Bhubaneswar: The Foundation Day Lecture of the Xavier Institute of Management Bhubaneswar (XIMB) was held Wednesday marking the successful cooperation between the state government and the Jesuits.
Every year, on this day, well known business leaders are invited to speak on business and leadership, as well as to encourage students to excel in Business Management.
Business leaders like Vinita Bali, Madhur Bajaj, Lalite Gupte, Ashok Soota, Dr Preetha Reddy, Dr B. Muthuraman, D. Shivakumar and Dr Naushad Forbes have delivered Foundation Day lectures in previous years.
This year, the XIMB invited Adi Godrej, the Chairman of Godrej Industries Limited.
The event was presided over by Rajive Kaul, Chairman, XIMB and XUB and Dr Fr Paul Fernandes, SJ, Vice Chancellor and Director of XIMB and XUB.
This year, Xavier University Bhubaneswar (XUB) conferred an Honorary Doctorate in Management on Adi Godrej. This is the first honorary degree conferred on anyone by the University since its inception in 2013.
Adi Godrej spoke about the future of consumer goods in India. He stressed on adopting the ‘consumer first’ doctrine in the FMCG sector.
He also spoke about how focus has been increasing on digital media and social media strategy. He also stressed how consistent innovation requires a lot of things in place like structured processes, systems and tools, but most importantly commitment from the senior leadership and in some cases even a major cultural shift.
“This is an interesting time for the consumer goods industry and the right time for companies to seize the opportunity at hand,” Godrej said ending his talk, and it was well taken by the students.