E Week 2013

There was a lot of hustle & bustle on campus at SIMSREE as the Entrepreneurship Cell celebrated its annual flagship event, E-week 2013. The spirit of entrepreneurship could be smelled throughout the course of the 2 days – the 16th and 17th of February. We had the pleasure of having distinguished personalities from the industry who graced the occasion.

As our Chief Guest and Keynote speaker we had Mr. Arvind Jolly, the founder and chairman of Jollyboard Ltd. He shared the entrepreneurial journey of his father in the construction business and his self-journey in the plywood export business. Along with him, we were privileged to have Mr. S.V.Divaakar, the Managing Partner of Ace Global Consulting as our Guest of Honour. He enthralled the audience with his eloquent speech. Sir took us through his experiences in the different spheres Business right from Petrochemicals to Consulting.



While we had eminent people with lot of industry experience as our guests for the inauguration function, we had three young & dynamic entrepreneurs as panelists on board. The panel discussion revolved around the topic – “Changing Face of Indian Entrepreneurship – Past, Present, Future” and was moderated by Mr. Mahesh Ranka, famous personality from Sports and Celebrity management sector. We had different views from diverse sectors on the topic, by the panelists –

1) Mr. Siddharth Shah, Founder & Chairman of Dialhealth
2) Mr. Vivek Bhargava, CEO - iProspectCommunicate
3) Mr. Akhil Aryan, CEO & Co founder of Ion Education



All of them started out early and have already made a mark. They discussed the use of modern technology and the benefits and application of digitization to their respective sectors. They emphasized the inevitability of changing the traditional mode of doing business and adapting to the new style of the present & future. Mr. Ranka efficiently concluded & summarized the discussion.

Soon after the panel discussion was the 'Twister Case Study' competition where 4 teams, that were shortlisted for the final round, presented the strategies that can be used to increase the sales of Lawrence & Mayo in their new sections - watches and pens, cost effectively. The competition was judged by the marketing director of Lawrence & Mayo, Mr. Vivek Mandonsa. All the four teams: Simarc (SIMSREE); Old Monks (SIMS); We Inc (Welingker); Blaze (MET) presented multiple strategies on the given topic. At the end Mr. Mandonsa gave personal feedback to each team mentioning what good points team had presented, what were the points they missed, what were the points they went wrong and explained how they should look forward to such a problem. In the end Team Old Monks emerged as winners with Team We Inc being the runner up and Team Simarc getting the 3rd place. Two students from the crowd were also given prizes for giving some innovative ideas on the topic. Participants and students gained a lot of learning from this session.

The 2nd day began with a workshop by Mr. Gautam Patel, MD of Zodius Capital. It was attended by 43 students from different educational campuses across Mumbai. Sir touched upon different topics like the role & expectations of Venture Capitalists from budding entrepreneurs. Also, he stressed the importance of having an efficient team & an unbiased Board of Directors. In addition, we got insights on the process of valuation of a business.

The last phase of the E-week saw participants from B-schools across the country competing in the B-plan event – Ideator. As judges for evaluating the teams, we had 2 eminent personalities – Mr. Nitin Mukadam, Mentor - Strategy Advisor at LocalBanya and Mr. Ashish Dave, a VC with the Mumbai Angels. Team Rusting Leaves from SIBM Pune emerged as winners due to their innovative & feasible idea & pitch.

The E-week 2013 thus turned out to be a great success. The efforts of the E-cell members were highly appreciated. We hope to organize many such events in the future on an even larger scale and add to the already established name of Brand SIMSREE.

Mr. Ashank Desai, Co-Founder of Mastek Ltd., paid a short visit and recounted some of the memories of his entrepreneurial journey. Mr. Desai mentioned how his then batchmates from IIM-A are still in business with him, thus emphasizing the importance of team building. He touched upon many topics like importance of ethics, doing business on your own terms and developing work culture at your organization.