CII CEO Connect

The second edition of “CII CEO Connect” received an overwhelming response at Sydenham Institute of Management Studies Research and Entrepreneurship Education (SIMSREE) on 29^th August, 2013. The initiative started by Confederation of Indian Industries aims at facilitating the engagement of eminent business leaders from Indian industry with current MBA students by initiating connect between both. SIMSREE witnessed the conglomeration of elites such as Mr Ninad Karpe, Chairman, CII Maharashtra, MD and CEO, Aptech Ltd.; Mr Harit Nagpal, MD and CEO, Tata Sky; Mr Neeraj Roy, MD and CEO, Hungama; Mr Anuj Puri, Chairman, CII WR Infrastructure, Real Estate & Construction Sub-Committee and Chairman & Country Head, Jones Lang LaSalle

The Connect focused on exclusive discussion about Succeeding in a Turbulent Economy and expectations of CEOs from MBA graduates. While stressing on unavoidable uncertainty in current scenario, speakers also discussed the importance of entrepreneurship. The CEOs emphasised on factors that are instrumental not just in helming the challenging times but for gaining excellence as one ascends the corporate ladder as well. 

The 90-minute rendezvous with the CEOs sure did make the students of SIMSREE absorb what it takes to be a 'FORTUNE' at the bottom of the managerial pyramid.This event would not have been possible without Dr. Sangeeta Pandit, who played a key role in arranging it.

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Guest Lecture by Mr. Sachin Khandelwal

Mr. Sachin Khandelwal an alumnus of 1992 batch is a professional who has donned many hats. 

He is presently MD at Magma Housing Finance Ltd, former MD & CEO at ICICI Home Finance Company and Director, SIMAA. 
He has worked extensively for SIMSREE and is deeply involved with the activities of the alumni association. 

He held an interactive session for the 2013-15 batch on 29th August 2013, in which he shared with students insights accumulated over twenty years of rich work experience. He enlightened students about multiple topics related to his area of expertise, including real estate, automobiles, credit cards, housing loan and auto-finance sectors. 

He fielded a plethora of questions raised by the students, ranging from career guidance, professional courses like CFA and the changing scenario of retail finance to the importance of ethics, culture and value systems. 

The session, coordinated by the Alumni Committee, was interactive and very well-received. Dr. M. A Khan, former Director of the Institute and presently Registrar of Mumbai University, also attended the session and addressed the gathering. 

He commended Mr. Khandelwal for taking out the time and efforts to reach out to his alma mater, and requested him to continue his endeavors in this direction. Mr. Khandelwal committed to try and revert to the institute with projects for the students to work upon. 

This spontaneous gesture was received with resounding applause from the students.
We are grateful to have Mr. Khandelwal at the helm of SIMAA and extend our sincere thanks to him.

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Guest Lecture by Mr. Alroy Lobo

On 26th August 2013, Mr. Alroy Lobo, Chief Strategist and Global Head equities, Kotak Mahindra AMC and alumnus of the 1988 batch visited the campus and addressed the junior batch.

The session began with a brief introduction about Mr. Lobo’s glorious academic and professional past. He spoke on investment management as a career option. Thereafter he discussed the various skillsets that are required to become an investment manager. He also addressed a plethora of questions ranging from the importance of small investors in the Indian markets to the recently introduced US immigration bill.

Mr. Lobo elaborated the various facets of capital markets and shared some valuable insights based on his personal experience. He further dwelled into the various challenges faced by an investment manager both in personal and professional life. He stressed on the importance of being updated with the latest happenings in the field and developing the ability of making relevant inferences from the same. The session ended with a brief question and answer round.

Overall, the session was very interactive and the batch learnt a lot from this discussion. The Alumni Committee would like to thank Mr. Lobo for the valuable time that he spent and for sharing his knowledge and experience with the batch. We look forward to having many more interactions with him in the future.

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SIMSREE Alumni Batch Meet (1986 - 1988 Batch)

Twenty batch-mates and a professor gathered at their college seminar hall on August 24, 2013. What is special about that, one might ask. The occasion was the celebration of 25 glorious years of their graduation as the 1986-88 batch of SIMSREE. The venue had all but changed for the attendees. The seminar hall was new to them, as was the Sydenham Management Excellence Centre, the auditorium. Even the staircase was not the same as it was back in their day. A quick tour of the institute made them realize how much it had progressed in the last two-and-a-half decades. It made them nostalgic and evoked memories of their time in the B-school. Friendly banter and cheerful catching-up sessions followed. Among the attendees was Prof. Lad, who was unanimously credited by his students as being the man responsible behind the letters ‘R’ and ‘E’ (Research and Entrepreneurship) in SIMSREE. The batch comprised a diverse mix of entrepreneurs and professionals from IT, BFSI, healthcare and packaging industries. 

Dr. Sandhya Dhabe, (Director, SIMSREE) and Dr. M. A. Khan (former Director, SIMSREE and presently Registrar, Mumbai University) welcomed the guests to the batch meet event, conducted by the Alumni Committee of SIMSREE. Mr. Ashish Bhasin, Chairman India & CEO - South East Asia at Aegis Media and Chairman, SIMAA (Sydenham Institute of Management Alumni Association), addressed the gathering, and enlightened the group about the alumni association of SIMSREE, its membership and activities conducted towards the betterment of SIMSREE. The former students of the institute were more than happy to sign up for memberships and opened their hearts and wallets to contribute funds to the SIMSREE corpus. One of the guests, Mr. D. V. Ashok, Owner - Access Devices volunteered to head the Bangalore chapter of the alumni association. Much to the delight of everyone present, they announced a contribution of Rs. 2 Lacs to SIMSREE, to be used in the best interests of SIMSREE. 

The celebrations included a cake-cutting ceremony to commemorate the silver jubilee of the batch of 1986-88 and an interaction with the current students of SIMSREE. The evening concluded with a round of games themed on nostalgia. It was endearing to see the child-like enthusiasm of the guests when quizzed about the good times they had as students of SIMSREE. The guests had a great evening connecting with former classmates and taking the proverbial trip down memory lane.

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CFO's Cut

Emerging markets are today's equivalent of the Wild West – they provide companies with an irresistible opportunity for growth, but not without peril. To help students better understand the risks and rewards associated with emerging markets, SIMSREE hosted CFO's Cut on August 9, 2013, and invited three industry stalwarts to share their valuable insight with the students.

 Sunil Khandelwal (CFO, Alok Industries) kicked off the event with a candid discussion about Alok Industries. Facing the end of cotton export quotas in 2004, Alok Industries had a choice to make. At the time, only 15% of the textile industry was organized, while the remaining 85% was fragmented. Alok Industries dared to dream big and invested Rs.12000 crore into expanding their production line. Their focus was on pricing, services, delivery and self-sufficient infrastructure. Khandelwal stressed on the importance of taking calculated risks and seizing the first mover advantage. Khandelwal didn't pull any punches while describing their mistakes in areas like real estate and retail, and urged students to not be afraid of making mistakes. At the same time, he cautioned them not to get emotionally attached to their mistakes. When asked about why Alok Industries didn't diversify into the retail clothing market, he spoke about Alok Industries pulling away from non-core areas. As a parting thought, he said that hard times were an opportunity to learn. 

The next CFO to present his views was S. Ramesh (Lupin Ltd), who based his discussion on the premise that a company that couldn't survive in today's tough times had no hope of expanding into emerging markets. Talking about the VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous) world and the economic crises in the United States and the European Union, he proffered that India had three advantages that it could leverage towards future growth: democracy, demographics and diversity. Moving to the pharma industry, Ramesh revealed that a common myth about the pharma industry being recession-proof wasn't always true. While essential life-saving drugs were relatively immune to the recession, there was a 35% drop in non-essential medical expenditures by customers. Turning to survival in tough times, he touched upon the importance of managing sources of liquidity by planning ahead and prudential hedging with a medium-to-long term view. While discussing the need for cutting costs and capital expenditure, he added, it was important to not lose sight of long-term growth. Finally turning to the challenges of growing in emerging markets, he stated that disruptive skills, innovation quotient and execution skills were important prerequisites to success.

Brij Gopal Jaju (CFO, Welspun) spoke about growth and sustainability while drawing from his experience at Welspun and Crompton Greaves. He reiterated the importance of intangible assets, adding that engaged employees, continual technology upgradation, innovation and a focus on customers were prerequisites to a company’s growth. He felt that companies in the future would have to pursue differentiation on the basis of process models and not products. In conclusion, he urged the students to embrace good corporate governance, as it would pay dividends in the long run.

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HR Conclave 2013: 'Building capabilities for future ready organisations'

The HR Conclave'13 organised by the corporate relations committee, aimed at getting an industry perspective on the measures taken by various organizations to build and develop capabilities in their employees to make them ready for the future .Conducted  on 26th July 2013 in the SIMSREE auditorium, the discussion was around ‘Building capabilities for future ready organisations’ .The event was graced by the presence of dignitaries like Mr Ramesh Shankar S - Executive Vice President & Head of HR, South Asia at Siemens, Mr Chunduru Srinivas - President - Corporate Strategy and HR at Piramal Enterprises, Ms Shraddha Pradhan - Director HR at Bristol-Myers Squibb, Ms Aparna Sharma - Country Head-Human Resources at Lafarge India (Cement, Ready Mix-Concrete, Aggregates & KAM Projects) and Ms Emrana Sheikh: HR head automotive division and HR for international operations of auto and farm business Mahindra and Mahindra .

Mr Ramesh Shankar S, the key note speaker mentioned that change is permanent and learning to adapt is important. He advised that learning is a lifelong process and an individual’s responsibility in corporate life. He emphasized on the importance of communication skills, team work, collaboration, dealing with ambiguity, thinking globally, managing change, working with different generations, working across cultures and countries as the key areas which an individual should work on in order to be successful.

 

The discussion was moderated by Ms Aparna Sharma. While discussing what a future ready organisation should be like Ms Emrana Sheikh pointed out that substantial portion of today’s organisation’s workforce is young and that an organization which combines the zeal and enthusiasm of generation Y i.e. new employees with experience of generation X i.e. the existing employees is future ready. She also mentioned that organisations need to consider deploying real time performance management systems and digital communication. Ms Shradha Pradhan gave a perspective that although change is imminent, it is also predictable to some extent and to deal with it organisations can use work-force planning and develop future capabilities. Mr Chunduru Srinivas then commented that to deal with change organisations need to develop generic capabilities which are identifying and giving commensurate compensations, learning and development of entrepreneurial spirit. The next point that was discussed was the competencies today’s organisation needs to develop. Ms Emrana Sheikh identified these competencies as - having global and entrepreneurial perspective and innovative skills and readiness to move from one function to another. Ms Shradha Pradhan stressed on underpinning knowledge for current performance, learning what not to do and working to overcome the things that derail as the key competencies of future ready organisations. Mr Chunduru Srinivas identified the competencies as expertise, innovation, entrepreneurship, integrity, humility (- developed by removal of arrogance) and trust (- developed by being accountable to partners, employees, customers and suppliers).

The last point discussed was what students need to do while pursuing MBA to be competent to work for a future ready organisation. The dignitaries advised the students to develop the will and the skill to do things, to fall in love with reading, to develop skills to handle people, to be agile and be adaptive and to get into the habit of reading company reports.

HR Conclave ’13 was a success and credit for the same goes to the students of the Corporate Relations Committee of SIMSREE who worked very hard from its inception to its execution and ensured that the event went on smoothly.

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Guest Lecture by Mr. Sandeep Mangle

Mr. Sandeep Mangle, Manager - Supply Chain Excellence at BASF India Ltd, an alumnus of 2005 batch visited the campus on 26th July and addressed the new batch during their induction.

He started the session with a few basic concepts of marketing and supply chain management. He also talked about the different kind

s of job roles that the students can expect after they specialize in either marketing or operations. This helped the students to get a clear picture about the job roles that they can take up at the end of their second year.

Towards the end of the session, Mr. Mangle gave some useful suggestions regarding what they should do during their MBA curriculum to make the most out of it. He stressed upon living in the moment and enjoying the little treasures of success that one achieves along the way. He also emphasized that the students need to be passionate to accomplish the tasks at hand. They should be able to work in teams throughout their curriculum and rise as a leader of the group as and when needed.

The session conducted by Mr. Mangle was very insightful and we look forward to many such interactions with him in the future.

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Coffee with Alumni - Mr.Pramod Kasat

The Alumni Committee organized the 5th session of Coffee with Alumni on 30th July 2013 with Mr.Pramod Kasat an alumnus of the 1993 batch and currently,Head Investment Banking at Pioneer Investcorp & Former Director-Investment Banking at Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse.

Mr.Kasat got the session underway by taking the students through a brief journey of his life post MBA at SIMSREE. Mr.Kasat then provided an holistic view about the banking sector in the country and dwelled deep into the investment banking domain.He enlisted the various skill-sets needed to pursue a career in investment banking and the means to go about achieving these skills.He emphasized at great length the importance of being industry oriented rather being academically oriented while pursuing 

MBA.The biggest takeaway,from this session was to keep an eye on the future while taking current decisions so as to prevent getting compartmentalized into one particular sector.

The students then took the opportunity to ask Mr.Kasat questions based on the finer nuances of investment banking.The students were inspired by the journey traversed by Mr.Kasat with this the Alumni Committee concluded another successful session of Coffee with Alumni.

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Guest Lecture by Mr.Vikas Agnihotri

Mr. Vikas Agnihotri, Industry Director BFSI and Travel at Google, an alumnus of MMS 1989 batch visited the campus on 3rd day of induction of the new batch.

He conducted a session on Digital Marketing along with his colleague Mr. Sameer Rane from Google. 

Mr. Agnihotri spoke at length about “Evolution of Digital Marketing” and demonstrated it with help of exciting videos. He shared insightful data on current trends in digital marketing and talked about promising growth potential due to increased penetration of smart phones. He spoke about some of the successful digital strategies. He also shared with the students his experiences on “Life at Google.” 

It was followed with an interactive round of questions and answers. The session concluded with he emphasizing on importance of work ethics and culture.

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Guest Lecture by Ms. Jyotsna Singh

Ms. Jyotsna Singh, Executive Vice President & Head - Multinational Business, Wholesale Banking at Kotak Mahindra Bank and alumna of 1992 batch, was the second guest on campus during the induction of 2013-15 batch.

She spoke about her corporate journey starting from life insurance to asset management. She also emphasized on striking a work life balance and the importance of sticking to a job in a single organisation.

She concluded the session by sharing her experiences at SIMSREE. There was an overwhelming response from the batch in terms of the questions asked.

The Alumni committee sincerely thank Ms Jyotsna Singh and the batch of 2013-15 for making this session a memorable one!

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Guest Lecture by Mr. Ashish Bhasin

Mr. Ashish Bhasin, Chairman India and CEO South East Asia at Aegis Group and alumnus of 1988 batch, was the first guest on campus to address the batch of 2013 - 2015. 

He started the session by sharing his experiences at SIMSREE. He then spoke to thestudents about Sydenham Institute of Management Alumni Association (SIMAA) and how it encourages Alumni to contribute to the institute in Academics, Infrastructure, Industrial Relations, etc.

Mr. Bhasin also spoke about careers in Advertising. He defined the key skill set required to excel in an advertising career as – passion, resilience and ability to withstand stress. He also urged that the students should be very well informed not only about their areas of specialization but also about global business affairs. “Knowledge is Power”, is what Mr. Bhasin firmly believes in

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