Coffee With Alumni - Inaugural Session with Mr. Ashish Bhasin

The Alumni Committee has taken a step forward to increase alumni-student interaction by creating a complete new avenue 'Coffee with Alumni'. It is a session of alumni-student interaction over a cup of coffee. Students can meet very senior alumni and get inspired by their views and thoughts. Students can ask queries, get their views validated and spend quality time in a meaningful conversation.

It was a golden opportunity for 8 students of SIMSREE batch of 2012-14, to interact with Mr. Ashish Bhasin, alumnus of 1988 batch and Chairman India & CEO South East Asia at Aegis Group plc., during the inaugural session of ‘Coffee with Alumni’ - an initiative by the alumni committee. The discussion revolved around the past, present and future scope in media, advertising and marketing fields.

The conversation began with a brief introduction on media sector in India and how it differed from the other Asian economies. Mr. Bhasin said that the basic emotions remain same across these countries but marketers need to know the basic nuances which are different. Also, he shared his experiences - through various ups and downs during economic slowdowns during the past 2 decades. According to him, the three most important things to survive and progress in the media sector are having resilience, having the ability to withstand stress and being well read. He told that one of the problems faced by the sector today is to find quality people.

Mr. Bhasin explained how emotions play a role in advertising through examples of Johnson & Johnson baby powder and luxury cars. He told that, today, digital marketing has become a fast-growing & powerful tool for marketers to communicate and reach customers. He also said that people management is one of the key factors in determining one’s success because apart from managing people it involves managing situations too.

It was indeed a very insightful session and students had valuable takeaways from it. We are definitely looking forward to have many more such conversations in future.