Guest Lecture by Rajnish Borah

The junior batch of SIMSREE had the opportunity of attending a session by Mr. Rajnish Borah on “Careers in HR”. Mr. Borah has close to 15 years of experience in Human Resource Management and has handled diverse HR roles. He is currently working as Head, HR, L & T General Insurance.

He insisted that the session should be interactive and started by asking the batch what they know about the various HR functions. Following which, he enlisted for the students the various specializations within HR such as Recruitment, Talent Management, Employee Engagement, HRIS, Compensations and Benefits, HR Analytics, Training and so on and spoke briefly about the role of each specialization. This helped in clearing whatever confusion the students had in mind about these specializations. He said that all the HR roles can be divided into four distinct categories: Administrative Expert, Employee Champion, Change Agent, Strategic Partner.

He also shared with the students the attributes required for becoming a successful HR professional. He stated that the ability to understand business is extremely crucial for an HR Professional to succeed. He also said that along with an in-depth knowledge of HR practices and the ability to successfully deliver them, a successful HR professional also needs to have a great amount of personal credibility. He said that although, traditionally, HR as a function has always been relegated to the back-seat and left out of strategic decisions, things are changing now because talent has become an extremely critical aspect of business.

Towards the end of the session, he enthusiastically answered all the questions posed by the students. The session certainly provided the students with a clear understanding of the evolving roles in HR. We look forward to more such interactive and insightful sessions.

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Finance Summit - FISCUS 2011

SIMSREE Finance Forum, the Finance cell of Sydenham Institute of Management Studies Research & Entrepreneurship Education (SIMSREE) organized the Finance Summit “FISCUS ‘11” on 1st October at Indian Merchants Chambers (IMC), Mumbai. FISCUS ’11 brought together students and finance stalwarts on a common platform to discuss a vital issue in the field of finance. The list of speakers included eminent personalities from the world of finance.

Mr. Suresh Kotak

The Summit commenced with the inaugural speech of Mr. Suresh Kotak, Chairman, Kotak & Company. The Morning Session on “Financing the Corporate Needs of India Inc” was chaired by Mr. Gautam Patel, Advisor, Battery Ventures & Managing Partner, Citta Capital. The other Panelists included Mr. Manish Arora, Executive Vice President, Country Head-Product Development & Sales Effectiveness, Yes Bank, Mr. Bharat Sampat, CFO, DCB Bank, Mr. Sunil Sapre, CFO, CEAT, Mr. Vikram Gupta, CFO, Essar Shipping Corporation and Ms. Jayashree Ramaswamy, CFO, Dun & Bradstreet.

Panel Discussion- Morning Session

The Afternoon Session on “Developing the Indian Capital Markets” was chaired by Mr. B. Madhuprasad, Vice Chairman, Keynote Corporate Services. The other eminent speakers included Mr. Prashant Shetty, CEO, IDFC Capital, Mr. Rajiv Anand, CEO, Axis Mutual Fund, Mr. Sunit Joshi, Head-Capital Markets Group, SBI Capital Markets and Mr. Subrata Ray, Sr. Vice President, ICRA. There were Keynote Addresses by Mr. Viney Kumar, Executive Director, IDBI Bank and Mr. Sanjay Jain, Managing Director, head-Global Capital Markets, JM Financial on both the topics respectively.

Panel Discussion- Afternoon Session

All the hard-work put in by the students in organising the event paid off as FISCUS 2011 turned out to be a grand success. The event was enriched by the variety and depth of industry experience of the various panel members, panel chairpersons as well as the keynote speakers. FISCUS 2011 has certainly raised the bar and will serve as a benchmark for all the future finance summits as well as all the other corporate events organised by SIMSREE.

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Foundation Day Celebrations

The auditorium at Sydenham College played host to a talented display of performances by the students of Sydenham Institute of Management, Research And Entrepreneurship Education (SIMSREE).

In keeping with the SIMSREE tradition, Foundation Day saw students dressed in traditional attire. The evening began with a Saraswati Vandana and the lighting of the ceremonial lamp. The proceedings were attended by the SIMSREE Director Dr. M. A. Khan along with other faculty members. Former students of SIMSREE were also present in the audience-it must have surely been a walk down memory lane for them. The rest of the evening consisted of a cultural performance, largely organized by the 2011-13 batch of SIMSREE. There was also a short ceremony felicitating the faculty and winners of various awards during the last academic year. The surprise package of the evening was a short address by our most recent alumni (of the just graduated 2009-11 batch).

This was a great opportunity to familiarize the new entrants with SIMSREE tradition. It was surely a memorable evening and was enjoyed by all.

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Guest Lecture by Mr. Sujan Roy

SIMSREE was proud to welcome Mr. Sujan Roy, Head - Marketing Services & Product Planning at Tata Motors on campus for a guest lecture on Marketing Communications for the Automobile Industry. Also, our Alumnus from the 2004 batch, Mr. Rahul Pansare, Head, Marketing Communications at Volkswagen Group, India was present for the lecture. 

Mr. Sujan Roy

Mr. Roy told us how love and passion for cars led him to work in various automobile companies over the years. Mr. Roy made a presentation, in which he demonstrated how simplicity and directness are the best marketing tools. He said that the customer should be given information in a simple, easy to understand format. The essence of an advertisement should be understood even with the volume off, since most people turn off the sound during commercial breaks. 

Also, he shared an important insight made by David Ogilvy- that the customer is not an idiot. Your wife is your customer. So you should always try to market things in such a way that your wife would be convinced. He also told us how cranks are generally the most loyal customers. They care more about the product and company than the employees. So it is good to listen to them and not dismiss them in irritation. 

He then opened the Q&A session. Many questions were asked by the students, about why various cars were positioned the way they were, how to stop companies from losing money on dealerships since people went to local garages etc. We thank Mr. Roy for the insights we gained into marketing for the automobile industry. It was an amazing experience.

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MBAuniverse Report on SIMSREE

A leading MBA portal MBAUniverse has published a detailed report on our very own SIMSREE. The report is extremely positive and covers every aspect of life at SIMSREE-starting with the admission process right up to the time one graduates from here. It also includes quotes from the 2010-12 batch and gives a glimpse of a typical day in the life of a SIMSREEite. The report ends with a note from the present batch to all future SIMSREE aspirants.

The complete report is available at: 

http://www.mbauniverse.com/article/id/4940/Life-at-SIMSREE-Mumbai

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Guest Lecture by Mr. Niranjan Hiranandani

SIMSREE was privileged to have Mr. Niranjan Hiranandani on campus on 20th August, 2011. Mr. Hiranandani spoke to the 2011-13 batch on success, how to measure it and what it means to an individual as well as to society at large. Mr. Hiranandani is an Alumnus of Sydenham College of Commerce and Economics. He is also a chartered accountant. He is currently the Managing Director of the Hiranandani Group (a very well known name in India, especially in the real estate sector). 

The session began with Mr. Hiranandani describing the real estate industry and further went on to describe the business ventures of his daughter Priya and son Darshan. 

Some of the points covered by him were: 

• Change in global perception about India 
• Growth and increase in technological prowess of India 
• Stark difference between the India of the past and present 
• Sea change brought about in the Indian business environment due to Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization policies of the early 1990s 
• Business ventures undertaken by his children, Priya and Darshan Hiranandani 

With respect to the last point, Mr. Hiranandani emphasized that money does not matter if one really has a good idea and wants to carry it forward through a business implementation. One of his more memorable statements was “Take risk; after all, life should be challenging and interesting”. 

The session ended with a Q&A and was found to be extremely interesting and informative by all. We look forward to more such sessions in future.

- Gaurav Mewati (Batch 2011-13)

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Guest Lecture by Mr. Sudhir Khot

The SIMSREE batch of 2011-2013 had the good fortune of getting an insight into the mind of an entrepreneur. Mr. Sudhir Khot, an alumnus of the 1993 batch visited campus to address the newly inducted batch on entrepreneurship. Mr. Sudhir Khot is the owner of Kaijing Agro Services Pvt. Ltd. He currently runs three other ventures viz. Rural Reach, Kaijing Financial Planning and Sahyadri Agricultural Producer Company Ltd. He has been successfully running his entrepreneurial ventures for more than 10 years now. 

He insisted that the session should be interactive and result in some sharing of thoughts. He asked the students to put forth their views on entrepreneurship. After listening to the responses of the students, he summed up the concept of entrepreneurship by saying that an entrepreneur is someone who identifies a gap in the system and fills it. He also helped the students understand the difference between an entrepreneur and a small businessman. He explained that the difference is how the Risk/Reward Ratio for an entrepreneur is much better than that for a small businessman. 

He advised the budding entrepreneurs on three points:

a) Don’t be stubborn and stick to a single business idea; be open to exploring new ideas. 

b) Don’t over-analyze your business idea. If you have a good idea, just follow your heart. 

c) If you really want to start a business, the right time is “now”. The longer you wait, the bigger will be your liabilities and it will become increasingly difficult to come out of your “corporate cushion”. 

He answered students’ questions regarding the relevance of management education for an entrepreneur, the dilemma about whether or not work experience is required before starting an enterprise, how to deal with initial failures and so on. The session provided a dose of encouragement to all the budding entrepreneurs and introduced all the others to the various elements of entrepreneurship. It was a very insightful and engaging session and we look forward to having more such sessions in the future.

- Gauri Sawant (Batch 2011-13)

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Guest Lecture by Mr. Vasant Sanzgiri

SIMSREE was honoured to have Mr. Vasant Sanzgiri, alumnus of the 1986 batch on campus to address the batch of 2011-2013. Mr. Sanzgiri is currently the Group Head HR for Shapoorji Pallonji & Co. Ltd and has worked for organizations like Taj Mahal Hotel, Modi Xerox, DCW Home Products Ltd., Owens Corning India Ltd and ICICI Prudential AMC Ltd. He has diverse experience of 25 years in the HR industry to his credit. 

He interacted with the newly inducted batch of students and urged them to make use of their two years at SIMSREE to identify and work on their weaknesses. He mentioned three things that the industry looks for in a student: Firstly, the type of projects the student has worked on and his/her learning out of the project; Secondly, the ability of the student to apply the theoretical knowledge that he/she has acquired during these two years; And finally the organizational roles taken up by the students, which demonstrate his/her ability to work in a group. While talking about his alma mater, Mr. Sanzgiri said that the institute has got something in its soul that is unique and those who join this institute have this soul incorporated into their own DNA. It was a very profound thought and made us very proud of being a SIMSREE’ite. 

He also urged the students to try and come out of their comfort zones and make the most of the ample opportunities that the institute provides for the overall development of the students. 

The session concluded with a question answer session, which helped clear our doubts and gain from his vast experience. We as students feel extremely obliged that he could spare time from his busy schedule to interact with us and give us something very valuable. We look forward to more such insightful sessions from Sir in the future.

- Gauri Sawant, Nirvisha Bhuta (Batch 2011-13)

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Guest Lecture by Dr. Kalim Khan

“Insightful”, “Eye opening”, “Reality check” were some of the responses from the 2011-13 batch of SIMSREE after an hour long session with Dr. Kalim Khan, Director, Rizvi Institute of Management on 18th August 2011. The very unusual session started with Dr. Khan setting the agenda for the day. The session was intended to give the junior batch a realistic view of the MMS/PGDBM courses to which they have newly enrolled. 

With his polished oratory skills and thoughtful choice of words, he engaged the audience with ease and also ensured that his message got through to the audience. 

Some of the points that he highlighted were: 

1. What one can and cannot expect from the course 

2. Approach to the course 

3. The importance of the right attitude while pursuing the course. 

4. Suggested reading material 

5. The importance of self-belief and self-evaluation 

He also stressed on the importance of participating in various inter B-school events, quizzes, preparing research papers, writing articles, reading books and doing off summer and summer projects. He gave examples of his real-life experiences to explain each point in more detail which could be easily related to by the students. 

The 2011-13 batch found the session extremely useful and also decided to implement his suggestions at the earliest. We look forward to hosting more of such sessions in future.

-Kunal Bhusare (MMS 2011-13)

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Reminiscence 2011 - Annual Alumni Day

‘Reminiscence -2011’ – our Annual Alumni Day will be held in Mumbai on Saturday, the 17th of September 2011 from 6:00 P.M. onwards. Further details shall be communicated shortly. Thank you.

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Guest Lecture by Mr. Ishmeet Singh

SIMSREE was honoured to have on campus Mr. Ishmeet Singh, Business Head, Vodafone India- Haryana Circle on the 15th of August 2011. Mr. Singh was there to speak about the advent of the Indian telecom industry, its growth path and challenges faced along the way and likely to be faced in future. 

Mr. Singh started off by describing the early days of the telecom sector in India. Telephonic conversations were a rarity, considering the difficulties one faced in making calls and acquiring landline connections. Even the introduction of mobile communication did not improve matters-incoming and outgoing calls were both chargeable at stratospheric rates. Things changed with the development of CDMA technology. This was a milestone which ushered in the era of affordable mobile telephony. 

Mr. Singh concluded with the challenges faced by the industry today, especially in view of limited spectrum availability, increasing competition and changing government regulations. Various opportunities are also present, such as the introduction of 3G services. The priority for companies in this sector is maintaining customer loyalty and increased focus on value based services. Intense competition prevails and organizations need to constantly innovate to sustain themselves. 

It was indeed a very interesting and informative session and we hope to have many more such sessions in future.

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Guest Lecture by Mr. Ramesh Mitragotri

A wonderful insight into the HR domain was provided by Mr. Ramesh Mitragotri, an alumnus of the batch of 1986 and currently serving as the Chief People Officer at Aditya Birla Retail Limited. He has an experience of more than 18 years in the HR domain in various industries like Philips India, Hindustan Construction Company Limited, India, Owens Corning India Ltd and Aditya Birla Group Cement Marketing Division.

One of the points highlighted by Sir was that ’Resources make business possible but People make business happen’. Resources degrade with time but people perform, learn and grow with time. People i.e. Human Power needs to be managed efficiently to aid in the success of the organization. When the goals of the company and the aspirations of the individual coincide both will reach great heights. Common purpose, availability of tools, growth opportunities, appreciation and rewards, collaboration and team-work is essential to engage the employee. But it is always the employee who has to manage himself-No one else can.

An HR manager needs to work as a Strategic Business Partner, Change manager, HR service provider and an Employee Champion. The pre-requisites for an HR domain include:

a) To know the business of the company  

b) HR domain knowledge

c) Change management i.e. Problem solving ability, clarity and innovative influence to make things happen

d) Personal Credibility i.e. consistence and reliability, integrity, interpersonal relations. Assertiveness, empathy, maintaining confidentiality, sense of responsibility, faith in people and their strengths, openness, learning ability and stress tolerance.

Overall it was a very informative session and helped clarify many queries related to HR field. We are very thankful to the induction team to have arranged this lecture for us and hope to have Sir again on campus for more such sessions.

- Sonal Sherekar (Batch 2011-2013)

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Guest Lecture by Mr. Sachin Khandelwal

SIMSREE was honoured to have its illustrious Alumnus Mr. Sachin Khandelwal as the guest lecturer for SIMSREE 2011-13 batch. Mr Khandelwal was from the batch of 1992. He is presently the CEO and MD of ICICI Home Finance.

The newly inducted batch from diversified fields was lucky to be guided by a person of his caliber. He shared many of his personal experiences of his MBA like why MBA?, his passions, dos and don'ts in MBA. He also threw some light on the present economic scenario, e-commerce, TSP (Technological Service providers) and Entrepreneurship options in Banking.

His lecture gave us a good insight into various aspects of MBA as well as the corporate world. The highlight of this session was “the 3 ingredients of a successful career – Passion, Attitude and Innovation". Truly an “idea can change your life” only if you have the passion and attitude to implement it. We hope to have more  such lectures from him in the future.

- Anjan Rajan (PGDBM 2011-13)

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Guest Lecture by Mr. Sidharth Singh

On the 29^th July 2011, SIMSREE was proud and honoured to welcome our illustrious alumni, Mr Sidharth Singh, on campus. Mr Singh was a part of the 1994 batch and has, since then, been a part of the corporate world. Currently he is working as the General Manager Foods at Hindustan Unilever.

It was an amazingly interactive session wherein Mr Singh enlightened the students with his insights and experience about growing a market and a company’s market share. Taking various example Mr Singh took everyone through the traditional four P’s of marketing, i.e. Product, Place, Price and Promotion and then took things a step forward by adding another and a very important P; Proposition. Mr Singh explained to the gathering how the value proposition offered by a product or service determines how it is perceived by the consumer and that in turn tells us how to promote the product and how much to charge for it. The points were insightful and helped us in altering our view on marketing.

Furthermore, Mr Sidharth Singh also talked about market size and market share and how to grow them. He told us about the three ways to increase the size of a market – by increasing penetration, i.e. increasing the sheer number of people using your product or service; by increasing usage, i.e. increasing the number of times customers use your product or service and by providing extra benefits in order to improve the value proposition of the product.

The best part about the session was that the learnings were through real life examples which meant that the students could participate in the session while at the same time get a glimpse into the mind of an industry veteran. We would definitely like to have more such sessions in the future and hope that Mr Sidharth Singh visits our institute again soon.

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Guest Lecture by Mr. Vikram Bahl

Mr. Vikram Bahl, Marketing Head, Kellogg’s India, took a guest lecture at SIMSREE on revolutionary positioning ideas. Mr. Bahl started out by defining a brand. He said a brand is an idea that should make people talk about it. Positioning on the other hand is the space occupied by a product in the mind of a consumer relative to competing products.

The next question which arises is, how do you go about positioning? There are 4 points to be followed here.

1. Who is the customer?  You should define who you are targeting.

2. Who else is talking to the customer? That is, you should know your competition.

3. You should know your customer through detailed market research.

4. Finally, you should fill a gap in your customers life.

For a product to truly succeed and to be truly memorable, the positioning of the product has to be revolutionary. According to Mr. Bahl, there are five points to be followed to make the positioning revolutionary-

1. The product should make a positive difference to the customer’s life

2. It should entail a deep understanding of the customer’s life

3. You should have the first mover advantage

4. You should be true to customer

5. You should stay committed to your idea

Mr. Bahl illustrated his talk with various examples ranging from Surf Excel, Tata Tea, McDonald’s Happy Price menu and Kellogg’s own Special K breakfast cereal.

Surf Excel’s campaign positioned the detergent in a very unique fashion by focussing on the ‘Daag Acche hain’ concept. Other detergents generally focus on the white colour, or softness of fabric after use etc. But Surf, which is projected as a premium brand, focuses on the fact that stains are a part of life and not necessarily bad.

Tata tea’s campaign was focussed on ‘Jaago re’ , wherein the tea was used to signify not just getting up from sleep, but awakening to ones responsibilities.

Similarly the Kellogg’s Special K campaign generated a lot of interest and sales were up by huge margins after the very first month itself.

The lecture gave us a very good insight into the importance of positioning and the way in which good positioning can be used to turn around a brand. We hope to have many more lectures like this in the future.

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Guest Lecture by Mr. Hemant Malik

SIMSREE was honoured to welcome Mr. Hemant Malik, COO- Trade Marketing and Distribution, ITC Limited on campus. Mr. Malik took a guest lecture with the students in which he covered the basics of marketing and distribution. Mr. Malik started out by asking students why people buy particular products, what is the meaning of brand loyalty, and how availability of products affects loyalty.

Using ITC’s operations as an example, Mr. Malik explained various concepts including the problems faced by an FMCG major. Some of the problems Mr. Malik spoke about were getting the products on time to different kinds of stores, including convenience stores which would not have much storage space. The main problem is managing the inventories of various kinds of stores, each having different storage and display formats. Customers prefer buying the freshest possible goods. In fact, some even switch brands if they do not find a fresh product of their brand of choice.

Mr. Malik also spoke about logistical difficulties like ensuring efficient transportation of goods. The example given was that of wheat flour and Bingo chips. According to regulations, each truck can carry only 9 tonnes of goods. With wheat flour, 9 tonnes would only occupy half the space (in terms of volume) in the truck resulting in wastage of space. However with Bingo chips, only 1 tonne (in weight) would occupy the entire space (in terms of volume) in the truck. So the solution the company came up with was to carry 8 tonnes of wheat and fill the remaining space with 1 tonne of chips, hence making optimum use of space as well as meeting regulations.

Mr. Malik also spoke about various issues that companies have to watch out for including making sure that their products are placed in a visible place in stores. Convincing stores to carry the products also requires serious effort in the case of big stores, because such stores are more interested in increasing category sales rather than the sales of simply individual products. So in order to convince them one has to resort to measures such as negotiating margins. Also one has to manage warehouses which are used for storage to ensure that products move in a first in first out manner. In stores too, older goods have to be placed in front of newer ones otherwise customers would buy the newer ones and the older ones would never be sold and would eventually have to be discarded.

It was a very informative session for all the students present as we got to hear firsthand how a major company like ITC manages its trade marketing and operations. We hope to have many more sessions with Mr. Malik in future.

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Asia’s Best B-School Awards

SIMSREE is proud to announce that we have won the award for the Business School with the Best Industry Interface and our professor, Mr. Ashish Pawaskar, won the Best Professor in Advertising and Communications Management at the Asia’s Best B-Schools Awards. Prof. Ashish Pawaskar is also an Alumnus of our college from the 1994 MMS batch and an active SIMAA Director.

The CMO Asia Advisory Board and the Advisory Council of the World Bank Congress took the task of identifying Asia's Best Business Schools. Participating countries included China, Japan, Sri Lanka, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Singapore, Israel and many many more. The jury included dignitaries such as Bhaskar Chatterjee, Secretary to the Government of India, Department of Public Enterprises, Ministry of Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises; Michael McDonald, Global Chairman, World HRD Congress; Jonathan Peters, Global Chairman, Stars of the Industry Group; Dr. Prasad Medury, Partner, Amrop India Consultants Pvt Ltd and many more besides.

This is but one of the many accolades SIMSREE has received. We hope to continue our efforts with the same perseverance and dedication as now and ensure that milestones such as these are achieved in the years ahead.

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Guest Lecture by Mr. Munjal Kamdar

SIMSREE welcomed yet another dignitary on campus. This time it was Mr. Munjal Kamdar, Enterprise Risk Solutions, Deloitte and also an alumnus of SIMSREE from the 1996  batch. The topic for the day was ‘Succeeding In Your First Job’.

Mr. Kamdar started off by telling us about himself. He described what life was like for him immediately after he left SIMSREE. With graphic examples and personal anecdotes, Mr. Kamdar explained some of the common mistakes made by most management trainees. These mistakes covered a range of areas from etiquette and office protocol to performance and goals. He also emphasized that failures are natural and eventual but the key thing about them is to recognize, acknowledge and ultimately work towards rectification of past errors. Another very interesting point he brought up was the progress of an individual from unconscious incompetence to conscious excellence. Conscious excellence is something that all of us must strive for from the very day we embark on our careers. He concluded by describing his journey so far and also gave us some useful tips on the corporate world and how to smoothen our progress through it.

Mr. Kamdar’s session was an extremely interesting and informative one and we are very grateful to him for sharing his valuable insights with us. This knowledge is not to be found in a classroom or textbook but can only be learned by experience and we appreciate the same. We hope to have many more of such educational sessions in future.

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Guest Lecture by Mr. Tushar Murdeshwar, Johnson & Johnson

SIMSREE was proud to have on campus yet another distinguished personage, Mr. Tushar Murdeshwar, alumnus of the 1993 batch of SIMSREE and now Head of Marketing, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Products Division-India. The topic for the day was ‘Integrated Marketing Communication.’

The lecture started with a note on how different media channels have sprung up and grown in India in a relatively short period of time. Just two decades ago, television used to be the main mode of communicating with the masses, via short commercials on just a handful of television channels. But with economic progress of the nation, media has also grown in terms of the various channels offered as well as in terms of reach into the nooks and corners of the country. The fact that the customer has also evolved has just added to the complexity, with information being bombarded on the customer every second of the day.

Mr. Murdeshwar also commented on TVR ratings, a measure of how many people can be reached through the medium of television. A point worth noting is that the ratings have seen a drastic reduction over the years from 16%- 24% representing peak viewership to a meagre 2.5% at most today.  Hence, it has become crucial for the creative media agencies to make the brand message more focussed to create a sharp distinction between them and their competitors. He then spoke on copy strategies, that is what a television commercial should say. The key elements of these were ‘Who?’, ‘What?’ And ‘Reason to Believe’.

He demonstrated the above concepts with the example of Neutrogena-right from how a brief is given to a creative agency by identifying the key problems, key challenge and core target segment to business objective, strategy to be followed, and equity challenge. Ultimately, a way to establish consumer connect is identified by hypothesis testing and building a database of information on consumers.  He stressed on how it is important to create relevance for the product category by highlighting the core purpose-why it is necessary to use the product and what need gap it fulfils.

According to sir, Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) is about the right person, the right message connection, the right channel mix and the right impact. The effectiveness of advertising can and needs to be measured. He emphasized that every big idea must connect with the audience, differentiate & stand apart, and be scalable-that is grow well with the business, and the key is that “Less is More”.

He further continued with the steps to be taken once the big idea is arrived at, with the communication objective being used to tell (i.e. awareness generation), recommend and engage (two-way communication) with the customer to finally come up with the integrated communication strategy and plan, an integrated channel plan, and integrated selling plan.

The lecture concluded with an example of J&J’s treatment of ‘Top to Toe’ and an interactive question-answer session with the audience. It was indeed a very interesting and informative session and we hope to see many more of the same in future.

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Nissan Student Brand Manager Program 2011- SIMSREE Student Wins

Nissan Motor India recently launched the second edition of their Nissan Student Brand Manager Program wherein entries were invited from over 150 institutes around India. The aim was to choose 20 bright youngsters to spend six months interning with Nissan as Brand Managers to learn the job.

We are extremely proud to announce that one of the winners is Subir Pinto, a SIMSREE student of the PGDBM 2010-12 batch. Other winners included students from illustrious B schools such as SIBM and IIM K.

Nissan Student Brand Managers- Subir Pinto (Second from left)

The NSBM programme is of six months duration, from July to December 2011. The selected 20 Student Brand Managers have the important role of bringing the brand closer to the general public and especially to the Indian student community via creative marketing initiatives. Following training, these students are to work with the company officials on a number of projects. Also, apart from working on different projects, these students will develop unique events for creating a buzz around the brand in the student community.

The competition was open to all students who have completed one year of management studies. Participants had to complete a pre-specified task which was judged by eminent personalities such as ad guru Prahlad Kakkar of Genesis Films, Autocar India Magazine Editor, Hormazd Sorabjee and Consults Incorporated CEO, Harish Bijoor, all from the automotive and advertising world.

There were over 2843 entries from 450 colleges in 15 Indian cities. Around 20-25 entries were shortlisted from each of the four zones, with zonal finals happening in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore in front of the jury. Out of these, 36 were selected for the final presentation in Mumbai, with 18 finally winning the competition.

Congratulations Subir-you have done us proud!

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AICTE Approval for PGDBM

We are extremely proud to announce that the Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management (PGDBM) offered by SIMSREE has been approved by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). 

This is the result of sustained efforts by our esteemed director, Dr. M.A. Khan, his predecessors and successive batches of SIMSREE students. Congratulations and a big thank you to all involved in making this happen!

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SIMSREE Orientation Programme

In keeping with SIMSREE tradition, an orientation session for future SIMSREE aspirants of 2011 was held on Saturday, 2^nd July 2011. The session was intended to be an introductory session for those who expect to join SIMSREE as part of the 2011-13 batch. It is also an opportunity for the prospective juniors to interact with the senior batch and get a preview of what their life will be like for the next two years.

Attendees were given a snapshot of life at SIMSREE and were also given an opportunity to get all their doubts clarified. They were free to ask virtually anything-information on the CAP rounds, the various committees at SIMSREE, the academic curriculum and numerous other queries. The enthusiasm and interest of the audience was a very positive sign of things to come. We are sure that the future batch will keep the SIMSREE standard flying high.

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Guest Lecture on Capital Markets by Mr. Sunit Joshi

SIMSREE was honoured to have Mr. Sunit Joshi (EVP, Head - Capital Markets, SBI Capital Markets Ltd) with us on campus for an interactive session on the Capital Markets. The agenda for the session was to give the batch an overview of the Indian Capital markets as well as clarifying students’ perceptions. The lecture was organised by the SIMSREE Finance Forum, and it was very good of Mr. Joshi to take time out from his busy schedule to spend a couple of hours with us.

The session was a very good learning experience for all the students present. Mr. Joshi started out by giving a brief introduction to the Capital Markets, both equity and debt. The floor was thrown open for students to ask him all the questions they had. Some of the topics discussed included reasons as to why the prices of most IPOS are low today. Mr. Joshi said that most IPOs were launched when the market was buoyant, but today it is dull. That is why price is below expected.

There was emphasis on the debt market, since most people have a clear idea about the equity market, but debt market is still a bit of an unknown entity. People had questions about why companies still prefer to raise money from banks as compared to taking loans via bonds. The reason given by Mr. Joshi was that the bond market is not very highly developed hence interest in participation is not very high. This is also the reason why FII in the bond market is less. Since the market is not fully developed, it is difficult to exit before maturity.

Mr. Joshi also discussed why the impact of FII entering or leaving the Indian capital markets was so high. He said that when FII money is exited from India, it flows to other countries, so it has a high impact. Whereas when domestic investors remove money from equities, and invest in some other financial instrument like mutual funds, it indirectly goes into equities via some other route. Hence the impact is not so high.

It was an extremely informative session, and gave the students a new perspective on the Indian Capital markets. We hope that Mr. Joshi would be able spend more time with us, and help the students in understanding more about the Capital Markets.

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SIM’ergence 2011

We came, we saw, we conquered...these were the thoughts that were uppermost in the minds of all the SIM’ergence 2011 attendees. As promised, SIM’ergence 2011, the flagship corporate event of SIMSREE, was a grand show-with eminent panelists, a great lineup of Corporate and Knowledge speakers and not to mention our illustrious Chief Guest. The theme this year was ‘India-New Decade, New Horizon, New Challenges’.

The event kicked off with an inaugural ceremony, which included an address by the Director of SIMSREE, Dr. M.A. Khan. This was followed by speeches by the Corporate Speakers who spoke extensively on rural markets, the future of marketing and consumption and the macroeconomic environment of India. The Knowledge Speaker spoke on Financial Inclusion, which was the theme of the day. Two panel discussions followed on ‘Rural Markets-Unearthing the Latent Potential’ and ‘Financial Inclusion-The Race to the Bottom of the Pyramid’. The discussions were enjoyed by all, largely due to the skill and experience of the speakers and moderators. Both discussions were extremely informative and the audience gained many valuable insights by simply listening to them.

The high point of the day was the address by the Chief Guest, Mr. Niranjan Hiranandani. Mr. Hiranandani spoke on his life and career and enlivened the audience with many personal anecdotes. There was also an interactive Q&A session where Mr. Hiranandani patiently answered the many questions posed to him.

SIM’ergence 2011 saw an audience of 300-strong which included both corporates as well as students from various B-schools across the city. Needless to say, the event was a great success and has definitely raised the bar for future SIMSREE events.

For more details, refer to the March 2011 issue of Simposium.

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SIMSREE Students Win Dandekar Trophy 2011

It is with great pride that we announce that two students of our very own SIMSREE, Michelle Rodrigues and Clitus Fernandes, have won the prestigious Dandekar Trophy 2011 presented by the Bombay Management Association.

The Dandekar Trophy was awarded to the best paper in a paper presentation competition. The topic for the same was ‘Managing Well in Uncertain Times’. Twenty B-schools from across the city participated in the competition and SIMSREE emerged victorious. This is the first time that SIMREE has won this trophy and we are sure it will not be the last.

Our heartiest congratulations to Michelle and Clitus-you have really made us proud. To read the winning paper, please refer to the March 31st, 2011 issue of Simposium.

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Guest Lecture by Mr. Dharmendra Rai

We were honoured to have on campus an extremely distinguished guest-Mr. Dharmendra Rai, National Sales Head and Vice President at Benchmark Asset Management Company Pvt Ltd, Assistant Vice President at J M Morgan Stanley and Mumbai’s first and only Licensed Mind Map Trainer.

Mr. Rai conducted a session on Mind Maps- a technique used by many of the world’s most intelligent and successful people for idea generation. Stalwarts such as Walt Disney have found this technique effective for brainstorming and innovation. It is also useful for enhancing lateral thinking which, as we all know, is a necessary skill in today’s competitive world.

A mind map essentially encourages the brain to work in the way it is best suited for-pictorially. The basic principle underlying mind maps is to start with a central concept and work your way outwards. The original concept results in a series of second level concepts which can be further extended to third, fourth....  successive concepts. The depth to which one must go depends on the creator of the mind map. Rather than thinking in a linear manner (which bores the brain and hence blocks further idea generation), one is encouraged to think in all directions. Emphasis is placed on representing each new idea or concept graphically rather than verbally. This further stimulates the brain to become more creative and innovative.

Mr. Rai practically proved this by conducting a small experiment.  He also explained how mind maps have been proven to improve one’s creativity, concentration power and idea generation ability. He also stated that mind maps are a tool which aids the worldwide shift from merely an age of information to an age of knowledge.

It was a very interesting and enjoyable session. This technique will surely help us to fulfil our roles as managers and leaders of tomorrow in a more efficient way and enable us to achieve new levels of excellence.

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Banking Workshop by Mr. Nitesh Gawade, a SIMSREE Alumnus

We at SIMSREE were privileged to host a workshop on Banking conducted by Mr. Nitesh Gawade, a 2008 alumnus of SIMSREE. Mr. Gawade is the founder of Edify Solutions. The workshop was conducted in two sessions of four hours each and was intended to apprise students of the various profiles available in the banking domain and the skill set required for each such profile as well as the expectations of employers. This was applicable to five specializations, namely, Finance, Marketing, Human Resources, Operations and Systems.

Day 1 of the workshop saw two topics being covered-Basic Banking and Banking Systems. Basic Banking started with the fundamental functions of banks and then moved on Retail Banking and Corporate Banking. Job profiles and responsibilities in these domains were clearly mapped out. The career path one might expect to follow here was also traced. Banking Systems covered a wide variety of topics-ATM, ECS, Internet Banking, IT Infrastructure, Core Banking, CRM, Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing. Again, we were made aware of the various roles open to us and the responsibilities associated with the same. The skill set needed in such a position was also touched upon.

Day 2 saw a wider variety of topics which were covered by Mr. Gawade’s colleagues.  The session opened with a briefing on Treasury Process and Systems by Ms. Dhruvi Vora (again a 2008 alumnus of SIMSREE!). Treasury Mid Office i.e. Treasury Operation were covered by Mr. Gaurav Chheda. The session concluded with a summary of various Banking Profiles and skill set requirements by Mr. Gawade.

It was indeed a very interesting and informative session and cleared many misconceptions in the minds of students regarding Banking. We hope to host many more such educational sessions in future.

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Guest Lecture By Mr. Samir Gupte

The junior batch of SIMSREE was privileged to have a guest lecture with Mr. Samir Gupte, President and Country Head at O&M on the 11^th of February. Mr. Gupte took a lecture on Rural Marketing, with a focus on the strategies used by HUL. It was a very informative session as Mr. Gupte started out by explaining what the rural market is like, what the difficulties in communication are etc.

Many innovative ideas were discussed, like the portable TVs and DVD players used to play advertisements to the villagers as part of the Khushiyon ki Doli campaign, the Vodafone search towers used at the local fairs, etc.

Since most of rural India is not exposed to modern technology, there is need for innovative ideas to get the message across. Lifebuoy in particular had one innovative campaign where local gurudwaras were involved. This had to be done subtly so as to not hurt the religious sentiments of people.

Thus it was a highly illuminating session, which contributed to awakening the interest of the entire batch in Rural Marketing. We look forward to having more such sessions with Mr. Gupte.

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