XLRI, the oldest B school in India, strives to provide its students with the best exposure to the industry. To that effect, the flagship PGDM(GM) course set up a professional mentorship committee in 2021 to connect the students with mentors from various industries and around the world.
The mentors and mentees connect at the beginning of the academic year and continue this relationship through the 1-year program. Through this relationship, they build their network in the industry and get practical wisdom about the industry of their choice. In 2024, the mentors were invited to campus on the 16th and 17th of March to attend Sarthana – The Mentor Meet.
The event was kicked off by the hosts Mitu Gandhi and Devesh Lall. The student band of Oiendrila Mukherjee, Aman Khaneja, Deepak Maharana, and Rohit Kumar welcomed the guests with a lively performance. The inaugural addresses were given by Professors Kanagaraj, Sunil Sarangi and Dr (Maj) Rupinder Kaur.
Professor Kanagaraj the visionary behind this initiative, lucidly explained the idea behind the mentorship program and how it aided aspiring students in making the career transitions that they had sought to do. Additionally, he described the history of the program and detailed the vision that it is aiming at in the coming years.
Dr (Maj) Rupinder Kaur, a graduate of IIM Indore and the Architect of the initiative, took over the dais to describe the importance of mentors and how she had shaped the program into what it is today. She also emphasized the importance of mentors in one’s life and the importance of seeking them out actively.
Prof. Sunil Sarangi poignantly articulated the history of mentorship starting from the journey of Odysseus and how the original “Mentor” guided his son Telemachus and helped protect his family and Ithaca while he was away battling in Troy. The mentors were then welcomed individually by the professors.
This was followed by a couple of rounds of ’Bingo’ as they regaled each other with stories from their past. The day ended with a Gala Dinner in the International Centre, where the conversation continued late into the night.
The next day started early and pleasantly with a Yoga session conducted by Shatakshi, a student of the PGDM(GM) batch and an Art of Living Coach. Some mentors also used the early morning to enjoy the campus and its 75-year heritage. The formal events of the day were energetically kicked off by hosts Mehak Singh and Rakshit Mehta, who invited the Keynote Speaker Nishat Moheb Usmani, an Associate Partner at KPMG and their Chief of Partner Learning.
Her speech on “Building The Future You“ was a lucid monologue and focused on four key tenets of Self-awareness, Resilience, Having a Growth Mindset and the Ability to Change our Minds when challenged with new information. She highlighted the importance of how building ourselves may involve not doing more all the time but also sometimes doing less in that we remove from our lives what is not a part of our core. Building resilience and being anti-fragile was brought out through the example of Ernest Shackleton, the great adventurer, and how he, as a leader, motivated his people while also striving for extreme goals. Nishath concluded with three takeaways and to-dos: Finding a mentor, Creating a Board of Directors for your life, and finding a Passion / Identity in life Outside of Work.
As the final act of day 2 of Sarthana, each mentor was felicitated by their respective mentee with a memento, and they each candidly spoke a few words about each other and their experience over the year.
Sarthana was organized by the Professional Mentorship Committee consisting of Bhavna Rugmani Ramanathan, Pranav Verma, Shatakshi Kaushal, Suraj Mishra and Rishikesh G R.
