Author: kitman-007

Written by Kittur Nagesh
August 24, 2003

Our batteries were fully charged
So were all our credit cards.
A hefty tuition we had to pay
Tenfold we’d make with our new resume!
From work, we took a week-long hiatus
To make our mark at Park Hyatt. Yes!
Our feet were nimble, not made of clay
Wharton MBA, we knew, wouldn’t be all play.
Thus, from humble beginnings was born Wharton West,
With a laser-like focus, to be the best amongst the best.
That’s how our odyssey began two years ago in San Francisco at the intersection of Battery and Clay, down the blazing trail of rolling backpacks and speeding cabs…. ________________________________________________________________________

Honorable Jon Huntsmann, Dean Harker, Director of Wharton Executive Program Howie Kaufold, Vice Dean Len Lodish, Professors, members of the Wharton network, distinguished guests, family members, and my dear friends:

I humbly accept the opportunity of speaking today, an historic day for all of us and especially to the Class of 2003.We are now in the elite company of leaders like Jon Huntsmann, Lew Platt, Dave Pottruck, and many others as proud graduates of the Wharton School. Many people dedicated a substantial portion of their lives to bring us all to this important juncture. On behalf of the Class of 2003, I would like to sincerely thank the wonderful faculty and administrative staff of the Wharton School. Your vision for Wharton West has blossomed into reality with flying colors.I would like to thank the family members, especially our spouses and kids, for bearing the brunt of our physical and emotional absence with grace, the sponsoring companies for their generous financial support and commitment to our time away from work, and our loyal friends. Thank you all for believing in us, unconditionally supporting us, and for being here today. Last, but not the least, I would like to salute heroic classmates, such as Alan Armstrong, who are fighting for a noble cause in Iraq while putting their graduation on hold.

Over the last two years, we were privileged to learn from words or deeds of wisdom that great men and women articulated or acted upon. Several such luminaries are in this room today. Indeed, quite a few are my beloved friends from the cherished Class of 2003. Over the last two years we repeatedly jumped out of a well of ignorance and immersed ourselves in a flowing stream of knowledge. What a great escape it was! However, the world around us was changing constantly. The dot-com bust, the tragedies of 9/11, the ongoing war on terrorism, the accounting scandals at Enron, Tyco, and WorldCom, the economic recession, the weakening dollar, and the SARS epidemic, just to name a few. We survived and adapted to them all. In this context, I would like to emphasize it is not an accident that none of the executives in trouble is a Wharton MBA!

On the flip side, alas, just as our teams at work were getting used to our absence on Fridays and Saturdays, just as our families were getting used to us not performing any household chores, we have to get back to those normal routines. If only there were a PhD program at Wharton West…. I am sure Naveed would be the first to enroll to earn his second PhD!

Today, Wharton is a step closer to building a boundary-less institution. The Wharton leaders took the calculated risk of pioneering high quality MBA education and community collaboration coast-to-coast despite the economic downturn.Many educators have echoed that education is the progressive discovery of our ignorance and the critical global equalizer. I firmly believe that as these notions become pervasive, the value of a Wharton education will solidify even further. Let us give a big round of applause to the Wharton leadership and administrative team for achieving the first major milestone, our graduation, in a stellar manner!

To call ourselves pioneers may be too strong for the Class of 2003. The successful, well-honed Wharton system was already in place for us. However, as marketers, we shall attach that brand to ourselves anyway! The destination was seldom in doubt but I am sure you will all agree that our odyssey has been simultaneously demanding, rewarding, and humbling.

It was demanding as we balanced time, money, and studies with family and work. Somehow we had to free up 20-35 hours per week for Wharton work. We, along with our families, made numerous sacrifices, jumped over numerous hurdles, and climbed out of holes that we occasionally dug ourselves into, in order to arrive at this juncture in our lives. We successfully demonstrated our commitment to a lifetime of learning. We truly can take pride in it.

The odyssey has been unquestionably rewarding. With every intermediate milestone we celebrated there was a sparkle in our eyes. While psychological openness may not always be a virtue, we have successfully bonded, cultivated, and hopefully harvested, the benefits of deep-rooted friendships with several classmates. Author Sara Grand said “Our opinion of people depends less upon what we see in them than upon what they make us see in ourselves.” I strongly believe that the Class of 2003 is an epitome of this magical truth. It was rewarding to discover and rediscover ourselves as we fortified friendships through countless hours of project work and the numerous parties and social events. The dialogs from the movie “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”, which I saw during one of our social evenings, have become part of my family vocabulary. And for those, like me, who do not know Greek, Mori comes from the Greek root “morvarid” which means party planner, while Tamara comes from the Greek root “tamasha”, which means fun. There you go. Mori, Tammy, and others at the party headquarters please accept our sincere thanks for integrating and orchestrating fun into our learning over the last two years.

It was rewarding to build a portfolio of jokes and anecdotes from our Wharton experience. Let me share one anecdote that stands out for me. I remember on the eve of the Speculative Markets finals, my manager, Shah Talukder, who has an MBA from Kellogg, insisted I go home early to study. I immediately quipped, “Thank you Shah for recognizing that exams at Wharton are tougher than those at Kellogg!” He still remembers that comment but hasn’t taken it out on me! Shah, thank you for coming today.

Finally, the odyssey was humbling as the experience showed us our vulnerabilities in the midst of brilliant classmates and teachers. In one class while I had barely comprehended what the axes on a graph meant, there was Naveed asking a question “How do the coefficients from a multi-variate regression on sales relate to these trends?” It was humbling in the accounting exam. While I struggled to complete three out of four questions I saw Laura walk out half an hour early but still aced the test. Friends, may God speed be always with you!

I would like to spend a couple minutes talking about the legacy of the Class of 2003.

Out of the hard work of the last two years, or should I say six demanding terms, has emerged our intellectual and business freedom to pursue our dreams and desires. We have raised the bar for the future Wharton West students to emulate and excel in the areas of academics, cultural integration, camaraderie, self-discovery, and of course, sensible partying. However, we cannot forget that a Wharton degree comes with its embodiment of values, privileges, responsibilities, behaviors, and actions.

The legacy of the Class of 2003 is not behind us; instead it lies ahead of us as a clear consequence of all our actions.Our legacy will manifest in things small and big we do or create. Nothing will be granted to us. Our legacy will show in how we chart our new courses in our personal and professional lives. Some of us, I am sure, will do so together.The combined business and personal skills, the camaraderie, and the bonds of trust we built have created dynamite groups and potential start-ups ready to lift off.May be it is the innovative, rapidly charging battery that Vinay was contemplating, or the biotech and genetic engineering that Ian is looking at. May be it is the real-estate opportunity that Laura is passionate about or the highly-resilient storage network that Srihari is venturing into. May be it is the stand-up comedy routine that Sivaram is crafting! I am confident that some of the ideas my classmates have will reshape our lives while creating wealth and happiness.

Although we may take from the Wharton network, our legacy will show in what we give to it. Although we may recruit non-Wharton MBAs, our legacy will show in the subliminal preferences we may show to the Wharton graduates. It will show when we are introduced as a Wharton MBA. It will show in the articles and papers or even books we may write. Or when we come back to the Wharton School as an executive speaker, a big donor, or even as an adjunct teacher. It will show not only in the estates we build for our families but also in the endowments and trusts we help develop and nurture, including the Wharton Endowment.

I would like to close with a quote from Franklin Roosevelt “We have always held to the hope, the belief, the conviction that there is a better life, a better world, beyond the horizon.” As the economy recovers, let us challenge ourselves, seize the day, and make things happen!

Thank you very much for your attention. I wish you all the very best in all your endeavors, both professional and personal. Congratulations and God bless America!