Motivational Mondays : Summer Internship interview by Atit Shah

Where did you complete your summer internship? What was the size of the company?

I did my summer internship at Syntel Ltd., which aims at delivering high end solutions to its almost 2000 clients in a more efficient and innovative way.  In the duration of my internship, i learned how to get insights from the customer requirements and business and then to apply innovations into operations. The company has around 25000 employees worldwide. Syntel's ‘Customers for Life’ philosophy made me focus on hands on experience along with business results.

What project did you work on? What was the timeline for execution of different stages of the project?

I was fortunate enough that the Company trusted me and gave me an opportunity to work on an important project, where I was a key responsible person. I was working on an internal project to design a web based portal for the company. The Analysis & Design stages of the portal were expected to be completed in 2 months. In the entire two months, the portal has to be developed from scratch and later made functional on the front end.

Please share your project summary.

A web based portal was required by the company to manage its routine operational activities. My key responsibility was to analysis & design this web based portal. As part of the designing, I was required to prepare various artifacts like database model diagram, business process modelling diagrams, user interface layouts and system architecture design. I also had to guide the developers with the development of the portal. Being a part of the Designing and Technical department, the only summary about the project was to develop a portal for a company to maintain its daily business functions.

How did you executed on the project? What was your stratergy?

My strategy was to focus on the project completely. The focus was  to make sure that not even a single feature or program of the portal is left out.  I completed the Analysis & Design stages of the project and also helped the developers to kick-start the Development stage.

What were the key challenges that you faced during your internship?

The project was quite challenging as the portal had to be made from scratch. In the Analysis stage, I had to engage with various stakeholders for understanding the existing processes, which is important to know as you have to work on the same business and functional models which the company is following.

Within a short time span of 2 months, I had to learn, understand, develop and deliver the project which was challenging.  Also, translating the requirements fetched from the Analysis stage into various design artifacts was a challenging task. But the project was delivered to the expectations of the clients, and that is all what matters.

What were your learning’s while doing the project and experience after the completion of the project?

I learned a lot during my internship at Syntel, it was an experience, an opportunity and a challenge that made me have more confidence in myself. During my internship the project gave me great insights on how to design IT systems along with an exposure to IT project management. After the completion of my summer internship, I was prepared to face the challenges and actually was more open to accept them, work hard and achieve results.

How did your corporate mentor supported you to execute your internship? How did you connected with your academic mentor?

My corporate mentor at Syntel was very experienced and cooperative. He guided me throughout the project. If I use to get stuck somewhere, he was always there to support, guide and motivate me. We had daily reviews of my work which helped me to deliver quality output within the stipulated time frame. I used to connect with my mentor via emails on a weekly basis and use to share reviews and other outputs.

How was your interaction with other employees during your internship period? Would you like to come back to the company for a job?

We use to have both formal and informal interactions every week. My seniors and colleagues use to have this interaction so as work burden could be shared, problems could be discussed, and technical issues could be handled along with other motivational talks.  The work environment was very good and supportive. I would definitely like to join the company and work towards my aim, get challenging opportunities and grow along with the organization.

Share a memorable incident from your internship days.

In the end of my internship a surprise farewell party was organised by my colleagues which is quite memorable. I still miss working under the deadlines, the fun at lunch, gossips, discussions and exposure to new learnings.

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Guest Lecture by Mr B V Rao

The Corporate Relations Committee Sydenham Institute of Management Studies, Research and Entrepreneurship Education (SIMSREE) organised a guest lecture Mr B V Rao, News and Media Director at Reliance Industries Limited, who graced our campus with his presence on 15th November, 2014. He has over 30 years of experience in the industry, having worked as editor, group editor and also been an active visiting faculty at MICA and Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication.

The session started with an active discussion on some “housekeeping tips” which had the students in splits, following which there was an active discussion on the current state of news and media, the stars of TV media including names like Barkha Dutt, Arnab Goswami , Markandeya Katju, Rajedeep Sardesai amongst others, leading up to the business of news and media. He talked about the state of creativity and flow of idea in the media industry. There are innumerable TV channels, Magazines and newspapers in circulation today. While trying to survive in this competition of getting the highest TRPs and engaging the viewers for longer times, channels are losing out on creativity of its content. While discussing this current state, he mentioned that there is not dearth of talent but the medium has become too big for the message. For TV, it’s turning out to be a battle for content which is turn taking its toll on the art of journalism

The session slowly steered towards the things we can expect with the advent of technology and digital media, and how we can hope for a real turn around in the way things are run in the industry.

The interactive session helped the students gain a lot of insight into the business of news, stars of the media industry and the way forward. Sir encouraged open discussions and answered all the questions very patiently. We thank him for sharing his knowledge and thoughts and look forward to having further interactions with him.

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Guest Lecture by Mr. Colin Mendes

On the 8th of November, 2014 Mr. Colin Mendes, General Manager and Head Human Resources, Domestic Projects Group at Voltas Limited, graced the campus of Sydenham Institute of Management Studies, Research and Entrepreneurship Education with his presence. The guest lecture was organized by the Corporate Relations Committee. Sir has over 20 years of experience and is an expert in the field of employee benefits, compensation, rewards and employee engagement.

The Guest lecture was on ‘Leadership during times of complexity and change’, a topic that is relevant to all management students. Sir started the discussion by emphasizing and explaining change as a constant factor in all our lives and expounding on the role played by technology while taking managerial decisions. He explained how data analysis and data mining are shaping the world as we know today as against earlier techniques of intuition. In order to inspire the young minds, Sir discussed and gave examples of leaders who have been instrumental in changing the course of events such as Mahatma Gandhi, Barack Obama and current Prime Minister Narendra Modi, highlighting the common thread which makes the leaders stand out amongst the crowd. He then shared an interview of Miss Avani Davda, CEO of Starbucks, with the batch walking them through her success story and elucidating how sheer dedication, hard work and vision can lead one to unprecedented success. He also shared the story of the young entrepreneur Farrhad Acidwalla who is listed amongst the top 25 young entrepreneurs of the world. He blessed the batch saying that he would love to see one amongst his audience become the next Farrhad Acidwalla emphasizing on how the youth can lead..

The students gained insights on the relevance of leadership in today’s competitive environment, concluding with an active question answer session. We thank Sir for answering all the questions patiently and look forward to having further interactions with him.

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Motivational Mondays : Summer Internship interview by Ankit Lahoty

    

 Where did you do your summer internship from? What was the size of the company?

ANS : I did my internship from Barclays Shared Services (BSS). Barclays Shared Services (BSS) provides operations support and services to businesses across Barclays. It has more than 13000 employees.

       What project you worked on and what was the timeline for execution of different stages of the project?

ANS : I worked on process optimization projects, and was also trained on vendor terminals like Bloomberg and Reuters. The timeline was well defined as there were two performance reviews held during my 2-month internship. Every intern is assigned some goals after a meeting with his manager and timeline for the same is decided then.

       How did you execute the project?

ANS : I have never worked in a bank before so it was bit of a challenge to understand the processes at the first go. However, with good support from my team I was able to grasp the nuances quickly. While setting my goals, my manager asked for my suggestions and based on that we had a good discussion. So it was kind of open environment where I could give suggestions and also, where I could ask anyone for help if in doubt.

       What were the key challenges that you faced while doing your internship?

ANS : The first and foremost challenge was the shift I was working in, 5 pm to 2 am. :D. Being an early riser it was quite a task for me to stay awake. Frequent visits to coffee machine helped me during initial 4-5 days. Jokes apart, it was fun and a great learning experience.

The other challenges that I faced were just related to my project requirements for which I got support from my team.

       Tell us about your key learning’s while doing the project. What was your overall learning after the completion of the internship?

ANS : It is fun to learn new things on the job but at the same time you have to make sure that you learn them real fast and take action on them quickly.

Another important thing is communication. You need to be able to understand the requirements of your client and be able to communicate your suggestions and concerns clearly. It’s better to have a lengthy discussion at one go rather than short calls every now and then.

Barclays as an organization spends a lot of time on its employees in order to develop better professionals out of them. I learnt the importance of networking during my internship. We were also encouraged to meet directors and higher management and just have discussion with them on any topic we like.

       How supportive was your corporate mentor in the execution of the project?

ANS : I worked for two teams, so two managers (AVPs) and one senior manager (VP). And all were really supportive. They took note of my suggestions, we had discussions based on those suggestions, and I could always share my concerns with them. It was a very nice working environment and there was always some fun thing going on the floor.

      While doing your internship, how were you connected with your academic mentor at your institute?

ANS : We were not allocated any academic mentor. However I am sure if any of the students have any query ever, even after the course, our beloved HoDs and other faculty members will always be there to guide us.

      How was your interaction with other employees during your internship period? Would you like to come back to the place for a job?

ANS : Sure, I would love to. My team is a bunch of fun people and I would love to work with them again.

      Share a memorable incident from your internship days.

ANS : During a town-hall, where people from higher management address multiple teams, the country head of my vertical introduced me to the Head of Operations and appreciated the work I had done.

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Guest Lecture By Mr. Anil Talreja

On 2^nd November 2014, SIMCON organized a guest lecture by Mr. Anil Talreja, Partner at Deloitte Haskins & Sells. Mr. Talreja spoke on “Private Equity”.

Mr. Talreja started his lecture by giving the basic idea about Private Equity. He explained in very simple terms, how high net worth individuals and institutions make investments and acquire ownership in companies.

After explaining the concept of Private Equity, Mr. Talreja compared the Private Equity investments in India with those in Western countries. The discussion mainly revolved around the Private Equity investments in family owned businesses. He explained why family owned businesses in India are somewhat skeptical about the involvement of an external investor in their business.

Mr. Talreja then continued by explaining the structure of Private Equity investment. Though the structure is very complex in real life scenarios of Private Equity investments, he kept it simple by including only the most important blocks of the structure such as Investors, PE House, Management Company, Investment Company etc.

Mr. Talreja talked briefly on Venture Capitals as well. PE and VC are similar as they both are in the business of buying low and selling high. But they are different on many parameters, one of them being the target companies. While Private Equities usually target mature and underperforming companies, Venture Capitals usually target startups and early stage companies.

Mr. Talreja then discussed about some real life case studies such as Vodafone tax evasion issue which the Supreme Court ruled it in favor of Vodafone. Then Sir talked about GAAR (General anti-avoidance rules) and stressed on the importance of its implementation in India.

The lecture was very engaging wherein the students asked a lot of questions and Mr. Talreja answered them all. The students at SIMSREE found the lecture very beneficial. We thank Mr. Anil Talreja for taking time out and giving this very important lecture.

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SIMSREE Spreads Smiles

When a long awaited child was born, his parents were very happy. But as he grew up their joy began to fade. The child was differently abled ! He became a burden on his parents. They tried to take care of him but could not cope up with the pressure for too long. Helplessly,they dumped him at a famous temple in the vicinity and disappeared. The police registered a case and the boy was named ‘Billa No. 144’.  The same boy is now called ‘Shantharam’ in Asha Bhavan! Asha Bhavan at Kodoli, Satara is home to many such special children. 

On the occasion of Diwali, SIMSREE and its Student Social Responsibility Committee took the initiative of lighting up the lives of these children. We collected clothes, stationery, various other gift items and sweets and distributed the same among those children. 

Even though these children barely understood the significance of Diwali celebration, the warmth and the festivity was evident from their reaction and joy. The students of SIMSREE spent a day at the orphanage and came back home feeling enriched with the experience. And the smiles of the children only reflect that the experience was mutual! 

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The Corporate Connect - Mr. Bhavin Sanghavi

On the 19^th of September, 2014 the Corporate Relations Committee of SIMSREE organized a ‘Corporate Connect’ session wherein ten students got a chance to interact with Mr. Bhavin Sanghavi (Associate Director at BNP Paribas Securities India Pvt. Ltd.). Mr. Bhavin Sanghavi is a Chartered Accountant and has vast experience in capital markets and risk management.

The interactive session held at his office helped students of SIMSREE to get an insight into the functioning of capital markets. Sir spoke about his journey in this industry and shared some of his experience over the years.

The session started with a discussion on the recent trends in the finance industry. Sir emphasized upon the fact that change in investor sentiments towards India after the election of a stable government at the centre has resulted in a high amount of foreign capital flowing into the country. He stated the role and importance of FIIs for an emerging economy like India. For young investors, Sir stated the importance of conducting an in-depth fundamental research of a company before making any investments. He advised the students to concentrate on certain companies or sectors, study the reports and follow their stock prices on a regular basis before investing.

Sir then spoke about the various derivative instruments available and the pros and cons of each of them. He explained the risks associated with the use of derivative instruments as a tool for excessive speculation stating the example of the financial crisis of 2008.

Sir explained how dedicated apps and online portals have made it very easy and convenient for people to invest in the markets and this has resulted in a direct connection between the brokers and the investors. Furthermore, he also answered questions on topics such as Mark to Market, Asset Management, Bargain Hunting, High Frequency Trading and e-commerce.

He ended this knowledge sharing session by advising the students to have patience and self-belief and to be persistent in their efforts. He also spoke about the importance of balancing work and family life. All in all, it was a very fruitful session for all the students who got the opportunity to interact with him. We thank Sir for his time and his valuable inputs.

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Guest Lecture by Mr. Sudeep Nair

Like the age-old adage goes, “change is the only constant”, companies too have to keep transforming and reinventing themselves. But how and when do they transform themselves is the billion dollar question. To answer this question, SIMSREE Corporate Relations Committee was honored and privileged to have on campus, Mr. Sudeep Nair, Global Head – Business Transformation at Jardine Lloyd Thompson on 26th of August, 2014. Mr. Nair is an IIM Ahmedabad Alumnus and has prior experience in Cognizant, Switzerland as the Head of Cognizant Business Consulting.

To train the naïve business minds of the batch, Mr. Nair kicked off the session by giving a basic idea about how a typical business organization looks. He explained that any organization is built on three basic blocks viz. the front end, the middle office and the back end; and also mentioned that the core competency of a company comes from any of these three basic blocks.

The discussion slowly steered towards how an organization should constantly assess itself using Porter’s five forces and adapt to the changing attitude of the customers. Mr.Nair focused on the point that regulatory hurdles could also be considered as a force that could disrupt the industry.

After assessing the operating model, if an organization feels that a major overhaul is due, it should set its sights on a target operating model that it could capitalize on in the long run. This transformation roadmap can include people, process or technology. Mr. Nair mentioned that implementation is the most difficult part in any business transformation after the vision and methods are set, especially if the change involves transforming people.

After sharing insights on business transformation Mr. Nair threw the floor open for Q&A. The enthusiasm of the batch was portrayed by the number of quality questions asked by the students, which Mr. Nair answered patiently. The session gave the students an understanding of the various aspects of business transformation.

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Blood Donation Camp by SSR at SIMSREE

“Blood is that fragile scarlet tree we carry within us” - Osbert Sitwell

SSR (Student Social Responsibility) Committee in association with Tata Memorial Hospital, Lions Club (Juhu) and Think Foundation organized a ‘Blood Donation Camp’ and ‘Thalassemia   Checkup’ at SIMSREE on 26^th August 2014. The event commenced with a very informative session about blood donation and Thalassemia by Mr. Vinay Shetty, Vice President of Think Foundation. Mr. Vinay has been responsible for running a structured program for testing for Thalassemia minor in colleges in Mumbai University, which has now spread to various corporate offices and residential areas.

The session helped break myths about blood donation and educated the students about the importance of blood donation. It also had detailed information about Thalassemia and pointed out the importance of Thalassemia checkup for every individual. Think Foundation is trying to ensure that no child is born with Thalassemia major and the students were encouraged to check whether they were Thalassemia minors by conducting free tests. After the session, the blood donation campaign was carried out.

The camp witnessed an enthusiastic participation of 89 people wherein 450 ml /bottle and 350 ml/bottle were contributed by male and female students respectively. People from outside the college were also allowed to participate in the camp. This camp spread the feeling of contentment among the students of SIMSREE as the message given out in the session was that every individual can save 3 lives. Also dual sided English and Marathi version badges of “I donated blood today (मी आज रक्तदान केले)” were distributed to spread awareness across everyone in the college and outside the campus. Each blood donor was thanked and given a token of appreciation for his/her contribution. The process was smooth and painless; thanks to the cooperation of nurses and friendly doctors. SSR Committee would finally like to thank Dr. Sangeeta Pandit (HOD, Finance, SIMSREE), who guided the committee throughout the process.

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Marketer’s Mark ‘14

Students of Sydenham Institute of Management Studies, Research and Entrepreneurship Education (SIMSREE) belonging to the Corporate Relations Committee organised “Marketer’s Mark” for the first time ever on 22nd August, 2014. It brought together a few of the marketing world’s stalwarts with its theme being “Rewriting the Rulebook”. The guests included Ms. Deepali Naair (Chief Marketing Officer, Mahindra Holidays & Resort India Ltd.) as Keynote Speaker, Dr. Hemant Dande (President, Raptakos Brett & Co.) as Moderator, Ms. Anjali Patil (Director - Brand and Communications, BNP Paribas), Mr. Ajay Jethi (Chief Marketing Officer, Reliance Capital Asset Management), Mr. Sanjay Vakharia (Director - Marketing, Spykar Lifestyles Pvt. Ltd.), and Mr. Madan Mohapatra (Head - Media & Marketing, Future Group).

The students were introduced to many new marketing concepts like micro segmentation, need for reshaping the customer demand and the importance of personalization amongst many others. Apart from these, through the discussions of the panellists, greater emphasis was laid on adaptability and pace of the current world. The esteemed panellists mutually agreed that everything is evolving continuously as the consumer is changing, becoming more confident and technology dependent. As a result, companies have to innovate to include digital mediums and follow innovative marketing campaigns in order to capture the ever decreasing attention spans of the consumer.

The importance and need for context in marketing was reiterated throughout the conclave focussing on the changing needs, wants and demands of the consumer. Marketing cannot be considered in isolation and must be done with the right context to succeed. 

All the guests were very enthusiastic in sharing their experiences and answering all the students’ questions in detail. Through these discussions, the students gained immense knowledge into the workings of current marketing world, its evolving nature and the latest trends which they would be otherwise hard pressed to find in any textbook, magazine or newspaper in such a lucid manner. This shows the very successful start to Marketer’s Mark becoming an annual event at SIMSREE.

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Guest Lecture by Mr. Gaurav Sharma

What is digital marketing? Is it the next big thing? How does it help businesses to grow? To answer all these questions, SIMSREE’s Corporate Relations Committee organized a guest lecture by Mr. Gaurav Sharma on Digital Marketing. 

Mr. Gaurav Sharma is the General Manager (Digital & Mobility) at Omnicom Media Group. He considers himself as a Solutions Specialist and a Sales Professional with an experience to sell digital solutions to clients. He builds a connect with clients, understands their business issues and works on result oriented solutions

He commenced the session with a short video clip on motivation to inspire the students to stretch themselves and stay ahead in today’s intensively competitive marketing industry. He then shared his varied experiences as a marketing and sales professional and emphasized upon the challenges that an marketing job needs to face. One of the major challenges in this job is achieving the given targets on time.

Mr. Sharma then elaborated on the concepts of video marketing, substantiating each concept with a corporate example. Moreover, he also explained how an advertisement should be relevant and attractive to the consumers. According to him, viral marketing through the social media could be a cheap and effective means of communication for the same. He stressed that businesses should constantly revamp themselves to sustain and survive in this ever changing market by citing an example of how a leading bank changed its advertisement from serious commercials to fun filled animated viral online videos to connect with a wider audience.

Having said that, he also explained how the advertising industry is technologically budding every day with several advertisers now using mobile apps to engage with their customers. Mr. Sharma gave an example of a new trend in the market wherein marketers are making the use of mobile apps coupled with the Bluetooth or Near Field Communication (NFC) technology to create interactive multi-player games for children. 

“The internet of things” was another topic which he spoke about. He explained how businesses are trying to connect various devices such as a washing machine, a refrigerator, or even a smoke detector, to the internet and let consumers control them from any location.

Towards the end he left the audience with a hard hitting example of social advertising. The “Kankhajura Tesan”, winner of 3 Lions Gold awards at Cannes 2014, is an initiative aimed at entertaining media-dark villagers through mobile phones and also creating brand awareness amongst them, making the rural market ready for urban brands.

Mr. Sharma's enriching interaction with the batch resulted in an enthusiastic response from the audience which was evident in the fruitful question answer round towards the end of the session.

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Guest Lecture by Dr Rajeev Mishra

Dr. Rajeev Mishra, an HR professional having more than 23 years of experience in training, management education and generalist HR, presently heads HR and Administration at AMW Motors Ltd and is an accomplished trainer, conducting sessions on soft-skill modules like Self Development, Change Management, Leadership, Emotional Intelligence, Communication Skills, etc. He came to SIMSREE on 10th August, 2014 with the objective to help students understand themselves better in order to grow responsibly, be motivated, and have the right perception and appropriate attitude.

Humans have a tendency of looking at themselves through the eyes of others, in the process they often forget to take their own opinions into consideration. He laid emphasis on believing in oneself and that evaluating and understanding oneself is a continuous process. He stressed upon the importance of the ‘Looking Glass Self Theory’ i.e. how one can develop oneself by just looking into a mirror. Also, introspection needs to be done objectively and rationally. Human emotions are destructive; the challenge is to keep these emotions in check.

Introducing the students to Sigmund Freud’s elements of psychology – the Id, Ego and Super Ego, he explained how pressure is a result of expectations and consequences while frustration occurs when our journey is blocked.

Everything is relative and introspection is the key to improving oneself. Different situations need to be adapted to differently. Understanding the context, the situation and the people involved always helps broaden one’s perspective.

Trust yourself and never give up, be rational and follow your own path. Accept it as a challenge. The way we steer our ego defines us.

He ended the lecture by sharing a mantra:

1) Give- Surrender yourself to the cause

2) Mercy to everyone

3) Self Control

Set your goals and you can become whatever you wish! Self-realization is the key to success and one must master the art of looking at things either subjectively or objectively.

The entire session was very interactive and stimulating and he cleared several misconceptions by giving anecdotes from his repertoire arising from years of experience in dealing with people.

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HR Conclave ‘14

HR Conclave-14, held on 8th August, 2014 was the first event for the academic year 2014-15 for the 2014-16 batch organised by the SIMSREE Corporate Relations Committee, with the topic ‘Mergers & Acquisitions: The HR perspective in managing change’. The panel included eminent personalities from the HR domain such as Dr. Adil Malia (Global Head - Leadership, Learning and People Management, Essar Group) as Keynote Speaker, Ms. Madhavi Lall (former Global Head- Employee Relations, Standard Chartered) as the moderator, Prof. Darryl Cabral (founder, Total Solutions Incorporated), Mr. Sanjeev Parkar (Director - Human Capital at PriceWaterhouseCoopers), Dr. Jayant Kumar (Chief of Business HR, Tata Power) and Mr. Dharam Rakshit (Assistant Vice President-Employee Relations and Compliances at Mondelez Foods).

Mergers and Acquisitions are a route that companies use to achieve success. However, there are various differences present in terms of human capital and cultural differences prevalent between the two companies being merged. The feeling of being a victor and vanquished company tends to prevail amongst the two companies and leads to a major loss of morale in the company being acquired.  

Many a time, the HR is involved in the process only after the finalization of the financials and material MOUs. Such a deal would lead to a future failure in the negotiations. The panel highlighted how one needs to focus on “Realization of company values and integration of various processes across the two companies”, along with integration of work cultures of the companies. The crux of the discussion was that the HR team should be part of the strategy team present in the war room so that all the differences regarding human capital and internal processes are ironed out smoothly and the process of M&A becomes smooth for the blue collared employees along with the white collared employees. 

The panel highlighted various scenarios from their personal experiences regarding M&As so that the students were able to comprehend the importance of HR in the process of M&A. Various intricacies of M&As were revealed during the session, shedding light on the close association between different verticals in a company and how each of these verticals are engaged when a company chooses to acquire another. It was a great session for first year students to get a taste of corporate interactions.

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Guest Lecture by Mr. Ramu Menon

SIMSREE was honoured to have Mr. Ramu Menon, (Director Consulting - Consumer Goods/FMCG at Cognizant Business Consulting) on 7th August, 2014. He is an alumnus of IIM-K & an IT leader with 23+years of global experience in managing IT value creation for the consumer goods industry leaders namely P&G and PepsiCo.

The topic for the guest lecture was - Breakthrough Technologies in IT Sector like Social, Mobile, Analytics, Cloud (SMAC).

The enthralling session began with what traditional business meant. In earlier days, traditional business was characterised by Captive Markets, Brand Driven Messaging (which was one way i. e from producers to consumers), Limited Choice, Lack of Information (Both ways – From producers to consumers & vice versa), Reined in by umpteen regulations and Unfulfilled Regulations to go beyond. On the other hand, current business is characterised by Open Market Access, Customer Driven Communication, Inclusive Organisations, Democratisation of Information, Open Regulations and Abundance of Supply and Opportunity Creators.

Next topic was drivers of this transformation in business. The below factors responsible for bringing about this change were discussed.

• Digital Metamorphosis
• Inclusive Internet
• Belongingness
• Magnification
• Sliver Casting – Self Directed Communication (Fetching information from small group)

Then the discussion veered to impact of business. The new business comes with new rules and new players, for example - Kishore Biyani’s new model for Big Bazaar. New business has also led to extreme transformation, for example Philips foraying in to an entirely new category of Healthcare. Challenging core competency is one of the important changes happening due to new nature of businesses.  Also the concepts of Fluid Core, Radical Adjacencies and Externalisation were duly explained.

Next in line were the technologies enabling these transformations collectively named as SMAC – Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud. At the centre of SMAC there are intense social users, volumes of data created by consumers, leveraging footprint i.e. electronic DNA, multitude of platforms, own control & drive your own experience kind of things.

Some of the popular examples of application of SMAC are:- 

• Amazon Pre Shop – Shipping products to consumers based on forecasting
• Coke Freestyle Fountain – A dispenser giving coke with customized flavours
• Miller Colors Smart SKU – Based on Customer spread anticipate sales & perform community sensing
• Dynamic Car Insurance

Active participation of the students was marked by the number of quality questions asked by them and Mr. Ramu Menon answered each of them with due diligence. SIMSREE thanks him for taking out his valuable time and coming on to the campus to interact with students through a guest lecture.

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Mrs Sangeeta Pandit addressing new batch of 2014-16

Director ma'am, faculty colleagues and my dear students,

At the outset, a warm welcome to the batch of 2014-16. Hearty congratulations on getting admission in this esteemed institution.  Your seniors in this orientation period will familiarize you with the culture and ethos of Sydenham Institute of Management.

These 2 years are going to be quite rigorous. You need to attend lectures, make presentations, prepare reports, become part of committees, get sponsorship, participate in competitions, organize events etc .

Your seniors have given you the legacy of Simerations, Simergence, Fiscus, Literathon, Sankalp, SMR and various other gems. You need to retain their glow, further polish them, and perhaps reset them to be aligned to today’s happenings.

Finance is all about balance. For instance, too much of a cash balance means idle cash, dead asset not earning any return, but too little cash would stop the wheels of your very business, one needs the optimum cash balance. Similarly, too much of raw materials stock is unnecessarily locking your cash, not earning anything, risk of the stock getting spoilt or getting obsolete. Too little stock could halt production; lose opportunity to meet unexpected demand. One needs to strike a balance and have the optimum stock.

Likewise, in your 2 years here, you will learn the life skill of striking a balance. You need to bond and make friends that are everlasting but still compete with them to top the class. Sit down together and prepare as one but compete for the same job. Sydenham Management Institute will provide you with the foundation to build on this as well as other skills required to succeed in the business world.

We will introduce you to the complexities of Finance, Marketing, HR and Operations.  However, I also urge you to pick up leadership skills, team spirit, communication skills and acquire strengths that will help you excel in whatever you do.

I exhort each of you to passionately contribute to your institute, for you will get back far more than what you give.

Your time here will be a journey. As your professor, I can say that in the process of teaching you, I will be learning a lot from you. I hope you take this opportunity to learn from the esteemed faculty of this institution, we have a galaxy of experts from the Industry coming as visiting faculty, also from your very capable peers and make the most of this academic atmosphere. At the end of 2 years, I am confident that you will be glad you had joined this Institute and will be equipped to take on the challenges of your chosen profession. God bless you and bless our Institute.

Thank you.

Mrs. Sangeeta Pandit,
Head of Department, Finance
Sydenham Institute of Management Studies, Research and Entrepreneurship Education
(SIMSREE)

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Guest Lecture by Mr. Ashutosh Zawar

The SIMSREE campus witnessed yet another important and enlightening guest lecture, delivered by Mr. Ashutosh Zawar.

Mr. Ashutosh is a rank-holder C.A. (13th All India Rank in May 2002 CA Foundation and 29th Rank in November 2003 CA PE-II exams) and a Bachelor of Commerce from University of Pune. Over the last 3 years after co-founding Academy of Financial Training (AFT), apart from managing the Business Development and day-to-day activities of the business, he has over 1,000 hours of professional training experience. He has been instrumental in launching new training programs and innovating curriculum and training delivery style. The firm has successful training across Basics of Finance, Financial Modeling, Corporate & Project Finance, and Financial Risk Management. Mr. Zawar also provides advisory services to Small and Medium businesses for fund-raising.

Prior to AFT, Mr. Zawar has had around 5 years of experience ranging from Auditing, Investment Banking, Corporate Advisory and Financing Transactions. He worked for over 3 years with the Project Finance team at IDFC, a leading financial services company in the Infrastructure domain, he has worked on sectors such as Healthcare, Education, Tourism, Telecom and Power. His work profile included Operational and Financial Modeling, Business Appraisal, Valuation Analysis, Drafting of Terms and Commercial Negotiations. Before joining IDFC in 2007, he worked with Morgan Stanley’s Investment Banking team for around 2 years

In his addressal to the batch, Mr. Zawar touched upon various topics in Finance, like Fund raising through agencies like Private Equity, Venture Capital, Angel Investors, etc. He explained in detail the roles which a Finance MBA graduate can take up after graduation

In the lecture, Mr. Zawar emphasized on the importance of Microsoft Office in the financial sector. He stressed that fluency in softwares like MS Excel, MS word is extremely important and it is an indispensable part of the career.

The session was quite interactive throughout, and Mr. Zawar fielded the questions asked by the students with comfort, answering each of them.

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SIM'ergence 14

SIM’ergence is the annual flagship corporate event of SIMSREE. It is organized by ‘Corporate Relations Committee’ of SIMSREE in association with BSE (Bombay Stock Exchange). With the aim of bringing about an interaction between management students and corporate, the event is being organized successfully from the past one decade. Pragmatically, it’s an annual academia-industry interface, where in, the stalwarts of the Business and Industrial world come together to discuss the issues and scorching questions faced by the various industries and identify what could be the future business trends. Persisting with this trend, SIM’ergence was organized on 14^th March, 2014 at BSE’s International Convention Hall.  Keeping with its tradition of picking up themes that are to contemporary industrial and economic scenario, The theme for SIM’ergence 14 was ‘Turbulent Times: Thriving or Surviving?’

Indian market was recently surrounded by many impediments including depreciation of rupee, rising crude oil prices, low consumer demands, low investor  confidence. Bad loans, lack of infrastructure, weak government at the helm were also adding to the already existing woes. As future managers, these events were very relevant to the management students.  SIM’ergence 14 provided the platform for the students to meet and understand the views of established players from across the industries which would guide them to prepare the necessary strategies when they actually start dealing with the things in their corporate career. This grand event was witnessed by both 1^st & 2^nd year students of SIMSREE, many students and professors from other eminent business schools from Mumbai.

The event was started by the traditional lighting of the lamp along with Saraswati Vandana. Dr. Sandhya Dhabe (Director, SIMSREE) then delivered the welcome note in which she summarized the idea behind the theme of the event. “Today’s economy is going through a bad phase. Even the big organizations are losing their dominance. Little start-ups are struggling big time. So to survive in this situation it is necessary to understand the various strategies and the plans of action by the students (who are managers to be)”, said Dr.  Dhabe.

SIMSREE was honoured to have Mr. M. B. Parekh (Chairman, Pidilite) as the chief guest of SIM’ergence 14. “It is very easy to get distracted by turbulence.  But one should not get distracted by the same. There should be a clear vision to identify the opportunities in the period of turbulence”, Mr. M. B. Parekh said. He elaborated the opportunities conveyed by turbulences by the example of Seagulls catching fishes in turbulences created by a passing boat. “Robust Business Model, Flexibility and Alertness are the three keys for surviving in turbulent times.”, Mr. Parekh concluded. Students were enthralled by his simplicity and pleasant personality.

Mr. Madhukar Sabnavis (Vice Chairman & Country Head (Discovery & Planning), Ogilvy & Mather) was the Guest of Honour at SIM’ergence 14. An ardent cricket fan, Mr Sabnavis quoted examples of two classic test matches to highlight few winning strategies like ‘Playing to the strength’ and ‘Keeping faith in themselves’. Mr. Sabnavis said, “When you hit the turbulence, you will definitely find your way to come out of it.” Apart from this, he gave many examples through the clippings of famous advertisements & movies.

Following this, students witnessed the keynote speaker Mr. Vaidison Krishnamurty (Director, Transaction Services & Private Equity (Mergers & Acquisions), PricewaterhouseCoopers) extending his views on the theme of the event. Through his immense experience in dealing with foreign investors, He explained how all these investors look at India as an investment destination. “Thriving and Surviving are the two ends of the spectrum. Indian economy is lying in the middle.” Mr. Krishnamurty opined. Mr. Krishnamurty expressed his worry about the future situation in India especially on fronts like employment creation, growth of manufacturing sector. He also hailed good legal systems, Government measures like DBT, strong central bank as India’s plus points. 

Icing on the cake was the guidance from Mr. Sanjeev Churiwala (CFO, Ambuja Cements Ltd.), who happened to be the special guest speaker, on the theme of the event. Mr Churiwala elaborated the drastic changes in India since opening up of the economy by quoting figures like GDP, FDI Inflow, exports and Foreign Exchange Reserves of India. Mr Churiwala highlighted burning issues like infrastructure, changing consumer preferences. Concluding on an inspiring note, he guided students by saying, “The exposure, willpower and the clear mindset are the factors that make the brighter MBA students stand out from the entire lot. At the end of the day, it is hard work and stable mind that would prove the potential of the students.”

Panel Discussion -1:-

The speeches were followed by panel discussions. The topic for the first panel discussion was ‘Leveraging Turbulence: The Key to Dominance’. The industry stalwarts participating in this discussion were:-

1.      Mr. Rajiv Bajaj, Associate Director- CS & CFO, Panasonic (Moderator)

2.      Ms. Vibha Padalkar, Executive Director & CFO, HDFC Life

3.      Mr. Sandeep Gokhale, President, JSW Steel Ltd.

4.      Mr. Bharat Sampat, Executive Vice President & CFO, Development Credit Bank

5.      Mr. Sudeep Nair, Global Head (Business Transformation), JLT

6.      Mr. Srinivasan Gopalan, CFO & COO, The Wadhwa Group

Mr. Rajiv Bajaj kicked off the discussion by fetching reference to the turbulent situation of Dollar-Rupee conversion. “At the end of the day, everyone is here to make money. If you are not doing that, then probably you are not adding value to yourself or to the society in which you are operating”, Mr. Bajaj put forward his thought.

Ms. Vibha Padalkar talked about the turbulences observed everyday in financial sector. She elaborated the impact of globalisation by various examples. She also discussed Snow-balling effect, impact of regulatory policies and elaborated change management strategies by discussing examples. “To sum it up, it is necessary for us to be a catalyst of change to cause disruptions in the market.” quoted Ms. Padalkar.

Mr. Sandeep Gokhale highlighted that turbulences are due to perceptions and frequently changing policies. “In short, turbulence is in human mind and there is no external force which comes to announce that there would now be turbulence in the world. Hence, we need to handle the mental turbulence first. Also, there needs to be cohesive working among different sectors. Unless this happens, turbulence is bound to be there in our mind and hence in the market.”

Mr. Bharat Sampat highlighted the role of anticipation of change and making decisions regarding acceptable risk in dealing with turbulences. Mr Sampat said, “In the financial sector, there are four areas where the turbulence can happen i.e. currency, inflation, internal debt & external debt. All these four can have effect on banking. These are the signals to be watched for.” Mr Sampat also advised audience to watch out for changes in technology.

Mr. Sudeep Nair highlighted the new ways of working that can emerge through the turbulences by saying “Whenever a company faces turbulence, whether by their own will or by external forces they will get transformed. So, we need to define new ways of working in the future. That is what the function of ‘Business Transformation’ does.”

Mr. Srinivasan Gopalan elaborated the brighter side of turbulences by saying, “I just love turbulence because my presence is felt during turbulence than when things are going good. If we can make a difference to an organization then that is why we should exist.” Mr. Gopalan also elaborated on the role of customers, intermediaries, shareholders. He also stressed on establishing and maintaining relations with them.

On a positive note, panellist concluded that the turbulence would always be there and how we respond to it would make the difference. 

Panel Discussion -2:-

The topic for second panel discussion was ‘Is your Talent Strategy built for Uncertain Times?’. The theme was chosen in order to understand the human aspect of managing turbulences.  The panel included following dignitaries:-

1.      Mr. Vinay Deshpande, Chief People Officer, Financial Services Sector, Mahindra & Mahindra (Moderator)

2.      Dr. Ajay Oberoi, Chief People Officer & Head Admin, IDBI Federal

3.      Mr. Vikram Bector, Chief Talent Officer, Tata Motors

4.      Dr.  Sheen Akkara, Director (HR), India Region, Nielsen

5.      Mr. Manoj Phadnis, Group Executive Vice President & Head HCM, Yes Bank

6.      Mr. Rituraj Sar, VP & Head- Learning & Development, Lupin Ltd.

Mr. Vinay Deshpande, who was the moderator, started the discussion by putting forward his thoughts on the subject. Mr Deshpande elaborated ‘Talent’ as an uncompromisable necessity. He lucidly described his idea of talent management by saying,
“Today there is turbulence, but tomorrow there might be an upswing. So, I would like to look at talent from both fishing and farming perspective”,

Dr. Ajay Oberoi put forth some examples from history, like Gold-Carter Breakage, Asian Financial Crisis to bring in some perspective. Dr Oberoi also explained how people failed to learn lessons from these situations. Going back to basics was his advice to the talent managers of the future.  

Mr. Manoj Phadnis elaborated his take on talent by saying “It is actually the matter of identifying what every individual has the ability and utilizing it for the benefit of the organization and that’s what real talent is all about.” According to him, the key was to identify opportunity, engaging people, being proactive and gaining trust of employees.

Dr. Sheen Akkara compared career to a marathon and stressed the huge advantage of starting career in uncertain times. Underlining the importance of loyalty, he said, “It is necessary to preserve loyalty during uncertain times. The only thing that is certain in the organizations is the ‘Uncertainty’.”

Mr. Vikram Bector explained the human nature that tries to get away from turbulences. Maintaining energy and learning from the experiences was the success Mantra according to Mr. Bector. Underlining the role of a talent manager, he said, “Top talent, Expectations from the gen-next, Culture etc. are some of the levers that HRs need to handle during uncertain times. “

Mr. Rituraj Sar elaborated the role played by sense of purpose in surviving through the tough times by saying, “We need to ask three questions to ourselves viz. 1) What is my trigger? 2) What makes me get the best out of myself? 3) What makes me double up my ownership and accountability for whatever I am doing? If we try to get answers to these 3 questions, we would get the purpose going for ourselves. “

All in all, the entire event was a grand success. Students of SIMSREE got a lifetime opportunity to interact with many industry stalwarts and that too on the single stage. They got tremendous amount of knowledge from the eminent guests that served the purpose of the event. SIMSREE thanks all the guest speakers who graced SIM’ergence 14 despite their tight schedules.

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