Speach of Anil Ambani +++++++++++++++++++++ This is Anil Ambani's speech at this year's convocation at ISB. Quite thought provoking and peppered with humor. At the outset let me reverse the instructions given to you at the start of the ceremony... please switch on your mobile phones. See, I also have to work for my company. I believe you need to have a special relationship with god, that not too many individuals in their life times can have opportunities of creating world-class institutions like the ISB from the cradle. And I thought and I firmly believe, that this was a true opportunity for me, personally, to contribute in my own personal small way to creating a great institution. So, I am thankful to God. This school would not have been here, if it was not for two specific individuals, specially, amongst several others. One, the fountainhead, the visionary, the dreamer. That is Rajat Gupta. And two, if it was not for the unstinted, unconditional support of one of our most dynamic chief ministers that India has seen, the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Sri. N Chandrababu Naidu. When I was called a few weeks ago by Rajat, that he wanted me to be the chief guest for today's function, I mentioned to Rajat, that it would be practically impossible for me to be here, since I had already pre -committed to another convocation and in the true management consulting style, Rajat asked me 'what time is that'? I said it is in the afternoon, then he said, fine, then we will have our function in the morning. I have the rare privilege and the honour of being part of two convocation functions on the same day and luckily in the same country. Otherwise I would have to borrow Deepak Jain's flying carpet. This morning, I am here in Hyderabad at the ISB, and this afternoon I am at Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore for their convocation function. I am not, as yet, a paid Chief guest or paid speaker. But at least this gives me an idea for alternate career in the future. I had one of my colleagues talk to Vijay, the day before yesterday night at 9.28 pm to ask him and get his views of what Mr Ambani will speak about? After having Dr Kalam, who was not President of India at the time, when he attended the ISB, but became president I believe later, and my good friend Kumar Birla, last year, I think that his being the chief guest at the ISB really brought him to focus and limelight and he has won probably every award post that event. I was joking with Kumar and telling him that either we have to invent some new award category, we can always take inspiration from our film world, who has an award a week; or he should stop accepting new awards so that lesser mortals like us can also get them. After having Dr Kalam and Kumar speak to you, after hearing Vijay and Rajat, both of them have successfully communicated a large number of my thoughts and had spoken my mind, frankly there is nothing much more for me to add. What I thought that I will not talk about leadership, leadership styles because over the last one year as you been through the programme, you had enough of showcasing of everything that potentially I learnt, that you have learnt at the business school. For considering the fact that we are in Hyderabad today and ISB is at Hyderabad, it really is a strong endorsement for the fact that just 125 years ago, Sarojini Naidu, one of our greatest leaders, orator, poetess, who was born in Hyderabad in 1879, had to really travel to Madras to pursue her schooling education. There was no education infrastructure in Hyderabad. And of course, amongst many things now, Hyderabad also boasts of the ISB. It then takes my thoughts to women in business and women in politics. If Sarojini Naidu played a key role in the freedom movement of the country, and today in vast number of states, if we have women chief ministers, we had women prime minister, not only in India but in the region. The leader of the opposition in Parliament, Smt. Sonia Gandhi. Then why is it, we do not have women well represented in the corporate world? And I start with the fact that, we do not have enough women entering business schools. I was looking at the statistics, which showed that close to 17% of the graduating class today is women. Let us just compare this to a lesser known school called Harvard, the class of 2005, more than 35% of the graduating class is women, more than double, the class size is much much larger than where we are today. I said a lesser known school called Harvard, primarily because, I believe Rajat comes from Harvard, and I come from a better known school called Wharton. I clearly believe that women, especially younger women, have a very large responsibility and have to aim for the future as the future generations are not going to distinguish between men and women. The second thought that really struck me was the power of youth. It is the young power of India that is really put India on the global map. When we talk IT & IT Enabled Services, the average age of the people who are serving that sector is 26. Why is it that the best and brightest of our people, do not want to join politics. Is that changing? I feel the sense that is changing.. Let us take the newer entrants to politics. Sachin Pilot, a Wharton MBA, Omar Abdullah, Jyotiraditya Scindia, an MBA from Stanford. These are all people who are turning to politics and may be, their fathers have been in politics, so they are turning to it. After the education, they really had the choice of every possible alternate career they could think of. And why do we really need younger blood in politics? I have recently looked at the Lok Sabha website - 72% of the members of Lok Sabha are over the age of 50. More than 50% are over the age of 60. More than 25% are even older. Let us contrast that with 75% of the population really being under the age of 40. As you think and I think and all of us put our minds together, we are talking about effectively running organisations in the future. Can we all really excel in what we are doing if we really do not have a conducive and vibrant and booming external environment? Can we truly grow? Can we truly evolve simultaneously both internally and externally? In this case, internally I mean institutions, organisations, companies, and corporations. Externally I am referring to our political environment. And I do think this as a large challenge, a challenge that all of us will have to face, we will have to contribute towards this. If there is one thing I would like to do with the advancement of technology, I want to rewind, instead of graduating in 1982, from Wharton, really graduate in 2004 with all of you. The world has changed, so has India. The opportunities that bring with them the challenges, the trends are so different, that I could not have imagined in my wildest imagination, when I graduated from Wharton, this is where our country is really going to be. So I believe that all of you are very privileged and very privileged children of God, that you are here at one of the most exciting times, this country has seen. And India is clearly on its way to gain it's rightful place of being an economic superpower. All of you are already armed with a lot of detailed understanding and lot of management and organisational techniques, that are really are needed in the new world. But let me make a few observations. Compared to the past, all of you will live much, much longer - this is the contribution of the rapid pace of science, that all of you are going to have a much longer working life. Also you are living in a borderless, seamless, techno world, where opportunities really know no boundaries. This is the era of intellectual capital. Intellectual capital is change. With these challenges, these new revolutions, what you should be ready for really is Competition at the individual level, at the family level, institution level, and country level, can really come from anytime and anywhere, and this is no longer local, global and original. The longer working life, longevity, your ability to live till 75 or 80 will also mean that career planning and your choices will have to be made many, many times as you grow to 70 and 80. So I don't believe there is going to be retirement at 50 or 55. This will mean that skills will get redundant extremely fast. And they will have to be replaced as quickly. This undoubtedly put tremendous pressure on each one of us. Lifestyle change, the faster pace of living also poses tremendous pressure on individuals, creates both constructive and destructive tension leading to high stress. So that the importance of mental and physical fitness and balanced life, I think will also be extremely important. I would be really failing in my comments today, if I did not share with you, what I call-"Conversations with Dhirubhai". Because, if it was not for him, his vision, his commitment and his dreams, Reliance and I, my brother Mukesh would not exist. I recall it was 13th December,1982, when I landed back in to Bombay, now Mumbai, after graduating from Wharton. I ran through some summer programmes for extra credits and graduated in 14 or 15 months, through I was from Class of 1983, actually I graduated in 1982. On my arrival I met him and I told him, Look dad, I become an MBA, and I just going to take a break as I really worked hard, and I will see you in new year. He said to me, I am very happy and delighted that you accomplished this, but since I did not go to any formal school or college, I do not have any degree, why don't you tell me, from your learning at Wharton, what does an MBA stand for? I thought that was a rather simple and easy question, Master of Business Administration, nothing complicated. He said in his inimitable style and he said to me in Gujarati, so I will say in Gujarati first and will translate if in English, for you. His interpretation of MBA was "Mane Badhu Avadche" literally meaning "I am know all", I know everything. He said, you are entering into India, and you need to Indianise your MBA. I said, That's fine, I am going to work here. So naturally that would not be a very, very big issue. He said, did they at Wharton School teach you about Customs duties, about excise duties, about income tax, about sales tax, about Parliament, and I see in the audience, a former Member of Parliament, Sri Kamal Choudhary, whom my father knew rather well, said that, do you know what is zero hour question, what is a calling attention motion, what is starred question and unstarred question? If you don't really get to know all these things, let me assure you, all your formal education is not really going to help you. You need your practical Indian MBA. And I am going to go and create that environment for you, so that you can get the exposure. He went on then to ask me, Tell me , since you are fresh a MBA, just entering corporate life, what is the definition of a leader? I said, I really forgotten all my books back at Philedelphia and have really no mindset today to talk about theoretical definitions. He said, it is pretty easy for you, just admit that you do not know what the definition is. So I said to him, let us assume that I do not know the definition, why don't you tell me, since you have all the answers to everything, who is a leader? He said in his simplistic style that is a leader is a person who can attract followers. If you think you are a leader, please look back, when you are walking. If there is nobody following you, you are not any leader of any time. Very simplistic, but with a very deep-rooted meaning. Then he went on to say, you are entering Reliance. I am the trustee of over 3.6 million individual shareholders, who are the real owners of Reliance. Anil, you have really a choice. You have the choice to demand respect, you have a choice to command respect. You choose. Your demand respect mode will be, you are an Ambani, you are Dhirubhai's son. So people will have to listen to what you have to say. Your command role is really based on your skill sets, your attitude, your upbringing, and your knowledge on issues. That is what will carry people with you. But you still have that choice to make as you enter the corporate life. And I would highly recommend to you that you follow the command the respect mode rather than demand respect mode. These are very simplistic messages to me given to me more than 25 years ago, are still very deep in my mind, my heart and my soul. I asked him, saying, I have had enough bombardment this morning from you, everybody tells me that your father is a great visionary. Can you explain to me what do you think is your definition of being a visionary? He looked at me and said, I do not know whether you even will understand what I am going to say, because your are an MBA, and I am MABF. I looked at him with some puzzlement, and said, I have heard of FRCS, MBBS, MBA, Bcom, B.A, LLB, but never heard of MABF, what's that degree, knowing fully well he has no degree. He said, Metric Appeared But Failed. He then went on to say that, Anil, I am very, very grateful to God. And he was, a very, very strong believer in God. God has been very, very kind to me and he has given me the power and ability to dream. The difference between your dreaming and my dreaming is very simple. Everyone of us dreams. There is a small difference between the way we dream. God has given the power to dream with my eyes open. Dreaming with my eyes open, I have a better chance than you to convert my dream into a reality. For you, to dream with your eyes closed, you have a lesser chance to make it into a reality, but a much higher chance to convert it into a nightmare. He said everybody talks about karma, and everybody talks about destiny. Let me tell you that destiny, fate is not a matter only of chance, it is also a matter of choice. And in my father's words, for all of you, all of us in India, I believe if you can dream it, you can do it.