The 26th annual convocation of the Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode (IIM-K) was held at the IIM-K campus on Saturday. The convocation, conducted in two sessions, conferred titles and degrees to a total of 1,196 students. As many as 401 female students make for 33% of the graduating batch from eight different programmes.
The morning session witnessed students from IIM-K’s Doctoral Programme in Management for Working Executives (PhD – Practise Track), Executive Postgraduate Programme – Interactive Leaning Mode (Kozhikode Campus), and Executive Postgraduate Programme (Kochi Campus) being conferred with their degrees. Hari Menon, co-founder and CEO of BigBasket, was the chief guest on the occasion, while Debashis Chatterjee, CEO and managing director, LTIMindtree, was the guest of honour.
Mr. Menon said creativity, innovation, and and team work were crucial to achieving success. He encouraged the graduates to strive for excellence while also maintaining work-life balance and nurturing hobbies. Mr. Chatterjee said continuous innovations held the key to shape the business of the future.
Degrees to regular full-time students from DPM (PhD), flagship PGP, PGP-BL, PGP-Finance and PGP-LSM were conferred in the evening session. Geetika Mehta, managing director of Nivea India, presided over the function, while Amarendu Prakash, Chairman of Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) was the guest of honour.
Ms. Mehta told the graduating students not to be afraid of unlearning and re-learning, and urged them to have fun while working and never to compromise on their value systems. Mr. Prakash congratulated IIM-K for its stellar journey and growing national and international reputation.
A. Vellayan, Chairman of the IIM-K Board of Governors (BoG), Debashis Chatterjee, IIM-K Director, and members of the IIM-K BoG were present.
Mr. Vellayan said the educational sector was undergoing significant transformation both domestically and internationally, driven by various forces of change. “IIMs are not merely academic establishments; they represent national pride and serve as benchmarks that attract admiration from neighbouring nations,” he said.
The IIM-K Director said the convocation was a dress rehearsal for life ahead. “IIM-K will continue in its mission to ‘Globalize Indian Thought’ and nurturing future leaders to drive positive change in the world of management and business,” he added.
