IIM Lucknows IPMX students return after a three week business program at McGill University, Montreal, Canada

The students of International Programme in Management for Executives (IPMX), the flagship programme for Mid-career executives from IIM Lucknows Noida campus,recently visited McGill University, Montreal, Canada. A three-week course on managing innovation and international finance was undertaken as part of the curriculum at McGill.

During their stay at McGill University,IPMX students of batch 2010 learned how disruptive innovations impact management decisions and how to promote innovative culture in various industries.Students also learned about various aspects of international finance ranging from currency pricing to international asset valuation.The students attended workshops on global economics, leadership, corporate governance and sustainable development.

The students had a session on ‘Some half truths of management’ by Prof. Henry Mintzberg, a renowned strategy guru of current times. Prof. Mintzberg talked about how managers differ from MBAs and stressed upon the students to gain managerial expertise rather than just a degree. He said that he did not believe in freshers getting into MBA courses, instead one should have substantial experience before doing an MBA to reap the maximum benefit out of it.

Beside curriculum studies, IPMX students also had a networking event organised by Indo-Canadian Chamber of Commerce(ICCC). Key attendees included Dr. Sunny Handa, a partner at Blake, Cassels and Graydon LLP, Mr. Alexis Cornin from Canadian center architecture and corporate leaders from firms like Deloitte Canada, ICICI Canada, Rintinto – Alcon, Balcorp and others.

As part of leadership series talk, an informative session on “Legal aspects of mergers and acquisition’ by Dr. Sunny Handa, a partner at Blake, Cassels and Graydon LLP was also held. He provided insights into various legal technicalities involved in mergers and acquisitions and provided a detailed flow of various processes involved in it.

IPMX students studied a course on managing innovation by Dr. Gregory Vit, a faculty at McGill. The course focussed primarily on how disruptive innovation impacts various businesses, how to manage disruptive innovations and developing and sustaining an innovation culture in an organization. Various research papers on disruptive innovations by Robert Simon, Peter Drucker, Christensein, Taleb and others were discussed at length and a holistic view of role of innovation in international business development was explored.

Another course on International finance by Dr. Sergei Sarkissian covering issues ranging from currency pricing to international asset valuation was also taught. The course involved discussion on various currency crises like European monetary crisis 1992, Russian crisis 1998 and others to understand the role and impact of currency fluctuations on the business and on the economy. The course involved study of risks hedging options and their applications in business scenario.

Students attended Workshops on ‘Sustainable development’, ‘global economics’, Leadership and corporate governance. Various issues of climatic change, international trade, people management and governance issues that have increasingly gained importance worldwide were discussed.

The three week session also included guest lecture on ‘Operational excellence in north America’ by Prof. Alexandre Boussetta. This lecture provided insights into various operational processes followed in Canadian industry and their impact on growth of business. The students also attended a guest lecture on ‘International competitiveness’ by William Polushin.

Students also got the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the cultural and business aspects in the city of Montreal, which is very important in today’s changing global business environment.

MDI GURGAON REVIVES ITS SPIC MACAY CHAPTER

The artists of SPIC MACAY (Society for Promotion of Indian Classical Music And Culture Amongst Youth) performed classical western music for the audience of MDI Gurgaon on September 3, 2009. The event was organized by joint effort of Sanskriti (the cultural club of MDI) and Samaritans (the societal welfare club). SPIC MACAY, a non-profit, voluntary movement for the promotion of Indian Classical Music and Culture formed in 1977 has grown in stature and form with a presence in 850 academic institutions. MDI has traditionally been an active participant in SPIC MACAYs activities and this event was organized in an endeavour to revive the relationship between the two. The event was sponsored by Canada Council of Art, Quebec.

The programme began with the lighting of lamp by Director, Prof. B S Sahay and eminent guests and esteemed members of faculty at MDI. This was followed by a traditional Indian welcome of the performers Julie-Ann Derome and Gabriel Prynn. Having performed across various countries in the world and being awarded several prestigious awards and scholarships, the duo is devoted to the performance and interpretation of the music of our times. The institute auditorium came alive to the tunes of classical western music blended with the contemporary masterpieces brilliantly created and performed by the musicians.

The first performance of the day was a composition by Beethoven followed by a French composition that heightened the emotional aspect of western music. Romanticism in the western music rose into the crescendo with renditions of Sonata, a Classical music form. The performance soon transitioned into the trance-rhythmic patterns and was finally concluded with an 18th century composition.

Speaking on the occasion, Prof. B S Sahay, Director, MDI, mentioned that he could personally relate to SPIC MACAY as the movement was started by Kiran Seth, his professor at IIT Delhi.

IMT Ghaziabad Hosts COLLOQUIUM NATIONAL HR SUMMIT, 2009

HRuday, the official HR club of IMT, Ghaziabad, hosted COLLOQUIUM, the NATIONAL HR SUMMIT 2009 at Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad on August 29, 2009. The day began by the inauguration of the event by Sushil Bhaveja, Head-Corporate HR, DSCL, Vijay Rai, Group President, LE Group, Dr.V.P Singh, Exec Director-HR, Devyani International Limited, Sanjeev Dixit, Former Country HR Director, Alstom India and Prof. B.D.Singh, Associate Dean MDP & Consultancy, IMT-Ghaziabad. This was followed by the release of the brochure containing a repertoire of literary contributions of the student managers.

The inaugural discussion was on the theme – Career Planning and Progression In HR. It was chaired by Sushil Bhaveja, who initiated the discussion with a wonderful flashback of his career as to how he started off as his career working in the PERSONNEL & ADMINISTRATION department which evolved to become what is better known now as HUMAN RESOURCES department. Dr.V.P Singh set a totally contrasting tone to the discussion. He refuted the theme itself as he felt one ought to plan ones life and not ones career. He said, The purpose of ones life is to love, learn, live and leave a legacy. Career is just a minute portion of the big canvas called life. Like organizations, even humans ought to have a mission and vision statement about their life.

Vijay Rai began his speech with a humorous take on recession Recession is when your neighbour loses his job and depression is when you lose your job. He advised todays youngsters to reform, perform and transform. He spoke about 17 core competencies that an HR ought to possess. He felt women have been equally affected by the recession. He strongly advocated the fact that one has to pursue HR as ac career out of choice and not by chance. He also mentioned about 7 upcoming sectors that hold immense scope for HR managers Retail, FMCG, Fashion & Textile, Health, Education, Food processing and Hospitality.

The second session for the day was two panel discussions on the topics Right Fit Between Industry Requirements & B-school curriculum and Ethical Issues with Hiring From Competitors. The panel members composed of to corporates from reputed companies such as Fidelity Business Services, Bharti Airtel, Athena Energy etc. The discussion began with the series of queries put forth by the student managers pertaining to the topics. These queries were then addressed by the panel members in their discussion which indeed provided some delightful insights as to whether the management schools in India do cater to the requirements of the industry. They recommended that subjects like change management could be included as a core subject rather than as an elective as such subjects would prove to be really useful for the students in their career later. About poaching, the panellists felt that if people accepted better offers from other companies, it is due to an underlying feeling of dissatisfaction and tapping on this feeling was not unethical, it is in fact a case of survival of the fittest.

The final event was a presentation competition on current HR issues by student manager teams. These teams had been mentored on their topics for over a week by professionals from the industry. The teams were grilled by the panel of jury members composed of Mr. Amarendra Mahapatra, Mr. Sidharth Mukherjee and Mr.Sujan Mukherjee. The team from IMT comprising of Deepthi Varghese, Nithin Gumbar and Gurutej presented and insightful presentation on work life balance and walked away with the well earned prize.

XIMB hosts leadership talk by Malay Mishra

On the 1st of September, 2009, Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar (XIMB) hosted a Leadership Talk in which the students got a glimpse of modern India on the world stage.The faculty and students were addressed by Shri Malay Mishra, High Commissioner of India.

A career diplomat, Shri Malay Mishra joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1979 and has served the Indian Missions in France, Senegal, Mauritius, USA, Iran, Germany and Seychelles in different capacities. Mishra has extensively worked in the areas of culture and information and has dealt with the Indian community in the above countries; actively networking and supporting their activities. He has also dealt with political, economic and trade related work during his overseas deployment and has had varied exposure to different facets of foreign policy making.

Mishra began by saying that foreign services gave him ample exposure to international leadership and administration and that he could sense the western medias opinion about India drift from the cliched to an admiration for contemporary India. According to him the skilled youth of India is her demographic dividend, since 50% of Indian population is below the age of 25 years. He emphasised that this has caused a paradigm change in the perception of India abroad and has empowered India to voice her expert opinion on various issues like climate change, foreign trade and terrorism in world forums like the WTO. He stressed on the fact that, in this country, which is the largest free market in the world, we need to have effective leadership and governance to have sustainable and inclusive growth. According to him secularism and democracy are Indias strengths and the youth need to use their ideas for the betterment of the nation.

Mishra later moved on to issues we share with our neighbouring countries and threw light on Indias approach towards dealing with them. He discussed about Indias role in SAARC and the multilateral system of negotiation that exists today in forums like the G20, G8 and G5. According to him, India being a member of BRIC is a step towards synergizing with other countries. He urged the students of XIMB to lead the country to greater heights.

After the speech, Mishra engrossed the audience in an interactive question and answer session in which he spoke at length about various issues that India faces today. Finally, the event was concluded by Dr. D. V. Ramana who proposed the Vote of Thanks and presented Mishra with a memento.

Ashwamedh 09: Combating Recession through Operational Excellence

Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar (XIMB) hosted Ashwamedh 09 on August 29 which was organized by XOPS-the Operations committee of XIMB. Ashwamedh is a national level annual seminar conducted by XIMB on important contemporary issues that affect the business in the area of Operations Management. Combating Recession through Operational Excellence was the theme chosen for this year. The speakers for this year were Sanyal, Sr V P- Business Operations, Ricoh, Simanta Mohanty, GM- HR, IBM, Rajarshi Chatterjee, Director- CRM, Cognizant, Satish Dhawan, DGM- Central Planning, TATA Motors and Sanjay Gupta, COO, JK Agrigenetics.

The event was opened with the traditional lamp-lighting ceremony. Thereafter, the panel members released the Ashwamedh journal for the year. Sanyal kicked off the event by presenting the various strategies which should be implemented in the times of recession through the perspective of sales and marketing. He also explicitly mentioned strategies like focusing on retaining existing customers and increased communication with these customers which Ricoh put in practice to reduce the effects of recession.

Mohanty turned the theme on its head and addressed it as Is operational excellence enough to combat recession? Being the GM-HR, IBM, Mohanty highlighted how the HR function becomes all more important in these recessionary times. He also reached out to the students of XIMB and appealed them to explore the unsighted domains, map operations in these domains and thus maintain the operational excellence template.

Describing outsourcing as a domain of IT industry which works on the operational excellence, Chatterjee reminded the audience of simple fundamentals and basics, and accentuated the fact that every aspect of operational excellence begins with discipline in everything we do and then doing it in a better way. He shared strategies to survive during these recessionary times which included customer relationships, vendor relationships, business processes, maintenance of internal systems and data management and the organizational culture. Measure, report and act was the mantra which he gave to the students.

Representing the manufacturing sector, Dhawan gave an insight into the combating strategies from the manufacturing perspective. He talked about the 3-phased strategy of cost reduction, domestic growth and international growth and also discussed ongoing initiatives in TATA motors like Kaizen, TPM and 5S where the focus is on interacting to improve continuously.

The final guest speaker for the evening was Gupta, who hails from the agriculture sector. He gave 7 mantras to the students which included issues like cost improvement, choosing the right business model, strategic investments and management of change, which forms the essence of operational excellence. He left the students with food for thought by alluding to the quality, cost and delivery mechanism that has extended nowadays to include speed, flexibility and risk as well.

On the sidelines, there was also a paper writing contest on the theme of the event which got over 100 entries from the top B-schools of the country. The team from FMS bagged the first position whereas the team from IIM-Ahmedabad secured the second spot. The papers of the top 8 teams of the contest have been published in this years Ashwamedh Journal.