Mr Anand Singh visited campus to take the session. Mr Singh is the Director-Knowledge and Insights at Coca Cola India. An MBA himself, he passed out in 1994 and has worked with markets research firms which have given him expertise in the domain. Post that he has also worked with Reckitt Benkiser and currently is with Coca Cola India. With a person of this stature sharing his knowledge with the students, the session turned out to be even more insightful and exciting than was expected.
The session was conducted in a unique way with the audience not only being interactive but also having open discussion with Mr Singh about questions that were raised by them. It started off with the speaker letting students express their ideas about their expectations from the session thus instantly kick starting an interaction and also giving the whole session a flow.
Before moving on to the agenda and points of discussion suggested by the audience, Mr Singh started of with a presentation titled ‘The Value of Insights’. It spoke volumes about how market knowledge ad consumer insights go a long way in aiding key decision made by the business. He introduced the students to the DNA model that Coca Cola follows. After this he pointed out the factors and their context to the business to demonstrate to audience how ‘Insights lie at the point of convergence’ such as values, lifestyles, awareness etc. Further on he elaborated how ‘Macro factors’ affect ‘Trends’ and ‘Fads’ and how studying these trends is important for any company.
Carrying forward with the discussion on trends he introduced the students to trends such as agelessness and convergence, gender blurring, health and wellness and a high level of optimism amongst the Indian consumer. More importantly he shared his own views and insights about these factors and other issues. This gave students totally different perspectives and a new line of thought about how Knowledge and Insights are vital to a company.
After giving a brief about further steps such as idea generation, market knowledge tools and methodologies and product design and launches taking examples such as the latest ‘Minute Maid’ brand. Mr Singh then moved back to some of the questions initially asked by the students that covered points such Insights Vs Instincts, use of insights in positioning, celebrity endorsements and the role of research in it and a variety of topics. These and other viewpoint kept the audience enthralled and wanting more.
As the presentation concluded the students were all ready and enthusiastic to carry forward the interaction and discussions which is how the remainder of the session went on. Mr Singh gave solid and convincing answers to a plethora of questions put forth and at the same time was open to discussions on different points raised by students. This amount of interaction made the session extremely fruitful for the students.
The session ended on a high note with the students feeling excited and ‘refreshed’. Mr Singh concluded by thanking the students for an overwhelming response and hoped to carry forward this mutual association with JBIMS through more such insightful sessions and interactions.