The Great Circle

The Great Circle is an initiative by the Alumni Relations cell at Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai.

This initiative is one of its kind where alumni get to share their expertise in various areas of management such as entrepreneurship, marketing, finance, operations, analytics etc.

The series started in July 2020 with a focus on building a stronger connect between Great Lakes’ alumni and current students. In the words of our founder and chairman, Dr. Bala Balachandran, "Your network is your net worth" and what better than having access to a strong network available right in your backyard.

Each Great Circle talk constitutes a 60-minute talk on a particular topic from the alum followed by 30 minutes of interaction with the current students.

Our first talk was scheduled on 4th July 2020 with Lakshmikant PB; an alum from the class of 2006 currently the Director of Finance at Antler India. The session was well-received by all the students present as they were treated to an insightful talk on ‘Early Stage VC Investing and Portfolio Management’.

The Great Circle - Alumni Talks’ initiative continued as usual with resounding support from the students and alumni. In November and December, we had Sathish Seshadri (PGPM Co ‘06) and Madan Menon (PGPM Co ‘05) share valuable insights with students and help them get a step closer to future-ready.

Mr. Sathish Seshadri, an alum from the PGPM batch of 2006 and currently Vice President - Strategy at Genpact shared his expertise and deep insights with our students on 'Consultant's Mindset'. Sathish believes that "Consulting to a certain extent is about content and expertise but ultimately it becomes all about trust and relationships".

We also hosted Mr. Madan Menon, an alum from PGPM Co' 2005 and currently the COO and Board Member of Innovative International Acquisition Corp (USA), which has successfully been listed with NASDAQ in October '21 with a closing of $230,000,000 in Initial Public Offering. He delivered an excellent educational session on 'Understanding SPACs' to our students and alumni. Madan believes that ''The Key is perception and it is important to find a team that compliments each other's skills.'' while starting one's own company. Madan is also a board member of several public and private enterprises and has more than 17 years of startup and technology experience having worked with enterprises and startups in various capacities.