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Mar 28

Business And The Exercise Of Charity

MANILA, Philippines The following are excerpts from a speech I wrote and delivered last Tuesday, March 20, during my colleges annual testimonial dinner, which serves as both as a mini-graduation and send-off for its graduating seniors. In it, I attempted to contemplate what my business education was for: how it has molded me, what it tried to teach me, and how my college, the John Gokongwei School of Management, integrated if it did the values that my university tried to espouse.

* * * * *

It is truly a great honor to have been selected to speak in front of all of you tonight, and to have been invited to this occasion. Tonight is perhaps the perfect time to reflect upon the four years that have passed, and the 40 years that are to follow. Tonight is not only a celebration of our collective achievements as a batch, but also of its place in the larger tradition of excellence that the John Gokongwei School of Management (SOM) has espoused.

I think all of us [my batchmates] have, at some point or another, heard from professors, peers, and other members of the Ateneo community that there is always something different about SOM students. Supposedly, SOM students are more competitive, less chill, and extremely grade-conscious.

I believe the one thing that really marks SOM students is the desire to perform and perform well.

The fact that we are competitive, stressed, and always anxious to get an A really testifies to that basic fact. This is because SOM students are constantly surrounded by pressure: every Accounting exam, every panel presentation, and every peso earned by our businesses is potentially a make-or-break.

If we have imbibed the spirit of magis, or the pursuit of excellence, then it is due not only to our individual merit, but also in large part to the environment we have found ourselves in. Perhaps it is fair to say that all of us, whether we are aware of it or not, owe a lot to our respective teachers and curricula for molding us into the persons we have become.

In fact, none of us have made it here solely on the basis of individual talent, skill, or achievement. A large part of what we are graded for are group works such as business presentations and group reports, so that even if many of us are here on the basis of individual distinctions, we would not have been able to attain them without others.

This is why we can speak of our batchs achievements as collective; all of us have helped each other to get to where we are today. All of us are being honored, in some way, for our achievements with our respective groups in marketing, operations management, organizational behavior and other majors.

Along with our teachers and course curricula, we owe no small gratitude to our teammates, groupmates, and blockmates for equipping us with the skills and mindset necessary to make it in the world outside of school.

Go here to see the original:
Business And The Exercise Of Charity

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