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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