Tata Steel MD Narendran addresses XLRI annual convocation

Jamshedpur, Jul 17 (PTI) Faced with unprecedented
challenges - a life threatening pandemic, climate weirding
and economic downturn, it is upto the aspiring business
leaders of tomorrow to build their resilience quotient and
turn these into opportunities, said Tata Steel Managing
Director (India and South East Asia) TV Narendran Saturday.
    Narendran, who is also the Chairman of the Board of
Governors, XLRI Xavier School of Management, one of Indias
premier B-Schools, was addressing its 65th annual convocation
of 2019-21 batch held virtually.
    Narendran said: "It is rare that we come across
multiple large challenges in such a short period - a life-
threatening pandemic, climate weirding as a consequence of
climate change and an economic downturn.
"As aspiring business leaders of tomorrow, these
unprecedented challenges offer valuable learnings as we have
all suddenly moved into a scenario where the managerial
acronym VUCA (short for volatility, uncertainty, complexity,
and ambiguity) has acquired totally different meanings.
"The new VUCA world challenges you to build your
resilience quotient, take care of your own health and those of
your loved ones and friends and also beckons you to support to
the extent possible, all the marginalised people who live life
on a day-to-day basis".
    He said XLRI established in 1949 has consistently
striven to uphold its mission to help shape competent
business leaders yet upholding high personal values and
societal concerns.
    The industrial township of Jamshedpur is indeed
fortunate to have such a progressive management school that
offers much more than management-centric education programmes,
he said.
"In these trying times, I wish each of you all the very
best in all your future endeavors, and I urge you to remember
'these times shall also pass' and we shall overcome these
challenges as a business school, as a nation, and as a global
family," he added.
    XLRI conferred 'Sir Jehangir Ghandy Medal for Social
and Industrial Peace' on Sandeep Kataria, Global CEO, Bata
Corporation who graced the convocation ceremony as the chief
guest.
    As many as 506 XLRI students virtually received their
graduating certificates and medals, including 178 & 181
students of Postgraduate Programmes in Management - BM, and
HRM; 101 students of 15-months PGDM (General Management)
Program; 06 students of Fellow Program in Management (FPM) and
40 students of the 20182021 batch of PGDM-BM Programme
(Evening).
    Director XLRI Fr Paul Fernandes congratulated the
graduating students and advised them to uphold the values they
have imbibed at XLRI to be responsible leaders who are
extraordinary professionals with a sensitive conscience.
    "This is the second time the convocation is being held
virtually due to COVID restrictions... We had a successful
year in 2020-21, and it is the result of our teamwork and our
determination to take this institution forward and make it
globally renowned and a top-ranked Business School in the
country," he said.
    He said XLRI felt proud to present the Sir Jehangir
Ghandy Medal for Industrial and Social Peace to Sandeep
Kataria, first Indian to be the Global CEO of Bata
Corporation.
    Delivering the convocation speech Kataria said, "You
are graduating at an amazing moment in time for the global
economy and especially India. I am not referring just to the
pandemic, which has impacted almost everything over the last
15 months.
"There are worries about the pandemic, probably the most
significant world event of our lifetime. It has managed to
touch everyone in a most personal way and unarguably pushed
back the world economy and people 5 to 10 years."
Kataria added: "When I look at the future with optimism,
I refer to the inevitable rise of the new order, a new normal,
an opportunity to recast many of the notions that we have
taken for granted over the last 50 years and provide an
opportunity like never before.
"Combined with the continuing changes in the geopolitical
map of the world and the triple disruption of technology,
global warming, and markets that have been gathering pace over
the last decade, we will see significant changes in the
workplace within your career spans".
    Sir Jehangir Ghandy Medal for Industrial and Social
Peace, instituted by XLRI in 1966, in honor of the Late Sir
Jehangir Ghandy, former Chairman of the Board of Governors-
XLRI is awarded to heroic leaders who have contributed towards
the growth of their respective organizations and also impacted
the growth of our nation in a significant way.
    XLRI is a premier, private management institute in
India founded in 1949 by Fr Quinn Enright, in the steel city
Jamshedpur (www.xlri.ac.in). PTI NAM
SNS SNS

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)