Guest Lecture by Mr. Subodh Salunke

SIMSREE batch 2012-2014 was privileged to have on campus our very own alumnus, Mr. Subodh Salunke, (1988 Batch), Regional Business Head- Mumbai & Vidarbha of HDFC Ltd., on the 22^nd of December. Mr. Salunke was overwhelmed to see the differences in the infrastructure since his management days. His agenda for the addressal was to teach the students the importance of preparation required before any interview that the student takes.

Mr. Salunke started by telling the students the importance of asking questions. He stressed that asking the right questions mattered more than simply asking any question. Being an interviewer himself, he told the students what an interviewer looks for in any interview. This helped the students immensely as they had a clearer picture as to what one should be prepared about. He gave tips on how to go about preparing oneself to face the interview that would place the students for the summer internship as well as the executive placements.

He asked the students to start by researching about the company. He asked the students to read and find out as much as one can about the company taking the interview. This involved the new projects the company is taking up, the problems that company is facing, the financial status of the company and much more. He also stressed on the fact that knowing your own strengths and capabilities was as much important as knowing your company. He asked every student to assess themselves to know the shortcomings so that they can be worked on.

Mr. Salunke ended the session by answering the questions raised by the students and clearing the doubts about the process in general. It was a very interactive and enthusiastic session. Mr. Salunke kept the batch completely engrossed and active with his amazing sense of humor and wit. We thank Mr. Khan for having arranged this session with Mr. Salunke and hope to have more of such insightful sessions in the future.

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Guest Lecture by Mr. Jason Gonsalves

Information Technology is perhaps the most important and integral part of any organization today. And hence the session on “Role of IT in Manufacturing Organization” by Mr. Jason Gonsalves, Vice President, Performance Coatings Division, Corporate Planning and IT, Kansai Nerolac Paints Ltd. was soaked in with great enthusiasm by the Students of SIMSREE. Mr. Gonsalves, a 1994 alumnus of SIMSREE, has been working with Kansai Nerolac for last 18 years. While handling the position of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) with Nerolac, Mr. Gonsalves received the Gold award at CIOL-Dataquest Enterprise Connect Awards 2005 for his outstanding IT achievements. Under his leadership, the company has automated key business processes such as supply chain management (SCM), sales and after-sales processes and product development.

Mr. Gonsalves started the discussion by looking at the organization and its relationship with the various stake holders. He spoke about the extensive usage of various CRM, ERP and similar packages to deal with the different facets of business. Starting with customers he explained the various touch points at which the company interacts with them like while prospecting for probable customers, converting them and maintaining a sustainable relationship with them. Tools like CRM have enabled reaching out to a wider customer base and the ease of having a more direct relationship with them has led to a focused way of marketing along with above the line activities.

He also went on to discuss how IT has completely revolutionised the way organizations deal with their vendors, employees and shareholders as well. Speaking about more recent technologies like BigData and CRM Web 2.0, he walked us through the giant leaps taken by the IT industry and the impact it will have on the future.

He then gave us a brief overview of the various career options that we can have in the IT industry. He emphasized that irrespective of the roles we pursue in the future, working with the various package suites will be inevitable.

Later on when the floor was opened for questions he answered queries related to not just IT but general queries about Paint industry and Nerolac as well. He touched upon the various marketing strategies used by Nerolac, the thought process behind them, the plans to tap rural markets etc. All in all it was a very informative session and we hope we have the privilege of interacting with him again in the future.

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Guest Lecture by Mr. Sanjay Deshpande

It was a privilege for SIMSREE batch of 2012-14 to learn entrepreneurship lessons from Mr. Sanjay Deshpande, Chief Innovation Officer and CEO, Uniken. The topic for the session was “Innovating in India for global markets: Challenges and Strategies”.

Mr. Deshpande started the session with a brief description of his career growth from Tata Research Centre to Infosys and then to Uniken. He explained the work culture at Uniken and how they transform a new idea into reality. Through interactive discussion he pointed out the three buckets which act as hindrances for innovation in India – Underutilisation of talent, poor financial eco-system and acceptance of new products by the targeted population.

He emphasized that implementation and execution of any new idea is more important than just innovation. It is also very important to select which idea should be taken to the market and which should not. This decision depends on three parameters – frictionless sale i.e. how difficult will it be to sell, competition with a big brand and cost & time needed to commercialise the idea.

Some of the misconceptions, according to him, that an entrepreneur has are – “if you show the idea to a Venture Capitalist, you will get money” and “only techies can be innovators”. Then he threw some light on the term – reverse innovation which means to innovate for local market and then expand it globally. He also elaborated how important it is to have patience and stay alive than focussing on breaking even in shortest time. The he described the bureaucratic hurdles in the innovation process and how one needs to pick and choose his battle to avoid it.

The floor was then opened for questions and he satisfactorily explained the ways to be sustainable and survive the chance of failure. The session was motivating and inspiring and we expect many such sessions in future.

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Usher '12

SIMSREE expanded its horizon and added a new feather to its hat with the successful execution of USHER’12 on October 19, 2012. The Junior Corporate Relations Committee stretched its wings and took USHER’12 to a new echelon making it a National Intercollegiate Management Event. USHER was aptly nucleated by various management events like The Hunting Spree, Ad-Diction, Sell it @ SIMSREE and the pinnacle was marked by a Panel Discussion on ‘Scaling new heights in Public Private Partnership’. SIMSREE witnessed the budding managers of India thinking out of box and channelizing their management knowledge to compete for the top prize. The sponsors for the event included Essel World, Bank of Maharashtra, Akbarallys and Markiv’s Restaurant.

After the inauguration, this grand day was started with a challenging competition of Hunting Spree where teams were given a company in advance and had to rack their brains to come up with potential Mergers & Acquisition ideas for that company. The judges of this event were Mr. Vikrant Narang, Director- Investment Banking at Barclays Capital and Mr. Chandrasekharam Tatapudy, a Business Strategy Consultant who is the Co-founder and CEO of Yasham P2D Lifesciences Pvt. Ltd. The shortlisted teams came up with very unique acquisition prospects of both Public and Private sector companies and included participants from institutes like Prin. L. N. Welingkar Institute of Management, Great Lakes Institute of Management, NMIMS and our very own SIMSREE. The teams supported their idea with sound financial, technical and economic analyses and outlined the entire timeline of events that would happen during and post the merger of the two companies. The winning idea was the acquisition of the company Amrutanjan by Dabur which was presented by the team High Betas from NMIMS, Mumbai. Other ideas included acquisitions of Prizm Payments by TATA Communications, Yebhi.com by Flipkart and Aleris International Inc. by Vedanta Resources Plc. 

After a sagacious financial event, it was time for the right half of the brain to shine and our marketing knowledge was put to the test by Ad-diction, an ad-centric event which saw an even contest between nine teams from across the country. The preliminary round Ad-entify got the participants and the audience to walk down memory lane and identify all those nostalgic advertisements that we grew up with. The final round saw the five finalists putting concerted efforts for launching a product along with its marketing mix, envisaging a leading apparel brand launching tyres, or a leading plastic manufacturer entering the watch market. Startling and conspicuous concepts came forth, which even impressed the judge Mr. Gagan Gupta, Product Head at Tata Motors. The team that pocketed the 1^st prize was Sparta from SIMSREE while Aetos Dios from SIES, Navi Mumbai bagged the Runners up position.

Selling, convincing and negotiating skills were then put to the test with the concluding competition, Sell it @ SIMSREE.  A unique competition that required each team to manufacture a product made out of only paper or aluminum foil within a time span of just 30 minutes. The cinque rival teams were Team Mavericks - KJ Somaiya, Team Aetos Dios - SIES, Team Zealots - SIMSREE, Team Three Musketeers - XIMR and Team Rockstars - SIMSREE. The 30 minutes of brain racking brought spectacular products to life, ranging from personalized gifting products & accessories, paper trays and mobile phone holders to Tequila shot glasses and flower bouquets. After the demonstration of their product, each team was given an opportunity to present the various aspects that they would follow to promote, target and sell their products and their expected revenue. The judges Mr. Heramb Ranade, Chief Marketing Officer at Tikona Digital Networks Pvt. Ltd. and Mr. Hrishikesh C. Rumde, respected alumni and Founder/Promoter, Zelos n Zest & 3 Monkeez, were very impressed to see the spectacular & innovative ideas which were on show. The phenomenal talent of team Aetos Dios won the hearts of not just the audience but also the judges and came out as winners for the viewer’s choice award as well as the jury award with their concept of mobile bag holder. This event brought the entrepreneurial abilities of various students and encouraged them to expand their ideas into the market.

The exciting and fun filled competitions were followed by a very enlightening panel discussion on the topic, ‘Scaling new heights in Public Private Partnership’. Eminent personalities like Mr. Bhupen Dalal, Chairman at Foods and Inns Ltd., Mr. Narayan Hariharan, President of Corporate affairs at Adani Enterprises, Mr. Kapil Mehra, Associate Director at Kyori Oremin Ltd., Mr. Kalyan Prasath, Sr. Vice President at ICICI Prudential AMC Ltd., Mr. Bhaskar Bhattacharya, Associate Vice President of ABG Cement Ltd. were the part of the panel and Mr. Darryl Cabral, Director at HR Total Solutions was the moderator of the discussion. The discussion was based on the pros and cons of Private Public Partnership and how it can shape the future development of the economy. The discussion covered topics from myriad sectors such as aviation, coal, power and infrastructure. All the panelists agreed that Public Private Partnership is necessary for cost effectiveness, quality and growth of the economy.

All in all, Usher 2012, which could not have been possible without the efforts of the Corporate Relations Committee, was a huge success and was admired by one and all.

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SIMSREE ANNUAL FINANCE SUMMIT FISCUS'12

SIMSREE witnessed cynosures of the industry at FISCUS’12, the annual Financial Summit. The presence of Guest of Honour Dr. Subir Gokarn, Deputy Governor, RBI sparkled the sombre milieu along with Chief Guest Mr. Ramesh Chandak Managing Director & CEO of KEC International Limited (KEC) and Keynote speaker Mr Nilesh Shah, Director Axis Direct. It was a lifetime opportunity to listen to veteran Dr. Subir Gokarn speak about “India: 6% Growth, The new Comfort Level?” He very succinctly put forward the analogy between Policy Makers and Managers while elucidating the ingredients of growth. He listed down the various macro factors that needs to be addressed for sustainable increase in growth rate. The intricate concept given by Dr Subir Gokarn was further explained in a very lucid manner by the Mr Ramesh and Mr Nilesh Shah.

Hon' Deputy Governer RBI Dr Subir Gokarn

In his addressal, Mr. Ramesh Chandak spoke about the impact of the Power sector which is one of the most critical growth drivers for a country. He started by talking about the recent major fallacies in the sector including the massive grid failure and Coalgate scam and its implications on the overall health of the country and its economy. He pointed out that in comparison with the global leaders, India stills lags far behind in the per capita power usage with a stark difference in the demand and supply. According to him, for addressing these vital issues we need an integrated energy ministry and a developed infrastructure to reduce distribution losses.

Mr. Nilesh Shah addressed students on the topic of benefits of capital market for growth of Indian economy. He emphasized the point that development of domestic capital market is the need of current economy to encourage entrepreneurship. He also said that we have a deep potential for capital market in India and it will start benefiting the economy if more people start investing in the debentures, equities, bonds, securities etc. instead of creating physical assets in terms of gold, silver and diamonds. Mr. Shah talked about the significant role that debentures would play for sustainable growth. He gave an example of how TUF i.e. Technology Upgradation Fund for textile industry played a major role in sustainable growth of the textile industry in India in the times of inflation.

What followed was one of the most engaging discussions that students of SIMSREE had ever witnessed. The panel discussion included corporate stalwarts like Mr. Gautam Patel, MD Zodius Advisors (Moderator); Mr. Ritesh Kumar Singh, GM & Group Economist Raymonds; Mr. Anay Khare MD-Corp fin-IB, Enam Securities; Mr. Sundarapandian Vishwanathan, VP Capex controlling Head, ACC; Mr. Sidharth Punshi, MD Investment Banking JPMC; Mr. Paresh Patel, Founder and MD Sandstone Capital and Mr. Manishi Raychaudhari, MD BNP Paribas Securities. Each of the panelists while talking about their area of expertise mirrored the sentiments of Dr. Gokarn. They stressed on the need to extend the reforms in retail and aviation industries to infrastructure and other major growth inducers for the economy. They spoke about how targeting untraditional markets for exports and disinvestment by the government to fund infrastructure development in the country can help the economy grow at higher rate and sustain it. The discussion and the  Question & Answer sessions that followed was carried on in a crystal clear manner that captivated the attention of novice in the field of management helping them to grasp the current trend of Indian economy.

Panel Discussion

Fiscus‘12 thus turned out to be a grand success owing to the relentless efforts of the members of the Finance Forum, the constant support and guidance of our Director, Dr. M A Khan and all others who contributed to this successful mega event.

Dr Subir Gokarn with SIMSREE Finance Forum team

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Guest Lecture by Mr. Sandeep Mangle

On 30^th September 2012, the SIMSREE batch 2012-14 had the pleasure to have Mr. Sandeep Mangle, Manager - Supply Chain Excellence at BASF India Ltd and 2005 alumnus. He has an Industry exposure in fortune 500 MNC's in chemical sector with key focus on marketing strategy, business development & business operations.

            Mr. Sandeep started the session by a brief presentation on the things that one shouldn’t miss in an MBA course. During the presentation Mr. Sandeep conjured up the memories of his own college days which was a good-to-hear experience. He went ahead and explained the importance of four things viz. ‘Passion’, ‘Team work’, ‘Believing in Yourself’ & ‘Leadership’ in  corporate life.

 

            Mr. Sandeep shared a lot of practical knowledge & experience which was really valuable. He explained in detail all the profiles that are available for a marketing graduate viz.  Business/Marketing analyst, Product manager, Group product manager, Marketing manager etc.  He got down to the nitty-gritty details regarding all the profiles and clarified on what an MBA should expect from these profiles, a typical day at work and much more.

            Later he elaborated on “Supply Chain Management (SCM)”. He even showed the batch a small movie that helped in understanding what a supply chain manager has to deal with, by taking example of a packaged drinking water bottle plant. The movie even clarified the role of supply chain management in service industry with an example of hotels. He then gave an idea of the profiles that one might take up in a supply chain domain.

            Some other topics that he touched upon were Supply chain strategy and processes which includes Order management & customer services, SCM strategy & consulting, SCM integration and analytics etc. He then showed another video that depicted the efficient supply network planning of Procter & Gamble, which was really interesting. The lecture turned out to be very informative and beneficial to the batch in terms of the learning that it provided. We look forward to more such sessions on diverse domains on knowledge.

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Guest Lecture by Mr. Rajesh Nair and Ms. Deepali Naair

With the spurt of competition in the current market scenario every brand wants to offer something distinct from others, and as a result branding has become an integral part of any product/service. Thus specialized brand management and marketing is required for any brand to stand out in the clutter. The concepts like Sales, Brand Management and marketing, for us were different colors of the same spectrum called Marketing. These individual concepts were beautifully elicited by our esteemed Alumni of 1993 batch Mr. Rajesh Nair and Ms. Deepali Naair to the students of the 2012-14 batch on 30th September. Mr. Rajesh Nair is currently the General Manager (Corporate Human Resources) at Tata Motors, Heading Talent Acquisition, Employee Engagement and Employer Branding. He is associated with Tata Motors from past 19 years where he has served a diverse profile portfolio. Ms. Deepali Naair is currently the Country Head - Brand & Corporate Communications at L&T General Insurance Company Ltd, before which she has been associated with various companies and sectors. Her last assignment was with HSBC Global Asset Management India as VP & Head of Marketing. 

The theme of discussion was "An overview of Careers in Marketing", "Trends in Digital Media and Social Media Marketing from career perspective". Mr. Nair set the ball rolling by asking a penetrative question that "How many want a career in Marketing?", this incited an insightful discussion of Sales V/s Marketing. Both of them explained the need of starting one's career with a sales stint to understand the market and consumer behavior at the grass root level. Sales gives us a completely different flavor of customer needs, while marketing is the support function to improve sales of goods/products. Also, ways to make the transition from sales to marketing were discussed. Focus and dedication were the key points when it came to shift in career opportunities and growth of individual. It was succinctly put as "It's okay to be confused, but the problem is many don't realize that they are confused!"

Ms. Deepali Naair emphasized on Brand Management as a career opportunity and stressed the importance of managing oneself as brand. She explained the depth of social media in critically maintaining our profile and brand. Coming to this a discussion was evolved upon the expanse of digital media and how it is different as compared to the traditional media. Same principles of traditional marketing cannot be applied, as it is more viral and complicated.

Towards the end Mr. Rajesh Nair and Ms. Deepali Naair answered several queries put forward by students. By the end of the discussion all the students were awed by the simplicity and clarity of thought they had. All of us are eagerly looking forward for many more sessions like this one.

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E-Leader Workshop at SIMSREE

There was a sense of buzz and excitement at the campus on the 21st and 22nd of September, 2012 as SIMSREE (Sydenham Institute of Management Studies, Research and Entrepreneurship Education) played hosts to the NEN E-Leader workshop. The two day event was co-ordinated by the SIMSRE E-cell team consists of seniors and juniors. From NEN we had Mr. Uday Wankawala, Consultant- Mumbai region who conducted the workshop. It was attended by selected student leaders (E-cell core committee members) representing 16 campuses across Mumbai viz. Welingkar, Jai Hind, St. Xavier’s, MET, IBS campuses etc.

The first day started off with various team building activities in which E-leaders from different colleges were grouped together and asked to come up with a substantial event plan in a short time span. Mr. Uday then gave a roadmap to be followed by the E-cells during their growth from new to growing to finally matured E-cells and provided useful information on reporting of E-cell activities, managing e-cell website etc.... Some E-leaders then presented to the E-family their already up & running student / campuses ventures.
The launch of the first issue of the SIMSREE E-cell newsletter ‘The Ideator’ was an icing on the cake. Mr. Uday from NEN and our dear faculty Prof. Dr. R.K. Shrivastava and Prof. Rekha Shrivastava were present for the formal inauguration of the newsletter. The efforts of the Editorial team and the Designing team were applauded by all.

Day 2 saw the members again being teamed up for various intellectual activities that required out of the box and spur of the moment thinking. The introspection tool for leaders (through U Tool journaling sheet) was informative and there were interactive sessions regarding Inspired Leadership and setting up mentoring units on campus. The highlight of Day 2 was the guest lecture of young & dynamic entrepreneur who really kindled the inner spark of entrepreneurship in each one of the members present. We had Mr. Shrenik Gandhi, the co-founder of an event management firm called ‘Blues N Coppers’ who was an e-leader during his B-School times. He stressed upon the importance of managing e-cell events professionally (by sharing some basic knowledge on fundamentals of event management), building healthy client relationships, jugaad in doing business and social media. Then we were asked to form groups and come up with a specific plan for better branding of e-cell and managing different events like E-Summit, International conference etc.
We also had a session by senior e-leader from K J Somaiya Institute (SIMSR) pathfinder E-cell (Nitish Dorle) sharing his experiences about being an e-leader & specific roles / responsibilities. He emphasized on the role of faculty and necessary support provided by the faculty (Dr. Radha Iyer) to achieve desired results. The workshop concluded with importance of Regional collaboration of e-cells highlighting First Dot event wherein Chennai e-cells had set an example. It was decided that Mumbai Regional E-cell will formulate one impactful event FY 2012-13 wherein it will support student ventures with networking, mentoring & counselling services and the next regional meet is planned during 1st week of December 2012.
To sum up, the event was another step towards strengthening the bond between NEN and SIMSREE and making a mark for SIMSREE E-cell in the Entrepreneurship community. The apt infrastructure and prompt support of the institute was highly appreciated by NEN. E-cell @ SIMSREE promises to build on this great start and continue to put in best efforts to organise more such successful events.
Workshop Album: https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/109786474032976957496/albums

Mehul Sheth
SIMSREE E-cell
2012-14

 

             

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Guest Lecture on "Entrepreneurship" by Mr.Siddharth Shah

On 25^th September’12, all of a sudden the 6^th alphabet of ‘SIMSREE’ appeared to be much bigger than it ever was after the 2012-2014 batch had the pleasure and the privilege to have Mr.Siddharth Shah, 2012 alumnus of the prestigious IIM-Ahmedabad on campus.  Mr.Siddharth, a talented engineer and a very young entrepreneur, graduated from the aforesaid institute just 6 months ago and is one among the very few of his batch mates to opt out of the institute’s placement process to start up his own venture.

Mr Siddharth Shah

He started by questioning whether an MBA is really important to be successful and explained at the same time, why Entrepreneurship can work wonders for all and anyone of us. He emphasized a lot on breaking the barriers of a common way of thinking that a job is the right way. He went ahead and clarified that on joining a big company one would end up being a very small part of that organization whereas if one would think of initiating a business of his own he would be looking after every big & small things the way he wants and apply his knowledge too. He explained that there are 6 things that one requires to run a successful business viz., Confidence, Persistence, Patience, Leadership, Team Building and lastly Vision. He further said that a vision is nothing more than just a simple solution to any problem that people face each and every day, which is how he came up with the idea of ‘DialHealth’, his own venture which is at its preliminary stage at present. He explained that when one has a solution to a problem he has an idea too.

He emphasized a lot on “Courage”, which is the single biggest driving factor and the ”need to work for yourself”. After which he went on elaborating his own journey and gave some examples of a few other people that inspired almost each and every one of the batch.  As we went ahead he addressed the questions and apprehensions that many amongst the batch had pertaining to entrepreneurship and shared a lot of practical solutions which satisfied the batch to the fullest. He advised and motivated the batch to read the stories of other entrepreneurs and meet a lot of people around once someone has an idea of his own, which will help to clear out any doubts that one might have regarding his idea. He further emphasized that one must incubate the fire in the belly to do something and shouldn’t let it go.

Lastly he assured that working for something of your own is a lot more fun as you get to play a role of not just a MBA but also of a CA, a lawyer, a sales person, a HR person and a lot more and this experience is in no way similar or even close to what a job will provide. To end he gave a success mantra to the entire batch which says that when you give a solution added with convenience and value to your customer you are bound to achieve success. All in all it was an awesome experience and as he left the batch was craving to listen to more of Mr.Siddharth’s inspirational and motivating words. The batch would like to thank the entire E-cell committee to present this wonderful opportunity.

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Guest Lecture by Mr. Shrinidhi Nadgauda

In the current scenario of Open Market Economy, surviving and having a competitive advantage while keeping sustainability in mind is one of the most important challenges faced by most businesses. Hence, it was a great opportunity for us when Mr. Shrinidhi Nadgauda shared his insight on this crucial dimension of business with the students of SIMSREE on 25^th September 2012. Mr. Nadgauda is currently the Sr. General Manager at Welspun Global Brands Ltd. He has been associated with Welspun for more than 7 years now, having joined Welspun India Ltd. as a General Manager in 2005.

 The topic of discussion was ‘Making Supply meet Demand – Streamlining Manufacturing and operations with Market Demand’. Mr. Nadgauda opened the topic by discussing how the demand supply dynamics have changed over the decades from the 1960’s where the manufacturing industry dominated, with the demand always exceeding the supply; till today where we have fierce competition in most sectors. He stressed on the importance of a well placed SCM and logistics system as well as the seamless integration of manufacturing, operations and marketing in an organization to maintain a sustained growth rate. He pointed out that the various departments in an organization independently may have conflicting objectives and a lack of co–ordination between them may lead to incorrect forecasting of demand.

Mr. Nadgauda then went on to discuss how these strategic measures were incorporated in Welspun Global Brands Ltd. He discussed how with measures like sharing ‘Average weekly sales’, they have managed to have a transparent information sharing system across the organization synchronizing the sales and production. Coupled with a collaborative supply chain management, these strategies have helped Welspun optimize the ROI for the business as a whole.

Towards the end Mr. Nadgauda addressed the queries of the students, relating to his personal life experiences while answering them. The pearls of wisdom shared by him have definitely made us more equipped to tackle challenges that may come our way. We hope to have many such sessions in the future as well.

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Guest Lecture by Mr. Sanjay Chandel

The SIMSREE batch of 2012-2014 had the privilege of having on campus Mr. Sanjay Chandel on 24^th September, 2012 for a guest lecture. Mr. Sanjay Chandel is an alumnus of the batch of 1996 and is currently the CEO at India Bulls Mutual Funds. Previous to this, he has also worked at the Indian Commodities Exchange as the CEO for more than a year and as an AGM at Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for 11 years. The topics for discussion for the session were Role of SEBI and impact of SEBI policies on Mutual Fund Industry, MCEX - Threat/Complement to other Sensex.

 

Mr. Sanjay Chandel started the session by asking the students what their understanding of mutual funds was. He then went on to explain what exactly a mutual fund is and how it had evolved over the years. He threw light on the Government of India created - UTI in 1964. He talked about how the monopoly of UTI had mainly targeted the retailers. Then in 1988 SEBI was formed and the Ministry of Finance allowed the public sector banks to float mutual funds as well. Although SEBI was created in 1988, it received the statutory power in 1993.

He also spoke about various scams like the Ketan Parekh scam and Harshad Mehta scam.  He explained in detail SEBI’s investigation in the former scam and how Ketan Parekh was ostensibly banned from trading on the bourses till 2017. He talked about the sector cap on the debt mutual fund schemes introduced by SEBI to reduce huge exposure in specific sectors and how the mutual fund industry had adapted to it.

He then concluded the session by answering numerous queries raised by students such as the reasons as to why SEBI was formed, the satisfaction one gets to work in SEBI as it brings in new acts and laws for the welfare of the country, the IPO issues and how the merchant banks will be responsible for it and the Facebook IPO. This session was highly interactive and the students got a deep knowledge in areas of stock exchanges in India such as BSE, NSE, and MCX – SX, SEBI, and Mutual Fund industry. We look forward to have him back on campus for more of such insightful sessions.

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Guest lecture by Mr.Sanjeev Dixit

SIMSREE was privileged to have Mr. Sanjeev Dixit on campus on the 22^nd of September, 2012. Mr.Dixit is currently leading People Management and Development Strategy as Chief People Officer at ABD. Mr. Dixit has done his Post graduation in Management from Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies, Pune and was a Silver Medalist in the batch 1997. He has been felicitated with the “Pride of HR Profession” award by Indian Human Capital summit and World HRD Congress.

Mr.Dixit started the session with a discussion on the definition and practice of values in an organization. He encouraged an interactive session. He emphasized on the point that for the efficient working of any organization, the marriage of the person’s and the organization’s values must take place. The alignment of the employee’s beliefs to the company’s belief is essential.

Later on, he described his journey through various companies ranging from Hindalco Industries, Pepsico, Pt Indorama Synthetics and Philips and stated that adaptability to various environments is very essential for growth. Then he threw light on ABD Company’s mission, the values which they believe will enable to move towards it and the initiative taken by the HR department of his company to imbibe the values into each and every employee of the company and instill a sense of ownership into everyone’s minds. He also emphasized that rewards and appraisals are very important for the growth and motivation of an individual.

Then in the end, he opened the question answer session and very satisfactorily answered the questions posed by the students on value based management and HR strategies of his company. The session was very engaging and we look forward to more such sessions.

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SIMSREE Honoured at ABP News Awards Function!

It was a proud moment for SIMSREEites as SIMSREE was honoured at the recently held ABP News Awards Function. The awards were meant to recognize and honour excellence in education throughout the nation. SIMSREE was presented with 2 prestigious awards: “B school with Outstanding Industry Related Curriculum in Marketing” and “Outstanding B school in the West Zone”. SIMSREE has always been at the forefront in using new and improved pedagogy. It has always strived to give its students practical and relevant business knowledge which is exemplified by the number of guest lectures and events held at SIMSREE, which gives the students a chance to interact with industry stalwarts. The awards were a means to recognize the efforts put in to give the students of SIMSREE an all-round learning experience.  It was received on behalf of the director by the chairpersons of SIMSREE which seemed fitting as the USP of SIMSREE has always been that it is a student driven college.

The event was also a great opportunity for SIMSREE to mingle with the directors and professors of other prestigious institutes and promote the brand SIMSREE.

We hope that with the support of our director Dr. M.A.Khan and guidance of our faculty members we are able to scale greater heights in future.

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SIMSREE Gets a New Auditorium

                         Wednesday, 4^th July was a proud day for SIMSREE. The grand opening of the new auditorium – the Sydenham Management Excellence Centre - took place. The inauguration was done by eminent people like Mr. Rajesh Tope - the Hon. Cabinet Minister of Higher & Technical Education, Shri D.P. Sawant - Ministry of State, Higher & Technical Education, Dr. Rajan Welukar - Vice Chancellor of Mumbai University, Dr. P. R. Gaikwad  - Director Higher Education Maharashtra State and  Shri. Sanjay Kumar - Principal Secretary Higher and Technical Education.

                      The auditorium is built with an aim to seat the increased student intake of SIMSREE, which has been raised from 120 to 180 this year. This state of the art auditorium is an addition to the already well-equipped infrastructure of SIMSREE and will surely help the future batches in their academic endeavours.

                    As always, we have our Director, Dr. M.A. Khan to thank for this. It is because of his constant support and guidance that this has been made possible.

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SIMSREE at SIFE

SIFE India is a growing network of over 2000 students in 46 teams across the country, SIMSREE being one of them. This year SIMSREE presented the project DESI i.e. 'Development and Empowerment Student Initiative' through which a sustainable business model was created to empower the below poverty line (BPL) people.

SIFE represents the premier international business and higher education network with programs in 39 countries. SIFE brings together a diverse network of university students, academic professionals and industry leaders around the shared mission of creating a better, more sustainable world through the positive power of business. It has various community programs, leadership and career connections, regional and national competitions followed by the World cup which is the final round.

The western region regional competition was sponsored by KPMG and was held on the 3rd July, at Hotel Lalit, Mumbai where SIMSREE competed against 11 other teams from Mumbai and Pune. The presentation made by SIMSREE was appreciated and liked by the 20 odd eminent judges present.

The project includes fabrication of jute bags by the BPL people which will be painted with civic messages and sold under the brand DESI. The tagline for this initiative is ‘Show your DESIness ’. This project would empower the women of Cheeta camp; which is the second largest slum area after Dharavi, where the drug addicts, alcoholics are taken care of by JeevanDhaara.

We would like to thank our principal Dr. Khan for supporting us always and Prof Augi Dalton and Prof Anuja Mutha for making this project possible. Also, Prof Aashish Pawaskar and Prof Amit Bobhate for encouraging us throughout.

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SIMSREE Conducts Orientation for Aspirants

SIMSREE successfully conducted an orientation session for the aspirants of SIMSREE 2012-14 batch on Sunday,  1^st July 2012. The agenda of the session was to solve queries regarding Life at SIMSREE and CAP rounds. The session got an overwhelming response and was attended by around 100 aspirants. The session kicked off with a presentation on SIMSREE, which explained the working of the college, curriculum, esteemed visiting faculties, role of various committees, etc. Aspirants then got a chance to clear their doubts regarding SIMSREE, placements, CAP rounds and numerous other queries which were convincingly answered by the senior students. The students also had an opportunity to interact with Prof. Ashish Pawaskar who mentioned about the uniqueness of SIMSREE being a Student Empowered Institute. It was great to see the curiosity and enthusiasm of future SIMSREEites and their keen interest in getting their queries solved on campus which made the session last for 2 hours. It was a great opportunity for them to interact with fellow seniors and learn from their experiences. We hope the future batch will continue to maintain the legacy of SIMSREE and keep its standards high.

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SIMSREE Students take up a cause on World No Tobacco Day

The results of the CPAA, Snap-a-moment, a photography competition were announced during a press conference at Trident Hotel, BKC on 25^th May 2012. SIMSREE students were present at the press conference as volunteers due to their association with the Cancer Aid Body. Mr. Arup Patnaik, Police Commissioner of Mumbai was the Chief Guest for the event. The event also saw the presence of noted celebrities like Vivek Oberoi, Atul Kasbekar, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Rituparna Sengupta among many others.

The Cancer Patients Aid Association of India (CPAA) has always supported the notion of a tobacco free world. SIMSREE has been associated with CPAA and has been an active partner in the events conducted by the cancer aid body. The SSR (Student Social Responsibility) Committee at SIMSREE had partnered with CPAA in organizing a social event, Sankalp earlier this year.

On 27^th May 2012 CPAA will be organizing a Music Concert that will feature the likes of Shankar Ehsaan Loy, Shaan, Shweta Pandit and Neha Basin at the Rang Sharda Auditorium, Bandra. SIMSREE students will again be present for this Music Concert as volunteers to ensure the smooth functioning of the event.

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SIM'ergence 12

On Thursday, 1^st March 2012, the Convention Hall of the Bombay Stock Exchange saw an amalgamation of industry stalwarts. The event was SIM’ergence 2012, the flagship corporate event of SIMSREE. SIMSREE has been successfully hosting this event for the last decade. SIM’ergence, a combination of SIMSREE and Convergence is meant to bring about an interaction between management students and corporates.

SIM’ergence 2012 was kick-started by the ceremonial lighting of the lamp by Chief Guests, Ms. Meera Sanyal, Mr. Motilal Oswal, Mr. Ajit Mahadevan, Mr. Kashyap Deorah and Dr. M A Khan (Director, SIMSREE) Mr. Rohit Khatau, Head, Corporate Communications at BSE and SIMSREE alumnus of the 2002 batch made the inaugural speech.

The theme for SIM’ergence’12 was “Envisioning Emerging Economies”. Ms. Meera Sanayal, Chairperson and Country Executive India at Royal Bank of Scotland, was the Chief Guest for the event. In her address, she chronologically traced the path of India’s growth and highlighted the important socio-political and economic changes that have impacted India’s growth story. Mr. Motilal Oswal, Chairman & MD, Motilal Oswal Financial Services Pvt. Ltd. was the Special Guest Speaker for SIM’ergence’12. He made a very intriguing presentation with valuable facts and data, highlighting the peculiarities of the Indian economy. He spoke about the demographic advantages available in India, consumption boom and the savings and investment boom in India.

Mr. Ajit Mahadevan, Partner, Ernst & Young, was the Corporate Speaker for the event. While expressing his views on the topic “Envisioning Emerging Economies”, he said that India has a sustained growth momentum and hence India will continue to grow steadily and strongly. Mr. Kashyap Deorah, Presidesnt, Futurebazaar.com was the Keynote Speaker for SIM’ergence’12. He spoke about the emergence of e-commerce in India and its role in India’s growth. Mr. Prakash Gaba, Technical Analyst, Gaba & Gaba Financial Advisors Pvt. Ltd., conducted a session on Capital Markets in India. He shared with the eager audience, interesting experiences from his own academic and professional journey. His session was extremely insightful and interesting.

The post-lunch session started with a panel discussion on the topic “Building India for Sustainable Economic Growth”. The panel consisted of eminent corporates like Mr. Sanjay Parikh, CEO Taurus Mutual Fund ( Moderator ), Mr. Sachin Khandelwal, MD & CEO of ICICI Home Finance Co., Mr. Alok Churiwala, CEO, Churiwala Securities Pvt Ltd, Mr. Vikas Sachdeva, MD & CEO, Edelweiss AMC Ltd., Mr. Ashis Sen, GM and Head Training and Balanced Scorecard at HPCL, Mr. Rajiv Ranjan, CEO and MD, Reliance ARC. They spoke on a variety of topics ranging from problems in bank regulations and practices, the rise of SMEs to the need to create thought leaders. The conclusion that came out of the discussion was that sustainable growth requires sustainable businesses and meaningful profits. This would require all of us to be responsible corporate citizens. The panel discussion was extremely engaging and enriching.

The topic for the second panel discussion was “Rise of Indian Consumer Markets”. The panel consisted of industry stalwarts like Dr. Hiru Bijlani, Board of Directors, Zenith Global consultants Ltd (Moderator), Mr. Brijgopal Jaju, Global CFO, Welspun Corp, Mr. Rajesh Pant, Founder, Kandor Solutions, Mr. Abhijit Avasthi, Executive Creative Director, Ogilvy & Mather, Mr. Roosvelt D’Souza, Executive Director, The Nielsen Company. The corporates spoke on a host of issues ranging from captivating consumers’ fancies to creation of niche markets. The discussion turned out to be extremely insightful.  Both the discussions were followed by Question & Answer sessions in which the students got a chance to get their queries cleared from the eminent panellists.

SIM’ergnece’12, which saw an audience strength of around 400 people, comprising of students, faculty members and professionals, turned out to be a grand success. The credit of the success of the event goes to the students of the Corporate Relations Committee of SIMSREE who worked very hard right from the inception to the execution of the event. The constant support and guidance of our Director Sir, Dr. M A Khan and all our faculty members was also instrumental in making this event a grand success.

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CET Workshop and Mentorship Programme @ SIMSREE

CET Workshop and Mentorship Program@ SIMSREE

on 4^th march 2012 organised a CET workshop and Mentorship workshop for CET aspirants. The workshop saw an overwhelming turnout. It was a 3 hour workshop with 2 hours devoted to quantitative ability and logical reasoning and an hour for verbal ability. The sessions were taken by 1^st year students at SIMSREE who have had previous teaching experience. The sessions were aimed at helping the students with most frequently asked questions and giving them last minute tips. These sessions were followed by a counselling session where in students received handy tips on what questions to attempt first and how to manage their time. This was followed by a talk by the 2011 CET toppers from SIMSREE who shared their valuable experience with the students. The screening of the college video motivated the CET aspirants to give their best shot and try and convert SIMSREE. The workshop ended on an informal note with students getting a chance to interact with their coaches on a one on one basis over tea and snacks.

The mentorship programme is an extension of the CET workshop where each student who attended the workshop would get a mentor from 1^st year students of SIMSREE based on their intended specialization which would help students through the whole post CET journey like cracking the Group Discussions and Personal Interviews as well as answer various questions related to life at SIMSREE.

The media committee is extremely grateful to the coaches Mr Rahul Krishnan, Mr.Mihir Gathani, Ms.Gauri Sawant, Ms.Nupur Khare who worked extremely hard to prepare for the workshop and also to Mr.Nikhil Mahajan, Mr.Harsh Dhruva, Mr.Abhijit Singh for their invaluable contribution. A special thank you to our general secretaries Mr.Anilraj Pazhety and Mr.Gaurav Mewati. We are also extremely grateful to our director Sir Dr. M.A Khan who always encourages new initiatives and our faculty members for their constant support.

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Spanish Centre inaugurated at Sydenham - DNA News Story

Original Article: http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_spanish-centre-inaugurated-at-sydenham_1647270

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SANKALP '12

SANKALP ’12!

Saturday 25^th February, a very anticipated day for SIMSREE students! For the first time in the history of SIMSREE, there was an event hosted by the Students’ Social Responsibility (SSR) Committee, SANKALP. SANKALP was drawn up with an aim to spread awareness through a larger involvement of students, not only from Mumbai, but across India.

To achieve this, a Print and Video Ad competition, Parivartan (A change), was organized. The participants were expected to make a creative ad, showing awareness about the various addictions leading to cancer. The event got over 50 entries from across India. Mr. Ankeet Dave, a media consultant with CPAA – Cancer Patients Aid Association was the guest of honour for this event.

 The other competition was Chanakyaneeti - a Case Study competition. B-School students were given a live case study of an NGO and asked to come up with a marketing and Operational solution for better sales of the NGO’s products. Again, there were over 50 entries pan India from various management institutes like IIMs, S. P. Jain, NITIE & NMIMS, among others. 5 finalists were selected, who came down to SIMSREE on the 25^th to present their solutions. The eminent  judges for the event, Ms Divya Chaudhary, Mr. Aughi Dalton, Ms. Anuja Mutha, Mr. Ravi Naidu and Mr. Aashish Pawaskar had a tough time deciding the winner but after a long discussion, Team Zenith from National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management, Hyderabad, won the first prize, worth Rs. 7500.

The last part of the day was a panel discussion. Eminent personalities like Mr. Bharat Nadkarni – Former  CSR Head, Tata Power, Dr. Pankajaksham – Dean, HR Department in Welingkar , Ms. Deepika Mandrekar – Volunteer with the Aseema Foundation, Mr. Bhagirath Shanbagh – Head, Talent Management at Larsen & Toubro EBG, Mr.  Krishnaraj Rao – An RTI activist, Mr. Swapan Garain – A Social Entrepreneur, Mr. Mahendra Narang – Program Director at Tata Power & Mr. Sanjaya Pradhan – Co-ordinator of Community Relations at Tata Power, graced SIMSREE with their presence. They had an intriguing and animated discussion on the topic – ‘Social Responsibility a hype? Do crises affect Corporate Social Responsibility?’

The SSR Committee is grateful for the immense support that it received from the Director, Dr. Khan and all the faculty members as well as from the students, without which, this event would not have been so successful.

Nupur Khare

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