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.