Deputy Dean and Gordon Y Billard Professor of Management, MIT Sloan School of Management
PhD (UI), AAA, AFA
S.P Kothari addressed graduates from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and Institute for Sustainable Futures in the Great Hall, University of Technology, Sydney on Friday 3 May 2013, 2.00pm.
Professor SP Kothari holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) in Chemical Engineering from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, a Masters of Business Administration in Accounting and Finance from the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad and a Doctor of Philosophy in Accounting from the University of Iowa.
Professor Kothari has an internationally recognized and distinguished record of achievement across multiple dimensions, with outstanding contributions both in academia and the corporate sector. In his role as an academic, he is recognised as a leading scholar, educator, administrator and global institution builder. Early in his career he made remarkably prolific and important contributions as a scholar, quickly earning an international reputation as a leader in his field, which spans accounting, finance and economics.
Professor Kothari has complemented his scholarly pursuits, for almost his entire career by serving in leadership positions both in his own organisation and his profession. He has engaged with institutions around the world in a spirit of collaboration, sharing his expertise and fostering institution-building. He is the Deputy Dean and Gordon Y Billard Professor of Management at the prestigious MIT Sloan School of Management. Other key leadership positions he has held include the Global Head of Equity Research for Barclays Global Investors, the Thomas Henry Carroll-Ford Visiting Professor of Business Administration at Harvard University and the editor of the Journal of Accounting & Economics, a position he has held for sixteen years.
Professor Kothari has been one of the most prolific and influential researchers in accounting and finance over the past two decades. His research illuminates the role financial information plays in the efficient functioning of financial markets. The significant and broad impact of his research is clear from the accolades received, the huge number of citations of his research and the numerous invitations to present at research workshops, conferences and doctoral consortia in all corners of the world.
Professor Kothari’s teaching expertise has been sought worldwide and over the years he has shared this expertise with faculties and students around the globe. He has devoted considerable time to guiding and mentoring young scholars both as PhD Students and junior faculty members.
Professor Kothari has had a long standing relationship with the University of Technology, Sydney which spans over 15 years. Through his frequent appearances and dedicated efforts the UTS Accounting Research Consortium and the UTS Research Conference have become leading accounting research activities in Australia. He has nurtured research and scholarship in emerging UTS researchers and PhD students, and they have benefited from his significant corporate relations with global companies.
It is a great honour for the University of Technology, Sydney to award Professor SP Kothari an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Business (honoris causa), in recognition of his outstanding contribution to professional practice, the achievement of the University’s mission and enhancing UTS’s reputation and international standing.
Speech
It’s often said, education is the weapon of the unarmed. With a UTS diploma in hand, you might be assured of a lifetime of financial security. However, more importantly, I hope the education has given you strength of character and a moral compass that will guide you throughout your life in contributing to society and the less privileged.
Chancellor Professor Vicki Sara, Vice-Chancellor Professor Ross Milbourne, Dean of the Business School Professor Roy Green, members of UTS Academic Staff, distinguished guests, graduates and your family and friends, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for giving me the honor to speak to you.
I would like to acknowledge the Cadigal and Guring-gai people of the Eora Nation upon whose ancestral lands the University now stands.
I would like to thank you for your very warm welcome here today.
To the newly minted graduates, I congratulate you on your achievement today in completing your degree at the University of Technology Sydney. You are ready for the world stage.
When I learned about the honorary doctorate being awarded to me, and the speech I would have to make, advice from friends and family started to pour in—I suspect because of their concern that I might make a fool of myself. The advice I received included; I should immediately develop an Australian accent, I should liberally use terms like Mate, Kangaroo, Koala Bears, and the Sydney Opera House. Talk about making a fool of myself. I thanked them, but brushed aside the advice, and instead contemplated on what I might say.
I have two daughters, aged 27 and 21. Quite naturally, they have been a big, very big, part of my life. Time flies. They have grown into young ladies, graduated from high school and college. Along the way they have wrestled with many decisions about education and career. As a parent and friend, I have given plenty of advice and voiced many reactions. If I were to distill that advice, how would I put it? Admittedly, some of it came from my heart because they are my daughters, but hopefully some of it came from my brain as well. Here’s how I would summarize.
First, have ambition. Aspire to something big. Ambition is pivotal to success in life. Poverty of ambition and lack of passion will put you on an unexciting career path. Ambition and passion will keep the flame burning in your life. Ambition will give you a sense of purpose and potentially a roadmap for the journey called life. Of course, life is much more than working to realize your ambition. Family, friends, and society play a crucial role in our life but, coupled with ambition, they will bring meaning to your life.
Your ambition might take you in many different directions: public office, climbing the corporate ladder, entrepreneurial endeavors, pursuit of artistic interests, and even more education to become an academic! Further education was the last thing on my mind as I graduated from a school of management in India in 1982, but my passion was to explore the West and learn from Western civilization, including the source of its prosperity. I traveled to the US for doctoral studies, and thirty years later here I am in front of you as someone who has followed his passion, but I am still attempting to fulfill the ambition—it tends to be a moving target, as you will learn over time.
My second observation is that the path to ambition is paved with hard work and commitment to lifelong learning. Let me tell you a story. It may not be entirely factual, but it makes a point. MIT’s past President Wiesner after his retirement was traveling through Sao Paulo, Brazil. There was an alumni event was organized in his honor, and At the event, Ricardo, a very successful MIT alumnus, spoke about his experience at MIT and his business success. In his remarks, he profusely thanked President Wiesner for the advice he gave while he was an undergrad student. Specifically, he referred to the advice he received on the day of his graduation, which has served him so well and resulted in his formidable financial success. MIT has thousands of students. President Wiesner could not recall ever meeting Ricardo, let alone the advice he had given. Even more puzzling to the President was that it was Ricardo’s graduation day, where more than 2,000 men and women receive their diploma, each handed to them personally by the President. That evening, a dinner was hosted and, as luck would have it, Ricardo sat next to the President. President Wiesner congratulated Ricardo on his success and then proceeded to say that he was embarrassed he could not recall the advice that had contributed so much to his success. Ricardo somewhat incredulously replied, “Don’t you remember, President, that it was graduation day; you were handing out diplomas to a long line of graduates. I walked up; you gave me the diploma, congratulated me, and then leaned over and gave me the advice, ‘Keep moving.’”
Compared to Ricardo working and moving throughout his life, in the past few years at UTS, you must have come across some who studied little and yet scored highly on the tests. I had some friends like that; they make us jealous, of course. Do not let that experience color your view that success is feasible without hard work. I have been privileged to have surrounded myself with some of the most brilliant minds in the world. Nobel laureates and corporate CEOs no less. The common thread that runs through all of them is their work ethic. They are ambitious; they love what they do, and they are persistent. Know that there will always be someone smart and hardworking whom you compete against. Do not think that you can win those battles without putting in the effort.
My third suggestion is to underscore the importance of a mentor. Your parents, elderly relatives, teachers, and professors all have shaped you and guided you to date. Your upbringing and your education have imparted to you a set of values and given you an ability to think critically, to reason, and to make choices. It’s easy to think that you can be on your own and succeed in life. I admire such confidence and yet strongly advise you to seek a mentor to help you navigate difficult choices and decisions you must make. Someone you respect for his or her wisdom and knowledge, with whom the chemistry resonates, and who is close enough to know you, but is not your competitor, would be the ideal mentor. It’s difficult to be objective with your own self. That’s why you will benefit from a mentor.
I was extolling the virtues of having a mentor to a couple of my students recently. They listened intently to me, and then one of them asked, “Do you have a mentor?” Unhesitatingly, I said, “Yes.” I have benefitted tremendously from a Pantheon of mentors. I am grateful to all of them.
Your needs change over time, and so should the mentors. Ambition, competition, promotions, performance evaluations, and challenges in personal life all might pull you in different directions and destabilize your work-life balance. A mentor will help you anchor and clear your foggy vision. Go seek a mentor.
My fourth observation is about the role of networking. In this age of social media networks, hype about networking has reached a crescendo. Of course, networking is important, but if it’s merely an excuse for drinking beer or playing golf or social interactions, then let’s just call it that—social activities. If you want networking to help you succeed, then you must think about the benefit you bring to those you network with. A humorous comment at a cocktail party or a round of golf might serve as a catalyst in getting to know someone, but for that acquaintance to blossom into a successful network, both parties get hard-nosed and ask, “What’s in it for me?” You should anticipate the question and think about how you might bring a benefit to the relationship.
Note that not all benefits come from networking with like-minded colleagues. One example of a benefit you can bring is to engage in a spirited but respectful debate, or present a challenging but constructivealternative point of view. You can benefit from considering and learning from other points of view, deciding whether to humbly change your mind and embrace a new direction, or to sharpen your commitment and strengthen your conviction in your beliefs, even when they are unpopular. It is a vital skill to engage in honest intellectual debate with others who may not agree with you. Aristotle puts this eloquently: “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”
My fifth piece of advice might sound unusual but is related: Learn the importance of selling. Most of us are not directly employed in sales and marketing, so why should you care about selling? Persuading others that our ideas, services, or products have merit, and are superior to the alternatives being proposed, is an everyday part of our lives. I write research papers and consult with corporations for a living. In both these endeavors, my challenge is to convince others that my ideas are worthwhile—I am selling my ideas. The gravitas of the ideas might make them sell on their own. If I think about how I present those ideas, recognize what the audience is looking for, and explain how the ideas meet their needs, I would find it easier to convince them to buy into those ideas. I would make more sales! Learning to sell is really learning about yourself and about others. It will enrich you intellectually and professionally.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, you are a privileged group. You are among the elite of society by virtue of your education. You have been fortunate to have received the support of your family, friends, teachers, and philanthropists. They all admire your success, but they will also stand on the sidelines and cheer your future achievements and support you as you face challenges. You owe them tremendously, but the reality is that they have contributed selflessly. They are not expecting anything in return. It’s therefore imperative that you give back to society, to the less privileged, and to future generations. Don’t get me wrong. I would like you to succeed beyond your wildest dreams. Remember the importance of ambition and hard work to achieve it. But, with all the success you ever imagined, your life will not be whole unless you show your gratitude for the extraordinary privilege that you have enjoyed.
Thank you.