Management – Page 5 – The IIM Kashipur Blog

Media Conclave 2014

Recognizing the fact that the role of media in business is ever growing in today’s world, IIM Kashipur organized a Media Conclave on 15th February, 2014 (Saturday) to discuss the emerging role of media in various walks of life and business. The conclave had invited speeches and panel discussions from prominent dignitaries from media houses as well as some student presentations.

The eminent speakers and panelists included: Mr. Shailesh Shah, Secretary General, Indian Broadcasting Federation; Mr. Asad Mirza, Media Advisor and Editor, British High Commission; Mr. R. Srinivasan, Associate Editor, The Hindu Business Line; Mr. Subimal Bhattacharya, a globally recognized defence and cyber security expert, and; Mr. Anant Vijay, Deputy Executive Producer, IBN7.

Welcoming the distinguished media persons, representatives of the industry as well as corporate and social media sector, Dr. Gautam Sinha, the Director of IIM Kashipur, threw open this conclave open for debate and discussion. Despite mass media industry playing a significant role in highlighting the inequalities in wealth, power and privileges, he expressed concern about the growth of giant multinational media corporations holding enormous power and influence over the content and form by the owners of media. He raised some basic but very relevant questions to the participants of the conclave.

Inaugurating the conclave, Mr. Shailesh Shah, said that India is the biggest producer of films and entertainment media, and that we need to enhance our partnership into it. Further, he said that this industry has a capacity of a turnover of over $ 100 billion. This was followed by a presentation by the Students.

The Post-break session saw an intense panel discussion with panelists comprising of Shri Asad Mirza, Shri R. Srinivasan, Shri Subimal Bhattacharya, Shri Anant Vijay, and Prof. K. M. Baharul Islam, functioning as the moderator. The invited questions from amongst the audience added further value to the discussion, with some of the responses being noted down by many, and some witty ones inviting laughter.

Guest Lecture: Ms V N Saroja, CEO- Agriwatch.com, Co-founder Infoedge.com (Naukri.com), Jeevansathi.com

Today’s business world has umpteen examples of successful entrepreneurs. One such great example is of Naukri.com (Infoedge.com) co-founder Ms V N Saroja. Also the co-founder of Jeevansathi.com, Ms. Saroja led the students of IIM Kashipur through her journey from Indian Institute of Management Ahmadabad to being the CEO of Agriwatch.com and beyond. Starting with comparing the life and career options in early 1990s and today, she said she was fortunate to get an opportunity from big multinational organization to publish a status paper at the age of 22. She explained that starting a new venture is not easy. It took her partners and her six years to grow Naukri.com to where it stands today. They had to do all kind of jobs like editing and rewriting resumes of clients themselves and sitting for hours on a computer to upload those resumes on the internet.

Ms Saroja emphasised that the world is full of opportunities and a person has to be present at the right place at the right time to avail them. The only requirement is to find passion within you. One should be willing to take calculated risks, identify what went wrong, rectify it and move forward. Also, have confidence that your ideas will survive, irrespective of other external factors.

She also shared her experience of working in small villages in and around Delhi and converting them into some of the most respectable and fashionable areas. She said that the business world is changing at a very fast pace and people new to this world should be ready to expand their views to grasp the slightest of opportunities. The students of IIM Kashipur were thrilled to listen to such inspiring words.

Guest Lecture: Mr. Shubham Narayan, Goldman Sachs

IIM Kashipur welcomed Mr Shubham Narayan, Analyst at Goldman Sachs Investment Banking Division to provide insights on portfolio management. Students were highly engaged in the discussion on investments and the value of shareholders in an organization.

Guest Lecture: Mr. Kamal Singh, National HRD Network @ IIM Kashipur

IIM Kashipur students got an opportunity to attend a guest lecture by Mr. Kamal Singh, Director General, National HRD Network who spoke about “ Emerging Trends in Global Business; Industry Expectation from MBA’s ”. He gave us the insights of what the industry expects from us.

Mr Kamal has recently launched a new initiative Management Aptitude Test Skills Test (MAST). Winner of several accolades & awards in the past, he has recently been awarded by Top Rankers for Management Excellence and also received Indian Achiever’s Award by Indian Achievers Forum.

Myntra at IIM Kashipur

The COO of Myntra.com, Mr. Ganesh Subramanian came to IIM Kashipur on Friday, 24th January. In a hearty interaction with the students, he recounted how Myntra, which started from a garage, climbed up the e-commerce ladder to become India’s largest online fashion store.

Myntra is fast growing into an e-commerce giant with over 1500 employees and over $75 million in funding from top investors like Tiger Global and Accel Partners. Recording a footfall of over 600 thousand each day, they have received prestigious awards like IAMAI’s Best Ecommerce Website of the year award for 2012 and Red Herring Global 100 award. Mr. Ganesh highlighted some important points along Myntra’s journey, right from its inception as a personalised t-shirt selling organisation in 2007 to capturing a 30% market share in online fashion e-commerce in 2013. He talked at length about the growing importance of continuously improving the supply chain of a company since it will be the differentiating factor that can tip the balance in favour of an organisation. He emphasised that always having an entrepreneurial and organic outlook towards business is the key since that is what creates a sense of goodwill and satisfaction among both employees and customers. In view of this, Myntra has collaborated with designers like Rohit Bal and Manish Arora to give shoppers the best and newest in fashion. Recently actor Hrithik Roshan launched his active lifestyle apparel and casual wear brand HRX exclusively on Myntra.

The students were keen to know Myntra’s future propositions and their strategy to delve into the huge semi-urban and rural market among other things, which Mr. Ganesh answered expertly. A thought from him that stayed with the students was,” If 8 out of 10 people reject your idea outright, I guarantee that it is a phenomenal one.”