Mr. Ambubhai Patel, Vice- President, Nirma University, Mr. N.V. Vasani, Vice Chancellor, Nirma University, Dr. Upinder Dhar, Director, IMNU, Prof VV Nath, Chairman NICOM 2008, and Co-Chairmen Dr Prabhat Yadav and Prof. Satish Nair. The Chief Guest was Mr. Satish Naralkar, MD & CEO NSE, and the keynote speaker was Mr. Raj Sisodia, Professor of Marketing, Bentley College , Boston, USA. After the welcome address of the Dr. Upinder Dhar and lightening of the lamp, Mr Satish Naralkar addressed the audience on the theme of the Conference.

Mr. Satish Naralkar:

He began the session by talking about the new economic perspective, highlighting the leading economic indicators such as the high GDP at US $ 1.25 trillion, India ranking 5th in the world with respect to purchasing power parity, etc.

The five main booming sectors in the growing economy of India are Infrastructure, Retail, Insurance, Tourism and Telecom. Throwing some light upon the future growth prospects of India, he said that if this rate of growth continues, the nation will overtake UK by 2025, and Japan by 2030. He also added that US is influencing India highly in terms of stock exchange.

With the advent of the new economy, the markets have been greatly impacted he said. There are increased FDI inflows, increased spending capacity of people, imports are much cheaper today due to the appreciation of rupee, and Indian firms are gaining greater global recognition because of mergers and acquisitions by them. Thereafter he discussed about the impact on marketers, which is evident in the shifting focus of marketing – from traditional methods, to Online marketing, Interactive marketing, Mobile marketing, Out of home advertising, etc. More and more offline support is being provided for online campaigns.

In addition to this, he talked about the growing importance of strategic alliances, giving examples of marketing and promotion of Bollywood movies, CCD and Air Deccan, etc. He also stressed upon “premiumisation”, and giving the example of Fiji bottled drinking water, said every product should have a story to tell in order to premiumise itself. He concluded the session by giving the 5 rules of marketing, such as you should have your own story, new P’s should be added to the list of 4 P’s, and greater emphasis on brand building.

Raj Sisodia :“The changing face of capitalism”

The inaugural session had Mr. Raj Sisodia as the Keynote speaker who talked about the Changing Face of Capitalism.

During the session, he advised against the American style of marketing, and was impressed by the value-based marketing strategy of Nirma’s Ltd. Marketing is about fulfilling real needs of customers and not exploiting their desires, because ultimately all the money is coming from the customers’ pockets. Therefore one should take a holistic view at marketing.

In addition to it, he said that over the time there has been an erosion of trust of the consumers with regards to the corporates. Companies those are effective and efficient in their marketing apart from having happy and satisfied customers, have happy and satisfied employees too. They stress on a stable relationship with suppliers and are also very active in social responsibility and causes which are strongly related to their mission. They join and align – not balance – stakeholders’ interests so that no one is exploited and all prosper together. They operate with purposes that go beyond making money.

Today the organizations should strive to proactively help and develop all their stakeholders. He gave the example of Jack Welsh, CEO of General Electrics, who was very much focused on maximizing shareholders’ wealth.

He added that today business urgently needs a new paradigm as the status quo is not working. About business in US he said that a majority of the public believes that executives are bent on destroying the environment, cooking the books, and lining their own pockets. Business has rarely been held in such low esteem as it is now. He talked about the managerial malaise. The cynicism and distrust of the public even if exaggerated will have high societal costs.

He believes that a new chapter of human development and economic perspective is opening up. But before talking about this, he gave a historical view of the technological, political and social foundations of the modern society.

He wanted the public to think about the impact of the new and emerging economies. The most striking feature of the contemporary culture is its unslaked craving for transcendence, that is, the state of achieving or surpassing or going beyond certain limits. He said that we are coming to the end of history i.e. that not anything really big was happening but we were actually at a turning point. Today’s generation is more inclined towards self-actualisation than ever before. The culture is more tilted towards feminism, compared to the past male-dominated societies.

He believes that the world is changing for the better. Referring to the youth, he said that we are fortunate to have been born in this era. Also, Internet has greatly strengthened the demand for corporate transparency.

Book release:

The session carried on with the book release of the papers submitted for the NICOM 2008. The book and the Prastavana (a book of abstracts) was released by Dr Karsanbhai Patel.

Paper Presentations and Planery Sessions:

Parallel to the inaugural session, paper presentations were going on in different session rooms and a total of 39 papers were presented on the first day of the NICOM 2008.

The day proceeded with plenary sessions, beginning with a panel discussion on “Retail – The changing face”, in which the panelists were Dr. P.K. Sinha (Session Chair), Professor, IIM Ahmedabad, Mr. R. Kannan, President, RAMMS Bangalore, Dr. H.P.Tipnis, Director Medicine Shoppe, Mumbai. It was followed by a plenary session on “Changing Marketing Strategies for Global IT Services” by Dr. S.C. Rastogi, Sr. VP, ESA Infosys Technologies. Session chair was Mr. Prof. V.V. Nath.