Commencement speech for the College of Natural Sciences graduating class of December 2003

Globalization and Change
Commencement Address: College of Natural Sciences
Colorado State University
Speaker: Vasudev Bhandarkar
Fort Collins: December 19, 2003

Address the audience

Honorable Board of Governors, Dean Rick Miranda, members of the faculty, the staff, parents, ladies and gentlemen.

Introduction

First I’d like to thank CSU and Dean Rick Miranda for inviting me to address you on this commencement day. It is a privilege and honor to be invited to speak to you 21 years after I graduated from this fine institution. In many ways, CSU and Fort Collins are my home town in America. Coming back to this town reminds me of the fine time I had at the Department of Computer Science, at the Lory Student Center, the Ramskellar, and the streets around campus, College Ave, Laurel, Prospect and Shields. And how can I forget Poudre Valley Hospital, where our son was born.

This is where I arrived in the US 23 years ago on January 19th, 1981. I flew out from the city of Bombay in India where the temperature was 85 Degrees with 90 % humidity. I came into Fort Collins on a Greyhound bus after flying into Denver. I vividly remember the feeling of wonder I had as the bus pulled into the center of town. For the first time I saw this white stuff on the ground. And I’m happy to see that the white stuff is still here, and the city is booming with growth.

Congratulate the students for their achievement…

Dear Graduates, congratulations to you all! You are graduating at a critical time in history, when the ranks of Natural Science graduates in this country are thinning, at a time when America needs you most. Your degree from the College of Natural Sciences makes you a rare breed in America, less than 17% of students in the nation are Natural Science graduates. You have undertaken to solve hard problems, learned to adapt to situations and deliver results with confidence. Indeed, the most valuable assets you are going to take with you are, first, the ability to learn new things, and second, the confidence to know that you can do the hard things in life.

Change and getting prepared for it

As you grow in your career, for most of you, Change is going to be the most constant theme in your lives. Bill Gates points out that: “We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. Don't let yourself be lulled into inaction” New technologies will offer you new opportunities in your career, or your interests may change causing you to voluntarily change careers, or maybe the environment will force changes on you. But with your ability to learn and adapt, I am confident you are equipped to handle these changes and make a mark on the world.

How things were…

At the risk of sounding ancient let me note that when I graduated from the Department of Computer Science in December 1982, John Elway had not even joined the Broncos and the RAMS were ranked north of 100 in the nation. The computers we used were mainframes, CSU had just installed a CDC Cyber machine and networking meant connecting VT100 terminals to mainframes via 8K dialup modems. In fact, Al Gore had not even conceived of the Internet then, cell-phones were practically the stuff of science fiction, and India and China were countries so far away on the other side of the globe.

How things are…

All that has changed today. The RAMS are ranked among the top half of the football roster in the country and the Broncos have won two super-bowls under Elway, who has already retired from the team. We live in a global society where the Internet is everywhere, practically every worker in the developed world has a computer on the desktop and every Internet user has used Google. Today there are close to two billion cell-phones in the world and people of your generation everywhere have the same access to information and knowledge as we do here in the US.

Globalization and the impact of the Internet

Indeed the trend of the day is Globalization, goods and services can be produced anywhere in the world, and sold anywhere else in the world. Four years ago I became the CEO of a company called Unimobile that was created by 26 year-olds in the city of Bangalore in southern India. They had produced a technology that allowed consumers to send messages to any cell phone anywhere in the world. I was fascinated by this group who had invented this technology so far away from any of their potential customers in Europe, the Far East and the Americas. As a company we succeeded in bringing this product to all these new markets. This made it possible for the guy in the UK, to send a text message to his buddy in China, using a technology that was developed in India and the finance, engineering and management team was from the US.

Today, more than any other time in history, you cannot think of a business as being located in just one country. The financial capital, the workforce, the production, the markets and the competition, these are all now spread across the globe. Businesses have to keep this mind as they design products, as they build them, as they sell them and as they support them.

Dealing with Globalization and Change: Part 1 – You’ll have to learn to work with different cultures

In 1996 I co-founded a company called Selectica. One of my first tasks, as the founding Vice-President of Marketing and Business Development was to create a website. And one of the first hits on that site was from Hewlett-Packard in Germany, which was building an online configuration system for their customer, BMW, in Munich. Five months later they bought our configurator and had such good success with it that it was deployed on the BMW website helping consumers to buy cars that matched their requirements precisely. Eventually HP and BMW recommended us to the HP plant next door to us here in the US -- which then bought the product.

The key lesson I learned here was that your first customers may not necessarily be the people next door; they may be the people across oceans that visited your website helping you to win those local customers.

I also learned that you have to be very respectful of people’s way of doing business, be respectful of their language and culture. It was quite a thrill as I practiced my few sentences of German – and I could see that it really mattered to my customers that I was attempting to learn their language.

The Internet has affected us in other ways. In a world where information is equally available to everyone we will have to be prepared to both partner with or compete with the finest minds in any country in the world. Competition is global, all the more so in the world of digital products and services. The best ideas or business models will dominate, regardless of their national origins. It is in this competitive global regime that you will have to operate.

Dealing with Globalization and Change: Part 2 – Be prepared to learn new skills, believe in the power of your dreams

As you set out on this journey there will be much to think about, many choices to be made. Dream big, act fearlessly and do not be afraid of failures. Eleanor Roosevelt once said: The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. Dear graduates, believe in your dreams, believe in yourself…don’t take no for an answer…and go out and make them work.

The first company I started in 1992 was a failure. I simply did not understand the basics of how to market our company’s products nor get our name out. I then decided to go to graduate school for a business degree – later, I also gave up my comfortable day job at Apple Computer and joined a startup that had a senior and more experienced management team from whom I could learn about creating a business first hand. Undertaking graduate education in Business was quite a deviation for me as a technically trained person, but I realized that in order for me to do my job right I had to have that education.

Dealing with Globalization and Change: Part 3 – Work hard, be persistent, be optimistic

There will be times in your career when you’re tired of doing the same thing over and over again. And at other times you will be unsatisfied with the options you have. That’s when you should do what Dr. Ferdinand Porsche did. He could not find the sports car of his dreams so he built one himself! Don’t be afraid to build something on your own. But you will have to work hard to achieve success. Not every person who works hard is successful, nor is every smart person successful. It takes a great deal of luck, but over the years, I’ve realized that there is no substitute for hard work and persistence on the road to success.

Summarize call to action

So here are my Top Four suggestions for you as you graduate this year:

First: Please plan on coming back to school – you can never learn enough. Luckily, in America, there are no age limits to go back to school and learn. Seek advanced degrees, seek different degrees, continue to grow your mind. The best physical athletes cross-train – so should you as mental athletes.

Second: In this global economy – try to learn from other cultures. Go learn a new language, live in a foreign land for a while – you will learn first hand about new cultures and how to work with them.

Third: Be fearless, dream big dreams, work hard, and be optimistic – always be positive about your work, the people around you and the situation you are in. Always look at the bright side and look for the silver lining because that’s the attitude which will serve you through the inevitable tough times.

Finally: Don’t forget to have fun and keep asking yourself the question: Are we having fun yet? Because if you’re not having fun, then it’s an early warning that what you’re doing is not right and it’s time to change!

Conclusion

Although I hope to have said something useful that you’ll remember a long time from now, I’ll feel thrilled if you think about what I’ve said a few minutes from now. As Natural Science graduates you now have a strong foundation to build your career from. I am confident that your fine teachers and your colleagues at this great Institution have equipped all of you to realize your dreams and I know you’re all eager to go out and live those dreams for the future.

So, head home well-deserving graduates. Enjoy that hard-earned vacation with the people you love, your parents, family and friends – they are all waiting for you.

I’d like to close by reading excerpts from a poem entitled Ithaca, written in 1911 by the Greek Poet, Constantine Cavafis:

Ithaca
Constantine Cavafis (1863-1933)

When you set out on the voyage to Ithaca,
pray that your journey may be long,
full of adventures, full of knowledge.
Of the Laestrygones and the Cyclopes,
and of furious Poseidon,
do not be afraid,
for such on your journey you shall never meet
if your thought remain lofty,
if a selectemotion imbue your spirit and your body.

The Laestrygones and the Cyclopes
and furious Poseidon you will never meet
unless you drag them with you in your soul,
unless your soul raises them up before you.
Pray that your journey may be long,
that many may those summer mornings bewhen with such pleasure,
such untold delightyou enter harbors you've not seen before;
that you stop at Phoenician market places
to procure the goodly merchandise,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,and voluptuous perfumes of every kind,
as lavish an amount of voluptuous perfumes as you can;
that you venture on to many Egyptian cities
to learn, and yet again to learn from the sages.

But you must always keep Ithaca in mind.
For to arrive there is your ultimate goal.
Yet do not by any means hasten your voyage.
Let it best endure for many years,
until grown old at length you anchor at your island
rich with all you have acquired on the way.
You never hoped that Ithaca would give you riches.
For, Ithaca has given you the lovely voyage.
Without her you would not have ventured on the way.
She has nothing more to give you now.
Poor though you may find her,
Ithaca has not deceived you.
Now that you have become so wise,
so full of experience,
you will have understood the meaning of an Ithaca.

Thank you.

*This talk has benefited much by input from my friend Arun Kumar.