• IIM C Fellow Student receives award for Outstanding Doctoral Research
• XLRI welcomes S Vijayaraghavan, Chief Advisor (investments) to Nitish Kumar, on campus
• P D Rai, Member of Parliament (Sikkim) visits IIM, Shillong
• LIBA in association with FICCI holds fourth edition of Beacon 2010
• Subroto Bagchi, Mindtree Ltd, visits XIMB

IIM C Fellow Student Receives Highly Commended Award for Outstanding Doctoral Research in 2009 by Emerald/EFMD

IIM Calcutta Fellow student, Kirti Sharda, who completed her doctoral fellowship programme last year, and is now with IIM Ahmedabad has been chosen as ‘Highly Commended Award Winner for Outstanding Doctoral Research’ for 2009 by Emerald and European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) on February 5, 2010. The Emerald and EFMD Outstanding Doctoral Research Awards is an annual event and is usually focused on in encouraging excellence in management research worldwide.

Kirti did her dissertation with Professors Saibal Chattopadhyay and B N Srivastava, with Professor Leena Chatterjee as the Chair of her Thesis Advisory Committee. Her thesis is on configurations of BPO firms, where she argues about the relationship of work design, strategic orientation, and client relationship context to organisational performance.

Emerald Group Publishing Limited, publisher of the largest collection of international business and management journals, and the EFMD, a global membership organization with more than 700 institutional members from academia, business and public services, seek to celebrate excellence in research by sponsoring the 2009 Emerald/EFMD Outstanding Doctoral Research Awards.

Award-winning entries receive a cash prize of Pound 1,500 (or currency equivalent), a certificate, a winners’ logo to attach to correspondence and the prospect of an offer of publication in the sponsoring journal – either as a full paper or an executive summary – at the discretion of the Editor(s). In addition, a number of Highly Commended Awards are bestowed.

XLRI welcomes S Vijayaraghavan, Chief Advisor (investments) to Nitish Kumar on campus

XLRI school of business and human resources welcomed S Vijayaraghavan on the evening of February 3 for a talk on entrepreneurship. Vijayaraghavan, an IAS officer is Chief Advisor( investments) to Nitish Kumar, CM of Bihar. The Talk titled ‘Entrepreneurship and Impact Factors’ was delivered to packed auditorium full of students and faculty alike at the Fr Prabhu Hall.

The Lecture was very informative in terms of looking at entrepreneurship in an Indian context. Vijayaraghavan took a very innovative approach of case examples from his real life experiences to narrate how entrepreneurship can be taken up by anyone without barriers and also what are the commonalities between different entrepreneurs. He subsequently dwelt on the Indian Scenario, of which he did a SWOT analysis. It was a clear analysis of how to factor the various variables to be an effective entrepreneur in the Indian context.

The talk proceeded onto traits of Entrepreneurs Vijayaragahavan had identified by experience and observation and he ended the session by sharing some relevant and inspiring quotes for the young budding entrepreneurs at XLRI.

The session was followed by a Q&A; session in which the students posed many questions to Vijayaragahavan displaying their inquisitiveness as to how to start off on their maiden ventures.

P D Rai,Member of Parliament (Sikkim) visits IIM, Shillong

P D Rai paid a visit to IIM Shillong and gave an enthralling and inspiring speech to the participants which was followed by a short Q&A; session. B.Tech (IIT-Kanpur), PGDBM (IIM-A) who is currently Member of Parliament (MP) from Sikkim. He encouraged the participants to devote their time and energy towards the country. He talked at length about his experience during his political years and showed his concern towards the entry barriers in politics. He said that India has been deprived of some great leaders because when the engine of growth started running, people started picking the fruits. P D Rai joined politics in 1994 and became an MP in 2009 emphasizing the quality of perseverance and patience normally found lacking in youngsters these days. He accepted that politics is a difficult ground field for a business oriented person. There are a lot of uncertainties due to numerous variables while dealing with people. For the same reasons he accepts interns under him so that they can see what makes a politician tick.

In reply to a question about the role of media he focused on the dependence of politics on the media and said that both are married to each other. When a question about the inefficiency of the government was raised he defended the government saying that it is not apt to expect each and everything from the government when the citizens themselves are not responsible enough. He asked everyone to remember that even the ministers have just 24 hours in a day and that the government can’t control all the variables in the society.

There was also a discussion about the role of microfinance institutions in the development of the backward regions. Concluding the speech he urged the participants of IIM Shillong to actively participate in the development of the North-East region and become the brand ambassadors of the region not just in the country but also in the whole world.

LIBA in association with FICCI holds fourth edition of BEACON 2010

Loyola Institute of Business Administration, LIBA, Chennai premier b-school of India in association with FICCI held its fourth edition of Business ethics conference, Beacon 2010 at Hotel Green Park, Chennai, on January 30, 2010 on the theme – ‘Soaring through Sustainability’. The event was inaugurated by Andrew T Simkin, US Consul General, Chennai, India, which was followed by the thematic address by Dr Vandana Shiva, Environmentalist and Founder, Navdanya.

Other renowned speakers such as K Raghavendra Rao, MD, Orchid Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals Limited, Joginder Singh Executive Director, Global Business Services, Ford India Private Limited, Amitabh Jaipuria MD, Monsanto India Limited, K A Vaideeswaran, DGM and Head: Health, Safety, Security and Environment, TATA BP Solar India Limited, Karan Berry GM, Courtyard by Marriott, P Murari, IAS (Retd.), Advisor to FICCI President, Asit K Barma, Head-Global Marketing and Strategy, Defiance Tech, A Hinduja Group Company, participated in the event.

Speaking on the occasion, Fr P Christie SJ, Director, LIBA, said, “Emerging economies like India cannot anymore ignore the double imperative: economic growth and environmental sustainability. Economy and business enterprises have to flourish to lift millions out of poverty and win economic freedom for all. And yet the crucial question at the moment is how can businesses meet the demand of growing sustainably without abusing the natural environment, excluding the poor or violating justice for the future generation? The whole intent of BEACON 2010 was to bring together industry captains, thought leaders, policy-makers and practitioners to engage in a careful and in-depth analysis of the ecological crisis facing the world and how Indian companies can positively transform it into business opportunity and better standard of living for their citizens.”

The conference was followed with an international panel discussion on ‘International Perspectives’ Professor Dr Lodewijk Berlage, Development Economist, Belgium, Professor Dr Liu Baocheng, Director, Centre for International Business Ethics, Beijing, China and Dr Birgit Kleymann IESEG School of Management, Lille, France.

Subroto Bagchi, Mindtree Ltd, visits XIMB

Subroto Bagchi, co-founder and vice-chairman, MindTree Ltd, one of the most admired IT consulting firms visited Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar (XIMB) campus on January 29, 2010 for an hour long interaction with the first year Business Management students. Successful entrepreneur and author of best sellers like ‘The Professional’, ‘Go Kiss the World’ and ‘The High Performance Entrepreneur’, Bagchi spoke at length about the do’s and dont’s of entrepreneurship, taking risks in life, and going down the path not travelled before.

Bagchi, who hails from Patnagarh in Orissa, cited the example of Sangamitra Jena, who went from being a city tour guide in Bhubaneswar earning two hundred rupees a day, to establishing a tour company offering trips to Bhitarkanika National Park, whose turnover crossed the one crore mark last year. “You can have loads of competence”, he said, “but unless you take initiative, you’re not going anywhere.”

Several budding entrepreneurs lined up questions about their business ideas and the whereabouts of venture funding, running their ideas by him and effectively utilizing a wonderful opportunity of one-to-one interaction and individual attention from one of the most successful men in the business.

On being asked about the future of big organizations and power to the individual, he brought up the recent trend of microfinance providing capital to the poor, with big businesses not going bust, but coexisting and contributing to this growth.

Taking a leaf out of his latest book, ‘The Professional’, Bagchi said India’s current phase of development was defined by Indian professionals: doctors, lawyers, teachers and the like, but there was still a wide gap between Indian professionals and those abroad. Only complete self awareness of thoughts and actions and the capacity to work unsupervised would help bridge the awning.

Bagchi has also written extensively in leading newspapers and magazines, and spoken at industry platforms and educational institutions the world over. His Businessworld column ‘Arbor Mentis’ and Times of India column ‘Times of Mind’ have been widely read and discussed. Bagchi, in his current capacity as ‘Gardener’ at MindTree Ltd, shapes future leaders at the firm, and many such future leaders he hoped, would emerge from the crowd of eager students sitting before him.