The initiative was conceived in association with Pragati, the social work club of IIM Indore. The idea struck Maninder when he and his friends were searching for an NGO working on RTI but couldnat find one. The initiative is a not-for-profit one. Plans are in place to financially sustain the site through sponsorships. All financial transactions would be made open to the public. Currently, it has a decent database of volunteers, but limited mostly to big cities.
Annually hosted by L'OrAal, a leader in cosmetics, the event is an international marketing competition. It requires a team of three students from the same university to take on the roles of marketing brand managers for the existing LaOreal brand, Vichy. The teams are supposed to create their own product from within the brand, develop an original marketing strategy for it and to work with an advertising agency to design a packaging and communications campaign. Each team competes with the best national teams in their home countries, with the country winners going on to the international final in Paris.
Blue ADynamicsa brief was to develop a new product designed to sit within Vichyas Capital Soleil Sun Care range which is aimed at a demographic of 13-25 year old male consumers. The team developed aMagnetic Wash-On Sun Protection,a a brand of skincare cleansers with built in sun protection factor (SPF). By cleansing with this product a consumer can also ensure protection from incidental sun damage throughout the day. Ben Hayward of Blue ADynamics described the brand as aa revolutionary body and face wash range that fits into your individual daily routine and active lifestyle.a
Blue ADynamics presented their marketing campaign and the product aMagnetic Wash-On Sun Protectiona to a panel of judges at the Paris final which included Lindsay Owen-Jones CEO of L'OrAal Worldwide and Zain Raj, CEO of Euro RSCG, an advertising agency. The judges awarded Blue ADynamics second place, based on the strength of their original idea and marketing strategy, presenting them with a silver trophy and a5000 for a European trip of their choice. They beat off competition from Argentina and Singapore, coming second to the USAas team from Brigham Young University, who study advertising at their Universityas Advertising Academy.
Participants are expected to send in their venture plan based on the above mentioned theme. To mentor the shortlisted teams, a two day Boot Camp (Prerna) would be conducted in TISS Campus two weeks prior to the final event. A panel of experts will mentor the participants and help them improvise their plans. The final presentations would be on the first day of Manthan, i.e. September 18, 2008. Contestants are required to send a soft copy of their entry to the mail ID: [email protected].
Event Details
Phase I Prayaas: This phase will call for entries from entrepreneurs across Management and other institutions in the country. These entries would essentially be business plans with focus on addressing developmental issues in India. Through an initial screening process, top five entries would be chosen. The top entries will proceed to the Phase II and III (non elimination).
Phase II Prerna - The Boot Camp: This phase will provide the top five entries from Prayaas a common platform to interact with each other and experts from the field of Entrepreneurship and Business. The aim of Prerna is to provide mentorship to the short-listed teams. This phase would provide business/ entrepreneurial insights to the participants.
Phase III Prarambh: The event will mark an end to the competition, but will mark the abeginninga of a journey. The presentations of the ideas along with implementation plan will be adjudicated by the judges from the sponsoring organization, academia, experienced entrepreneurs and business personalities.
Deadlines:
Phase I Prayaas (Elimination) August 09, 2008: Ankur opens August 21, 2008: Last date for receipt of entries August 28, 2008: Announcement of 5 shortlisted teams for further phases
Phase II Prernaa The Boot Camp: for shortlisted Teams August 29, 2008, 5:00 PM: Registration for Prerna closes. September 6-7, 2008: Prerna at TISS Campus
Phase III Prarambh September 18, 2008: Final Presentation to the panel at Manthan 2008
For participation guidelines log on to: Ankur @ TISS
This was followed by speeches from Director, Dean (PI), Chairman PGP, Chairman Student Activity Council, Chief Administrative Officer and President Student Council with their views of thoughts on the day. JBS BaroC, an institution within IIMC represented by the current batch of students performed songs from the films like The Legend of Bhagat Singh and Rosa along with a version of Vandemataram with instrumental.
The changing nature of the competitions offered by the nationas institutes is often a mirror of the ever varying features of todayas world. The vast net centred generation-Y would no doubt feel at home with these digital contests. For more details log on to: www.technicheonline.com
The talk began with a reality check of the state we are in currently and why microfinance is a must for the upliftment of rural society. The focus was especially on the problem of rural migration that is attaining gargantuan proportions with every passing day. The cases of Malkangiri and Baripada were discussed in some detail to highlight the point.
The focus then shifted on some of the activities of the organization specifically the designing of a strategy to take care of domestic remittances and ensuring the complete transfer of money to the end users. The organization is currently handling 75 lakh of remittances in the area.
The discussion then shifted towards the role and impact of microfinance and the various challenges associated with it, given the lack of adequate institutional credit to the majority of the population. The core competencies of the organization were then presented and the results were benchmarked with other institutions. The idea of aour loans and your labora combined with technical support has been implemented as a model to revive the ailing areas of the country.
At the closing moments the role and impact of SHGas was deliberated upon and how it was giving an identity to people and empowering them in the long run. Finally the audience asked relevant questions concerning challenges associated with mobilization, various models of credit delivery etc.
The class was divided into eight groups of six students each. Each group had to select a CEO, COO, CMO and a CFO. Mr Girish and Mr Rakesh took the class through the process of demand forecasting with the help of a real time exercise. Various constraints on production, supply chain, finance and promotion strategies were put across the groups and the group members had to forecast the demand of various products considering these constraints They gave the groups an idea of the intricacies which pop-up due to differences in the view of personnel from different verticals in an organization. They then explained various ways through which an organization can come to a consensus on an optimal forecasting number for every product. Students were updated about various softwares available in the market for demand forecasting.
The event was opened with the traditional lamp-lighting ceremony. Thereafter, the winners of the Paper Presentation Contest a a parallel event of Ashwamedh, which saw participation from 140 teams,from across B-schools of the country, were announced. IIM, Kozhikode and IIFT, Kolkata were declared as the winners and the runners-up of the contest respectively. The discussion started with many sub-topics like Creation of Possibilities due to Technology, Changes in the Financial Services Sector, Changes in Operations Management from a Telecom Management Perspective, and Talent Management in Todayas Borderless World. Relevant examples like use of technology for real-time communication around the globe, incorporation of a global perspective in todayas supply chain solutions, advent of mobile telephony etc. were used to illustrate the topic on hand. All the speakers stressed on the point that the world is indeed becoming flatter and businesses today need to take this into account in order to be successful.
At the end, Prof. William rounded off the discussion by saying that in todayas world, there is a need to prepare for working with multiple goals and understand future challenges. He also stressed the need for a process orientation and readiness on the part of companies to manage the increasing complexities of risks involved.
The theme of HR Continuum '08 was, aHR's Role in organisational Restructuring - The case of M&Aa.; The event witnessed participation by HR employees of companies like ICICI, CHEP Logistics, Angel Broking, Vedanta Resources and Sony Entertainment Television.
The HR Continuum 2008 was inaugurated by Prof S Bhargava of IIT Bombay. He emphasized the relevance of the central theme of the continuum in the present context of the rapidly evolving corporate world. The Keynote Address was delivered by Mr Krishnaswamy Ramkumar, Group Chief Human Resources Officer, ICICI who took the audience through the world of mergers and acquisitions from a human perspective. He cited examples from the ICICI stable and told about the various issues faced by the parent organization after a merger. He implored the gathering to look at M&A; from an institution perspective than from a narrow financial perspective. He further added that M&A; is mainly a marriage of minds and it has to be structured properly to create growth and value to the merged entity.
Mr Vijayan Pankajakshan, Director HR, Chep Logistics India Pvt. Ltd presented the next session on aQuest-getting most value beyond the tangiblesa, where he stated that the deal value increasingly seemed to have no direct correlation to the physical assets/infrastructure. The key intangibles namely quality of human resource, track record of the human resource and availability and cost of similar home grown talent are being valued more.
Next on the line was Mr Rajiv Phadke, Executive Director, HR and Corporate Communications, Angel Broking who brought out the point that organizational restructuring has to do more with the explosive growth occurring. He specially elaborated on the mergers and acquisitions from the financial sector angle and gave examples from his own experiences.
Mr A Thirunavukkarasu, Head-Corporate Human Resources, Vedanta Group, shared his experiences of M&A; from the view point of the Vedanta Group. He gave the audience a glimpse of how Vedanta resources handle inorganic M&As; across the world. He gave his insights on the policies which are followed by Vedanta resources to manage and retain talent across its various business units.
The last talk of HR Continuum 08 was delivered by Mr S Srivathsan, AVP-HR, Sony Entertainment Television, a SJMSOMite himself .He entertained the audience with anecdotes from his life, from his 10 years of experience in the media sector. He shared his insights about the career opportunities in media sector and gave a birdas eye view of the challenges which are faced by the media in retaining talent.
Countries such as India and China who are rich in human capital are the emerging economic powers of tomorrow. The stage is thus set for us to realize the value of this potential, identify and groom our intellectual community to put India on the path to economic and social development. The summit will see HR leaders offer various perspectives on doing business with a global presence. They will be representing different industrial verticals such as Consulting, Manufacturing, IT, Retail, Media & Entertainment, Medical Care and Education. The participants will gain from each otheras experiences and benchmark themselves.
The confirmed list of participants is as below:
Dr Bala V Balachandran, Founder and Honorary Dean, Great Lakes
Prem Chand Gupta, Union Minister for Corporate Affairs
Dr TV Rao Chairman, T V Rao Learning Systems Pvt. Ltd.
B Muthuraman, Managing Director, Tata Steel
Satish Pradhan, Executive VP Group HR, Tata Sons
Pranab Barua, Head a Retail Business, Aditya Birla Group
Chandrasekaran, President & Managing Director, Cognizant
Dr Chandrasekhar Sripada, President HR, Capgemini Consulting India Pvt. Ltd.
Allen Sequeira Sr. VP HR, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.
B Venkatramana Sr. VP HR, Reliance Retail Ltd
Lancelot Cutinha VP, HR, Big FM
Steve Rich, Shared Services Manager Indian & ASEAN HR, Caterpillar.
The summit started with Mr. Majumdar talking about aManaging cultural diversity in times of changea. He stressed on the importance of the topic in the current scenario of large numbers of mergers and acquisitions made necessary due to global competition. Citing his own companyas recent acquisitions of Natwest Bank and Charter One, he pointed out instances of cultures becoming a barrier to achieve the goals of his organization. To emphasize on the importance of keeping the commitments the corporations made to their customers at any cost, the speaker listed down 9 principles his own company follows-employee welfare, attitudinal orientation, innovative & creative thought leadership, elimination of communication barriers and building & sustaining superior business processes.
The second speaker, Ms Arora started her interaction on aEmpower your Managerial Expeditiona by pointing out at the increasing complexity of todayas organizations from vertically integrated to a globally encompassed networks. The strategic shift of playing bigger than the size by leveraging networks also needs shift in managerial task masters with higher flexibility, adaptability, cross functional and cross cultural risk assessment capabilities. The other aspects which need consideration to build successful networks are the understanding of regulatory, resource and infrastructure spreads, varieties in culture and strategy as well as laws protecting intellectual properties. She also pointed out the importance of broader business understanding besides functional skills to play a vital role as the node in the network.
The congregation also had an opportunity to listen to Mr Gopalakrishnan, a serial entrepreneur of 4 start ups including his last venture, mobile2win. As part of his talk on aInternational Entrepreneurship a Opportunities and Challengesa, he shared his experience in the aspects of setting up, raising funds for and exiting businesses. According to him, the important steps no entrepreneur should skip in setting up the business are defining milestones & grand vision and interacting with domain specialists to determine the nuances. Quoting his experience of setting up mobile2win in China, he stressed the need to delve into cultural aspects in addition to the above issues. He shed light on alearning the hard waya and the issues involved, the people and their values and dilution of control during fund raising for such ventures. The third aspect he dealt with related to entrepreneurship was putting together a leadership team, handling day-to-day operations and ethics.
After more than a decade of meteoric rise, the Indian IT sector, impacted by adverse global cues, has entered a period of relatively modest growth. The role of the IT sector as a generator of foreign exchange and, more significantly, international goodwill is already known and, therefore, its present health and future trajectory is important.
Following are the sessions scheduled for the symposium:
1) Innovation Management: Leadership at the forefront Leadership plays a dual role in Innovation management. They guide the process of innovation and ensure its execution as well. The issues concerning innovation and the role of a leader in driving the innovation is one of the primary discussion points in this session.
2) Strategising the Indian IT: Finding the Road Ahead The Indian IT sector, impacted by adverse global cues, has entered a period of relatively modest growth. There is a need to innovate and excogitate the business strategies as we move ahead. This panel discussion session aims to discuss the IT Industry from a strategic point of view.
3) Customer Value Innovation: A Strategic Shift In this information age of hyper intelligent customers, it has become imperative for the IT companies to offer an innovative and differentiated value proposition; to achieve high growth and make competition irrelevant through customer value innovation. Discussion on maximizing the customer Value through constant innovation is the focal point of discussion in this session.
This event being held in partnership with the industry is supported by STPI, has Yahoo! India as its Corporate Partner along with Evalueserve, PWC, Kolkata Port Trust, Coral Software partnering the symposium in various other capacities. The event is targeted at managers and leaders involved in the process of innovation in organizations, management consultants, IT professionals, senior executives and students with dreams of a future in IT. For further details of the event, kindly log on to: www.iift-seminars.com/it
This issue of L!VE covers management related issues ranging from company rankings to debate topics like oil prices. Professors and industry trend setters alike have contributed towards the magazine. The interviews of people in the industry like Ms Roopa Purshottam (Head, Future Capital Research, Co-Author BRIC Report), Mr Sadeesh Raghvan (Managing Partner, Accenture Business Consulting) and Mr Aditya Bhatt (Director, Protiviti) are informative. The section on entrepreneurship gives an insight on entrepreneurship networks and other initiatives by B schools, encouraging one to explore the business creator in himself. There is also coverage on CSR and social responsibility to remind the new age manager of his environment.
L!VE has been in circulation as an e-zine since the January of 2006, and started rolling out as a print edition since 2008. L!VE typically reaches companies, B schools, academicians, entrepreneurship networks and others having an interest in management and its applications. Read the latest edition of L!VE at http://www.som.iitb.ac.in/live/
The chair to the session gave the opening to the session and raised a few points. He brought up the issue of the economy being a completely closed system, unaffected by the environment. He discussed about how the presence of one human in a closed system, made it an open system. He stressed the need to monitor the system and the environment and to take a calculated response without confining ourselves too strictly to one type of system or the other. He also made an observation that from beauty to BT and IT, India has made a name for itself and that the future for it was ashining brighta.
The first speaker for the session was Mr Amarjeet Singh, Regional Manager, Northern Region, SEBI. He gave an insight on Financial Environment: Regulatory Perspective. With increased liberalization in the economy, the regulatory policies of the government are sometimes issues of contention. Mr Singh discussed the role of regulations in the Indian Economy; the main objectives of regulatory policy being to enhance safety, transparency, effectiveness and fairness in the economy, bringing about overall protection for the investor. He described the regulatory strategies of the government as being reactive, preventive and proactive and gave the audience an insight into SEBIas surveillance tools. He briefly highlighted the types of SEBI regulations in place. The challenges to the growth of the Indian securities market were touched upon, factors such as investor education, insider trading, growing volatility being among the more serious concerns to the regulatory body. In fact, the national regulations system has its jurisdiction only within the boundaries of the countryas economy and in this time and age of truly global markets; regulatory policies are increasingly dependent on MoUs between countries.
The next speaker was Mr Ranjan Kumar Das, Head of Audit and Compliance at Axis Bank. Mr Das made his way around the audience, posing questions, sharing his insights and asking the audience to come up with their own opinions and thoughts. He started with the basics such as what exactly a slowdown in the economy meant, in a national and international context. From there the discussion progressed to the current global economic indicators which include rates of inflation, unemployment, real GDP growth, FDIs etc. The present scenario in terms on Indiaas rising inflation rate, now at a multi-year high, over spending by developed countries, the sub-prime crises, soaring oil prices and political and social instability was touched upon. The discussion then revolved around the domino effect of globalization and finally future perceptions of the Indian economy. There seemed to be a consensus that we were facing a credit crunch, a slowdown in the countryas growth rate but there would also be reduced levels of unemployment and a significant reduction in the poverty rate.
The session came to an end with Prof S K Jain of DMS, IIT Delhi giving his views on how the future of the Indian economy depended to a large extent on the political leadership, citing the 1991 economic reforms as an example. He reiterated the point that the extent to which an economy is dependent on other economies is based upon internal factors.
Human Resources Management in the only function in a business which directly deals with people. Ethical behaviour therefore becomes extremely significant to it. Corporations are mostly interested in profits, sustainability, brand building etc. Hence the HR function must take the call in practicing the aUniversal Firsta principle which is fundamental to ethical behaviour. Professor Kolodinsky pointed out that there is a chasm between the interests of the firms, the employees and the society. The workers are interested in recognition, respect, skill development, challenging work, security and a sense of belonging besides emoluments. While Corporations want profit maximization, community at large expects no adverse impact on it. Synchronization of these diverse interests is the responsibility of the HRM function and hence the onus of ethical behaviour rests on its shoulders.
In the lecture he also outlined a few reasons of unethical behaviour which was defined by the group as lack of sensitivity towards the interest of others. Pressure to perform, cost constraints, temptation, greed, retaliation for some ill treatment were a few causes stated. Some interesting cases and instances were brought to the platform to illustrate the connections.
Doing ethical business maybe a little difficult especially at the nascent stages of a firm but that alone makes it stand apart from its competitors. The HR managers must ensure that the firm treats its employees fairly and set the tone for ethical behaviour elsewhere in the dealings of organization.
The Great Lakes motto is aGlobal mindset, Indian rootsa a achieving the best international management education combined with Asian values. As an extension, during this tour they will attend classes at various universities in the above countries and interact with their students.
aIt is not all about attending lectures. We also have Sentosa Island and Genting highlands on the menua says the Study Tour Committee. This would be a welcome change from the schedule that accompanies a one year program.
Spread over two days, the event starts with the inaugural ceremony by Mr Sanjeev Jain, MD, Parsvnath Developers Ltd. The floor will then witness Mr A Gangoly (National Sales Director, Wrigley), Mr Rahul Goel (National Sales Head, Sony Ericsson) and Mr Samik Dasgupta (VP, Yes Bank) for a panel discussion on aInnovations in Sales and Distributiona. The post lunch session on aInnovative Brand Buildinga will have Mr Apurv Nagpal (Marketing Director, SAB-Miller India), Mr Vikram Bakshi, (MD and Joint Venture Partner, McDonald's India) and Mr Princy Bhatnagar (National Director-Office Group, Xerox India).
The second day starts with Mr Vishal Bhatia (VP-Marketing, Pepsi), Mr Ashwini Aggarwal (Country Category Manager, HP India), Mr Baljeet Singh (Head Sales Support, Apollo tyres) and Mr Sanjeev Nimkar (Business Head - VMA, Phillips) sharing views & experiences on aPricing: overcoming the hurdles and challengesa. Moving to the last session on aRetail in India: Revolution or Evolutiona the event will witness Mr Sandip Tarkas (Head, DCM, Pantaloon Retail India Ltd.) and Mr Gaurav Saxena (DGM, Bharti Walmart Pvt. Ltd.) Last but not the least the show ends with the closing ceremony showcasing Mr Laxmi Goel, Director, Zee News.
And every session will have a student competition of writing a background research on the same. The event has received 170+ entries from the students of various B-schools in India. Best two teams have been shortlisted for each session & they will be presenting their views in front of the speakers of the respective sessions who will be acting as jury as well. The event is sponsored by Klgsystel; along with Pepsi & Pagalguy as event partners.
While addressing the gathering on aCustomer Service a From Chidambaram to Chicagoa, Bhaskar Bhat, Managing Director, Titan Industries Ltd. said, aThe business today is no longer just customer centric, it is customer driven. It is the people who make all the difference in a business. Businesses need to be leadership driven, and the top management buy-in is the key."
aSporadic efforts do not produce results. The top management involvement has to be sustained in program and process monitoring.a On the course of action to be taken Meenakshi said, aCustomer Service improvements should be like a movement, a continued perspective over a longer time frame. No improvement is too small. The solutions need not be complex, but often are simple.a said A Meenakshi, ING Vysya Bank.
While presenting a case study on the public transport system in Karnataka, K Jairaj, Principal Secretary to Government, Energy Department, illustrated the importance of customer centric improvements. aWe keyed into the four major factors influencing a customer a Safety, Regularity, Comfort and Accessibility and worked towards improving them.a
According to Abhishake Mathur, ICICI Direct, aThe four barriers in selling customer centricity to the top management are Non-Linear Rate of Return, Unaligned Focus, Lack of proper measurement techniques and a weak external support. The organizations need to address these issues and break these barriers for achieving the target."
In his address, Mr. Manivannan, Deputy Commissioner, Mysore District said, aBe it private or public sector, whenever someone tries to change the system, there is a risk involved. The question is a Who will take the risk? Unlike private sector, there is no reward for taking the risk in government service. Despite that, people join government service because of a sense of duty, because of desire to serve the public. We should install a system to recognize these people, or the system will never change."
Also, The conclave hosted panel discussions on the subject and was addressed by Dr Pradeep Rau - Infosys Technologies, Radhika Ramesh a Bharti Airtel and Mr. G Shankar Nair a Convener, Custommerce.
Ideas that involve or leverage technology in any sphere of human activity - be it services, agriculture, manufacturing, construction or education stand a good possibility of qualifying. The competition is also open to ventures that are in early stages of planning and execution. Winners of the competition will be considered eligible for funding amounting to a minimum of USD 500,000 from IDG Ventures, India.The final is scheduled to take place on November 21, 2008, in Chennai where presentations will be shown to a jury comprising of entrepreneurs, investors, successful business executives and academicians.
Fr P Christie, Director, LIBA said, aThe objective of the competition is to foster entrepreneurship in India. The competition will also identify and recognize ideas & talent that can create tomorrow's businesses. It will bridge the border between business ideas and commercialization.a
Important dates:
Closure of Registration - Sep 23, 2008 Last date of submission of Executive Summary - Sep 26, 2008 Last date of submission of detailed Business Plan - Oct 24, 2008 Last Date for submission of Final Presentation - Nov 19, 2008 Final Presentation - Nov 21, 2008
Dr Vikas Amte, a man who calls himself the jailor of the prison called Anandwan, told the students about his father and family, their journey till date, the obstacles they faced, the initiatives they have undertaken and how successful they have been in their endeavours. He displayed various products made by the people of Anandwan. They have set out to stop the suicide of farmers, provide irrigation by building dams and through rain.
Swaranandwan, Anandwan's Orchestra of handicapped people has been keeping Anandwan running for the past six years earning crores for it. A couple of songs and the audience contributed 16 thousand rupees to Anandwan.