Success vs Survival
Honorable Dr Palanivel Thiaga Rajan, Minister for Finance and Human Resources Management, Government of Tamilnadu, Rev Frs Secretary and Principal, Officials, Organizing Team, Invited speakers and resource persons, faculty members, research scholars, and dear Students,
The recent trend in the financial world is, one could say, faceless assessment. Not only income tax auditing is done online but mandatory compliance is also given via online. And the evaluation and directions are done faceless: You do not know where your submitted documents go and wherefrom you are getting direction. This is one aspect of digital transformation. For some it is a fairy tale but for many it is the change to stay – Just like the teacher asking the students in the class: How many alphabets are there in English? Out came reply, 23 without GST!
As we know and experience, digital world is constantly changing. Before you become familiar with one concept or modality of operation, something else comes in new and more complex. We cannot sit and admire that this is the arena of the experts. We need to know what is happening around us in order to be informed citizens as well as responsible co-citizens.
Assuming that this situation is applicable to business world, we still need to be better informed, because it is the academicians who often prepare or train the students to get into the business world. Academic milieu gives us the know-how, while the real business world spins around money, economy, growth, affluence etc. But there one needs ethical values. The responsibility of academics who are training the future business magnates or enterprising economic adventurers should be forming each one within the matrix or framework of business ethics. So, we could put it as: excellence with ethics. Excellence in academic knowledge should dawn as ethical wisdom in real business. The expected outcome should be that the business or corporate world should put people before profit. It is not mere CSR, a 2% offer to the society, but the entire operation should be for the good of all in the nation or in the society at large. Business world should always remember, especially when striving for success, that there are millions of people in the world who strive to survive. And the corporate world has the responsibility to these people who are at the bottom of the social pyramid.
Business analytics, as we know, is a set of disciplines and technologies for solving business problems using data analysis, statistical models and other quantitative methods. Loyola is the ideal place for this seminar as there are data science and statistics as well as computer science as academic departments. All we need is inter-disciplinary outlook and working model leading us into big data realm. What is, in addition, needed is the process of using digital technologies to create new, or modify existing, business processes, culture, and customer experiences as well as expectations to meet changing business and market trends and requirements.
In this context, the Commerce department at Loyola College, is organizing a timely relevant conference. I am sure that the deliberations would be presented to the future generations in the form of learned articles published in national or international journals. I am happy that we have with us an expert in international finance and human resource in the person of honourable Dr Palanivel Thiaga Rajan. His valuable inputs would be the guiding principles for the teaching community to make the bridge to the real world of business. While I welcome all of you to this beautiful campus, I wish you a pleasant stay and meaningful interaction and deliberations. All the best.
Francis P Xavier SJ
21Apr2022