Kumar Mangalam Birla’s four life lessons to IIM-A graduates: Set goals, experiment, keep learning and be empathetic

Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman of Aditya Birla Group gave the advice while addressing the graduating class of the IIM-A in a virtual session on May 8. (File Photo)

Aditya Birla Group Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla has offered graduates four lessons to “be successful, compassionate and multi-dimensional”.

Birla gave the advice while addressing the graduating class of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad in a virtual session on May 8.

He added that over the past year, the COVID-19 pandemic “shone a spotlight on role of societies, companies and individuals on creating better outcome” rather than only the government, Mint reported.

Birla also rejected the idea that intelligence quotient (IQ) and emotional quotient (EQ) are “binary” adding that these traits are “rather complementary” and “make a personality wholesome”.

Here are Birla’s life lessons to the students:

>> Define your North Star: Birla emphasised that the past year has put the focus on the roles of not just the government, but also societies, companies and individuals in “creating better outcomes for all of us”.

He added that in such turbulent times, it is thus “more important than ever to define your principles and set your heading. Where do you fit in, and what do you want to be known for? Now is a good time to mull over and define the answer.”

He added that this should be the long term sight.

>> Experiment in your 20s: For the short-term, Birla advised the youth to “discover every phase of your chapter”, quoting: ‘Risk-taking is inherently failure-prone, otherwise it would be called sure-thing-taking’.

He added that experimenting does not mean starting your own business or company right off the bat, but rather “work in a factory, in a different country, in diverse sectors, and across unfamiliar functions”.

He added that the “opportunity cost” of experimenting rises sharply later in your career: “So, start early and experiment. Be impulsive. But temper your impulsiveness with creativity and positivity. Be thoughtful of what you want to focus on and what is the common thread that strings together your experiments and experiences.”

>> Build a personal flywheel: He quoted Vincent Van Gogh’s ‘great things do not just happen by impulse but are a succession of small things linked together’, to advise students that cumulating personal experiences is important.

He asked them to think of each experience as “units of learning” and the more are accumulated, “The more valuable you become…as the power of compounding kicks in”. He added that learning is elastic.

>> Add EQ to IQ: Birla shared his personal learnings from running his business over the past 12 years and emphasised that businesses cannot be built on spreadsheets, noting that “the most detailed business plans this year unravelled”. He gave an example of factory workers falling sick and supply chains being affected by migrants retreating to their hometowns.

“Therefore, don’t become one-dimensional in how you think. You need to add other dimensions – most importantly empathy and humility. I don’t see IQ and EQ as binary qualities, but rather as complementary traits that make a personality wholesome,” he added.