The Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad held its 57th annual convocation at its campus today. Notably, the convocation was held on-campus after a gap of two years.

This year, a total of 584 students from the two-year postgraduate programme in Management (PGP); two-year postgraduate programme in food and agribusiness management (PGP-FABM); one-year full-time postgraduate programme in management for executives (PGPX) and PhD Programme in Management (PhD) graduated from IIM Ahmedabad.

In PGP (Batch 2020-22), a total of 387 students graduated this year. In PGP FABM (Batch 2020-22), 47 students received their degrees, 136 PGPX (Batch 2021-22) students and 14 PhD scholars also received their degrees.

The batch toppers from each programme were awarded gold medals in recognition of their academic accomplishments. Shubham Goyal, Vaibhav Agarwal and Nitin Kulshreshtha from PGP and Amit Kumar from PGPX were recipients of the scholastic medals.

This year, the Chief Guest Ms Falguni Nayar, IIMA alumna and Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Nykaa.com, joined Mr Kumar Mangalam Birla, and Professor Errol D’Souza, Director, IIMA and other Board members for the Convocation.

Delivering the Convocation address, Falguni Nayar, said, “Don’t be afraid to take risks along the way. You are blessed to be entering a world that now increasingly risks friendly. Spend the early years of your career taking the right risks and make some bold bets on yourself. And remember, no matter what anyone says, it is never too late to start all over again. Decision making will not always be easy, and often there will be no straightforward answer. So, trust your gut to an extent, it will guide you well.”

Addressing the students, the director of IIM Ahmedabad, Errol D’Souza, said, “It is no longer about short-term financial targets and efficient execution. Ever since the Great Financial Crisis, and even more so since the pandemic, there is some room for a swashbuckling Elon Musk but soft skills such as compassion and collaboration are going to be a top requirement. Your views on corporate strategy will be important but so will those on climate change, discrimination and inclusion, human rights, culture wars and a host of other issues.

Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairperson, Board of Governors, IIM-Ahmedabad, said, “The fundamentals of business building are perhaps now truer than ever. External circumstances will most certainly change ferociously over the coming few years. Identify which problems and what types of people excite you and invest time in them both. Ride out the short-term froth.”