icss Securities a joint
venture with JP Moran my career thus far
had been steady and successful to go off
that predictable and well-known
well-trodden path to set up a JV with a
global major was
nerve-wracking but eventually
rewarding similar folks in the road
presented themselves multiple times
thereafter after my first years as a
corporate banker and about five more as
an investment Bank Banker the
organization offered me a chance to
Pivot once again this time to set up the
personal financial services
business I must admit my
nervousness I was really scared Retail
Finance was a much debated
diversification for the group and I had
zero exposure to it the institution and
I were both taking a big bet but as it
turned out it worked just fine a few
years later y another pivot this time to
leave banking allog together and set out
to establish a life insurance company a
few exciting years later one more fork
in the road I decided to return to
banking to lead access bank the
organization that I've been proudly
associated with ever since so why all
these pivots these Journeys into roads
less traveled for me the key driver has
always been the same the learning
curve we live in extraordinary times in
the '90s the US Army College coined a
term to describe the world order that
emerged after the Cold War they called
it wuka volatile uncertain complex and
ambiguous I'm sure most of you are
familiar with the term which has
increasingly become a part of the modern
day business
vocabulary we live in a world where the
rate of change is constantly increasing
the effectiveness of our response
the number of variabl at play are ever
higher and there's vanishingly few
situations where there's a clear right
answer how do you thrive in such a hooka
world my answer has been with learning
agility so keep learning and keep
learning from whoever you can learn from
the more learning curves I climb the
more complex and novel situations I put
myself in the more likely that I will
continue to remain
relevant growth begins where your
comfort zone
ends every time I found myself at one of
Liv's Crossroads I tried to ask myself
which path offers me the steeper
learning curve and more often than not
I've tried to take that path I've tried
to learn new ways to learn and slowly
but surely learning itself has become a
habit so that is one important Cho
Choice you'll be making in your lives
starting tomorrow when two roads diverge
in the wood which one will you take and
why the second choice set that I want to
talk to you about is your choice of a life
life
partner yes it's a cliche to say that
the choice of a life partner is the
single most important choice you will
make in your life but of course it's a
cliche because it's true as Jackson
Brown wrote choose your lives made
carefully from this one decision will
come 90% of all your happiness and
misery I don't know about the 90% but I
do know that much of the joy you derive
on the Journey of life does har back to
who you choose to share this journey
with a lot of what I am today uh the
achievements that were so kindly
mentioned by uh the chairman during the
introduction are a function of the
partner I was lucky to have alongside my
journey Sanjay and I are both Alam na of
people he's widely read Divergent
thinking and
creative um during the discussions with
the faculty uh Mr Professor raguram
pointed out what I was like linear
thinking introverted timid so very
different personalities but on the most
important thing we're not different at
all we have very similar core values if
I were to point out the one thing that
has made our partnership successful it's
just that the alignment on core values
and indulge me for a minute if I sound
like a mom here but when you're out
there looking for a partner look beyond
their looks their success their style
the the durability and strength of your
relationship is is not going to come
from your partner's personality it is
going to come from their character so
remember to look well beneath the
surface my discussion of partner choice
so far seems to have been about life
Partners but as professionals you will
find that they're frequently faced with
very similar choices that of
organizations or teams and the
principles that make for lasting
relationships with your work team or
with your organization aren't terribly
different from those that make lasting personal
personal
relationships it's easy to get enam
enamored by the visible and superficial
details of a new job you're
considering uh my kids and I had this
conversation all the time right the
money the fancy title the fball table in
the break room they're all very exciting
but in most cases that's not what makes
for a fulfilling career you want to join
an organization that has values that
match yours that has people you can be
yourself with that gives you the space
to be who you have the potential to be
as a
professional these are not things that
any firm can tell you in their
pre-placement talk it's something that
you can only find out the hard way by
doing your own research by looking
beneath the
surface so that's the
major so that's the second major choice
before I talk to you about my third life
defining Choice let me tell you a
story I was an eager young girl in class
5 when the story took place imagine me
4T tall in school uniform and pigtails
yes I had pigtails those days I was a
competitive girl and had my heart set on
standing first in our class as the year
Drew to a close I knew I had done well
but the outcome was far from certain on
this particular day our class teacher
sat in front of the class and went
through all the report cards one by one
satisfied that everything was in order
she sorted the report cards by rank
stacked them up added a blank paper on
top and secured the stack with a rubber
band much of the class was uninterested
in the proceedings but for me that stack
was the center of my existence it was
all I had eyes for the teacher snapped
the rubber band to make sure all was
well looked up and called out for me can
you take these to the staff room please
and don't peep now imagine the scene
there right a Restless girl all of 10
years old walking with a stack of report
cards in her hand all I could think of
that entire work to the staff room was
which report card was on top and all it
would take to know the fate of my ear
was a quick
peek experiences build character and
that walk built mine do you think I
peeped no
right uh which gets me to the third and
final far-reaching
Choice when faced with a minor moral
dilemas of every day what do you choose
to do you can do the experient thing
make the Practical Choice take the
shortcut or you can be led by what you
believe to be the right thing to do
every time you decide to take the harder
but more principled path you add one
more brick to the foundation of your
character and every time you choose to
compromise with what you believe in you
give yourself the license to do it again
and you take one break away from the
building of your
character we live in a world today
that's infinitely connected and has unlimited
unlimited
memory for those of you who are on
social media all the time you know no
part of your history ever truly Fades
away this is particularly true if you
intend to be a successful professional
each and every one of you today with the
privilege of these robes that you're
wearing has the opportunity to be
amongst the most successful people of
your generation uh I was telling one of
the guys I'm waiting to see which one of
you is going to create the next Google
or the Facebook or make a difference to
um government policy or
companies so I know all of you going to
have great careers unless you wear away
from your moral compass
remember everything you do today is For
Better or For Worse in the public gaze
and the Public's interpretation of it
their retelling of it even their memory
of it it's very likely to be imperfect even
even
unfair uh I guess many of you have seen
the YouTube videos of Travis Ken's
argument with an Uber driver and his subsequent
subsequent
MIAA well access bank and I as the
leader we've had more than a fair share
of public Gaye recently in the last few
months you can keep railing against the
unfairness of the omnipresent media's
Judgment of your Every Act but that's
simply not productive just remember the
only real armor you have is to always do
what you believe to be the right thing
to do let your principles be your true
north not just because it's morally
correct but as one of my mentors once
told me shika you go a long way and
doing the right thing will help you stay
there so remember that every time you're
tempted just remember that you're going
to go a long way and doing the right
thing is what's going to help you stay
there so there you have it the three
major choices that have shaped my life
choosing The Road Less
Traveled choosing Partnerships based on
core values and common goals and
choosing to always do the right thing
remember it's the only thing that will
stand you in good stead when You Face
your share of the adverse public
GS class of
2017 I hope you realize how
extraordinarily privileged you are to be
sitting on these Lawns today to be
wearing those robes to be next to the
amazing people you have called friends
for 2 years the further you get in time
the more sural this day will seem to you
so do soak in The Wonder of it all
you know it's always hard to notice
history as it's being made no moment in
our lives comes with a flashing breaking
news Banner uh time and distance offer
us the perspective to realize that the
moment you experienced was indeed
history making in your personal lives
you're living through one of those
moments today and as a nation we are
living through just such a period right
now this is India's time in the sun uh
you heard Mr B say that as well it's our
time as a nation to regain our fair
share of global economic production of
trade of Arts culture
Innovation as graduates of wiimi the
well-known Institute of Management in
Western India I presume it's still
called that [Applause]
[Applause]
right it is in incumbent upon you to
lead from the front in the building of
our nation whether you plan to join a
multibillion dollar a firm or seed a
startup you form the talent engine that
the India story is depending on as you
make choices that maximize your
potential do remember you are also part
of something larger than yourselves you
have the potential to reshape our
country and the country eagerly awaits
that reshaping your choices will Define
you and your Society so choose Choose
Wisely I said earlier that you're poised
to enter the real world tomorrow that's
true but that's tomorrow today go party
and thank you so much for your patience [Applause]
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