An Evening to Remember... Reminiscence '15

That celebratory time of the year had come again, when exhilaration and enthusiasm were at their peak amongst everyone in the campus at SIMSREE. Reminiscence – the mega annual reunion of all the batches that graduated over the years from this esteemed institute was here. One of the most important traditions of the institute, Reminiscence provides a platform for visiting alumni to relive their best moments at SIMSREE.

                                         

This year, Reminiscence was held on 12th September. The event started at six in the evening and went on till quarter to midnight. Although heavy rains greeted the evening, it did not deter the alumni from visiting their alma mater. Many esteemed alumni graced the evening with their presence. The red carpet at Reminiscence, came to life for the first time with continuous tweets on Twitter, the hashtag being #Reminiscence2015. The event began with an inauguration by the new director of the college, Dr. M. B. Bhide, Dr. M. A. Khan, Registrar, Mumbai University and former director of the institute and the Sydenham Institute of Management Alumni Association (SIMAA) board members present, Mr. Mahesh Balasubramanian, Mrs. Sneha Pathak and Mr. Aashish Pawaskar, followed by a short speech by Dr. M. D. Bhide, and Mr. M. A. Khan. The batch of 2015 was welcomed into the SIMSREE alumni family. 

The evening moved onto more celebrations including a variety of activities such as photo booth and karaoke. The alumni had a crazy good time posing for the cameras with props and receiving instant prints at the photo booth. The karaoke room was filled with the delightful voices of alumni singing karaoke of old time songs.  Not to forget, the one minute games which were such a hit amongst the alumni. Many of the alumni got nostalgic revisiting the college after several years and appreciated the changes as well as the things that have remained the same. The innovative events and arrangements at the event were the talking point among many groups of alumni.

 Conversations flowed, old memories were reminisced and new ones were made. The recent graduates were excited to visit the college as alumni and the older ones were glad to see how their college had improved over the years. It goes without saying that delightful dinner, pleasant music and entertaining snaps completed the wonderful event. It was indeed an evening to remember. We thank all the alumni that made it to the event and look forward to seeing many more at Reminiscence 2016.

Read More

Guest Lecture by Mr. Ashish Bhasin

"Devotion to duty determines your destiny"- An hour long exciting interaction with Mr. Ashish Bhasin-Alumnus of 1988 batch- kicked off with this inspirational quote, on the eve of 27th July 2015. The Alumni Committee was delighted to have Mr. Bhasin as a guest speaker during the induction of batch 2015-17.

A veteran in the advertising industry, sir started by walking students through his career journey. 

Having worked in the world of advertising, sir briefed students about the evolution of advertising in India and how rural consumer is important and how content makers are trying to stay relevant with the evolving needs of consumer. Sir also talked about the objectives and history of Sydenham Institute of Management Alumni Association-SIMAA organization since it's inception at length.

Mr. Bhasin, himself a voracious reader, urged students to cultivate habit of reading various subjects and continuously keeping oneself updated with latest happenings around. Sir highlighted that many aspirants walk into to industry without being well read and regret the consequences. 

Sir applauded youth on their zeal to win and also advised to do the right thing irrespective of the situation because it would pay in the long run. The lecture concluded with Q&A session where students were eager to understand Sir's views on recent trends like digital marketing, consumer buying behavior. Sir responded with plethora of industry examples.

It was indeed a very heart warming and inspiring lecture for the students of the new batch.

Read More

Guest Lecture by Mr. Malcom Athaide

At SIMSREE, continuing the tradition of guest lectures by eminent industry personalities, Mr. Malcolm Athaide addressed the first year students on Wednesday, 29th July. Mr. Athaide is the President & Chief Risk Officer: Business Banking, Retail Banking, Agriculture and Inclusive & Social Banking at Yes Bank and also an alumnus of 1995 batch. It was a great opportunity for students to interact with such an illustrious alumni.

Mr. Athaide started the lecture by explaining the importance of family and parents in life. He advised students to never neglect their parents and always do everything for them. He gave an amazing analogy wherein he compared students with an organization of which their family are the shareholders and quoted, “Don’t disappoint your shareholders, they have invested in you so make their investment worth it“.

Mr. Athaide then went about explaining various fields in which the students can and should focus to broaden their scope of learning and getting better job opportunities in the coming future. Some of the areas Mr. Athaide talked about were: analyst, process control and systems, operational risk and market risk, operations research, etc.

Mr. Athaide gave a brief overview about all these fields so as to give the students a more clear idea about what opportunities can these fields of management offer. Sir also explained how students can channelize themselves towards building interest and excelling in these so that it suits their capabilities.

After explaining all these points, Mr. Athaide patiently answered all the questions students had across domain in management and all the students were thoroughly satisfied with the answers.

At the end, Mr. Athaide told the batch an excellent short story through which he conveyed the message that one can make or break his/her life and so one must work hard to achieve what’s best.

On behalf of the Alumni Committee, we would like to thank Mr. Athaide for taking time out of his busy schedule and enlightening the batch.

Read More

Guest Lecture by Mr. Ramesh Mitragotri

"Sow a thought and you reap an act. Sow an act and you reap a habit. Sow a habit and you reap a character. Sow a character and you reap a destiny."

With this inspirational quote, Mr. Ramesh Mitragotri – An alumnus of 1986 batch- kick started the day with a fresh perspective.

Mr. Ramesh Mitragotri graced students with his presence at the SIMSREE campus, on the 25th of July at 9:30 am to deliver a guest lecture to the junior batch.

Mr. Mitragotri is the CHRO at Aditya Birla - Chemical division and has previously worked in Aditya Birla Retail.

Mr. Mitragotri emphasized on the importance of one's character, values and morals over their knowledge and skills. Sir explained to the batch how the companies hire aspirants with good character and then train the personnel in the skills required. Sir spoke about the important traits of a leader and what attributes play an important role in making a good leader.

Mr. Mitragotri also advised batch to not only work on knowledge and skill development but also on developing one's character, beliefs and values. Sir explained the importance of character building with an example of an iceberg. Only 10 % of the iceberg is visible while 90% of the iceberg is under the sea and not visible easily. Similarly only 10% of our attributes are visible easily which include our behavior, knowledge etc. but the 90% which includes our temperament , our attitude, our values and our character is not easily visible but these are the attributes of a good leader and are sought after by every organization.

With this motivational lecture, the students were animated to start another exciting day in their induction week.

Read More

Guest Lecture by Mr. Sachin Khandelwal

On 20th of August, 2015, Mr. Sachin Khandelwal, an alumnus of the 1992 batch, was welcomed by the Alumni Committee back on campus for a guest lecture to address the junior batch. Mr. Sachin Khandelwal has over two decades of experience in the finance and banking industries and is currently the CEO and MD of Magma Housing Finance and Chief Sales Officer at Magma Fincorp.

Mr. Khandelwal started the lecture by stating the value of a management education. Sir then opened the floor to questions and students came up with a variety of questions ranging from general ones related to the syllabus and specializations to specific questions about the finance industry. Mr. Khandelwal answered all of the students’ questions with ease and poise.

Mr. Khandelwal spoke about the causes of financial crises and the importance of sticking to the basics. Sir then emphasized the value of inter-personal relationships. Sir also mentioned the changing world order and the importance of regulations. Sir spoke about the need to understand every discipline of management since every job requires an interplay of various management disciplines. Sir then underscored the need to know oneself well and encouraged each student to align current opportunities with their dreams. Sir urged students to innovate and watch out for competing products from related industries.

Mr. Khandelwal explained to students the need to work hard and look for projects that are related to their field of interest to gain experience and start practicing. Sir stressed on the significance of following one’s passion with conviction. Sir mentioned the importance of managing people and time and maintaining a healthy work-life balance.

The batch enjoyed the lecture and was encouraged by Mr. Khandelwal to introspect regularly and follow their passion. We thank Mr. Khandelwal for visiting the campus and sharing his valuable insights with the batch.

Read More

Guest Lecture by Mr. Sanjay Behl

On 23^rd July 2015, as part of the induction program for the incoming batch of 2015-2017, the SIMSREE Alumni Committee was proud to host the Guest Lecture by Mr. Sanjay Behl, one of the most illustrious Alumni of the 1993 batch. Having more than 20 years of experience in the field of Sales and Marketing with prestigious companies like HUL, Nokia and Reliance Communications, Mr Behl is now the CEO of Raymond Ltd.

Mr Behl enlightened the students by sharing thoughts on his own corporate life in the field of marketing. He started the session by speaking about the beginning of his career, as an Area Sales Manager in HUL. Being strongly associated with dish-washing soaps and detergents, he spoke about the difficulties faced by the brand in reaching out to the masses, especially in rural India, where other alternatives such as ash were widely being used as cleaning agents. The students were fascinated to know about how advertisements and branding played a very crucial role in overcoming these limitations.

The batch learnt plenty from this enlightening and interactive session. We look forward to several such interactions with Mr Behl in the future.

He further spoke about the different experiences associated with the various brands and products he worked with in HUL, as a Brand Manager and then as a Marketing Manager. He explained to the students of how a strong inclination towards technology helped him take the important decision of switching from an FMCG company to work with Nokia and thereafter with Reliance Communications. The corporate experiences that he shared left the students intrigued. Thereafter, moving onto Raymond Ltd. where he currently serves as the CEO, Mr Behl gave insights of how technology plays a key role in the global textile major and passionately spoke about the aspirations of the company, especially in Indian and European markets.

Towards the end of the session, Mr Behl emphasized on the importance of constant innovation and change for any brand to sustain. He spoke about how disruptive technology creates a revolution and how it is important for the company as well as individuals to connect the dots to survive and progress in the competitive world today. He advised the students that the key to success is to stay passionate, take keen interest and understand core business concepts. The session concluded with a round of queries, which Mr Behl answered enthusiastically, much to the delight of the students.

Read More

Guest Lecture by Mr. Vivek Bhatnagar

On the 4^th of September, the Alumni Committee welcomed Mr. Vivek Bhatnagar, an alumnus of the 1994 batch, for a guest lecture to address the junior batch. Mr. Vivek Bhatnagar has more than two decades of experience in sales and marketing and is currently the General Manager at Johnson & Johnson Vision care.

The topic of discussion for the session was ‘Sales Channel’. Sir explained the concept of ‘Sales channel’ by giving an analogy that sales channel is like a fluid flowing through pipes and that, size of the pipe, velocity of the fluid and other aspects should be balanced so as to make the flow smooth. Likewise, balancing of types of Sales channel is a must. Sir defined Sales channel as a conduit that helps bring product or service to a place where the customer may buy from. Types of sales channel such as traditional retail, wholesale, e-commerce, door to door, B2B and B2C, modern trade were discussed. This discussion was followed by an explanation on various features of all the types of Sales Channels and their role in describing product features, helping trials, experiencing the product, providing assortment, providing complimentary products, defraying cost pre/ during/ post purchase support.

This discussion was then followed by an interesting task given by Sir. The batch was divided into two groups; both the groups were asked to decide the best sales channel for the product assigned to them which were, 300gram dove soap and new body deodorant, respectively. The groups came up with satisfactory strategies and Sir added value to their solutions by giving inputs.

By sharing his real life experiences Sir explained that products that are well established can be sold through all channels and also discussed various methods of selecting the right channel for a product. The session concluded with Sir explaining the importance of balance of sales channel, strategies to place product and planning to avoid channel conflicts.

Students raised doubts pertaining to various methodologies used for channeling products in to the market which were answered by Sir by giving practical examples. The batch thoroughly enjoyed the session. We thank Mr. Bhatnagar for visiting the campus and sharing his valuable insights.

Read More

Guest Lecture by Mr. Albert Almeida

On 23th of July, 2015, Alumni Committee welcomed Mr. Albert Almeida (COO, Hungama Mobile) - an alumnus of the batch of 1989- on SIMSREE campus to address the new batch.

Mr. Almeida started the lecture by reminiscing about his two years at SIMSREE .A feeling of nostalgia took over him when he greeted eager students.

Mr. Almeida spoke about the importance of these two years and advised students spend this time wisely as these crucial years will never come back. Sir passionately spoke about his experiences in the college and about how he would do things differently given a chance to revisit these two years.

Mr. Almeida advised the students to keep an open mind and explore all the possibilities before settling for their jobs. Sir explained the importance of following one’s passion and marrying it with their means of living. Sir’s advice was to always go with gut feeling in every important situation in life.

                                            

Mr. Almeida then shared with the batch his journey after college and his stints in advertising agencies and media houses. Sir spoke about his experiences and learnings in these years and how every job taught him something new.

In the later part of the lecture sir opened the floor for questions and cleared all the doubts of the students.

Mr. Almeida’s inspiring words left students with food for thought and gave them a different perspective to look at these two years of management. Sir’s lecture motivated students to follow their dreams and never give up on their passions.

Read More

Coffee With Alumni - Mr. Sameer Kanwar

On 25^th July, the budding management aspirants of SIMSREE were pleased to have the opportunity of interacting with Mr Sameer Kanwar, an alumnus of the 1995 MMS Batch. Mr. Kanwar is currently the General Partner at Basil Growth Corporation. Previously, he was the Director at Powerdesk. In the ‘Coffee With Alumni’ session organised by the Alumni Committee in the college campus, the students had a very friendly and meaningful conversation with Mr Sameer over coffee and snacks.

With about 20 years of expertise in the information & technology and services and a great deal of experience in the private equity sector, Mr. Kanwar shared with the students an overview of his entire corporate journey. He spoke to the students about the immense learning he gained in his career including his one year stint in the core IT sector at Essar Information Technology Ltd, where he realised the need to bring about a change and thus decided to plan for MBA. He also spoke about how it was to be a part of Parametric Technology Corporation as the Regional Manager and head things there. He shared his experience about being a part of the merger which took place between APAR Tech and NESS Technologies, during his stint at NESS Technologies.

Mr Kanwar gave a brief overview about how things work in a private equity firm and how the entire process of selecting, accepting and rejecting the decision of investing in a particular start up or a firm goes about. He explained the risks involved in making such decisions and also the future scope in it. Replying to a volley of questions and clearing the doubts of the students, the session came to an end.

With the industry insights gained through this interactive session, the students enjoyed the session and benefitted thoroughly. We would like to extend our sincere gratitude to Mr Sameer Kanwar for agreeing to spend time with the students.

Read More

Coffee With Alumni - Ms. Nafisa Thingna

It was a bright sunny day in the month of gloomy July when a few chosen students got an opportunity to meet Ms. Nafisa Thingna (Vice President at The Times of India), alumna of the 1984 batch. The Coffee with Alumni session, organised by the Alumni Committee of the college as a part of the induction program, took place on 27^th of July, in the conference room at our very own institute. Having over 28 years of experience with Times Group and in the media marketing sector, Ms. Thingna gave us a peek into the management world. The session was engaging as she answered our curious questions and also shared her knowledge with us.

The session began with Ms. Thingna giving us a brief insight about her company, her career, her role as the Vice President. The details she shared about career growth paths and various opportunities in the industry, were particularly motivating and intuitive. Over the course of interaction with students, Ms. Thingna shared her experiences about marketing strategies, role of the salesforce and TOI initiatives in CSR. She also enlightened us about revenue gathering, changing media trends, differential editorial policies, advertising strategies and diversification of print and digital media. Ms. Thingna even tackled the divisive questions and topics in a poised manner.

The students found the session immensely beneficial and look forward to more such interactions. We are extremely grateful to Ms. Thingna for taking time out of her busy schedule and spend time with the students.

Read More

HR Conclave'15 - Shaping Tomorrow's Leaders

The Corporate Relations Committee of SIMSREE organized its 1^st major event of the new academic year, HR conclave on 10^th September 2015 to discuss various aspects of leadership and its effect on organizations. The HR conclave is an annual event where HR heads of reputed companies assemble at SIMSREE to express their views on a topic that has relevance to the current market scenario. The topic for this year’s HR conclave was “Shaping Tomorrow’s Leaders: Learning from the past”. The guests that graced the college campus for this event were: Mr. C Srinivasulu (Vice President - HR, Lupin Limited), Mr. Atul Joshi (Head HR (Automotive Division), Mahindra & Mahindra), Ms. Meena Jagtiani (HR Advisor - Projects, Group Human Resources, Aditya Birla Management Corporation Pvt. Ltd), Ms. Diptii Das (Head HR - South Asia, Aramex International) and Mr. Srinivas Chunduru (Chief Human Resources Officer at the Piramal Group). 

                           

(From Left to Right :  Mr. C Srinivasulu, Mr. Atul Joshi, Ms. Meena Jagtiani, Ms. Diptii Das, Mr. Srinivas Chunduru)

The panel discussion was moderated by Ms. Jagtiani who gave a brief introduction of the topic to the students. After the introduction, the discussion was started by Mr. Srinivasulu who being a home-grown leader himself, shared his thoughts on how a company can groom its employees through succession planning and leadership identification processes by giving an example of Sundar Pichai. The discussion was followed by Mr. Joshi who gave an insight to the new trend of Gen-Y leaders. Ms. Das who spoke next, made the atmosphere lively with her highly energetic talk on the current volatile world and how a leader who has a hybrid portfolio is best suited for this environment. Mr. Chunduru stressed upon the importance of values like integrity and humility which are essential for any leader in today’s world. The discussion was then concluded by Ms. Jagtiani by expressing her views on the trends of future, loyalty and leaders.

The crux of the discussion was whether a company needs a home-grown leader to tackle the challenges arising due to a global and complex environment or a lateral hire who has a vast experience across industries and organizations. The panel unanimously acknowledged that the most significant thing that mattered while electing a leader were his/her innate qualities like humility, general management skills, professional competence etc. though both company loyalists and laterals had a few distinct advantages which made them more suitable than the other in a few instances. The other part of the discussion was on the challenges faced by women leaders in the industry and ways to overcome it. 

                                 

The discussion was followed by a Q&A round for 30 minutes. It was a great and insightful session for the first year students. “The various facets of leadership became very clear to us” quoted one of the students.  They also got a chance to understand the expectations and qualities that organizations look for in a leader which is a vital part of corporate life.

Read More

Guest Lecture by Ms. Monica Tata

The Corporate Relations Committee, SIMSREE was honoured to have Ms. Monica Tata as a

guest lecturer on the campus on 23rd July 2015. Ms. Tata who has over 25 years of

experience in the industry gave her insights about the Media and Entertainment industry.

She has been featured in the ‘Next 30’ most powerful women to look out for in 2010 and

was also featured in the top 50 influential women in media, marketing and advertising by

IMPACT in 2012 and 2014.

Ms. Monica Tata spoke about her splendid journey in the industry. Ma’am started her

career in the Dalmia group and quickly went on to win the Star Sales person award in 1991.

After her stint as a sales person, she made a career shift to advertising within the same

company, and then began her splendid journey in the industry.

She also spoke about how STAR changed the way Indians viewed television entertainment.

She was the second employee of STAR in India and worked as part of the leadership team at

STAR and was instrumental in increasing sales, effective negotiations, profit and loss

analysis and strategic implementation of business operations. After working in STAR, she

moved on to work with HBO and served as a Managing Director and was responsible for the

launch of HBO Defined HD that led the way in airing  popular series like Game of Thrones,

Better Call Saul, etc. Ms. Tata then discussed in depth about TRPs and advertising sector in

India.

The overall session was very engaging, as students asked many questions related to the

industry and Ma’am answered all the questions patiently. Ms. Tata reiterated the fact a

number of times, that follow your dreams through crests and troughs of life. We thank Ms.

Monica Tata for taking time out and sharing her knowledge and thoughts with the students.

Read More

Guest Lecture by Mr. Surya Prakash Mohapatra - (Head-Knowledge and Capability at Hewlett-Packard Global Business Services, India)

On 24th July 2015, SIMSREE’s Corporate Relations Committee organized a guest lecture

by  Mr. Surya Mohapatra. Mr. Mohapatra is the Knowledge and Capability Head, Global

Business Services, Hewlett Packard, India. He discussed the changing trends in the Human

Resource processes with the development of new technologies and social media. The speaker

made a very effective delivered speech and explained the scenario (VUCA- Volatile Uncertain

Complex and Ambiguous) in the present organizations. The organizations today are operating in

a difficult environment where the organizations have to be constantly updating the processes

as per the industrial trends.

Mr. Mohapatra spoke about the changing business environments and the need to

restructure the policies of the organizations. It is important for them to update policies with the

employees at the center. The employees are the most important resource of the organization

and it is important to give them a secure, happy and improved working conditions. The

organizations are finding it difficult to manage the employees and are breaking into smaller

organizations or flat hierarchy organizations. The mergers and acquisitions have also made it

important for the organizations to ensure all the employees are in line with the organizational

He elaborated the use of social media in the recruitment process.  With most of the

employers using LinkedIn and other social media portals to hire professionals, statistic says that

80% organizations use social media for recruiting professionals and 95% of them use linkedin.

The organizations now have a defined budget and a structured approach for the recruitment

process. It is important for HR professionals to combine the company goal with the acquisition

of the best talent to ensure growth.

Mostly HR professionals look for a candidate that meets the employer brand and the

required talent brand and to keep them with the firm HR should know how to decide the vision

of the company with a defined strategy that touches large number of employees.

The HR professionals have a very important role in collaborating and ensuring employee

engagement. The most important thing for an organization to ensure a higher retention rate is

more employee engagement. The company must value an employee and the employee must in

return ensure complete productivity for the organization growth.

To train these individuals HR must understand the power of videos. Earlier training used

to be one to many now a days it is many to many and is subdivided as pre-training, actual

training, and post-training.

Read More

Guest Lecture by Mr. Nalin Jain (Director Finance, Volkswagen Group Sales India)

On 25th July 2015, the Corporate Relations Committee of SIMSREE organised a guest

lecture where Mr. Nalin Jain, the Director Finance, Volkswagen Group Sales India was

invited as a guest to address the speaker. The topic of discussion was ‘Strategies for

attaining and sustaining leadership’ in the industry. Mr. Jain shared his insights and

observations drawn from his corporate experience.

 He highlighted the qualities of a good leader and defined a leader as an individual,

who functions in the present moment, is aware and conscious of what is happening around

him or her and believes in democratization and he also discussed how an individual is

expected to know the basics and deliver value as soon as they join the organization. The

functions of a good leader according to Mr. Jain involve visioning, sense making, inventing

and relating with others. Mr. Jain explained that one should think through the situation and

not react instantly. This will help solve the conflicts which generally arise in an organisation.

He discussed sense making and ladder of inference to the students. He explained

that the ladder of inference is a tool that helps leaders balance inquiry and reach

appropriate logical conclusions. He then explained the enacted system predominant cycle

which is a cycle of interaction between habitual artefacts, habits of actions, habits of

thoughts, consequences and actions and includes 3 steps of studying the generative

structures, then analysis of patterns of behaviours and then adapting the reactions to it.

It was an interactive session where Mr. Jain interacted with the students and

addressed the queries and doubts. The session lasted for about an hour and the students

learned from Mr. Jain’s insights, experience & enthusiasm.

Read More

Guest Lecture by Mr. Kiran Khalap (Co-founder and MD, Chlorophyll Brand Consultancy)

Mr. Kiran Khalap visited the SIMSREE campus on 29thJuly, 2015 to deliver a lecture which was 

organized by the Corporate Relations Committee. Mr. Khalap is the co-founder of Chlorophyll 

Brand Consultancy, which has defined and differentiated over 200 brands and created over 40 

brands from scratch. He has also been the Chairman of ACSAC, a committee led by the Unique 

Identification Authority of India, to define and create the brand in 2010. 

With his background and experience in the field of branding, he definitely cleared a few myths 

regarding the branding of a product. He defined the concept of a brand as an unchanging idea, 

with logo and advertising just facilitating in conveying what the brand really stands for. He 

stated that a real brand is the experience. This idea was amplified by the example of Apple 

changing its logo through a series of changes from Newton under an apple tree to the current 

logo of an apple halfway eaten. Another example supporting this idea was brands getting their 

names changed like the transformation of Hutch to Orange and finally to Vodafone proving that 

in spite of these changes, the experience provided by them remained the same, therefore was 

easily accepted by the customers.  

Throwing light upon corporate brands, he discussed that corporate brands are as important as 

product brands. In fact, the corporate brand is the new product brand and that the company 

may be the legal owner of a brand, but the customers are its real owners. 

“Products are created in the factory but brands are made in the mind” would be the perfect 

one line summary of the idea he conveyed throughout the interaction with the students. This 

session was met with a lot of quality questions and equally interesting answers and was an 

enriching experience for all the students.

Read More

Guest Lecture by Mr.Avinava Banerjee (Group Manager, Business Analytics and Strategic Planning at HUL)

On 26th July 2015, the Corporate Relations Committee of SIMSREE organized a guest lecture

by Mr. Avinava Banerjee as a part of induction process of the new batch of 2015-17. Mr.

Avinava Banerjee is currently the group manager, business analytics and strategic planning

at HUL.

Mr. Banerjee commenced the lecture by giving the commandments of success in the

corporate world and discussed the importance of prioritization of activities for next two

years. Sir also discussed the importance of having a definite goal in life. Mr. Banerjee

outlined his illustrious life and gave various examples which were extremely helpful to

understand the importance of passion, resilience and sustainability in one’s life.

Mr. Banerjee then discussed the specifics of marketing analytics and how the evolution of

big data techniques has helped to understand the market behaviour more closely. He also

spoke about the cloud services which are getting more and more popular these days and

how these techniques have increase the effectiveness of operation of the data.

Sir discussed how the big data is used by the companies to understand customers and

discussed a few applications of the big data which are popular these days. Mr. Banerjee also

discussed the future prospects of the big data and cloud technology and how the effective

use of this can help add value to human life.

Mr. Banerjee’s enthusiastic personality created a wonderful learning environment. The

session was interactive, insightful and the students indeed learned a lot from it.

Read More

CII-IWN-SIMSREE event: Aakaar – NGO Mentoring Meet

The Indian Women Network (IWN) wing of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in association with SIMSREE and Women’s India Trust (WIT) organized an event named ‘AAKAAR’- NGO mentoring meet, on 10^th September, 2015 at SIMSREE. The aim of the event was to invite Self Help Groups (SHGs) run by women making products like handicrafts, torans, kurtis, imitation jewelry etc. and present to them various marketing and financial alternatives along with some product development ideas which can enable them to scale up their business. National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) as well as EBay also extended their support for the event. The event had participation from 16 NGOs who came from Mumbai and the nearby areas including Karjat and Mahad. The Student Social Responsibility (SSR) Committee along with more than 50 student mentors from SIMSREE will be actively working with the NGOs over the period of 1 month to ensure proper implementation of the plan suggested during the event.

The event saw an active participation from the industrial world. Ms Pallavi Jha, Chairperson, CII IWN and Chairperson and Managing Director of Walchand Peoplefirst Ltd. with her welcome speech inaugurated the event. This was followed by the speech of Ms Shyamala Nath, CEO – Women’s India Trust in which she praised the women NGOs for their courage and determination. Dr.Manoj Bhide, Director, SIMSREE and Ms Sangeeta Pandit, HOD, Finance also addressed the gathering thanking all the concerned teams for their presence in the initiative.

A special presentation was done by Mr. Abhay Bhat, Head of Seller Services, India, EBay. Mr. Abhay helped the audience understand the Ecommerce selling process, encouraging the NGOs to list their products online in order to attract more customer base. SIMSREE students also presented on the basics of business finance and marketing, giving the details on how potential markets can be tapped and business processes can be made more efficient. Ms Monica Lakhmana, Founder, Monica Lakhmana Foundation concluded the first half of the event by focusing on the possibilities that the session provided and also by thanking everyone for their contribution.

       

The second half of the event had a session where in students from NIFT and SIMSREE interacted with the NGOs. The students from NIFT focused on the product development perspective. Groups of students from SIMSREE were assigned specific NGOs and the interaction helped the students understand the NGO allotted to them along with their limitations and growth opportunities. The students suggested them financing and marketing strategies based on the interactions with NGOs. It helped the NGOs to not only develop a completely different perspective about the local market and its opportunities but also learn digital marketing. 

The SSR committee along with the help of the student mentors from SIMSREE, under the guidance of Prof. Sangeeta Pandit, will assist the NGOs in implementing the ideas, over a period of the next one month.To summarize, it was a great interaction between the corporates, the NGOs and the students of SIMSREE. 

Read More