The first ever online SPJIMR Day Celebration was a roaring success! It was a day of records! From a total of 1303 registrants a record number of 852 attendees comprising of SPJIMR faculty, staff, students, and alumni from all parts of the world tuned in to witness a magical evening of inspiring speeches, heartwarming stories, and a musical performance by current participants which stole the show! The chat boxes were abuzz with delighted alumni connecting with each other and demanding calls for an encore event next year! It was truly an evening where the SPJIMR family came together as one community and exemplified the spirit of courage and heart!
Conducted online on a Zoom webinar, the evening kicked off with speeches from the SPJIMR Dean, Dr. Ranjan Banerjee, our illustrious alum, Mrs. Shalini Kapoor, IBM Fellow and CTO for AI, IBM, and Mr. Anil Kulkarni, ex Professor, SPJIMR.
The Dean spoke about the challenges faced by the entire SPJIMR community in the current climate of global uncertainty due to the Covid-19 pandemic and illustrated about the two key values required in response to the current crisis as, “concern for the medium term and long term wellbeing of our students and our community, and concern and compassion for others, many of whom are facing a far more difficult situation than we are.” You can read the full text of the Dean’s inspiring speech in the Dean’s Corner section of this website.
India’s first woman to be appointed an IBM fellow, an expert in the Internet of Things and AI, and a prestigious SPJIMR alum, Mrs. Shalini Kapoor reflected on her learnings from SPJIMR, which have helped shape many of her professional successes and general outlook towards life. Her mention of the DCP concept got the Zoom chat window buzzing in a flurry of delighted messages by alumni who immediately reminisced their SPJIMR classes. She further illustrated the importance of having a stable family support structure for professional success and why it is importance to always keep giving back to the society!
Ex Professor from SPJIMR, Anil Kulkarni paid a glowing tribute to Dr. M. L. Srikanth, by reflecting on the leadership qualities, vision, ethics, and the courageous decision making abilities of the former Dean who built, nurtured and led SPJIMR for 28 years, and explained why and how under his leadership the institute grew from being ranked last among the 3 MBA colleges in Bombay in the 1980s to the giant of an institution that it is today, sitting amongst the top 5 schools of management in India.
The next segment of the evening saw 5 of our alums from across the world connect with the entire SPJIMR community though personal and relatable stories. Megha Nanda, a GMP alum based in the Netherlands, Sameer Pendse, a PGEMP alumnus based out of the US, Tushar Mahajan, a PGPM alumnus from Delhi, Dennis Kuriakose and Mohammad Adnan, both PGDM alumni based out of UK and Singapore respectively, narrated powerful and moving personal stories about the lessons they learnt during their times at SPJIMR and how they are using it to deal with the current crisis, in both their personal and professional lives.
Then PDGM 2016 batch alumni, Mr. Debajyoti Biswas sang the official SPJIMR theme song while strumming his guitar. The powerful lyrics evoked a huge sense of nostalgia among all those gathered online, making them take a walk down memory lane.
There was one last item remaining. The showstopper of the evening, one which won unanimous plaudits among the audience and stole the show was reserved for the end! SPJIMR participants from across programmes came together to wow the audience with an outstanding musical performance for SPJIMR Day 2020 by singing the song “Roobaroo”, from the film Rang De Basanti, which in many ways does exemplify SPJIMR’s prized qualities – Courage and Heart. It was a pre recorded video prepared by the students, where clips of 18 students singing different words and lines of the song were stitched together to make it one endearing video which left the audience in rapture and awe. You can check out the video on our YouTube page.
Overall, the evening was a resounding success. The SPJIMR family truly came together as one community and displayed all the qualities that are held sacred in SPJIMR – one of courage and heart.