Celebrating the legacy of Dr. Bala V. Balachandran; Pioneer of Management Education in India

Chennai: Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai, recently inaugurated a memorial for Founder Dr. Bala V. Balachandran. The memorial offers homage to Professor Balachandran, while serving as a space for visitors to sit and spend time highlighting the heritage and legacy he has left behind.

This space was unveiled by Mr. Lakshmi Narayanan, Former Vice Chairman and CEO of Cognizant, who praised the esteemed Prof Balachandran and his legacy. Speaking of his legacy at the event Mr. Narayanan said, “In Cognizant’s early days, we wanted to do something in the company that was different from the rest of the industry. Dr. Bala and the team delivered a 5-stage workshop to us that Cognizant continues to follow to this date. The leaders of Cognizant even today distinctly remember him for this workshop he organized.”

Continuing, he also said “His passion to bring research minds together to collaborate and work on initiatives, ideas and innovation resulted in the Government putting together a platform to bring research institutions, industries and NGOs together so that ideas can be worked on collaboratively. This is driven by the Principal Scientific Advisors Office at the Government of India.”

Dean & Principal, Professor Suresh Ramanathan, Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai said, “The simplicity of his approach, the way he could articulate what he wanted to get done and then have everybody embrace that and share his vision is noteworthy. ‘No’ was never in his vocabulary, ‘Yes’ we will get it done would always be his approach.” He also added “I owe a deep debt of gratitude to him, and I am truly blessed to have worked with him”.