'SIX SIGMA GREEN BELT' Session by Mr. Vishwadeep Khatri

Mr. Vishwadeep Khatri, CEO, Benchmark Six Sigma visited SIMSREE on 27th December, 2013 as a part of SIMCON’s initiative to spread awareness among the batch regarding the relevance of ‘Six Sigma Practices (6ϭ)’ in today’s business world. Mr. Khatri is one of the most renowned trainers of six sigma worldwide, having over 15 years of experience in business process improvements related to service as well as manufacturing industries. He has worked as a trainer, consultant and an auditor. Apart from being a B.Tech and an MBA holder, Mr. Khatri is a ‘Certified Lead Auditor’ by IRCA, UK, an RLA, RABSAQ of Australia, a Master Black Belt in Lean Six Sigma by AMT, USA, Six Sigma Black Belt, Morestream University and a member of ASQ.

Mr. Khatri specifically focused on dispelling the myths prevalent in the minds of the students regarding the use of Green Belt Six Sigma certification to branches such as Marketing, Finance and HR. He presented cases of different organizations where the principles of Six Sigma proved to be beneficial in improving the overall processes and the functions of organization. He presented the cases, where in, he showed how Six Sigma improved the market research process at a research consultancy, online payment systems at banks and resume shortlisting process at a HR consulting firm. He emphasized the need for this certification considering today’s businesses to be more complex with stricter deadlines. To back his own statements, he further went on to justify how simple hypothesis testing methods can lead to significant results by providing inputs for process improvement. He also touched the topics such as ‘DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control)’ and ‘DMADV (Define, Measure, Analyze, Design, Verify)’ methods used to improve processes and develop new products respectively.

With his crisp and exhaustive oratory, the entire batch was enthused about the efficacy of Six Sigma. His presentation was complimented well by the batch which offered him a plethora of questions to quench the inquisition generated by his words.

By the end of the session, SIMSREE students seemed to be all the more geared up for SIX SIGMA.

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Dr. Glen Brodowsky at SIMSREE Campus

Students at SIMSREE witnessed the first international guest lecture organised by BUZZ Marketing club, SIMSREE on 27th Dec, 2013. Dr. Glen H. Brodowsky, California State University, San Marcos, CA, USA, (Ph.D., State University of New York at Buffalo) is a Professor of Marketing at California State University San Marcos.

The lecture started with Dr. Glen quoting Charles Dickens’ views and later sharing about his life. It was primarily focused on how to grow when the economy loses its steam. Quoting live examples from Levis and Coke and how the brand evolved through ages to have its market share, he lucidly explained the preference of consumer centric over product centric strategy. However, he also cautioned that before comparing any two brands, its segment must be kept in mind. Having travelled globally he also gave his insights on how company changed its product line to suit the local market.

Through various graphs he explained that over past few years the company which has emerged as most successful undertook various risks and innovations down the line. Further, he singled out on innovation as the prime distinguishing factor for a successful company. Live examples of Blackberry and Samsung were discussed to drive home the point. However, it was pointed out that it is as good an art as a science to judge the market forces and time the launch of the product.

He also explained the rationale behind consumer behaviour. A consumer in a developed nation might buy a product just because people in other nations can’t afford it. Association of brands with consumer then becomes a part of his identity.

The presentation was followed by a brief Q&A round where Dr. Brodowsky was asked both sector specific and general questions. Dr. Brodowsky, with his immense knowledge and understanding of the sector, answered them promptly with a humour element added to it, taking examples from amongst the students. The students were left in awe for the simplicity and humble attitude of Dr. Brodowsky. We all, at SIMSREE thank him for taking time out of his busy schedule and adding to our learning.

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Guest Lecture by Mr. Chandrasekaran Ramamurthy

The SIMSREE students witnessed a guest lecture by Mr. Chandrasekaran Ramamurthy, Chief Reinsurance Strategist, Mahindra Insurance Brokers Limited on 26th Dec, 2013. Mr. Chandrasekaran has more than three decades of experience in domestic and international insurance and reinsurance industries, spanning India, UK and Middle East. Previously he has worked as Director, RCS Managing Consultants Private Limited, Member of IRDA Sub Committee, Senior DGM – Technical Operations, Kuwait Reinsurance Company, Kuwait, General Manager, GIC of India, Asst. General Manager, International Business Development, Manager, Aviation. He spoke in detail about ‘Insurance Sector in India’. 

Starting with a brief history of the sector, Mr. Chandrasekaran spoke about how the Indian Insurance business was in a nascent stage prior to the year 2000, as it was mainly restricted to the public sector. The period was marked by lack of marketing efforts and ineffective distribution practices. Post 2000, the insurance sector in India opened up for private players as well. From then on until now, it has grown by around 7 times. He opined that it is a sector with high growth potential. In terms of turnover, he expects it grow to INR 1 Lakh Crores by 2015, INR 3 Lakh Crores by 2020, and as high as INR 10 Lakh Crores by 2025. In short, the insurance sector in India is poised to touch great heights.

He further stated that if all the insurance companies in India aimed to contribute up to 1% of the GDP, it would be a big achievement for the insurance industry. He also sounded positive on the growth of reinsurance business in India, saying that India is soon to become ‘Reinsurance Hub of Asia’.  ‘Reinsurance’ means ‘Insurance for the Insurance Companies’. 

Delving into numbers to back his statements, he pointed out that there is a cap of only 26% on FDI in Insurance sector in India. This means that the remaining 74% of the Indian insurance pie is handled by only the domestic companies. There lies a huge opportunity of utilizing the money generated through insurance business for the development of Indian Economy. 

Moving on to a related and highly relevant topic of ‘Customer Complaints’, he said that like any other sector, there are unsatisfied customers in this sector as well. Most of the claims are related to motor and health insurances. The key areas of customer complaints are as follows:

i) Policy, Endorsement not received: 16%
ii) Display in claims settlement: 22%
iii) Policy Data Errors: 9%
iv) Repudiation of claim: 8%
v) Dispute in quantum of claim: 9%
vi) All other claims: 36%

The lecture was very beneficial as students gained a lot of insights regarding the insurance sector and its potential. Taking full advantage of the opportunity to interact with such a senior industry professional as Mr. Chandrasekaran, the students posed him a gamut of questions, to each of which he gave elaborate answers and explanations.

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Guest Lecture by Mr. Mahesh Balasubramanian

At SIMSREE, continuing the tradition of guest lectures by eminent industry personalities, Mr. Mahesh Balasubramanian addressed the first year students on Thursday, 26th December. He is the Executive Vice-president, Kotak Mahindra Bank and also an alumnus of the institute from the 1991-92 batch.  The topic of the guest lecture was ‘Ring side view of Retail Banking’.

Mr. Balasubramanian elaborated on how the banking industry has moved from a ‘product-centric’ approach to a ‘consumer-centric’ approach: ‘Every customer is a segment’ is the essential of the approach.  “The banks are now taking a holistic view of the customer’s overall profile and what banking products he/she wants to use. The bank tries to keep the overall revenue from the cumulative products’ earnings at the maximum, thus in turn keeping the profits maximum. He elaborated how capturing an account has become easy, but retaining that account has become more difficult, in the changing conditions. This is where the ‘Relationship Managers’ come into picture: it is a bridge that connects the bank with the customer. With about 7,000 branches opened in 2013 alone, the opportunities in this sector are enormous.”

 Mr Balasubramanian also explained ‘the Kotak way’ that has delivered in last few years to make the bank to figure amongst the top five in private banks total capital category even though having lesser customer base. The bank thus plans to achieve more and more as it grabs and retains more and more customers.

The presentation was followed by a brief Q&A round where Mr. Balasubramanian was asked both sector specific and general questions. Mr Balasubramanian, with his immense knowledge and understanding of the sector, answered them promptly with a humour element added to it, taking examples from amongst the students. The students surely benefited from these valuable insights.

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The Corporate Connect- Mr. Asgar Khorakiwala

The members of the Corporate Relations Committee (CRC) of SIMSREE had an enriching interaction with Mr. Asgar Khorakiwala an entrepreneur who runs Akbarallys Furniture. In this interview he discusses his family history, commencement of the business, challenges faced and values that helped him go up against all odds.

Mr. Asgar Khorakiwala comes from the reputed family which owns India’s first department store -Akbarallys. The family has a remarkable history. In early 1897, Mr. Akbarally Ebrahimji had bought a small 30-square-foot space near Bombay’s Gunbow Street to start a “department store”, selling a range of items, like imported articles, toiletries and biscuits. In the course of its operations of more than 100 years, Akbarallys has established itself as a brand known for quality and integrity.

The Interview:

CRC: Sir, could you tell us how this business started?

Mr. Khorakiwala : In 1984, my family had a place near a store vacant. We wanted to start a new business here. I played a key role in determining which business we would undertake. In retail; the options were Electronic Goods, Footwear, Furniture, Fabric and Travel. After doing market research, weighing all the options available and understanding the intricacies of the businesses, I decided to go ahead with Furniture manufacturing and retail.

CRC: How has been your journey so far and what were the challenges that you faced?

Mr. Khorakiwala: At its commencement, I expected a good start because of the strong brand name of Akbarallys. But to my surprise, it didn't pull customers. So the smooth start that was expected didn't materialize and I had to think about the further course of action. After a few days there came an excellent opportunity which speeded up everything. The firm got a contract from a television manufacturer to supply wooden casings for their television sets. There was no upper limit for the supply and we could sell as much as we could produce to the TV manufacturer. This went on for a few months. The TV Company went bankrupt. This stopped the continuous orders and work. The payments for previous orders were also pending. It was a tough time for the firm.

CRC: Sir, how did you overcome these challenges?

Mr. Khorakiwala: In this period, we concentrated on the core business of Home Furniture. We managed to get the money from the TV Company. The business ran just fine with some orders from retail customers. But this alone couldn't have helped the firm to survive and grow. We decided to offer total home furniture package with the best quality. The package we offered was expensive. But due to the values that our business follows, people trusted us. Within a short time the package became very popular and resulted in a perennial supply of orders.

We introduced a lot of variety in home furniture with unbeatable quality. This strategy helped the business grow. We expanded our manufacturing facility. After this we entered in the office furniture business. There also we gave turnkey solutions to many customers. But the main focus is still home furniture. Now we have three furniture retail stores in Mumbai.

CRC: Sir, please tell us about the furniture industry.

Mr. Khorakiwala: In India, the furniture industry has few big players. Most of the players are small manufacturers. The transactions in the retail furniture are small, so there is a lack of accurate official record of all the transactions. This makes it difficult to understand the volume of the industry. But yes, the industry is large and promising. Organized sector is growing in the industry but at present its share is quite small.

CRC: What are the marketing strategies that have helped Akbarallys Furniture?

Mr. Khorakiwala: The furniture brand was built on three core values, Transparency, Ethics and Quality. This created loyal customers. Only print ads were used for promotion. This promotion ensured demand large enough to completely utilize the available manufacturing facility. We modernized our shop display. The home furniture package that we offered was displayed in the shop. It would have occupied a space of around 220sq.ft; which would have been difficult to display in an overcrowded city like Mumbai. So we developed a miniature model for all the merchandise. The total set now occupies only 75sq.ft of area and also gives the customer a real feel of the product. We conduct exhibitions in Goa, annually. This has helped us garner orders from Goa also.

CRC: Sir what is your message for budding entrepreneurs and MBA students?

Mr. Khorakiwala: Business has many uncertainties and unforeseen challenges. An entrepreneur has to work on his toes. The scenario can change drastically, he has to adapt to the changes and evolve with the new circumstances. Values play an essential role when one thinks of long term. Only strong values can retain the customers.

CRC: It has been a pleasure talking to you, sir. Thank you for spending your valuable time with us.

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Guest Lecture by Mr. Gautam Thakker

The Marketing Club, BUZZ arranged a guest lecture by Mr Gautam Thakker, CEO of Everymedia Technologies. The lecture was insightful and an informative one. He particularly highlighted the digital marketing of movies and brands which was the forte of Everymedia. Mr Gautam started with a montage showing the digital marketing campaign of the super hit movie Agneepath, starring Hrithik Roshan and Sanjay Dutt which he had handled. The campaign was hugely successful with Facebook, Twitter and YouTube collectively generating a very high revenue.  Despite all this huge success he explained that the digital market is a hugely untapped media for revenue generation and it is still being experimented. He spoke on the digital marketing of movies and brands which was the forte of Everymedia. Although he had various other videos lined up for the lecture, students were excited to know more about the business that they kept Mr Thakker engaged during the entire session with various questions. The question posed to Mr Thakker ranged from “how the financial Structure of a digital media advertising of movies works”, “Is media advertising considering the huge success of the viral 'Kolavari Di' video an organic or inorganic” and “What impact a star has on the success of a film or a brand that he endorses” and many more such questions. He answered to all these question comprehensively giving real life industry examples.

He explained that no campaign that is hit today is just by chance citing examples from that of ”Kolaveri di” in which he tactfully cleared the doubts that it is always a tricky and calculative business. No idea is good or bad unless it works out. He also explained in context to the questions asked that marketing a movie with big stars like Shahrukh Khan and Amir Khan is relatively easier as the stars bring with them a lot of media attention and as such grabs attention nationwide. However the smaller concept movies like 'Vicky Donor' with newbie actors has to be marketed aggressively and intelligently to create a hype that will pull the crowds to theaters. Most importantly digital marketing is used to save money and not to earn revenue from. When asked by students whether it is safer to use a big star for promoting a brand, Mr Gautam elaborated how some firms had achieved success by not involving celebrities and using clever marketing gimmicks which could save money and also ensure long term brand image. 

All along student gained a lot of insights into the unexplored world of Digital Marketing and found the session beneficial.

Mr Gautam has also been judge to the FILMARK event at Simerations’13 and was received by a warm welcome from the students.

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Guest Lecture by Ms. Anita Zutshi

The SIMSREE students witnessed a guest lecture by Ms. Anita Zutshi, GM Finance-Sales and Customer Development at Hindustan Unilever Limited. Ms. Zutshi talked about "Career in finance and FMCG sector".

Ms Zutshi talked about the industry expectations from MBA students. She stressed on hard work, along with thorough research and ability to get along with people. This is quite important for today's manager since he is expected to deal with different kinds of people in India or on a global level. Along with all these, a manager should also be able to put across his thoughts properly. She emphasised on the importance of training a Management Trainee has in his involvement particularly in the initial one year.

Ms. Zutshi also talked about the roles a career in finance has in this sector. She described various finance expertise roles like taxation, treasury, auditing, budgeting, etc. She mentioned a term "Business Partner" and said that a business partner is not just a consultant but is completely involved with the day-to-day functioning of a company, and making important business decisions. A finance business partner has roles in departments like purchase, manufacturing, distribution and marketing.

Along with academic skills, Ms. Zutshi also agreed about the importance that a manager has as a leader. His/her leadership skills are tested along the years as he/she moves up. This happens in local, then national and also global level. She said that at these levels, its the leadership more than the academic skills which acts as a differentiating factor. This is because the academic skills have already been tested and now the manager is expected to perform as a leader.

The guest lecture was an interactive session, with the students of the first year asking questions and Ms. Zutshi answering them all with equal prowess. We all,at SIMSREE thank her for sharing her thoughts with us and adding to our learning.

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Coffee With Alumni - Mr. Mahesh Kalsekar

We were delighted to have the first ‘Coffee with Alumni’ session of our batch with Mr Mahesh Kalsekar, Director – Strategy and Business Development at Takeda Pharmaceuticals and alumnus of the 1995 batch. He has close to twenty years of experience in the healthcare sector across Corporate Strategy, Business Development, Consulting and Market Research verticals.

In the session, coordinated by the Alumni Committee, nine students got the opportunity to spend quality time engaging in a meaningful conversation with Mr Kalsekar over coffee and snacks. He shared with students his deep insights about the pharmaceutical industry in particular and marketing, consulting, advertising etc in general. He replied to each of the volley of questions that students asked, tailoring his answers to industry-specific details based on the students’ interests. 

Among other things, Mr. Kalsekar stressed the importance of building a relevant skill set based on the targeted industry (communication skills, analytical ability, Excel and Power Point etc) and of gaining work experience from local Indian firms before starting their own ventures for aspiring entrepreneurs. The details he shared about career growth paths and opportunities in the pharmaceutical industry, in addition to those in general market research and strategy consulting were particularly interesting and insightful. 

The students found the session immensely beneficial and look forward to more such interactions with industry professionals. We would like to extend our sincere gratitude to Mr Kalsekar for consenting to spend time with the students.

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HUL VP visits SIMSREE campus

A Guest Lecture was arranged by the Corporate Relations Committee for the first year students of SIMSREE on the topic- Managing Business in a VUCA World. The speaker for the lecture was Mr. Kabir Ahmed Shakir- VP, Finance, HPC Division, Hindustan Unilever Limited. Mr. Kabir is a finance and business professional with over 20 years of experience, distributed equally between developed and D&E markets. He worked in various positions at Unilever, India before becoming the Director - International Funding (Treasury) at Unilever N.V and the Finance Director - Global Supply Chain at Unilever. 

Mr. Kabir explained the meaning of VUCA, which is an acronym for Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous with present-day examples. He mentioned the post-2008 situation where the economic equations have changed, the fluctuation of crude oil prices, the volatility of the rupee, the economic policies of the government, the uncertain tax structure, and the unpredictable consumer mind. He stated that the VUCA world has created many challenges for the business world. Since consumers have a wide variety to choose from, they frequently change brands. To face this challenge companies have to come out of their comfort zone and give utmost importance to quality. In a scenario of tough competition, if a company tries to maintain or reduce costs by compromising on quality then it might lose ten times of what it saved in the cost cutting process. He shared his experiences from a market survey which highlighted the importance of quality, where a girl with limited income wanted to use the same brand with increased price by reducing her quantity of consumption.He explained that costs should be reduced by minimizing inefficiencies. He also explained that the way to fight recession is through innovation.

 

Mr. Kabir shared a very interesting insight. He talked about the price as a brand. When the sachets of products are sold at low prices, it is not the brand, but price that is the USP of the product. This is the reason companies maintain the same price for years irrespective of the inflation. For this companies have to acknowledge that every unit of the business can't generate profit. Some units have to work to connect with consumer's demand and continue to generate revenue.

While talking about HUL, he said that it has deep-rooted values.He expressed that the leaders of HUL have shaped it in different ways and are responsible for where it is today. Robust Suppply Chain Management (SCM) and agility in SCM and production center make the product a success within months of its inception. This is the reason many other companies try to partner with HUL in India. He reinstated HUL's quest for sustainable developing.

It was a pleasure interacting with Mr. Kabir and we look forward to many such opportunities.

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SIMSREE'ites at the 2nd edition of Inclusive Innovation Summit

Businesses in India are being buffeted with grim head-winds on many fronts. Innovation is the need of the hour to achieve profitable growth in such a difficult environment. Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) partnered with Singapore Management University (SMU) to organize the 2nd edition of Inclusive Innovation Summit based on the theme 'Innovating Practices in Turbulent Times' on 28th October 2013 at Vivanta by Taj President, Mumbai. 11 SIMSREE students accompanied by Prof. Sangeeta Pandit attended this conference.

The seminar was inaugurated by Mr. Ninad Karpe (Chairman, CII Maharashtra State Council) who welcomed the speakers and the audience. This session included a speech by Mr. R Mukundan (Chairman, CII Western Region & Managing Director, Tata Chemicals Ltd.) emphasizing on affirmative inclusivity, a presentation by Professor Rajendra Srivastava (Provost & Deputy President, SMU), an addressal by Mr. Madhukar Sabnavis (Vice Chairman & Country Head, Ogilvy & Mather Pvt. Ltd.) which included many interesting audio-visuals. The inaugural address was delivered by Mr. Jayant Kumar Banthia (Chief Secretary, Government of Maharashtra) who mentioned about the challenges faced and innovations undertaken by the government.

The pre-lunch session was divided into two sub-sessions. The first sub-session had a live video conference from Singapore addressed by Professor Arnoud De Meyer and Professor Peter Williamson from Singapore Management University (SMU). It was moderated by Professor Rajendra Srivastava. The theme of this session was 'Leveraging the Asian Innovation Environment'. It focused on the growing importance of innovation in Asia and the possibilities for companies to take advantage of the highly dynamic innovation environment. Using China as a case study, the session looked at ways in which Asian companies are approaching the challenge of ramping up innovation on the basis of re-innovation and by industrializing research and development.

The topic of the second sub-session was 'Business Model Innovation-Lessons from the East and West'. Mr. Srivastava opened the topic with a wonderful comparison between an expensive French restaurant and an inexpensive Chinese restaurant and explaining the DuPont model. The key take-away's from this session included creating values for customers first and then thinking about extracting values, the need to invest in the right combination of assets which includes tangible as well as intangible assets and the opportunity cost of not doing business model innovations. It is important to innovate your business model and improve its reach to all sets of customers.

The post lunch session included two panel discussions. The topic for the first panel discussion was 'Connecting the Last Mile'. The panel included Mr. G Sunderraman (Executive Vice President, Godrej & Boyce Ltd.), Mr. Manoj Dawane (Vice President, Ericson India), Mr. Vishwesh Palekar (Senior Vice President, Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd.), Mr. Amit Paithankar (Managing Director, Emerson Process Manaement) and Mr. Biten Kathrani (Director Enrichment & IP, Johnson & Johnson Ltd.). Professor Shantanu Dutta from Singapore Management University (SMU) moderated this panel discussion. This panel discussion brought together leaders from the various fields to discuss the challenges they faced to bridge the gap between developing ideas and increased product development. The topic for the second panel discussion was 'Milking the Cows'. The panel included Dr. Ranjan Banerjee (CEO, Renaissance Strategic Consultants & Visiting Professor, Carlson School of Management), Mr. Kannan Tinnium (Technology Leader, GE Global Researh), Mr. Tarun Agarwal (Head- Alternate Channels, Products & Innovations, Development Banking and Financial Inclusion Group, Ratnakar Bank Limited) and Ms. Nilima Achwal (Executive Producer, Villgro's SEED). Professor Srinivas Reddy from SIngapore Management University (SMU) moderated this panel discussion. This session voiced the views and perspectives of the panelists on ways to cultivate the culture of innovation by encouraging and tapping the entrepreneurial spirit of the employees.

The last session, 'Lessons from Hidden Gems' was dedicated to entrepreneurs who did not succumb to the economic meltdown. This daring group of individuals included Mr. Mahesh Murthy (Founder & CEO, Pinstorm), Mr. Paresh Rajde (Founder & Chairman, Suvidhaa Infoservice P. Ltd.) and Ms. Sweta Mangal (Co-founder & CEO, Ziqitza Health Care Limited). They shared about how they remained undettered by all the obstacles in their path to succeed in their venture and to make the world a better place to live in. Professor Rajendra Srivastava was the session chairman and delivered the concluding remarks by thanking CII, all the panelists of the day and the sponsors.

The key take-away from the summit was learnings from our Asian neighbours like China, Korea, Japan etc., about how they are moving up the rising curve and the innovation models that they use. The panelists during the Q & A round provided a glimmer of hope and a shinning example of what can be done by us and the business models that we can adopt for inclusive innovation. All in all, the 2nd edition of Inclusive Innovation Summit was a grand success and we hope to get many more similar opportunities in future as it gives us tremendous industry exposure which is quintessential in today's competitive environment.

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Raining Awards at SIMSREE – Sydenham Management Institute shines at Award functions

SIMSREE ruled the awards’ sweepstakes at the B-School Affaire event held at Taj Lands End, Bandra. SIMSREE won two awards in the ‘Dainik Bhaskar National Education leadership Awards’ ceremony and one award in the ‘Dewang Mehta Business School Awards’ ceremony held on 23rd Oct, 2013.

We were crowned ‘Outstanding B-School (WEST) & ‘Industry Related Curriculum in Marketing’ in the ‘Dainik Bhaskar National Education leadership Awards’ ceremony and ‘Business School that Encourages Leadership as a part of the curriculum’ in the ‘Dewang Mehta Business School Awards’ ceremony. Apart from these awards; the students of SIMSREE including ‘Vernon Fernandes’, ‘Gaurav Mehta’, ‘Vishal Nandkumar’ , ‘Mallikaarjun Patil’, ‘Nishant Poojary’, ‘Divya Roongta’ took the award tally to six by winning awards in various categories.

We congratulate the students and the faculty for the impressive feat.

The awards won in different categories:

• Outstanding B-School (WEST) - Dainik Bhaskar National Education Leadership Awards

• Industry Related Curriculum In Marketing- Dainik Bhaskar National Education Leadership Awards 

• Business School that encourages Leadership in the Curriculum- Dewang Mehta Business School Awards

• Best Management Student - 3rd Prize, Vernon Fernandes - Dewang Mehta Business School Awards

• PPT Presentation - 3rd Prize, Gaurav Mehta & Vishal Nandkumar - Dewang Mehta Business School Awards

• Paper Presentation - 2nd Prize, Mallikaarjun Patil, Nishant Poojary & Divya Roongta - Dewang Mehta Business School Awards

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The Corporate Connect – Mr. Heramb Ranade

‘The Corporate Connect’ continued going from strength to strength, this time having a freewheeling session with Mr Heramb Ranade, Chief Marketing Officer- Tikona Digital Networks Pvt Ltd. He has been the Senior Vice President at Reliance Communications and has also worked with Tata Lucent Technologies as Deputy General Manager.

The session was held at Mr Ranade’s office on 24th of October 2013. The session started with technicalities of internet broadband. Mr. Ranade enlightened the students with an overview of the different technology platforms used to deliver Broadband. He shared some more titbits regarding Tikona Digital networks being a pioneer in deploying eco-friendly small cells which operate at a fraction of the power required by conventional cells/ base stations besides needing zero floor space to mount the equipment.

Mr Ranade discussed about the service industry in general and quoted ‘In service industry customer experience is the final product.’ He went on to explain how Tikona is working towards improving customer experience and customer satisfaction. Sharing his perspective about the marketing strategies, Mr Ranade explained the importance of digital marketing in today's webbed world. According to him digital advertisements, on-line presence of the brand, social media engagements and on-line reputation management are key for successful digital marketing. Talking about the continuously changing landscape of technology in the broadband sector, he explained about the roll-out of 4G services in India.

Mr Ranade also briefed the students about the ‘Go-to Market Strategies’ and how ‘disruptive offers’ can create new market and go about changing the business conditions for an organization. When questioned about the best strategy for laying out the infrastructure for broadband services, he explained about the pros and cons of leasing & owning the infrastructure and its effects.

Mr Ranade said that mobile phones with a customer base of about 900 million users can be a great medium for advertisement. When questioned about competition from already established players, he mentioned that such competitions can change the dynamics of the market and prove healthy for the industry as a whole. He also discussed about the innovations in the services offered and the pricing strategies along with the factors involved in it. He concluded the session by giving insights on the government policies and its impact on the sector.

We at SIMSREE are obliged to Mr. Heramb Ranade for giving students an opportunity to interact with him and look forward for more such sessions by him.

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Guest Lecture by Mr. V. Sarangapani

SIMCON (SIMSREE Consulting Club) blazed its trail by helping students to get a better perspective of management consulting as a career option, its opportunities and expectations.
The guest for the lecture was Mr. V Sarangapani, Executive Director of Bombay Management Association (BMA) and an advisor for Micro Technologies (India). He has over 36 years of experience which includes 28 years in TCS. With an experience of over 18 years in management consulting, he is one of the best persons to inspire students. The lecture opened new dimensions for students aspiring to be consultants.
Mr. Sarangapani started the lecture by talking about his journey in consulting. He mentioned about his learnings from clients, situations and experiences and also emphasized on the need of continuous learning in the consulting field. The most important thing he learnt from his experience is:
“When any new technology comes in, you should absorb it without resistance and use it to reduce efforts”.
Talking about the history of consulting, he cited Chanakya as an ideal consultant.

According to Mr. Sarangapani, an organization needs a consultant to bring in outside expertise and have a third person’s view. He also mentioned five important skills required for success in consulting. They include analytical thinking, ability to conclude with pros and cons, timeliness, ability to learn and most importantly openness to your mistakes and learning through those. He took us through consulting process and steps. This helped us to understand do’s and don’ts of the consulting field. The most effective part of his lecture was the relevant and engaging examples for every situation and fact which he mentioned.
Mr. Sarangapani also told us about BMA and how it is working for emerging corporates. In the question-answer session, he briefed about various areas of consulting and difference between those. Lastly, he advised upcoming consultants:
“Experience life and situations. Use the opportunities and give your best of it. Change according to situation. Don’t get stuck to core competence only”.
It was indeed a great start for SIMCON team 2013-15 and we thank Mr. V Sarangapani for making it successful.

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