In a speech that was as uplifting as it was moving, Pepsico CEO Indra Nooyi sought to give some life lessons to the outgoing batch of the class of 2015 at the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIM-C) saying that the course marks the end of their formal education and the beginning of their life’s learning.
Exhorting the graduates to ‘return’, she urged them to visit their parents regularly. “Don’t tell them you are busy.. I run a Fortune 50 company and I still call my mother two to three times a day” she said, adding that it was important to remember that today’s accomplishment was not theirs alone.
“The most important lessons in life come not [just] from the people in front of you; but from those sitting behind you,” Ms. Nooyi said. She urged the 435 graduating men and women to stand up and give their parents a round of applause. The sound of this and the silence that followed was deafening.
She surprised all by giving a speech which rested on acquiring human skills, and giving back to parents and society. “A successful career is not enough,” she said. “You must make a lasting impact.. you can leave the world a better, brighter place.”
Ms. Nooyi, an alumna of the 1974 batch of IIMC, was in a nostalgic mood, saying that today she had difficulty connecting the dots in her life.
Delivering the 50th convocation address at the B-school, Ms. Nooyi advised students to “learn, earn and return” simultaneously.
“The old model has changed. Now you need to learn, earn and return simultaneously. Never stop learning... stay humble.”
She said that while the students may have been taught many things there was much more to be learnt of things not to be found in any textbook. “I have stayed a CEO, because I was a life-long student,” Ms. Nooyi said.
