Speech delivered as student speaker at the MIT Sloan MBA Class of 2011 Convocation

Dean David Schmittlein, Dr. Victor Fung, faculty, administration, family, friends & the MIT Sloan MBA Class of 2011!

Thank you for the privilege of speaking with you today.

We’re so lucky. Every one of us has had our heroes who have believed in us way before we did. Inspired us, from our smallest wins, all the way to today. And at some point, got us fired up into thinking we just might get into MIT Sloan & maybe even graduate! On behalf of our class, to them, I say Thank you. I’ve had my heroes too:

·      My dad’s been a kind man. When I bored him with hundreds of stories I’d heard of this school MIT in another country, “learned” about entrepreneurship by being a smart-alecky backseat driver to his startup, and even cut my teeth on finance back in high school by day trading our limited savings on the stock market, he miraculously didn’t throw me out, but instead nudged me to learn and push harder. Even today, when he’s made the career switch from consulting to being a published author, he reminds me to take my shot at the ideas and dreams I’m passionate about.

·      My mom would thoughtfully invest in the 20-rupee travel fare to take me to math competitions, but not before nudging me to win a prize of at least 4 times what it would cost us, teaching me some of my earliest ideas on return on investment. (Mom, the tool should be Net Present Value)

·      My career building low-cost schools didn’t let me afford to travel to the US to visit schools, but when I got the opportunity to present a paper, my sister and brother-in-law financed the opportunity for me to come to Boston and briefly experience MIT.

·      And during those desperate moments of spending too much time at GMAT Club, I met my mentor and MIT Sloan alum Ayan Sarkar, who challenged me to think beyond the business school application to problems I could hack at and contribute.

You’ve had your heroes too, and what better than our heroes are right here to celebrate with us, and once again, believe in our potential?

Interesting How Time Flies Past. I still vividly remember standing by 50 Memorial Drive, excited but nervous, nervous but excited. The dream had seemingly come true, I was at the world’s foremost home of innovation, and here I was, wondering about fitting in. I had just turned 23, and didn’t represent the typical anything: demographic, work experience, career choices or even orientation! Clearly, there must be something wrong here; maybe ‘admissions’ was kind. Those first few days at MIT Sloan, when not befuddled by building numbers, I felt apprehensive at this incredibly accomplished and international cohort of students I had become a part of. I even remember speaking with my best friend, wondering if I’d ever be quite as excited as the tourists at MIT.

Looking back, I now laugh at that hesitation, and am proud that at MIT Sloan, there is no ‘typical’, you never need to fit in. We’re each quirky, different and have a story to tell… from Kutral Ramesh who think it’s fun to swim the English channel to Dennis Szesko who occasionally risks his life discovering exotic orchids, and now, from Vanessa Green shrinking power supplies to the size of three quarters to Justin Jensen chasing what he calls his consistent passion for photography.

Let’s keep this spirit because it turns out, the world is just one big E62, without this gorgeous view of the Charles but with the local Starbucks. Let’s continue to present the most authentic version of ourselves to the world. Don’t fit in.

We’ve come a long, long way together. Through the hard times and the good.

Sloanies will always be there for Sloanies and for the community.

·      When a friend is being dunked from weak rafts into water, we’ll be there.

·      When Santiago receives an airline on ground, we’ll be there.

·      When Charles St opens its doors for BHP, we’ll definitely be there.

And now, when the community seeks innovative, principled leaders who improve the world, we’ll be there. I know of no better group that thrives on change, diversity and innovation, making me truly honored to be but one of 396 proud messengers of this committed group that’s in the trenches, ready to contribute: In the world. For the world.

This community is so special, in some ways we know and many we don’t know.

·      It’s only at MIT Sloan that we’re chatting with Kanaka Pattabiraman at dinner, and when nudged, mentions in passing that invented a drug delivery technology and sold a company based on it, or that that Jimena Almendares wins the highest award for fostering LGBT equality and then works tirelessly until her award is shared with the rest of her team.

·      It’s only at MIT Sloan that an alum who calls up a current student to help with a project and make valuable introductions is the billionaire Adi Godrej – or that we find classmates excited to instantly answer any request for help at our Google Group, from finding puppy-sitters to connecting with CEOs.

·      It’s only at MIT Sloan that we attack the hardest problems around us, from Karan Singh who is set to help us improve our personal health, to Ani Vallabhaneni, Dave Auerbach and Lindsay Stradley who somehow manage to launch toilets in Nairobi slums, win every business plan competition ever launched, oh, and excel at the MBA.

We’re lucky that it is this Sloan community that will shape our futures!  And we’re luckier still that we get to bring Sloan to the world, and the idea that everybody has tremendous potential, it’s just a matter of finding a way to work together.

We’re got our grad rats and soon our grad hats, and the people who have given us the chance to be here, now is a great time to reflect:

What’s our ultimate higher purpose? I’d offer: Building Systems. Making Ourselves Redundant.

Based on over a decade of research, Professor Jim Collins studied extraordinary organizations that are “built to last” and people who create them. As he puts it, “Preferring to be clock builders rather than time tellers, Level 5 leaders are comfortable with the idea that their companies will tick on without them, reaching even greater heights due to the foundations they laid down. The fact that most people will not know that the roots of that success trace back to them is not an overriding concern.”

Today, I’m proud to be among 396 clock builders, who are prepared to make themselves redundant. Which place can say that?

·      Tim Vasil saw an opportunity for MIT students to connect, be it for recruiting or cross-campus collaboration, and built the Noontime Networking website – even as the initiative is benefiting thousands in our community, Tim’s moved to hacking at other problems including getting oceans competing to contribute to The Class Gift.

·      Adam Blake, Morgan Blake & Slava Menn sensed that entrepreneurs would love a fun outlet where social barriers collapse and collaboration starts flowing. They supported second years in building biweekly brainstorming session IdeaStorm, now continuing to serve hundreds in the broader Boston community, including friends across the river!

·      As Emmanuel Magani, Edwardo Sackey, Chinenye Aguoji and Chika Ekeji saw over fifteen countries in the Africa celebrate 50 years of nationhood, they successfully ran the inaugural edition of what we’re proud will be the annual MIT Sloan Africa conference, to spotlight ideas at work shaping the future of the continent.

·      And when our good friend Kip Pettigrew wasn’t nearly done volunteering to give tours of MIT, he created a trek to say Hi to the penguins in Antarctica, which will also continue, growing MIT Sloan’s footprint across every continent.

This list goes on, and will only keep growing as we pursue bigger and more critical ideas that create value in the ultimate MIT Sloan currencies of happiness and impact. Keep building.

We’re graduating in an extraordinary time of global transformation: we don’t even know what problems we are being sent out to help solve. Gaps in access to healthcare, international tensions, and billions in poverty are just some of the challenges that seem to come to the surface. MIT Sloan, bridging mind and action, has empowered us with the tools and the ethic to help attack tomorrow’s problems.

Our role, indeed our responsibility, is to bring the system-building hallmark of MIT in service; that’s places the highest focus on value for the community. And in the same way we bravely battled six classes, five C-Functions, four interviews, three clubs, two startups, and a trip to study Water Access in China, we’ll rise to the occasion, and work to make ourselves redundant.

Not unimportant, but redundant, leveraged, ready to hack at the next challenge.

This spirit goes far beyond problem solving, this is the power of systems building that is uniquely MIT Sloan.

These two years haven’t been easy – we’ve been there for each other – and we have much to celebrate!

·      We’ve challenged ourselves, and are taking with us Dean Schmittlein’s advice from orientation, that our strengths are going to be a bigger hindrance than our weaknesses, and we should constantly expand our comfort zone.

·      We’ve developed a crazy code of numbers; when I say we’ll miss E51-335 for 15.010 at 10:25, you know exactly what I’m taking about!

·      Above all, we take with us the folks right here, this most extraordinary set of friends, who will always bring out the best in us.

To our heroes, Dean Schmittlein, our faculty and staff, our alumni, our friends and family members, we’re deeply grateful. You sent us as representatives to experience inventional wisdom and have given us the opportunity to part of something far bigger than ourselves. We’re truly fortunate to be part of the greater MIT community in this 150^th year, which makes us reflect:

What will we do with our community?

What will we do with our ability to build systems?

What will we have done when we’re redundant?

In our own quirky ways, we will have helped fulfill the MIT mission to best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century.

MIT Sloan MBA Class of 2011, you’ve earned it, Congratulations!

A student is picking between a job at our startup and another option - he aspires to be a successful technology entrepreneur. Instead of giving a laborious pitch, I offered him this framework.

If your goal is to work on cutting-edge technologies and to learn how to build a valuable venture, I’d consider the following:

• Team: What’s the pedigree of the founders, and will I get a chance to work closely with them and learn? What’s the quality of investors and do they bring a track record of success? What’s the quality of peers I’ll get to collaborate with everyday, both within and outside the organization?
• Traction: Is the startup seeing real exponential traction in terms of funds raised / revenue earned, team members recruited, partnerships created, customers engaged? Is the business model global, seeking to be truly disruptive and chasing a multi-billion dollar market - or just a me-too play where technology is not at the heart of success? Do I get to join close enough to the inflection point to be able to influence and benefit from the early stage growth in the venture? A high-performing startup should be able to give you a completely bigger and more rewarding leadership role every six months.
• Values: Most importantly, are these the people I want to work with, I can trust, who will trust me, and who will shape the ethic I bring, and take pride in being deeply invested in my success?

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My co-founders and I deeply believe that putting people and their aspirations first is not only the right thing to do, but will help us continue to attract the very best talent.

When I launched Leveraged Dabbler, I promised myself, I’d write for me, not you. Well, I didn’t. So I’m pausing this, to be more candid with myself and move on with a bunch of stuff. I may occasionally come here and post stuff. Thanks for reading, e-mail me anytime (nitin.rao@sloan.mit.edu) and good luck.