IESE's 43rd MBA Graduation
Infosys Co-Founder Inspires New Business Leaders

The MBA class of 2008 heard profound and powerful words on what it takes to be a leader in today’s global economy from commencement speaker Narayana Murthy. Infosys is one of India’s largest IT companies and Murthy is a member of IESE's International Advisory Board.

One of the world’s wisest business mentors, Infosys co-founder and board chairman Narayana Murthy, helped guide IESE’s 43rd MBA class through the school’s portals and on to the next phase of their lives at the graduation event on May 9 at the Barcelona campus.

In an inspirational commencement speech, Murthy asked the 211 graduates from 41 countries to strive for a positive impact on their local societies. While outside unrelenting rain quenched a drought-stricken Barcelona, inside the elegant auditorium in the school’s new Barcelona campus, Murthy’s warmth and wisdom – and the joy of IESE’s newest alumni - shone through.

Catching rainbows

“Show me a successful corporation, I will show you a happy, hopeful, confident, enthusiastic and energetic set of people right from the chairman to the janitor. Show me a successful manager, I will show you an inclusive team with every member seeing a rainbow and confident of catching a part of it. Creating such a team transcending biases of nationalities, races, religious beliefs and classes is your big challenge,” Murthy told the class members.

The business leader had advice on how MBA students could form such teams. “[By] Emphasizing universal values - honesty, decency, hard work, tolerance and courtesy, seeking what is good in each of us - and deemphasizing our differences help us to seek a common cause and work together. We will be better human beings if we are open-minded to learn from other cultures while retaining the good in our own. ‘I want to keep the doors and windows of my house open to let fresh winds from all corners come in but I do not want to be blown off my feet,’ Mahatma Gandhi often said.”   

Murthy noted that open-mindedness to different cultures is crucial in today’s business environment. “There is more to history than Western triumphalism. New history is being created in Asia and elsewhere. You have to throw out the traditional mindset that Asian success is a zero sum game played with the West. Accept that we live in a flat world where new ideas and products could come from anywhere, anytime. You have to be in the vanguard of the effort to create a fair, equitable, peaceful, green and happy planet,” he said.

Holistic and humble approach

The co-founder of Infosys told the MBA class of 2008 that their time in IESE had primed them for this task. “Your education here has prepared you to adapt to new cultures quickly, create goodwill with host nations effortlessly, and use your education to add value to those societies and make your corporations stronger,” he said. “Such an education is rare and precious,” he added.

Class representatives Jonas Nitschack and Viniti Mahbubani said that in their 19 months as MBA students, the group was most inspired: “Not by the amount of combined brain power or eagerness to succeed - but by the spirit of the people we have encountered at IESE and the friendships we have made.”

They singled out three qualities as the most important for their generation of future business leaders. “Humility, to recognize how fortunate we are and to be generous to the less privileged. Integrity - be honest with yourself and others. And courage, to be bold and optimistic about the future and to challenge the status quo when it needs to be challenged.”

“We will have to explore new frontiers and take a holistic approach to the way we do business. It is not just our well-being that depends on it, but also that of those around us and future generations,” they said.

Leave a rich legacy

IESE Dean Jordi Canals said the school’s own foundation 50 years ago itself offered a lesson in leadership, namely of the importance of having a strong sense of purpose and spirit of service.

“IESE’s evolution also shows how critical it is for the business world to create a context that allows people to grow professionally and personally, and learn from one another.”

Canals also told the class members that in the incredibly attractive lives ahead of them they should think not only of their own success but that of others and the long-term legacy they wanted to leave. “How you would like to look at [your legacy] 20, 30 or 40 years down the road?” he asked.

Murthy also asked the MBAs to consider their responsibility to future generations. “I believe that we have all at some time eaten the fruit from trees that we did not plant. In the fullness of time, when it is our turn to give, it behooves us, in turn, to plant gardens that we may never eat the fruit of, which will largely benefit generations to come. I believe this is our sacred responsibility, one that I hope you will shoulder in time."

Leading the way

Prof. Luis Palencia, MBA program director, advised IESE’s class of 2008 to always keep in mind the human aspect of being a great business leader. “Never forget that leading means leading people and not just reaching goals. It is not enough to respond to the what and how. You must also address the why. You will always find the answer to this why in the people who will be affected by your decisions, and to find it you must show empathy,” he said.

Class representatives Nitschack and Mahbubani's concurred with Prof. Palencia's advice. "Sucess always bears the risk of arrogance which leads to ignorance and complacency. It is important for us to remember that leadership is the privilege to serve, to take more responsibility and to be more accountable to more people."

President of the University of Navarra, Ángel José Gómez Montoro, said Murthy’s words offered an extraordinary roadmap the class should consult often. Gómez also urged the graduates to say in touch with IESE. “That means you will never stop learning,” he said.

Executive MBAs to build on studies

Juan Miguel Villar Mir, president of Grupo Villar Mir, launched his company just 20 years ago. This year, the construction, fertilizer and energy group is expected to reach revenues of !7 billion.
His story made him the ideal person to deliver the commencement address to the latest graduates of IESE’s weekly and biweekly Executive MBA program. A total of 115 students graduated from the 19-month, part-time program at IESE's Madrid campus on May 22.

Villar Mir told the graduates that seven factors lie behind his group’s success and would be key to theirs: the will to work hard; emotional stability in good times and bad; understanding the importance of analysis and study (and not over-rating intuition); skill in communicating with and motivating others; ambition and ability to handle risk; maintenance of personal health; and honesty.

“And understand that there are no good sectors or bad sectors, no good businesses or bad ones, simply ones that are well-managed or badly-managed,” he told the graduates.

Class representatives, Raúl Franco and David Martín, spoke of what they and their classmates had gained. Franco emphasized valuable lessons in teamwork by realizing the importance of each student’s contribution.

Martin said that looking out at his fellow graduates he saw people “who have dreams, who want to achieve great things.” He said the program had been a great gift to them but in return they had a duty – to go out and change the world.