Author: iimkashipurblog

Should Indian organizations borrow best practices or develop relevant practices?:- Globalization, technology, economic liberalization and economic reforms and policies allowing foreign direct investment (FDI) in Indian enterprises have tremendously changed the business environment in India. And given India’s dynamic business environment and Indian business styles being based upon long-term, vis-a-vis short term, priorities in the context of several cultural and functional dimensions the question of the hour is that What is important: Going by the best practice rule or developing relevant practices in alignment with the Indian scenario of demographic, economic, socio-cultural factors. Are the best practices universal around the globe? Can the best practices of one industry in western nations simply followed in India to get the desired results?  If the practices are not universal then what can be followed and what can be discarded ?

Fading boundaries between industries : Across ages, the focus has been fixed on developing the various specialisations at work and as a result, the distinct spheres of management have grown so apart from each-other, that, a specialist in one zone doesn’t care about the other zone. But, the dynamic times are changing again and it’s of supreme importance that we connect the integral parts of management with each-other again to draw a wholesome picture and thus reach the best results. It’s imperious that we spare a thought to the existing delicate boundaries amongst the prevalent industries to dissolve them further. The theme of Leadership Conclave 2015, is “The fading boundaries across industries: How can the B-schools adapt?”

The B-schools aim to impart a holistic learning to the students, therefore building a strong foundation and cover the basics in all the spheres. A student can certainly make better decisions about his specialisation after studying and interpreting the nuisances of a particular area and matching them with the varied interests he has developed over the time. The key is to keep the options open and learn as much in different sectors as at some point in a successful career, after moving up the corporate ladder, an individual is required to execute the functions which he hasn’t performed for a while. He did attain a basic knowledge during his management education but the need to learn more about them has arisen at this critical juncture.  Does he go back to brush up the basics once again, or can he take certain small steps through-out his career?

The more important choice is the diversely available backgrounds that a corporate can choose from, to fill up it’s ranks and offer the top management jobs to a candidate irrespective of his work experience specialisation. There is absolutely no reason why a CEO from a manufacturing concern, with proven qualities will not fit well into an Ecommerce team. More and more companies are aware of this new trend catching up we believe that someday soon, the boundaries will cease to exist and the corporates will be free to hunt down the CEOs from any background previously. Will this be a trend at the top management level only or does it have the momentum to trickle down and be effective at the middle level and lower level management subsequently?

Have you ever wondered what it will be like to quiz at some of the unimaginable locales possible? Have you ever thought about the idea of quizzing in the midst of a jungle?

Yes, you heard it right!

A quiz in the middle of a jungle!

Quest, the Quiz Club of IIM Kashipur presents ‘Rumble in the Jungle’, an open General Quiz in Palm Groves, Kashipur  onDecember 19th, 2015 (Saturday).

Mohammad Ali and George Foreman gave us a fight to remember in the jungles of Zaire. We will present you a quiz to remember in the jungles of Jim Corbett.

‘Rumble in the Jungle’ is the flagship quiz event of Quest – the quiz club of IIM Kashipur. In its 2nd edition this year, RITJ promises to be an exciting affair with cash prizes worth Rs.1 lakh up for grabs.

From Agenda to Action: Meeting New Expectations – With the new government at the center which is business friendly and its various initiatives like “Make in India” and “Digital India”, slowly we are moving from dreams to implementation and India is at the cusp of rapid growth. In this context how should management institutes mold their students and prepare them for the various challenges?

The role of technology in today’s corporate world: Technology is bringing about transformational changes in the way businesses are being run. This puts serious challenge in front of conventional leaders to change their traditional management styles and pushes them to adapt to these sweeping and often disruptive changes. The burning question is how leaders, organizations and institutions can align themselves along the direction of these changes. Information technology is a modern phenomenon that has dramatically changed the daily lives of individuals and businesses throughout the world. Information technologies (IT) are vital to Company operations and leveraging information technology for business success is a key to survival in the modern business world. Developing a business strategy with an IT component that is aligned with business objectives, and is supported by sound business justification, will enable organizations to improve performance, increase productivity, and serve customers more effectively. It will also help mitigate the risks involved with technology decisions.

The Start Up Culture: The insecurity infused by the 2008-09 crisis made the aspirational workforce consider alternate career choices which led to the emergence of start-up culture in India. With success stories in the likes of Flipkart and Snapdeal and a supportive government, this culture can change the face of the Indian Economy. What more can the government do and how will Indian organisations adapt to this culture?

 

 

Leadership Conclave is the flagship event of IIM Kashipur. The objective of the event is to provide a platform for academia and the industry to interact and discuss the most pressing issues facing both parties today.  The conclave aims to foster long term maximally productive relationships between the industry and the institute. It has often been lamented by industry stalwarts that the current academic system is woefully outdated when it comes to keeping up with industry requirements.

This is especially problematic in an economic environment which is in flux and is marked by turbulence and ambiguity. The uncertainty coupled with disruptive technological changes happening today, increases costs to companies in the form of additional training expenses for new hires in an environment where efficiency in resource utilization is a necessity.

Thus there is a pressing need for academic institutions to keep up with industry needs. This is not possible without a continuous feedback loop where the industry provides inputs to academic institutions regarding their requirements, perceptions and evaluations of the prevailing business environment. This is essential to understand and appreciate the challenges being faced by both parties and to provide a roadmap for the same.

The conclave is an attempt in that direction wherein presentations and discussions on several themes are featured and solutions to common goals are put forward with students being active participants in the process. The conclave concludes with recommendations as reflected in the deliberations

“You must be the change you want to see in the world”

– Mahatma Gandhi

It is that time of the year when we search for the best pioneers and innovative minds in India. TEDxIIMKashipur is back with even greater zeal and anticipation among the audience. With 9 speakers from diverse fields ranging from science and technology, adventure sports, entertainment, entrepreneurship, mind stimulation to design specialisation coming to share their views and experiences with the audience, the energy levels of the organisers cannot be expressed in words. The atmosphere here at IIM Kashipur is electrifying; one can only realise the efforts put up by the students by watching them work day and night to make this event successful despite their hectic schedule.

That psychological wall between a junior and a senior, a Finance enthusiast and a Marketing enthusiast, a fresher and an industry veteran – all have long dissolved in this passion we share, the passion which we call TEDxIIMKashipur. We work shoulder-to-shoulder tirelessly, dissecting each and every idea, deciding on the theme of the event, designing the logo of one of the flagship events of IIM Kashipur, making Polystyrene cut-outs for the stage preparation and much more. Well, as they say, a smooth sea never made a skilled sailor. Likewise, our journey has not been a calm and comfortable one either – let it be the last minute changes of the event logo due to a minor technical problem or non-availability of a particular flight for the speaker or getting the bills cleared for the various expenses in-time or negotiating with our trustworthy suppliers to deliver TEDx t-shirts within the short span of time, we have had our part of hardships, and that too a few in the midst of our exams. Yet, as a father passionately receives his new-born, similarly we also wait eagerly to unfurl the event, an idea that was conceived exactly one year ago, on a cold evening in the November of 2014.

The world around us is changing at an exponential rate and the leaders who are making this possible are the ones who are courageously following their passion by travelling the path less travelled. TEDxIIMKashipur is preparing the stage for a selected few of these pioneers who chose to challenge the status quo.

As De Bono said- “The world is more malleable than you think and it’s waiting for to hammer it into shape“.

The event is set to strike oil on 7th November, and the TEDxIIMKashipur community is all ears to listen to and imbibe the inspiration and drive of the speakers. The following saying is probably perfect to explain all the anxiety – Attitudes are contagious, just make yours worth catching. Our fingers are crossed and we are holding our breath to catch this infection.

Inspector General of Police Mr Amit Kumar Sinha visited IIM Kashipur and interacted with the students. He shared his valuable experiences and also advised students to “minimize the time in calculating the risk” and said that is what which differentiates an achiever and a loser.

In a twisted turn of events lately consultants hired to help promoters start of projects they recommend are the ones who after doing the project report, corporate advisory and also conducting the forensic audit are called back when the project goes bad.

The RBI is taking this incident quite seriously as well where in the governor did not mince words in downplaying the appalling state of unrest between the big consultancy firms and private and public sector banks.

In a strong contention we see that the governor did not spare the banks  “Today, too many of our project decisions are made by banks listening to the same set of consultants, which means that too few independent views get embedded in the evaluation decision,” Rajan said.

The banks are set to get no respite as some of the loans restructured by them are set to fail and become non-performing assets (NPAs) in the current year.

A glimpse of the current scenario with regards to borrowers and assets in bad debt is given below the information is collected from Indian Express.

Out of around 530 borrower accounts with restructured loans of Rs 4,03,004 crore cases approved by banks, 178 cases involving Rs 67,667 crore have already failed and another 20 per cent is on the verge collapse in the current year, said an official involved with the CDR Cell of banks. Banks are now handling 269 live cases involving a debt of Rs 2, 74,026 crore.

The CDR process, including the status report, of almost all of them are handled by consultants. Bankers indicate that another Rs 55,000 crore is set to fail in the coming months and eventually become NPAs in the books of banks. The biggest case involves a telecom services company with a debt of around Rs 15,000 crore.

The hits just keep on coming for the capital stressed banks as the RBI has closed the CDR window the banks who want to revamp the loans will have to give a 15 % higher provision.

The borrowers have approached the banks hoping the 5/25 scheme, Joint Leader Form, Strategic Debt Restructuring.

Banks have already implemented SDR in some cases and acquired majority stake in companies like Jyothi Structures and Visa Steel.

Coalescence is the unification of separate segments to form a single segment. Similarly, businesses today are not dependent on any one function, they are an amalgamation of Finance, Marketing, Operations, Consulting and IT.

It is a conclave for Finance, Marketing, Operations, Consulting and IT where top level industry leaders, corporates, consultants are all brought onto a single platform to discuss business management to enrich not only our knowledge but give us an idea of the trending technology and the impact it has on the current business scenario.

To mark this occasion we had with us eminent guests like Mr. Ajay Rastogi, Managing Director and Business Head, Deutsche Bank, Mumbai , Mr PV Ravi Kumar, AVP, Maruti Suzuki , Mr. Aditya Verma, VP/Global Head, Logistics, LAVA , Mr. Mayank Pandey, General Manager, Castrol , Mr. Anupam Kapoor, Associate Vice President, Myntra , -Mr. Mansingh Jaswal, Director and CEO of GenEx Logistics , Sukumar Narsimha, Senior Vice President for Operations, Reliance Industries , Manish Kumar, Chief Digital Officer, Red Chilies Entertainment and Kolkata Knight Riders , Apurv Nagpal, Author of Eighteen Plus , Amit Singh, Associate Director, PwC  and many other such esteemed guests.

The event lasted for three days during which the student body was able to gather information panning from fields of Consulting, IT, Marketing, Operations and Finance through content rich panel discussions and key note speeches.

All in all coalescence was an event like no other which managed to garner and gather the best brains from the industry for the pan purpose of enlightening the young and able minds of IIM Kashipur.

Now the hour glass is inverted and all is set for one of the most prestigious events in Indian business school Eco-system.

Coalescence will start from 9 am on 18th September and for three days IIM Kashipur will be home to some of biggest corporate leaders like the Director of Flipkart, senior vice president of Reliance Industries.

Needless to say what better opportunity will students of a B-School get than directly interacting with the leaders of the industry!. The immense first hand, practical and proven business knowledge that students can receive from the dignitaries is price less.

Coming to the itinerary details of “Coalescence.” As mentioned earlier it is scheduled for three days starting from 18th September and the various events that will take place are :

IT Conclave is an annual event based on the latest IT trends. It is the second edition of the event and it will include a panel discussion. Last year, the conclave saw top leaders from the industry and this year too, the eminent speakers include leaders from Microsoft, Tata Consultancy Services, Max Life Insurance and Valiance Solutions will present their views on the topic.

Digigo is the annual marketing event organised by IIM Kashipur. It is the third edition of the event. Digital Marketing, which reaches customers interactively through web, mobile and social media, is in rapid ascendance. But not all companies have embraced the creative opportunities that digital marketing offers. The speed and the spread of digital media have become an important factor in setting up or destroying the brand. The guests will include Mr Appurv Nagpal, an IIM Ahmedabad alumni with rich corporate experience at British American Tobacco, Reckit Benkiser and SABmiller, Mr Makarand Kulkarni, Associate Director Marketing at Sanofi and Ms Ashita Sarin, Senior General Manager, Marketing, DY works.

NEEV is a flagship Symposium on Operations Excellence conducted annually by IIM Kashipur. It is the fourth edition of the event and it will entail a brainstorming on the theme “Logistics-Key to sustainable growth.” The event will present a keynote address by eminent industry leaders followed by a panel discussion on the issues related to Logistics and the way forward to solve them. Corporate leaders from Barclays, Gartner, Bain & Company, Dabur, Dassault Systemes, Deloitte, HewlettPackard, Himalayan Group, Hindalco, Mahindra & Mahindra, Motherson Group, Oracle & Tata Motors have been associated with Neev in the past. This year, the dignitaries include top leadership from Flipkart, Myntra and Reliance to name a few.

Manthan is an annual Finance Summit organized by IIM Kashipur to provide a platform for state of the art discussions on the current state and future direction of the Indian economic reforms. It will be the fifth edition of the event. Some of the guests that are likely to attend are Mr Ajay Rustagi, MD, Deutsche bank and Mr Rishikesh Shintre, Founder and Partner, Mindspring Advisors Pvt Ltd.

^6TH SEPTEMBER 2015 marked the first official visit of IIM Kashipur batch 2015 – 2017 to the Ashok Leyland plant in Pantnagar.

After a brief introductory presentation we were welcomed to the new age plant which housed the latest in technology and processes, this fully integrate plant (established in 2010) manufactures all future-gazing products across trucks and buses. Spread over 200 hundred acres of land and with an annual annual capacity of 70,000 vehicles, the plant also produces aggregates such as engines, gear-boxes and axles.

We saw the robotic hands perform complicated procedures such as spot welding with ease precision and agility. The plant was established four years ago and has the capacity to roll out a vehicle every 5 minutes.

Their flagship programme ASHIRWAD to give 12^th pass students free education and then induct them in the programme was heartfelt touching and very challenging. They go to remote villages and recruit these children and bring them to their state of the art education center which is within the main campus. A holistic learning which includes onsite training with theoretical knowledge is implemented in the teaching practices here.

The enriched knowledge will always remain with us but moreover we will never forget the brilliance of work ethics and culture shown by this mesmerizing plant.