CONFLUENCE '15 - Annual Consulting Conclave by SIMCON

SIMCON-SIMSREE Consulting Club organised its Annual Consulting Conclave, Confluence on the 8^th of February, 2015. The event is in its third year. SIMCON has succeeded over the years in building strong and beneficial relations with corporates. The event is aimed at bringing management students and the corporate world together to generate insights into current happenings in the industry. Based on the theme “India -A Gateway for Global firms”, Confluence ’15 aimed at focusing upon the industry requirements and steps the government can take to ensure progress for the country.

The event began with the Welcome Note by Director of SIMSREE, Dr. Sandhya Dhabe. She introduced the theme for the event & highlighted the significance of relevance of the theme in present times.

In line with this theme the Chief Guest for the event, Mr.Vivek Kulkarni (Founder & Chairman, Brickworks India) spoke on the topic “Supremacy for India amongst emerging markets”. Mr. Kulkarni highlighted upon various statistics showcasing India as the path ahead for global growth. Even through google trends, India could be seen as being highest searched. Mr.Kulkarni also quoted IMF in saying “India’s economy will overtake China in terms of its annual growth rate by 2016.”

Post the Chief Guest speech, it was time for the first panel discussion. The topic for discussion was “India’s Investment Landscape –The Road Ahead”. The panel discussion consisted of the below panellists:

·        Mr.Girish Vanvari (Partner & Co-Head Tax, KPMG)

·        Mr. Prateek Pant (Executive Director, RBS)

·        Mr. Anant Gupta (Vice President, Kedaara Capital)

·        Mr. Santhi VIjetha (Director, Grant Thornton India)

·       Ms. Mukti Hariharan (Vice President, Credit Suisse) – Moderator

The panel highlighted the policy paralysis along with various other issues plaguing the scope of growth for India presently. Mr. Vanvari highlighted how they need to keep themselves on toes to understand the ever changing laws. He also threw light on the fact that the Companies Act 2014, was actually tabled in 2002, but was passed in its present form in 2014. This showed the policy paralysis prevalent in the governance of the country. The panel touched upon the topics of GAAR, GST and other such policies that prevent multiple investments in India along with how India has the potential to tap into multiple such opportunities with regards to FDI, FII through M&As etc. The discussion revolved around activities that would result in ease of doing business in India like Tax reforms, GST, single window clearance and other such activities. The wariness of the investors in investing in India was cited by examples like the Vodafone Tax case. The conclusion of the discussion was that unless India removes the road blocks, it would not attract huge investments. The first panel answered the queries put forth by the students from various topics such as Tax, GAAR.

The second panel discussion was more related towards how the industry needs to modify itself or suit itself to do business in India. The topic for discussion was “Adapt or Innovate - The Mantra for Survival & Sustained Growth’ from a marketing perspective. The panellist were:

·        Mr. Mohan V ( Former Executive Director/VP, HJ Heinz)

·        Mr. Vinay Gupta (Business Head, VG Retail Consulting)

·        Mr. Sandeep Zutshi (CEO & Co-Founder, Ascentaz Consulting)

·        Mr. Sunit Kishore (Head of Marketing, Novartis)

·        Mr. Joydeep Roy (Member of Governing Council, IIB) – Moderator

Discussion started with Mr. Roy giving a brief about the discussion and handing over the reins to the panellist one by one and keeping a check on the time at the same time. The discussion flowed in a question answer format where the moderator would ask a question in order to structure the discussion. Mr. Zutshi started with different types of innovations that we see in the world today- product, process, communication and technological innovation. Be it the Nirma case or the Balaji wafers case, product innovation is right in your face and hence the most visible. But given this fact, it is the technological innovation which retains imperious benefits and far-fetched benefits giving rise to a host of opportunities. The discussion moved then towards how Indian markets perceive any innovations. The session being an interactive one, the famous question of which of brick and mortar or e-retail industry would dominate in India came out. This was answered in different perspectives with Mr. Vinay Gupta explaining that the market always come to an equilibrium – eventually price would not be the competing factor but service alone would be the deciding factor. Mr. Mohan talked about how innovation is sometimes has to be achieved in the realms of the business and brand. Mr. Mohan talked about how Heinz had taken tougher route of launching ketchup in India; when it first launched its operations here; instead of making local tomato chatni which Indians are already fond of eating.  This is how brands operate in terms of maintaining their legacy along with driving innovations. Mr. Sunit Kishore steered the discussion towards the pharma industry and expressed how innovation is actually an over hyped word in the industry circles and how companies view innovation as just a task to do and hence do it for sake of it. This statement gave a very interesting path to the discussion and everyone started about their experiences of such incidence in their industries.

Overall the session was very interactive with students asking a lot of questions and the panellists and moderator answering them with patience. The students gained a lot of insights from both the panel discussions & from the Chief Guests addressal.

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Guest Lecture by Mr. Prasad Akerkar

On 28^th February 2014, SIMCON organized a guest lecture by Mr. Prasad Akerkar, SAP Practice Head & Learning and Development Department Head at Larsen & Toubro InfoTech Ltd. Mr. Akerkar spoke on “ERP System Implementation & Change Management”.

Mr. Akerkar started his lecture by explaining basics of ERP, its use and implementation in a company, methodology and benefits in different departments. He also gave students the information about the history of ERP and how it modified the technology over the years. He gave insights to the students about supply chain, bottlenecks in supply chain and the role ERP plays while dealing with these bottlenecks.

Mr. Akerkar talked about Business Development Process. He made students familiar with various concepts like Make to Order, Make to Stock etc. He shared his experiences and gave real time examples for better understanding of students. He said that the approach, consulting attitude, exploring and expansion plays a crucial role in development of any business process. Sir made the session very interactive by taking the example of ERP implementation in a college (say SIMSREE) and asking students how it could be used in various college activities like admission, lecture schedules and finance.

Mr. Akerkar also explained the role of ERP implementation Life Cycle in Project Management.  He gave a brief idea to the students related to the stages through which a new Project goes like Project Preparation, Business Blueprint, Realization, Final Preparation and Post Go Live Support and how the real time examples are solved. He also spoke about the role of ERP in benefit realization and improvement of efficiency and effectiveness of processes.

Students also got to know about ‘Change Acceleration Process’ (CAP) module and 7 steps involved in implementation of CAP.  They also got insights about Proposed Framework for Change management.

The lecture was very informative and engaging. Being able to listen to and ask questions of such an informative speaker was a real benefit to the SIMSREE students. We thank Mr. Akerkar for his valuable guidance.

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SIMCON organizes Confluence'14 successfully

Confluence, an annual consulting conclave at Sydenham institute of Management Studies, Research and Entrepreneurship Education (SIMSREE) is a platform to discuss the current issues plaguing the nation from the viewpoint of a consultant. Confluence ’14, sponsored by LIC India in association with Syndicate Bank was held on 25th January, 2014. Organized by SIMCON, the consulting club of SIMSREE, Confluence’14 saw a plethora of senior professionals from diverse functions and industry discuss the challenges and possible solutions to the problem that is currently grappling the nation and also the theme of Confluence ’14 – “Business Sustainability in a VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity) world". 

With the lineup of star professionals as speakers and panelists, quality opinions and discussions on sustainability and an enthusiastic and an inquisitive audience to complement the above, the event surely had to be a huge success!

Confluence ’14 began on a high note with the Chief Guest for the day Mr. Sridar Iyengar, Ex- Chairman and CEO, KPMG and Co-Founder, The Sounding Board addressing the batch on the attributes necessary to achieve stability in times of uncertainty. He stressed on the importance of an individual needing to connect different aspects of business viz. Human Capital, Technology, Data, and Experience among others. 

This was followed by the speech by the Chief Speaker Dr. Nachiket Mor, Head of the financial inclusion committee setup by RBI and the chairman of CARE. Mr. Mor spoke about the need for financial inclusion in the nation and stressed how banking needs to spread across the nation covering thoroughly the rural areas of India. He opined that currently supply side needs to broaden to cater the banking demand and he suggested serving this need through use of technology like ‘Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPI)’ with the help of mobile service providers, through appointing business correspondents who would act on behalf of the banks inter alia. 

Post the speeches by the chief guests, panel discussions took place. The first panel had an incredible lineup of speakers coming from background ranging from management consulting to banking to entrepreneurship. The panel comprised of Mr. Gaurav Bagaria, Senior Manager at EY, Mr. A. Narayanan, COO Finance, HSBC and Mr. Chandrasekharan Tatapudy, Co-founder, Yasham P2D Lifesciences Pvt. Ltd.  The panel was moderated by Mr. Yatrik Vin, Sr. VP, NSE. The panel discussed about the “Opportunities for investment in India”. They concluded the discussion by suggesting on having a balance of inorganic growth (through M&A overseas and within the nation) and organic growth through correction of policy paralysis resulting in an investment friendly business environment.

The second panel discussion began post the lunch break and this panel comprised of Mr. Anuj Bharagava, CEO, A B Associates, Mr. Sandeep Kothari, Director, Capgemini Consulting and the very own alumnus of SIMSREE Mr. Parag Risbud, VP, Avalon Consulting. The path for the discussion was traced by the moderator Mr. Suresh Mhatre, VP, TCS and the President of IMCI. The topic for the panel was – “Overseas avenues for Indian products and services”.  The panel suggested improvement in our trade competitiveness through increased exports is possible through policies that aim at catalyzing them, identifying specialized products and services which India is capable of offering at a premium price, developing ability to value add and finally tapping the full potential of Indian consumption.

The speakers were deeply impressed with the nature of the questions posed to them by the batch and according to them this reflected the batch’s awareness about the recent happenings in the world. 

SIMCON is determined to continue its tradition of linking the theoretical management concepts to the real world business problems by interfacing with the industry and we strive to make sure that the next version of Confluence is bigger than Confluence’14.

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'SIX SIGMA GREEN BELT' Session by Mr. Vishwadeep Khatri

Mr. Vishwadeep Khatri, CEO, Benchmark Six Sigma visited SIMSREE on 27th December, 2013 as a part of SIMCON’s initiative to spread awareness among the batch regarding the relevance of ‘Six Sigma Practices (6ϭ)’ in today’s business world. Mr. Khatri is one of the most renowned trainers of six sigma worldwide, having over 15 years of experience in business process improvements related to service as well as manufacturing industries. He has worked as a trainer, consultant and an auditor. Apart from being a B.Tech and an MBA holder, Mr. Khatri is a ‘Certified Lead Auditor’ by IRCA, UK, an RLA, RABSAQ of Australia, a Master Black Belt in Lean Six Sigma by AMT, USA, Six Sigma Black Belt, Morestream University and a member of ASQ.

Mr. Khatri specifically focused on dispelling the myths prevalent in the minds of the students regarding the use of Green Belt Six Sigma certification to branches such as Marketing, Finance and HR. He presented cases of different organizations where the principles of Six Sigma proved to be beneficial in improving the overall processes and the functions of organization. He presented the cases, where in, he showed how Six Sigma improved the market research process at a research consultancy, online payment systems at banks and resume shortlisting process at a HR consulting firm. He emphasized the need for this certification considering today’s businesses to be more complex with stricter deadlines. To back his own statements, he further went on to justify how simple hypothesis testing methods can lead to significant results by providing inputs for process improvement. He also touched the topics such as ‘DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control)’ and ‘DMADV (Define, Measure, Analyze, Design, Verify)’ methods used to improve processes and develop new products respectively.

With his crisp and exhaustive oratory, the entire batch was enthused about the efficacy of Six Sigma. His presentation was complimented well by the batch which offered him a plethora of questions to quench the inquisition generated by his words.

By the end of the session, SIMSREE students seemed to be all the more geared up for SIX SIGMA.

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Guest Lecture by Mr. V. Sarangapani

SIMCON (SIMSREE Consulting Club) blazed its trail by helping students to get a better perspective of management consulting as a career option, its opportunities and expectations.
The guest for the lecture was Mr. V Sarangapani, Executive Director of Bombay Management Association (BMA) and an advisor for Micro Technologies (India). He has over 36 years of experience which includes 28 years in TCS. With an experience of over 18 years in management consulting, he is one of the best persons to inspire students. The lecture opened new dimensions for students aspiring to be consultants.
Mr. Sarangapani started the lecture by talking about his journey in consulting. He mentioned about his learnings from clients, situations and experiences and also emphasized on the need of continuous learning in the consulting field. The most important thing he learnt from his experience is:
“When any new technology comes in, you should absorb it without resistance and use it to reduce efforts”.
Talking about the history of consulting, he cited Chanakya as an ideal consultant.

According to Mr. Sarangapani, an organization needs a consultant to bring in outside expertise and have a third person’s view. He also mentioned five important skills required for success in consulting. They include analytical thinking, ability to conclude with pros and cons, timeliness, ability to learn and most importantly openness to your mistakes and learning through those. He took us through consulting process and steps. This helped us to understand do’s and don’ts of the consulting field. The most effective part of his lecture was the relevant and engaging examples for every situation and fact which he mentioned.
Mr. Sarangapani also told us about BMA and how it is working for emerging corporates. In the question-answer session, he briefed about various areas of consulting and difference between those. Lastly, he advised upcoming consultants:
“Experience life and situations. Use the opportunities and give your best of it. Change according to situation. Don’t get stuck to core competence only”.
It was indeed a great start for SIMCON team 2013-15 and we thank Mr. V Sarangapani for making it successful.

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Guest Lecture by Mr. Sandeep Zutshi

We were delighted to have Mr. Sandeep Zutshi, founder of Ascentaz Consulting Ltd. and alumnus of 1994 batch at the campus for a guest lecture.

He delivered an engrossing session on sales and marketing with special focus on the FMCG sector. He had the audience in splits over his anecdotes of life as an MBA fresh out of B-school. Mr. Zutshi touched upon various topics like B2B and B2C marketing, the difference between sales and consulting, typical challenges in the retail supply chain etc. The session was highly interactive, with students posing him questions covering the whole gamut of marketing, including brands and brand loyalty, prime time advertising, marketing for SMEs, entrepreneurship and consulting. He peppered his answers with real life examples from his personal experiences as well as from the industry. 

The students took in his insights accumulated over his rich work experience and benefited a great deal from the knowledge gained.

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SIX SIGMA - Green Belt Certification Drive

It gives us great pleasure to announce that SIMCON – SIMSREE Consulting Club has successfully hosted Green Belt Certification drive with the help of Benchmark Six Sigma. During this workshop spanning 4 days (23rd, 24th, 26th and 27th) 24 students witnessed some amazing teaching skills from none other than CEO and Lead Facilitator of Benchmark Six Sigma, Mr. Vishwadeep Khatri.

Mr. Vishwadeep conducted all four days of the Workshop at SIMSREE. It involved entire course of green belt certification. With the help of state of the art technological teaching & practices he ensured that students are given all the knowledge and expertise needed by Six Sigma practitioner. He built on the basics of statistics that the students were already aware of, to give them a holistic knowledge of how the theory learnt could be applied when faced with complex Managerial problems. He kept the sessions interesting by keeping the students on their toes with quizzes and impromptu competitions. All in all, he ensured that all four days of learning will be remembered as pleasant & knowledgeable experience to all students. 

Mr. Vishwadeep was also pleased with the Batch's performance and quoted that with 'greater attention spans, general punctuality and willingness to learn', SIMSREE students were easily among the Top 10% of all the Green Belt Batches.

Just after conducting guest lecture by the well-known consultant of leading consultancy firm Deloitte SIMCON has taken a big forward leap by completing SIX SIGMA certification drive successfully

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Guest Lecture By Mr. Gulzar Karim

SIMCON (SIMSREE Consulting Club) blazed its trail by helping students get a better perspective of consulting as a career options its opportunities and expectations. Mr Gulzar Karim, consultant at Deloitte Consulting LLP, USA also our Alumni from the batch 2008 proved to be a great harbinger. He threw light on the evolvement of consultancy as a career option. How the well known audit firms recognized the needs of companies requiring consultancy  mainly in the four main domains viz. Strategy, Operations, IT and HR and therefore leading firms to develop individual knowledge centres

Further the working of consultancy firms was elicited as a two dimensional “Grid Structure” depending on domain function and Industry. Consulting firm’s prime resource is Manpower and Time, so he stressed on Consultants having a perceived skill set such as Team dynamics, analytical skills to name a few. These skills are required in all the roles spanning from analyst to senior consultants, thus giving an overview of the hierarchy involved in a consulting firm. Therefore explaining career path and learning curve for a MBA graduate who looks forward for a future in consultancy firms.

Expectations always go in synchronisation with opportunities; Mr. Gulzar Karim’s showcased the perks and perils associated with working in a consulting firm. One important aspect that was discussed from the point of career option was that Consulting is not just limited to those pursuing Marketing, but many  fractions like Public Private Partnership which has gained impetus in recent times gives students having Finance as Majors a new opportunity.

A real touch was added by Mr Karim sharing his experience in this arena, leading to interesting concepts like shadow costing, feasibility study and Competitor analysis. While we reflected upon the amount of study that goes behind consulting, our discussion briefly touched upon the difference in  working of Consulting firms because of different economies, in USA and India. This is now what we call Out of Class learning without actually moving out!

The highlight being that it was an interactive brain storming session helped each one of us to have a candid picture about Consultancy as a career option. It was indeed a great start by SIMCON and we Thank Mr. Gulzar Karim for making it possible. Looking forward for many more insightful sessions in the future

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