‘Dream big,’ says Mind Tree boss to graduating students of MAHE

Manipal: “Who do you want to be?” That was the question Mr Krishnakumar Nataraja, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman, Mind Tree, Bengaluru posed to the graduating students of Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal on the concluding day of the 26^th Convocation at KMC Greens on Sunday. He posed that question with reference to the alumni of MAHE, Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft and Rajeev Suri, CEO of Nokia.

Bringing down the curtain on the meticulously planned and brilliantly executed Convocation spread over three days, Mr Krishnakumar dwelt on the many thoughts that would obviously be going through the minds of the students after completion of graduation and offered solutions with apt examples for them to emulate, if that was an option.

“Many of you, in your minds, would be battling the thought of, ‘Who do I want to be’? At this stage of your career, you must think of big, audacious goals though you may not have clarity now on how to reach there. But that is OK. One aspirational goal you could have is to become a “globally recognized” executive in the next 15-20 years,” he said. “That would be in keeping with your alma mater MAHE, which has a great track record on this and there are outstanding role models to help you pursue this dream,” he added.

“As graduating students, can some of you aspire to become a Satya or Rajeev? I would certainly think it is possible. Yes, the probability of that is low and possibly 1 in 200,000 will achieve that. But, there is nothing wrong in aspiring and working towards that. Aspiration is fundamental for individuals to keep pushing the bar higher”.

Mr Krishnakumar encouraged students with the idea of start-ups, and gave numerous examples for them to start thinking in that direction as well. The visibility of start-up is very high in Karnataka. Already Bengaluru is ranked as the 4^th largest hub for start-ups in the world and possibly the fastest growing one as well. In your own region, Udupi based Robosoft Technologies a consumer mobility and gaming company has won global recognition for its products. He cited SELCO near Mangaluru, Flipkart, Ola, Oyo Rooms and others as examples too”.

“Whether you want to be a Job seeker looking to create high impact or you want to be a Job creator and impact the society you must give it your best shot and do what is right and not what is popular. The Journey ahead will involve a lot of self-discovery and only you can solve the puzzle. The twists and turns in discovering yourself will throw up surprises, at times frustration but when you find the solution you will be the most contented”.

Gold Medal winners: The Dr TMA Pai gold medal winners on the concluding day were: B Kiruthika, Manipal College of Dental Sciences, Manipal and Athira C Anil, School of Allied Health Sciences, Manipal.