Orientation/Induction program of MFM and MMM Course

Yet another year for part time MBA began with the induction of the students of MFM and MMM courses. The program was addressed by the faculty of SIMSREE as well as Kishor Patil, alumni of the first part time batch in 2008. There was a panel discussion which was co-ordinated by Ashish Pawaskar and it included Dr. Manoj Bhide, Dr. RK Srivastava, Dr Sangeeta Pandit and Kishore Patil.
Here are some excerpts from the speech of Dr.Sangeeta Pandit, Finance HOD at SIMSREE :

There are about 6000 business schools in India, giving an MBA degree or diploma. A MBA on your CV is no longer a differentiating factor that will necessarily give a boost to your career. In spite of this, our SIMSREE MMS & PG students are sought after by Industry, due to the branding of Sydenham Management Institute and the quality of students. For these reasons, our campus is the preferred destination of reputed MNCs and Indian companies.
My pragmatic advice to you is to piggy ride on the reputation of our full time courses and in the process build your own branding. Well, how do you to do it? 
Our Finance Forum has a quarterly magazine-Arthneeti and the Marketing and Media Committee has a monthly magazine-Magma. You could start by contributing articles or commenting on the articles. It will give you visibility. Arthneeti has a national level essay competition that sees participation from all over India and even overseas, you could participate in it that, to increase your networking to exponential levels.The Finance Forum also has a fortnightly magazine called Market Round Up which gives holistic views on core industries, you should ideally post your comments and analyses there, it’s a great way to get noticed by people from Industry. Fin-o-buzz is a weekly compilation explaining financial jargons, just glancing through it will help your drafting and speaking skills.
We have a SMR Journal, the Sydenham Management Review, with an ISSN no, if your article is published there, you could always mentionit in bold on your CV, signifying you have a publication to your credit in a reputed Journal.
We have an annual Asia Pacific Conference with various tracks: Finance, Marketing and General Management, you could present papers there, if they are up to the mark, they would be published inthe Conference proceedings that have an ISBN number and a chosen few get published in a special edition of the SMR journal. Even attending the conference as a delegate can give you a wealth of information! People from across India and even outside, participate in big numbers; you would be definitely richer by the exposure.
Another option is initiatingResearch Projects within the company you are working in with help from the SIMSREE faculty. For instance, if your company wants financing, a project report could be written as to the avenues of finance that they could tap into, given the fundamentals of their Balance Sheet. Or if they want to launch a product, primary data could be collected of probable customer response.
Our full time course have Centres of Excellence, you could participate in the events organized by them or better still, form your own with their help. 
We the faculty and staff at SIMSREE are mere catalysts, providing you a platform to obtain a meaningful MBA degree, it is totally up to you to take the benefit. You are all matured adults with great credentials, you will be treated like managers with dignity, and we will not micromanage your attendance, performance or involvement in the course.
A few of our students have benefitted and added to the branding of the course. Let me give you examples of our MFM and MMM courses’ illustrious alumni, you could just Google their names: Chadrakant Thorat, Jatin Shah, Hemant Patil, Dyneshwar Bajage, Manohar Hire, Benjamin Samson and some others and I am sure I have missed out a few. These students  held leadership positions in the course, they were instrumental in arranging workshops and guest lectures, their attendance was almost 100%, it is these students whose career has made a significant difference due to their added qualification of MFM or MMM. 
This college and campus after 3 years will be your alma mater, you have to take that benefit and in the process give back to it. You gain, improve your career positioning and that increases the course branding which again improves all our ratings.
Through technology and platforms such as Face book & Google groups, you may not feel the need to come to campus. If you have issue of commuting and evening timings, you could have taken an online course. If you think you have been smart to get into a college, that has good branding, let me tell you with my experience of more than 3 decades that a mere degree from even the most highly rated B school is just a piece of paper unless it is backed by information, knowledge, prudence, wisdom and sound networking. This knowledge base you build up by attending sessions, participating in events and networking.  This networking, which is imperative today, can happen only after face to face interaction with your seniors, faculty and staff. One particular CR, Mahadev, if I recall correctly, urged me to hold a workshop called IMPACT, where the best of speakers from Industry discussed the implications of IFRS, GST and Investment Planning of retail investors. Believe me, I received calls and emails from most of the participants after 3 to 4 months praising the experience and how it enriched them. 
Our honourable Director has an open door policy, you can meet him with your suggestions and at grievances anytime, our library staff is very friendly, helpful and also knowledgeable. Professor Puneet with just one phone call will help solve your issues with thetime table or faculties. He is one of out our alumni and can guide you well. Ravi Sir and Farooque Sir have always been a great support to students. Professor Pawaskar, part of our illustrious alumni, is ever willing to listen and offer invaluable advice. Professor Srivastava who heads our PhD department can give you tips how to write papers and do Research. I am part of the Finance department and you can approach me anytime for any finance related queries. We have core faculties and visiting faculties who are all experienced and compassionate towards those who want to learn.You can take advice from our full time course chairpersons-Prathik and Rohit  and your seniors like Brijesh, Viral, Pooja and other sincere students.
We make no difference between our MMS course, PG course andour part time course. It is the same faculty, same staff, and same infrastructure. It is in your hands to make your course as sought after as the full time course.
 I welcome you to this August Institute and pray you have the wisdom to take benefit of so much it has to offer. 
Thank You.

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Aakaar felicitation ceremony by Guest of Honour Ms. Mini Menon

On 31^st March 2016, Sydenham Institute of Management Studies, Research and Entrepreneurship Education (SIMSREE) hosted the felicitation ceremony for students who participated in Aakaar. 

Aakaar was a NGO Mentoring session organized by the CII IWN in association with SIMSREE. 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 worked with the NGOs over the period of 1 month to ensure proper implementation of the plan suggested during the event.

The Guest of Honor for the event was Ms. Mini Menon, Chairperson, CII WR Indian Women Network and Executive Editor, Bloomberg TV India. Ma’am felicitated the students for their work with the Self-Help Groups (SHGs). Ma’am also interacted with the students and gave them insights about how important it is to support people around us and be responsible. 

We would like to thank CII IWN for their continued guidance. 

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‘Identify, Eliminate and Progress’ by Mr. Saifuddin Kapasi

 On the eve of 13th February, Mr. Kapasi, an alumnus of the 1985 batch, visited his alma mater to interact with the students of the current batch. Sir is currently the Head of Credit & Collections at Vodafone India Ltd. Sir has also worked at Mafatlal Finance Co. Ltd, and Standard Chartered Finance Ltd as the Regional Manager.

Sir explained the importance of change with a short story of a football player and a child. He emphasized on the line, ‘If you keep doing what you have been doing, then you will keep getting the results that you have been getting’. Sir imprinted the concept of change and its value on the minds of the students. Extrapolating this concept, Sir then connected the students to the importance of Transformation. Sir stated that “Without transformation, you will perish”. He then gave an example of Mr. Masai who introduced the word GEMBA, meaning, ‘Continuous improvement driven at the right place.’ By narrating the story of Mr. Masai at the Taj workshop, Sir made us realize that it is MUDA, which means Waste, that we need to Identify, then Eliminate, and finally Progress. Sir explained that MUDA is any activity that does not add value and that reducing or eliminating MUDA is one of the fundamental activities of any quality management process.

With a small activity engaging all the students, Sir helped the students to identify MUDA and thus find solutions to the same. Sir also enlightened the students with two more concepts: MURA which means Imbalance and MURI which means Overload. Sir then took the students through the different types of MUDA which involved waste of Time, Work, Human Resources, Transportation, Inventory, Motion, Legacy, and Quality. Lastly, Sir stressed on the importance of being Process Oriented to be in a winning situation. 

The students found the session to be very informative and interactive, as Sir taught the students what the textbooks don’t teach. The Alumni Committee would like thank Mr.Saifuddin Kapasi, for taking time off his busy schedule and sharing his valuable insights with the batch.

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CAYE-Asia and YI chapter meet at CII Western Region Head Office

Students of SIMSREE got an opportunity to attend the YI Mumbai Chapter meet which was attended by some Great Personalities like Past President of Commonwealth Alliance of Young Entrepreneurs (CAYE), Ms. Fatin Arifin and the Founder of CAAYE-Asia Dr. Rahul Mirchandani.

The Event, held at the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) Western Region HO, started off with welcoming Attendees from some of the most reputed MBA colleges of Mumbai. Dr. Rahul gave a brief overview of the session and walked students through the great achievements of CAYE and YI over the past 3 years.

Ms. Fatin then talked about the tremendous impact that CAYE has had on various issues around the world.

A few of the members from the YI Net shared their experiences of attending the CAYE summits in Kuala Lumpur and Malaysia. Their reactions clearly underlined the presence of CAYE in the world and the potential for change it bestowed on the members associated with it. It could be seen as a microphone amplifying the voice of the YI members. The session continued with a brief interaction with Mr. Waqar Masud, the representative of the CAYE from Pakistan and he shared some of the details of the next big bang event of CAYE to be held in Islamabad in the month of September this year.

"Geography is History" claimed Mr. Rahul excitedly as he focused on how CAYE has helped people break national barriers and helped Young Entrepreneurs around the world to connect with each other with the help of the vast network that CAYE has been able to build and nurture that is continuously growing.

The session was concluded by Mr. Sujit Patil, who heads the Corporate Communications at Godrej Industries and is the Chapter Chair of YI Mumbai, by introducing attendees to the world of opportunities the CAYE can present to the future Entrepreneurs.

 Thanks to Mrs. Sangeeta Pandit Ma'am, the Chairpersons and the General Secretaries for this opportunity which proved to be useful to the students and representatives from the Student Social Responsibility Committee, The Placement Committee and the Entrepreneurship Cell of SIMSREE.

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Guest Lecture with Mr. Rohit Verma

On the evening of 27^th January 2016, Mr. Rohit Verma, an alumnus of the 1997 batch, visited his alma mater to interact with the students of the current batch. Mr. Verma, currently the General Manager, IBM Resiliency Services at IBM India Pvt. Ltd., talked to the batch about Risk Management and Business Continuity Management in the corporate world, which is his field of expertise.

Sir began the session by talking about the changes in the college, and his journey as a student. He began the session by asking the students what they understood about Risk Management. Students volunteered, talking about its applications and how it affects our day-to-day life. Sir explained about Risk Management by giving a reference to Murphy’s laws. He explained that Risk Management covers all domains of a Corporate body be it Business function, Operations, IT or other support functions.

 Sir also gave plenty of examples from the corporate world bringing out how Risk Management played a key role in some organizations. He explained how Risk Management Framework has evolved over last many years, drawn from Legislations, Court decisions, Best practices and International Standards. He discussed the relationship between Risk and Strategy, Risk and Uncertainty and Time and Impact. He encouraged the students to speak what they understood by these relationships.

He explained how the varied Business risks we face today can be classified into different buckets, depending on their frequency and potential impact. He discussed how different Corporate Risks are treated and managed on day to day basis.

Sir supported the Risk Management practice with plenty of Corporate examples (e.g. how Johnson and Johnson managed customers’ complaints in one of its products and won back their trust and confidence). He emphasized on how Risk Management plays a critical role in such cases.

Sir also gave an overview of Business Continuity Management, one of the fields in Risk Management, which is gaining high visibility at the Board of Directors level today. He cleared few doubts asked by the students. He also encouraged the students to consider Business Continuity Management as a key career opportunity.

The students also found the session to be very informative and interactive, as Risk Management is a relatively new subject for the batch. The Alumni Committee would like to thank Mr. Verma, for taking time off his busy schedule and sharing his valuable insights with the batch.

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High Tea with Hon. External Affairs Minister of India, Smt Sushma Swaraj

On 30th January, students of SIMSREE were honored to have attended a conference with Hon. External Affairs Minister of India Smt. Sushma Swaraj. The event was held in Kalidas Natyamandir, Mulund (w).

Students were gathered to place their grievances or their suggestions on any issue that needed to be addressed. The minister took her time and patiently answered various questions of all the young Indians gathered for the event. Students of SIMSREE also placed few suggestions as well questions forward and were pleased by the response they received from the Minister. 

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MAGMA presents an interview with Mr. Ravindra Datar

The Media and Marketing Committee of Sydenham Institute of Management Studies present to you the monthly edition of 'MAGMA'.  MAGMA is a monthly newsletter containing interviews of top corporate executives, directors, presidents, vice-presidents, general managers and other top senior and middle management corporates. We hope to keep you entertained and enlightened with our efforts. An Interview with Mr. Ravindra Datar Mr. Ravindra Datar is an alumnus of 1996 batch. He is an expert in Strategic Marketing with more than 19 years of experience in global industry research, advisory, marketing & communications. He is currently the Vice President and Global Marketing Head at Blueocean Market Intelligence, Vice President and Global Marketing Head at Cross-Tab Marketing Services Pvt. Ltd and Member of the Senior Leadership team at BRANDcapita. The Alumni Committee welcomed Mr. Ravindra Datar, an alumnus of the 1996 batch, for a guest lecture to address the junior batch and also interacting with the students. Here are some excerpts from the interview: Q. With almost all major brands adopting digital marketing how does one brand have an edge over others in the digital arena? The edge comes from the ability to analyze the information, capture this information fast enough, filter this information quickly and organize it meaningfully. Making this information available to the right decision makers, at the right time, in the right format creates the edge. If you look at all of this, the differentiation is in speed and time. Companies which are able to do this faster than others will win. Also in the digital world,attention is a prime asset. Whoever is able to grab and retain the attention of the prospective buyer often gets the deal.  Q. Recently Snapdeal faced public ire for its endorser’s comments. What should be the strategy of a brand or organization to expunge the tarnished image? Companies have to be both proactive and reactive. Proactive in terms of knowing what channels to be kept a watch on, like social media, just in case. Social media channels can do good or can do tremendous harm too, and at a very fast pace. Reactively, look at what is it that the people are reacting to and if they can they dissociate the brand ambassador’s personal thoughts from their own. Q. Even with the rapid expansion of internet, it still has not penetrated in the rural areas. What measures could be taken to make internet a basic amenity? For a broader reach, we have to break out of the “Computer” mindset and get into the Mobile mindset, especially in the B2C scenario. Mobile applications like WhatsApp or Facebook can be used to create far reaching communication. Q. Big Data has died down, as a hype, in the last year. What according to you is the next big hype? Mobile commerce is the next big thing. Look at TAB BANKING for instance. Banks, insurance companies, automobile companies, CPG (Consumer Packaged Goods) and Retail sectors are moving to tablets and mobile apps. Laptops and computers are only being used in offices where larger processing power is required. But otherwise, tablets and mobile phones are going to be the next big medium for all business exchanges even for the B2C side. The Internet Of Things, Business applications of Social Media are in the hype phase. So those you may need to watch out for, when you look for jobs.

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Talk by Dr. Sangeeta Pandit at the CII event in association with SIMSREE -‘Start Up India, Stand Up India' Live Streaming

Talk by Dr. Sangeeta Pandit, Prof. & HOD Finance, at the Confederation of Indian Industry ( CII ) event in association with SIMSREE -‘Start Up India, Stand Up India – Enablers and way ahead’ on Saturday, 16 January 2016.

Dr. Sangeeta Pandit

Prof. & HOD Finance

Good Evening everyone! Warm welcome to esteemed panelists, CII representatives, honorable Director Sir, faculty colleagues, representatives of other colleges and my dear students. We are all gathered here today to deliberate, discuss and hear from entrepreneurs themselves about entrepreneurship. We are then going to hear our Prime Minister’s address launching the Start Up campaign.

India is one of the leading Start Up Hubs of the World with over 3100 mostly tech start ups in 2014-15. However our investments are not adequate and also most of it is from overseas. Our government has decided to help accelerate Start ups. Governments of Brazil and Korea invest heavily in Start ups. Our Start ups cannot ape the Silicon valley, we need to leverage our humongous population and build an ecosystem conducive to our environment and culture. We have the benefit of large number of young population, high mobile penetration, large number of internet users and untapped e commerce markets. We hear about successful start ups becoming global entities but many also have an early untimely death. We have to tread firmly but with caution. Proper mentoring and vigorous risk analysis is needed. Government can boost financial resource availability, technology and mentors can be identified but the main stakeholder of entrepreneurs have to be created, they are a creed by themselves, creative, hardworking, risk takers who walk new paths. Our education system needs to factor in subjects that will kindle and foster entrepreneurial skills.

Magazine-Business Today reported in their December issue about 10 Start ups in India which have grown big. Amongst them were Start ups in E-Learning, helping recruiters in filtering applications for IT jobs, E marketing, digital video content making and so on.

One must understand ones skill sets and core competencies, match it with market opportunities and in this frame work zero down on an idea. Rest is all about leadership skills, implementation and prudence.

If all want to be employees, employers are bound to fall short. The country needs entrepreneurs and today I think we are making history by taking a small step towards it.

Thank You.        

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Live Streaming of 'Start Up India, Stand Up India' Campaign

The aura of our auditorium felt energized today by the live video streaming of the remarkable 'Start-Up India, Stand-Up India' campaign by our honorable Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi and our honorable Finance Minister, Mr. Arun Jaitley straight from Delhi.

Being one of the 26 institutes across the country to host such live streaming in association with CII, SIMSREE feels highly privileged to have been a part of this event.

Here are some moments and key takeaways of the‪#‎startupindiastandupindia‬ campaign. ‪#‎cii‬ ‪#‎simsree‬

We hope this new initiative by the Government will help foster the start-up ecosystem in India to new heights.

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Introductory Talk in IFRS FDP by Dr. Sangeeta Pandit

A Faculty Development Program on IFRS was held by ACCA and Mumbai University in association with SIMSREE. Here is the introductory talk by SIMSREE's HOD of Finance, Dr. Sangeeta Pandit :

" Good Morning everybody!

With the notification of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) in February 2015, International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) have now truly arrived in India. They are applicable and of great importance in preparing financial statements, auditing them and interpreting them. Their application will have far reaching impact and its ripples will be felt in Merger and Acquisition (M & A) Activities, joint ventures, private equity, raising of finance, tax planning, ESOPs and other strategic areas.

India, today, is an intrinsic part of the Global world and our regulators have prudently adopted 39 accounting standards formulated by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) called IND As which are substantially in sync with the global standards of today called IFRS. Applicability of IND As to companies depend on their Net Worth and whether listed or not. By 1st April, 2017 a large number of the Indian companies will have to mandatorily adopt IND AS. The biggest problem for our Accounting Bodies is that we are formulating standards based on IFRS which are evolving. We are trying to model our standards based on standards that are very fluid.

The move to IFRS will enhance transparency, enable international comparability and make our markets more attractive.However, there are concerns - the level of complexity is certainly one of them. The stress on fair valuation ushers in subjectivity that may make accounts not comparable defeating the purpose of having standards. IFRS are constantly getting amended, such frequent changes, disrupts the very measures of calculation. Companies that do not use public money do they really need such complex standards is a moot question.

IND AS brings about a paradigm shift in many ways. New concepts will have to be learnt like Revenue Recognition model, Financial Instruments definition, manner of preparing Consolidated Financial Statements and many others.

IFRS has put a higher responsibility on Accountants. They are now required to know market economies, be able to read transactions as per their substance and strategic impacts and above all have an unbiased and ethical approach while doing fair valuation.

Considering the importance and complexity of IFRS, we felt it fit to have a workshop on this topic.
I am very grateful, to Dr. Anil Patil for sparing his valuable time and being our chief guest. I thank ACCA for collaborating to make this event happen. A big thank you to our esteemed speakers, Dr. Richard Martin of Association of Chartered Certified Accountants who will speak about the global scenario of IFRS and Mr. Date, Corporate trainer and consultant, who will speak about the relevance of IFRS in India.

Hope at the end of the day, you all feel that it was worth the time you invested. My best wishes for a day of great learning and net working. Merry Christmas and good luck and joy in the fast approaching 2016.

Thank You."

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Guest Lecture by Mr. Manish Bansal

Unlike a quintessential lecture the session started with a content-full and insight-full video that spoke about the importance of investment and then the entire session revolved around the major learnings from the clip. Sir made those indirect learnings extremely lucid and fathomable with sharing his personal experiences and lessons, compiling which one can form an SIP “systematic investment program”

Lesson 1

Greed and Fear, these are the two major components of the market. “when people are greedy be fearful and when people fearful be greedy”. In short these two words indicate the temperament of the market, so when the market is greedy, flourishing, surrounded by good news, it’s the time to pull out your investments, as the line says it’s when you should be more fearful. But when the market is fearful, down, seeing a low that’s when you make investments and be greedy.

Lesson 2

“Rationale behind your investment”. Ask yourself why you want to put your hard earned money into something, have a strong reason backing your move. Do a thorough research before going for a particular company stocks. An astute investor knows where to put his money.

Lesson 3

“Start early” investments follow Fibonacci series. Hence law of compilation is what it grows on. The sooner you start the larger you amount will be at the end of the day.

Lesson 4

“Spend after saving than save after spending”. Saving should be the first priority and not spending when you receive your salary. Spend what you save after saving.

Lesson 5

“Don’t let sauce settle, keep stirring”. What it means is one shouldn’t let the money settle in a bank account because even a small amount of money counts. Keeping it in the bank may fold it twice over a decade but a good investment can fold it multiple times.

Lesson 6

“Don’t buy things you don’t need”. Do this and you may need to sell the things you need one day.

Lesson 7

“Compounding is the eighth wonder of the world”. As long as you don’t do anything stupid with your money, you would end up becoming rich provided you are discipline and patience.

And last but not the least “be a learning machine” add value to yourself every day because the biggest you have is you own reputation. 

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Batch Reunion 2010

The Batch of 2010 visited the Sydenham campus on 12^th of December to relive the memories and old days at a Reunion organized by the Alumni Committee on the occasion of completing five glorious years of graduation. The evening was graced by a lot of festivities, laughter and fun as the alumni plunged into the recollection of a plethora of memories that they shared with each other and the current students.

The evening began with the alumni sharing their experiences and how the institute had helped them develop in the two years that they had spent here. The nostalgia that the Alumni have towards the institute was clearly visible when they spoke of the institute and how they felt after coming back. As stated by most of the Alumni, it was like yesterday when they roamed the corridors on the Institute.

The evening progressed with the Alumni taking a stroll in the campus and remembering the moments that they spent there. The alumni also engaged with the students through interviews and conversations about the time they spent at SIMSREE. This was followed by the alumni being treated to a delicious cake. The Alumni indulged in a session of karaoke singing and expressed themselves vibrantly. They enjoyed the company of seeing their friends after a duration of five years as they regaled each other about how their lives have changed over the years.

Mr. Prathamesh Kini, an alumnus of the 2010 batch, concluded the event by congratulating the Alumni Committee for hosting such an enjoyable evening while saying that they would eagerly wait to come back to the institute for a ten year reunion. The Alumni then parted ways hoping to see each other soon.

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Dewang Meheta National Education Awards

Heartiest Congratulations to our students Deepesh Jethwani for securing 7th rank and Naila Kazi for securing 8th rank (2nd Runners-up in Female category) in the 'Best Student in Management Contest' at the prestigious 23rd Dewang Mehta National Education Awards, 2015 held in association with Hindustan Unilever Limited.

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Alumni Recognition - Mr Ravindra Datar

Heartiest Congratulations to Mr. Ravindra Datar, an alumnus of the 1996 batch, for being recognized among the Most Influential Marketing Leaders by World Marketing Congress in Mumbai on 28th November, 2015.

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Cross Cultural Program at Sydenham Institute

SIMSREE was proud to host Dr Hansang Lee and his students from Youngsan University, India Business Department from Korea, Busan. Lee and his team were on a visit to our institute as a part of cross cultural program. They had come to gain knowledge regarding the Indian work culture and career prospects in India. Dr. R.K.Srivastava Co-ordinated with them as our internal faculty. The team also got to interact with the students and other faculty members of our institute. We were pleased to engage them in our culture by introducing them to the " Dandiya Night" held in our campus.

                                  

They were pleased to have interacted with the students of our institute and looked forward to visit SIMSREE again.

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Mindz’15 : Analyze, Strategize, Ideate

Sydenham Institute of Management Studies, Research and Entrepreneurship Education successfully organized Mindz’15, a first of its kind strategy competition in association with JLT India Limited. This was the second year into the association and the competition was held in October-November 2015 and was co-ordinated by the Corporate Relations Committee. The first and second rounds were held from 1^st October,2015 to 9^th October,2015. The finale was held at the JLTI office on 5th November, 2015.

Mindz’15 was an inter college event, that tested the statistical, strategic and analytical skills of the participants. This provided an opportunity to the students to prove their mettle against the best and most innovative B-Schools. The unique format of the competition enabled students to experience an ideal corporate interface like never before. Also, it was a first hand learning experience as they teamed up with people already working in the industry.

The competition consisted of 3 rounds:-

Round 1 - Online quiz: An online quiz consisting of 30 questions to be answered in 30 minutes. The top 3 teams from each college proceeded to the next round.

Round 2 - “Peril-O-Scope”: An online simulation strategy game to be played by the qualified teams. The top 6 teams will qualified to the next round.

Round 3 - Case Study: A Case Study presentation to the top management of JLT India Limited. In this round each team collaborated with one team from JLT itself. Each team was assigned a mentor from the Senior Managers, Heads or Directors of JLTI for the case study.

Participation:

Mindz’15 saw a total participation of over 800 individuals. Entry into the event was by invitation only. A total of 8 prestigious b-schools had been invited to this competition. 

·         Sydenham Institute of Management Studies, Research and Entrepreneurship Education (SIMSREE)

·         Indian School of Business, Hyderabad (ISB)

·         Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS)

·         National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE)

·         K. J. Somaiya Institute of Management Studies and Research (SIMSR)

·         Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Pune (SIBM)

·         Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay (SJMSOM)

·         Symbiosis Centre for Management and Human Resource Development (SCMHRD)

This competition in itself was unique in the following terms:

·         The online simulation game was played concurrently by the participants and JLTI employees

·         Teams from b-schools which qualified from round 2 were merged with those qualifying from JLTI for round 3 i.e. the case study presentation

·         These teams were assigned a mentor each, who guided them through the case study round

·         The teams had to present the case study to senior JLTI management and their global counterparts for the final round

Prizes:

·         Rs. 75,000/- for the winning team

·         Rs. 40,000/- for the runner up

·         Rs. 10,000/- for the Most Impressive Student

The Finale:

The Final round of Mindz’15- the case study presentation was held on 5^h November, 2015, at JLTI, Mumbai. The top 6 teams qualifying from the second round (Periloscope), both from B-schools and JLTI were given primary topics to present on. Their presentation and ideas were judged by a panel comprising the JLTI management and their esteemed global counterparts. Mr Puneet Stayawadi, CEO JLT India was one of the members on the panel. Every presentation was followed by a comprehensive Q&A round. The contestants were judged on the quality of insights and research on the topic chosen, team work, presentation quality and responses to the questions asked by the panel.

Team 'SimQuest' from SIMSREE won the JLTI Mindz'15 competition after a splendid performance.  
Team 'The Winning Brew' from SIMSR won the runners-up award.

Sanandan Deshpande from the winning team also won the 'Most Impressive Student' award.

 The members of the winning team from SIMSREE were praised for their leadership qualities and the poise shown by them throughout the presentation and the subsequent Q&A round.

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The Corporate Connect - Mr. Sachin Shilavat

Corporate Relations Committee, SIMSREE organized a Corporate Connect session on 31^st October with Mr. Sachin Shilavat. Mr Shilavat is currently Head-Motor and Automotive alliances at Reliance General Insurance Company Ltd with a vast experience of more than 15 years in General Insurance(Retail & Bancassurance), FMCG- Retail/ Institutional sales, Insurance- Retail, Alternate Channels, Direct channels, Channel management, Automotive Alliances.

Mr Shilavat spoke on the evolution of the insurance industry from the time when customers had to wait in long queues for an insurance to the current where getting an insurance takes only a few minutes. The insurance industry, like any other, has grown massively with the entrance of many private players into the picture as oppose to the presence of only government institutions initially. He emphasized that only product innovation and technology can prove to be a differentiating factor when there are so many companies targeting the same customer base and with an increased level of awareness about the different products among the customers. Although the government is trying to encourage people to get automotive insurance, a lot more needs to be implemented in terms of execution of regulations  in order for people in general to understand the importance and necessity of having an insurance. Till then the companies will find it difficult to reach to a wider base of customers especially in reaching the two wheeler vehicle insurance customers in rural areas. Any other effort by any company in increasing the awareness about insurance product would be seen as a strategic move to enhance product sales. He also spoke about his professional journey in the varied industries and his learning from them. He concluded by stating that a marketing personnel needs to show ownership of the business he/she is selling and take complete responsibility for the job.

The session provided students valuable insights in the insurance marketing sector. We would like to thank sir for his valuable time and knowledge sharing with our students.

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Coffee with Alumni Mr. Manish Daswani

On 26^th October, 2015, we were privileged to have an interaction with Manish Daswani, an alumnus of the 2003 batch, for an engaging session over a cup of coffee. The venue for the session was the swanky Bank of America office at Nariman Point in Mumbai. Manish, a payments & cash management professional is currently working as Director, Commercial Cards in the Asia Pacific cards team at Bank of America.

‘Work hard, stay humble and be honest; not just to your work but also to yourself’, was the advice that Manish gave the students before the students asked him about the topics of their interest. Manish explained about his transition from a Marketing graduate at SIMSREE to working as a Banking professional. He emphasized on the fact that every job role does not require one to be an expert in theoretical knowledge. It is equally, if not more important to demonstrate the ability to take ownership and lead by example. He asked the students to focus on developing these softer skills during their tenure at SIMSREE.

Manish then explained the various career options in banking and spoke in detail about corporate banking roles in particular. A healthy discussion followed about thecash management business and the opportunities and threats in the same. Students’ doubts on Mobile Wallets, disruption of banking through fintech, growth of SMEs in India, and the focus of Banks in these areas were cleared by him. Manish also helped the students understand the methods of revenue generation of banks, difference between cash management and treasury, difference between and the importance of Mobile Wallets and Payment Banks and how the introduction of these may affect the Retail Banking sector in the longer term. This was then followed by Manish’s views on digital money, fintech, bitcoin, and contactless cards.

Towards the end, Manish discussed various career options available in the banking sector for students specializing in marketing. He encouraged the students to introspect and to think about their areas of interest and expertise, and to try and establish their careers in an area that they are passionate about. ‘You will probably spend one third of your adult life working– might as well make sure it’s fun’, he concluded.

The Alumni Committee thanks Mr. Manish Daswani for the enriching session and hopes to continue this association. 

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