MAHSS students of class XI had the honour of interacting with Mr. Dean Menezes, the chairman of CMM group of companies. CMM was established in 1910, with the opening of a store in Panaji, and is now invlolved in fields like medical devices, consumer plaster, logistics ,etc.
Mr. Menezes started by telling us the importance of good upbringing and how his upbringing had impacted his future life and his career, how him having to learn to work hard to achieve success helped him later in life.
Talking about his company, Mr. Menezes gave us a brief idea of CMM’s involvement with a wide range of popular brands and also the variety of startups they have invested in such as Perspect AI and Lead Start. “Live in the moment” is something that we hear and overlook very often. Mr. Menezes told us to do the same. He said that the future was unpredictable and the past could not be changed so we should live in the present and make the most of it which inspired us all.
Building good habits is something Mr. Menezes firmly belives in and we were encouraged to start building habits such as exercising regularly. Along with that, he also told us about how meditation benefits us and helps us stay calm in any situation. The true path to success according to Mr. Menezes is having the right priorities that will enable us to effieciently work towards our future goals.
As an avid reader, Mr. Menezes encouraged us to pickup a book and start reading in order to enhance our knowledge and develop curiosity which is an important characteristic in order to ber successful. Futility of short term events is something that Mr. Menezes explained to us and also said that we should plan ahead and think of long term benefits which he justified by giving an example of how interest multiplied in the long run and hence planning long term would pay off in the future. Tips on success and happiness such as focusing on our goals and being ourselves were greatly appreciated by the students. He also spoke about morality and how lying mentally affects us and damages our self esteem.
AI, being in the forefront of technological development, has a lot of benefits but also some grave risks that we need to look out for. Mr. Menezes visualised how in the next few years, human jobs would have been taken over by artifical intelligence which would end up making us lazy and dull as robots would be doing everything for us. We were also informed about the dangers of social media collecting all our data, invading our privacy and influencing our decision making by showing us images to twist our thinking.
After the interaction began the Question and Answer session during which the Director of MAHSS, Mr. Vyankatesh Prabhudesai, and the students asked questions on various topics like the struggles of starting a business in todays world and market and appealing product designing stratergies in order to win over the customers. Questions on the education system, entrepreneurship and the changing world demographic were also thrown by the students and were satisfactorily answered my Mr. Menezes which ended this enthusiastic and inspiring session. We owe thanks to our Director, VPD sir, for giving us a chance to meet such an inspiring person.
-Prepared by Vedantt Koul, Class XI, MAHSS