COO Wipro Ltd. inducts 8th batch of IIM Kozhikode’s Executive Post Graduate Programme, Kochi
Kozhikode: The Induction ceremony for the 8th batch of IIM Kozhikode’s Executive Post Graduate Programme (EPGP) in Management (Kochi Campus) for Working Executives, was held here, recently. Mr. Sanjeev Singh, Chief Operations Officer, and Member, Executive Board, Wipro Ltd. (Alumni IIMK-PGP 2001) was the Chief Guest while Prof. Debashis Chatterjee, Director, IIMK presided over the function.
The Kochi campus was setup in the year 2013 and was inaugurated by the then Chief Minister of Kerala. The current batch with 90 participants has a very diversified representation of verticals, out of which about 41% are from IT and IT related industries, 22% are from Marketing, 11% are from BFSI and Consulting, 9% from Healthcare/Education and 6% are from the Energy Sector. The major organizations represented by the participants are: Cognizant, Accenture, Amazon, Tata Consultancy Services, Deloitte, Infosys, Wipro, Oracle, Bosch, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd, Larsen & Toubro, Ernst & Young, and Vodafone-Idea. The average age of the cohort is 32 years and the average experience is 8.4 years.
Speaking on the occasion, Prof. Debashis Chatterjee welcomed the incoming batch and encouraged them to strive to go beyond the aspect of pure rationality – to also harness their emotional sensitivity, willpower and ingenuity, to connect their experience to classroom learnings and shape themselves into better managers and leaders. Contextualising the opportunity that the EPGP08 students have given themselves to be at IIMK and learn from “world-class faculty”, he emphasised that “like how every Arjuna has needed a Krishna, how IIMK can verily be their ‘Krishna’.” He also highlighted, with anecdotes, how steadfastly pursuing a simple personal goal can assist in the achievement of career goals, and also urged them to have their primary goal as self-awareness.
Mr. Sanjeev Singh shared his insights with the new batch, drawing from his diverse corporate experiences of close to 3 decades, and the perspectives of someone who also became a CEO at the age of 27. He touched upon five fundamental aspects that he believed were critical to growth and success: (1) Right attitude, (2) Integrating Work and Life rather than pursue the rather elusive notion of ‘Work-Life Balance’ (3) Seeking to find a pursuit that matches one’s passion, talent and profession, rather than pursue money (4) Focusing on “Value-creating outcomes for customers and other stakeholders, and thereby one’s organization” and (5) Always doing the right thing.
Earlier, the Induction ceremony began with an introduction to the EPGP program by Prof. Venkatraman S, Chairperson (EPGP). He also shared an interesting stat about the EPGP08 cohort having a significant number of candidates (46%) who are domiciled outside state of Kerala; shedding light on the popularity of this offering from one of the leading Management Schools of the country, which is also steadily gaining global reputation in its Silver Jubilee Year.