We are living in the most exciting and best of times ever in terms of the potential we have to change the world with the help of technology. We are witnessing the birth of technologies that will fundamentally alter the way we live, work and relate to one another said
Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Chairperson, and MD of Biocon Ltd said while addressing the Convocation Address at the
IMT Hyderabad Campus here in the city today afternoon.
The Billionaire entrepreneur Kiran Mazumdar Shaw was the Chief Guest at the IMT Convocation 2018. She was the first Women Chief Guest at any of the IMT Campuses, declared Kamal Nath, President of the IMT Hyderabad.
A new wave of Nationalism “My Country is First” is sweeping all over the globe. The latest example being President Trump inculcating that in the minds of his countrymen said Kamal Nath.
Over 300 PGDM students of IMT Hyderabad passed out. They were presented their Graduation Certificates. The meritorious students from every stream were given away medals.
Presenting his annual report, Dr. Satish Ailawadi, Director of IMT Hyderabad told outgoing students that learning continues beyond formal qualification.
Chief Guest Kiran Mazumdar Shaw shared with students her rich experience and contribution to research, innovation and affordable healthcare. She shared a lot of knowledge and insights into the industry, which was a great help to many students.
Delivering her keynote address on “Managing the Future”, the
pioneer of the biotechnology industry in India and the founder of the country’s leading biotechnology enterprise, Biocon, Kiran said, “If you compare the Fortune 500 companies in 1955 and 2018, you will realize that only a tenth of these once formidable and admired companies have endured the test of time.
Take a look at the list of America’s 500 most valuable companies over the past decade. Eastman Kodak, National Semiconductor, Sprint, US Steel and the New York Times have gone. They have been replaced by the likes of Facebook, Uber and Netflix. The combined market cap of Apple, Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Facebook is estimated at $3.5 trillion which is larger than the Indian economy”.
Technological advancements keep transforming our lives in ways we just cannot even imagine. Today, there are millions of people working as app developers, ride-sharing drivers, drone operators, and social media marketers, which are jobs that didn't exist and would have been difficult to even imagine ten years ago.
The next few decades will see cutting-edge technologies such as Cloud Computing, Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, Data Science and Quantum Computing provide smart young people like you huge opportunities to usher in “disruptive innovation” that will shake up businesses and transform lives. These technologies will also create new employment opportunities, she informed.
Data is quickly becoming 21st-century’s economic fuel, replacing oil as an essential resource for the global economy, and thereby the focus of intense struggle to control it.
Data Science, which allows us to make sense of Big Data, is helping us find relationships between distinct kinds of information, thus generating new insights, creating new knowledge and leading to breakthrough innovation. She said.
India is fast gaining global recognition for the quality of its data scientists who enable evidence-based decision making. The ability of our data analysts has led to the emergence of decision sciences at the intersection of technology, business and maths thus creating a new man-machine ecosystem, Kiran informed.
The exponential growth in the fields of Artificial Intelligence and machine learning is leading to a huge demand for highly skilled professionals. Over the last one year, the number of analytics jobs in India has almost doubled. As more data analytics projects get outsourced to India, due to a dearth of such skills across the world, we are likely to see a boom in this field in the years ahead, she added.
Speaking on the success and failure, she told students that failure is inherent to building success and I am sure you have been coached on managing risk and failure. In my life’s journey, my ability to face and learn from failure helped me a great deal. When I started off as a 25 years old woman entrepreneur with no business experience and limited financial success, I had to face huge credibility and perception challenges, as well as, failures. In those days, women were not perceived as good entrepreneurs and biotechnology was unheard of as an industry. The prevailing business ethos favoured low-risk ventures based on services and generic drugs and was averse to risk-ridden, innovation-led businesses like biotechnology. I succeeded against these odds because I understood that all challenges can be surmounted with perseverance and ingenuity.
When you fail, learn from it instead of getting defeated and giving up permanently. My underlying belief is "Persevere till you succeed. Failure is temporary but giving up is permanent!