Guest Lecture by Mr. Sandeep Mangle

On 30^th September 2012, the SIMSREE batch 2012-14 had the pleasure to have Mr. Sandeep Mangle, Manager - Supply Chain Excellence at BASF India Ltd and 2005 alumnus. He has an Industry exposure in fortune 500 MNC's in chemical sector with key focus on marketing strategy, business development & business operations.

            Mr. Sandeep started the session by a brief presentation on the things that one shouldn’t miss in an MBA course. During the presentation Mr. Sandeep conjured up the memories of his own college days which was a good-to-hear experience. He went ahead and explained the importance of four things viz. ‘Passion’, ‘Team work’, ‘Believing in Yourself’ & ‘Leadership’ in  corporate life.

 

            Mr. Sandeep shared a lot of practical knowledge & experience which was really valuable. He explained in detail all the profiles that are available for a marketing graduate viz.  Business/Marketing analyst, Product manager, Group product manager, Marketing manager etc.  He got down to the nitty-gritty details regarding all the profiles and clarified on what an MBA should expect from these profiles, a typical day at work and much more.

            Later he elaborated on “Supply Chain Management (SCM)”. He even showed the batch a small movie that helped in understanding what a supply chain manager has to deal with, by taking example of a packaged drinking water bottle plant. The movie even clarified the role of supply chain management in service industry with an example of hotels. He then gave an idea of the profiles that one might take up in a supply chain domain.

            Some other topics that he touched upon were Supply chain strategy and processes which includes Order management & customer services, SCM strategy & consulting, SCM integration and analytics etc. He then showed another video that depicted the efficient supply network planning of Procter & Gamble, which was really interesting. The lecture turned out to be very informative and beneficial to the batch in terms of the learning that it provided. We look forward to more such sessions on diverse domains on knowledge.

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Guest Lecture by Mr. Rajesh Nair and Ms. Deepali Naair

With the spurt of competition in the current market scenario every brand wants to offer something distinct from others, and as a result branding has become an integral part of any product/service. Thus specialized brand management and marketing is required for any brand to stand out in the clutter. The concepts like Sales, Brand Management and marketing, for us were different colors of the same spectrum called Marketing. These individual concepts were beautifully elicited by our esteemed Alumni of 1993 batch Mr. Rajesh Nair and Ms. Deepali Naair to the students of the 2012-14 batch on 30th September. Mr. Rajesh Nair is currently the General Manager (Corporate Human Resources) at Tata Motors, Heading Talent Acquisition, Employee Engagement and Employer Branding. He is associated with Tata Motors from past 19 years where he has served a diverse profile portfolio. Ms. Deepali Naair is currently the Country Head - Brand & Corporate Communications at L&T General Insurance Company Ltd, before which she has been associated with various companies and sectors. Her last assignment was with HSBC Global Asset Management India as VP & Head of Marketing. 

The theme of discussion was "An overview of Careers in Marketing", "Trends in Digital Media and Social Media Marketing from career perspective". Mr. Nair set the ball rolling by asking a penetrative question that "How many want a career in Marketing?", this incited an insightful discussion of Sales V/s Marketing. Both of them explained the need of starting one's career with a sales stint to understand the market and consumer behavior at the grass root level. Sales gives us a completely different flavor of customer needs, while marketing is the support function to improve sales of goods/products. Also, ways to make the transition from sales to marketing were discussed. Focus and dedication were the key points when it came to shift in career opportunities and growth of individual. It was succinctly put as "It's okay to be confused, but the problem is many don't realize that they are confused!"

Ms. Deepali Naair emphasized on Brand Management as a career opportunity and stressed the importance of managing oneself as brand. She explained the depth of social media in critically maintaining our profile and brand. Coming to this a discussion was evolved upon the expanse of digital media and how it is different as compared to the traditional media. Same principles of traditional marketing cannot be applied, as it is more viral and complicated.

Towards the end Mr. Rajesh Nair and Ms. Deepali Naair answered several queries put forward by students. By the end of the discussion all the students were awed by the simplicity and clarity of thought they had. All of us are eagerly looking forward for many more sessions like this one.

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E-Leader Workshop at SIMSREE

There was a sense of buzz and excitement at the campus on the 21st and 22nd of September, 2012 as SIMSREE (Sydenham Institute of Management Studies, Research and Entrepreneurship Education) played hosts to the NEN E-Leader workshop. The two day event was co-ordinated by the SIMSRE E-cell team consists of seniors and juniors. From NEN we had Mr. Uday Wankawala, Consultant- Mumbai region who conducted the workshop. It was attended by selected student leaders (E-cell core committee members) representing 16 campuses across Mumbai viz. Welingkar, Jai Hind, St. Xavier’s, MET, IBS campuses etc.

The first day started off with various team building activities in which E-leaders from different colleges were grouped together and asked to come up with a substantial event plan in a short time span. Mr. Uday then gave a roadmap to be followed by the E-cells during their growth from new to growing to finally matured E-cells and provided useful information on reporting of E-cell activities, managing e-cell website etc.... Some E-leaders then presented to the E-family their already up & running student / campuses ventures.
The launch of the first issue of the SIMSREE E-cell newsletter ‘The Ideator’ was an icing on the cake. Mr. Uday from NEN and our dear faculty Prof. Dr. R.K. Shrivastava and Prof. Rekha Shrivastava were present for the formal inauguration of the newsletter. The efforts of the Editorial team and the Designing team were applauded by all.

Day 2 saw the members again being teamed up for various intellectual activities that required out of the box and spur of the moment thinking. The introspection tool for leaders (through U Tool journaling sheet) was informative and there were interactive sessions regarding Inspired Leadership and setting up mentoring units on campus. The highlight of Day 2 was the guest lecture of young & dynamic entrepreneur who really kindled the inner spark of entrepreneurship in each one of the members present. We had Mr. Shrenik Gandhi, the co-founder of an event management firm called ‘Blues N Coppers’ who was an e-leader during his B-School times. He stressed upon the importance of managing e-cell events professionally (by sharing some basic knowledge on fundamentals of event management), building healthy client relationships, jugaad in doing business and social media. Then we were asked to form groups and come up with a specific plan for better branding of e-cell and managing different events like E-Summit, International conference etc.
We also had a session by senior e-leader from K J Somaiya Institute (SIMSR) pathfinder E-cell (Nitish Dorle) sharing his experiences about being an e-leader & specific roles / responsibilities. He emphasized on the role of faculty and necessary support provided by the faculty (Dr. Radha Iyer) to achieve desired results. The workshop concluded with importance of Regional collaboration of e-cells highlighting First Dot event wherein Chennai e-cells had set an example. It was decided that Mumbai Regional E-cell will formulate one impactful event FY 2012-13 wherein it will support student ventures with networking, mentoring & counselling services and the next regional meet is planned during 1st week of December 2012.
To sum up, the event was another step towards strengthening the bond between NEN and SIMSREE and making a mark for SIMSREE E-cell in the Entrepreneurship community. The apt infrastructure and prompt support of the institute was highly appreciated by NEN. E-cell @ SIMSREE promises to build on this great start and continue to put in best efforts to organise more such successful events.
Workshop Album: https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/109786474032976957496/albums

Mehul Sheth
SIMSREE E-cell
2012-14

 

             

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Guest Lecture on "Entrepreneurship" by Mr.Siddharth Shah

On 25^th September’12, all of a sudden the 6^th alphabet of ‘SIMSREE’ appeared to be much bigger than it ever was after the 2012-2014 batch had the pleasure and the privilege to have Mr.Siddharth Shah, 2012 alumnus of the prestigious IIM-Ahmedabad on campus.  Mr.Siddharth, a talented engineer and a very young entrepreneur, graduated from the aforesaid institute just 6 months ago and is one among the very few of his batch mates to opt out of the institute’s placement process to start up his own venture.

Mr Siddharth Shah

He started by questioning whether an MBA is really important to be successful and explained at the same time, why Entrepreneurship can work wonders for all and anyone of us. He emphasized a lot on breaking the barriers of a common way of thinking that a job is the right way. He went ahead and clarified that on joining a big company one would end up being a very small part of that organization whereas if one would think of initiating a business of his own he would be looking after every big & small things the way he wants and apply his knowledge too. He explained that there are 6 things that one requires to run a successful business viz., Confidence, Persistence, Patience, Leadership, Team Building and lastly Vision. He further said that a vision is nothing more than just a simple solution to any problem that people face each and every day, which is how he came up with the idea of ‘DialHealth’, his own venture which is at its preliminary stage at present. He explained that when one has a solution to a problem he has an idea too.

He emphasized a lot on “Courage”, which is the single biggest driving factor and the ”need to work for yourself”. After which he went on elaborating his own journey and gave some examples of a few other people that inspired almost each and every one of the batch.  As we went ahead he addressed the questions and apprehensions that many amongst the batch had pertaining to entrepreneurship and shared a lot of practical solutions which satisfied the batch to the fullest. He advised and motivated the batch to read the stories of other entrepreneurs and meet a lot of people around once someone has an idea of his own, which will help to clear out any doubts that one might have regarding his idea. He further emphasized that one must incubate the fire in the belly to do something and shouldn’t let it go.

Lastly he assured that working for something of your own is a lot more fun as you get to play a role of not just a MBA but also of a CA, a lawyer, a sales person, a HR person and a lot more and this experience is in no way similar or even close to what a job will provide. To end he gave a success mantra to the entire batch which says that when you give a solution added with convenience and value to your customer you are bound to achieve success. All in all it was an awesome experience and as he left the batch was craving to listen to more of Mr.Siddharth’s inspirational and motivating words. The batch would like to thank the entire E-cell committee to present this wonderful opportunity.

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Guest Lecture by Mr. Shrinidhi Nadgauda

In the current scenario of Open Market Economy, surviving and having a competitive advantage while keeping sustainability in mind is one of the most important challenges faced by most businesses. Hence, it was a great opportunity for us when Mr. Shrinidhi Nadgauda shared his insight on this crucial dimension of business with the students of SIMSREE on 25^th September 2012. Mr. Nadgauda is currently the Sr. General Manager at Welspun Global Brands Ltd. He has been associated with Welspun for more than 7 years now, having joined Welspun India Ltd. as a General Manager in 2005.

 The topic of discussion was ‘Making Supply meet Demand – Streamlining Manufacturing and operations with Market Demand’. Mr. Nadgauda opened the topic by discussing how the demand supply dynamics have changed over the decades from the 1960’s where the manufacturing industry dominated, with the demand always exceeding the supply; till today where we have fierce competition in most sectors. He stressed on the importance of a well placed SCM and logistics system as well as the seamless integration of manufacturing, operations and marketing in an organization to maintain a sustained growth rate. He pointed out that the various departments in an organization independently may have conflicting objectives and a lack of co–ordination between them may lead to incorrect forecasting of demand.

Mr. Nadgauda then went on to discuss how these strategic measures were incorporated in Welspun Global Brands Ltd. He discussed how with measures like sharing ‘Average weekly sales’, they have managed to have a transparent information sharing system across the organization synchronizing the sales and production. Coupled with a collaborative supply chain management, these strategies have helped Welspun optimize the ROI for the business as a whole.

Towards the end Mr. Nadgauda addressed the queries of the students, relating to his personal life experiences while answering them. The pearls of wisdom shared by him have definitely made us more equipped to tackle challenges that may come our way. We hope to have many such sessions in the future as well.

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Guest Lecture by Mr. Sanjay Chandel

The SIMSREE batch of 2012-2014 had the privilege of having on campus Mr. Sanjay Chandel on 24^th September, 2012 for a guest lecture. Mr. Sanjay Chandel is an alumnus of the batch of 1996 and is currently the CEO at India Bulls Mutual Funds. Previous to this, he has also worked at the Indian Commodities Exchange as the CEO for more than a year and as an AGM at Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for 11 years. The topics for discussion for the session were Role of SEBI and impact of SEBI policies on Mutual Fund Industry, MCEX - Threat/Complement to other Sensex.

 

Mr. Sanjay Chandel started the session by asking the students what their understanding of mutual funds was. He then went on to explain what exactly a mutual fund is and how it had evolved over the years. He threw light on the Government of India created - UTI in 1964. He talked about how the monopoly of UTI had mainly targeted the retailers. Then in 1988 SEBI was formed and the Ministry of Finance allowed the public sector banks to float mutual funds as well. Although SEBI was created in 1988, it received the statutory power in 1993.

He also spoke about various scams like the Ketan Parekh scam and Harshad Mehta scam.  He explained in detail SEBI’s investigation in the former scam and how Ketan Parekh was ostensibly banned from trading on the bourses till 2017. He talked about the sector cap on the debt mutual fund schemes introduced by SEBI to reduce huge exposure in specific sectors and how the mutual fund industry had adapted to it.

He then concluded the session by answering numerous queries raised by students such as the reasons as to why SEBI was formed, the satisfaction one gets to work in SEBI as it brings in new acts and laws for the welfare of the country, the IPO issues and how the merchant banks will be responsible for it and the Facebook IPO. This session was highly interactive and the students got a deep knowledge in areas of stock exchanges in India such as BSE, NSE, and MCX – SX, SEBI, and Mutual Fund industry. We look forward to have him back on campus for more of such insightful sessions.

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Guest lecture by Mr.Sanjeev Dixit

SIMSREE was privileged to have Mr. Sanjeev Dixit on campus on the 22^nd of September, 2012. Mr.Dixit is currently leading People Management and Development Strategy as Chief People Officer at ABD. Mr. Dixit has done his Post graduation in Management from Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies, Pune and was a Silver Medalist in the batch 1997. He has been felicitated with the “Pride of HR Profession” award by Indian Human Capital summit and World HRD Congress.

Mr.Dixit started the session with a discussion on the definition and practice of values in an organization. He encouraged an interactive session. He emphasized on the point that for the efficient working of any organization, the marriage of the person’s and the organization’s values must take place. The alignment of the employee’s beliefs to the company’s belief is essential.

Later on, he described his journey through various companies ranging from Hindalco Industries, Pepsico, Pt Indorama Synthetics and Philips and stated that adaptability to various environments is very essential for growth. Then he threw light on ABD Company’s mission, the values which they believe will enable to move towards it and the initiative taken by the HR department of his company to imbibe the values into each and every employee of the company and instill a sense of ownership into everyone’s minds. He also emphasized that rewards and appraisals are very important for the growth and motivation of an individual.

Then in the end, he opened the question answer session and very satisfactorily answered the questions posed by the students on value based management and HR strategies of his company. The session was very engaging and we look forward to more such sessions.

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