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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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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The Corporate Connect - Mr Mohandas Menon

On 19^th of August, 2015, the Corporate Relations Committee of SIMSREE organized a corporate connect session wherein ten students got a chance to interact with Mr.​Mohandas Menon, Director & Commercial Head - CLC & Head Automotive Sector, Hellmann Worldwide Logistics India Pvt. Ltd at Sydenham Institute of Management Studies, Research & Entrepreneurship Education (SIMSREE) campus. Mr. Mohandas Menon is an expert in Supply Chain Management with over 28 years of experience working for companies like Exel, NYK Logistics, and Future Supply Chain Solutions and has held various domestic and international positions.

Sir spoke about his journey and shared some of his experiences over the years.The session started with discussion on JIT sequencing techniques in the automotive industry and its impact on supply chain and delivery. Mr Menon stated that the current market is not a supply chain but rather is a demand chain. He stressed on the fact that a good operations manager should have inventory management on his/her fingertips.

Mr. Menon answered questions on the impact of the proposed GST bill on operations delivery. He spoke about how GST will make VAT, service tax, octroi etc. disappear and thereby affect multiple processes from procurement to delivery. Sir stated that due to GST implementation the cost to market focus of supply chain will switch to time to market focus to increase efficiency.

The interactive session helped students in gaining an insight into the world of supply chain management and delivery. Mr. Menon also discussed the differences in supply chain between Indian and foreign markets with specific examples related to delivery. He stated that India still lags behind in terms of proper infrastructure required for efficient operations but was optimistic about future growth. He also discussed the effects of globalisation on operations management.

It was a very fruitful session for the students who got an opportunity to interact with him. We thank sir for his time and invaluable inputs.

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Guest Lecture by Ms. Padmini Misra

The Corporate Relations Committee, SIMSREE was honoured to have Ms. Padmini Misra as a guest lecturer on the campus on 9^th Oct, 2015. Ma’am is Chief People Officer & Global Head-HR, Cox & Kings (India) Ltd and has over 32 years of work experience in Hospitality, ITES, Retail & Travel industry including leadership positions for global corporations in the Service industry.

The session began with Ms. Padmini Misra sharing her valuable thoughts about the corporate industry and the expectations it has from new joiners. Ma’am gave a holistic view about the corporate world. She stated that the corporate world is strong, powerful and always hungry like a shark. Ma’am also gave an insight into the expectations harboured by the corporate world especially for new joiners.

She said that the corporate industry wants new comers who are solution oriented and have the ability to work well in teams. In addition to these she also stated that new comers will need people management skills and respect for the team members. Ms. Padmini Misra advised the students to trust their own abilities and to be their real self when faced with corporate challenges.

Ma’am also shared valuable insights related to travelling industry with the students. She stated that travelling industry is 80% “Desire” and 20% “Business”. It is a highly volatile industry with lots of ups and downs. A single media statement about a particular country can hamper the travel industry significantly. She gave various examples pertaining to India as a travel destination and how concerns regarding women-safety is hampering the travel industry.

The session provided students with valuable insights of the corporate world and travel industry in India. We would like to thank Ms. Padmini Misra for taking out her valuable time to enlighten students about the various aspects of corporate industry.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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SIM'ergence 2015 was successfully organised by SIMSREE

SIM’ergence is the annual flagship corporate event of SIMSREE which is organized by the ‘Corporate Relations Committee’ in association with the BSE (Bombay Stock Exchange). With the aim of bringing about an interaction between management students and corporates, the event is being organized successfully since the past one decade. It is an annual academia-industry interface, wherein, the stalwarts of the Business and Industrial world come together to discuss various issues faced by different organizations and to identify what could be the future business trends. Continuing with this trend, SIM’ergence ‘15 was organized on the 13^th of March, 2015 at BSE’s International Convention Hall.  Keeping up with its tradition of having themes that are related to the contemporary industrial and economic scenario, the theme for SIM’ergence ‘15 was ‘Renaissant India: Development & Sustainability’.

India is on the cusp of reaping her demographic dividends. The Indian economy has metamorphosed into a knowledge economy steered by the services sector, leapfrogging the intermediate manufacturing driven stage seen in the developed economies. However, as we see the wage rates spiralling upward in China and the manufacturing sector in India getting a fillip, companies are now looking to manufacture in India and export.

The theme ‘Renaissant India - Development and Sustainability’ resonates well in the current scenario. As future managers, this is very relevant to management students.  With development comes the onus of sustainability. While a boost to manufacturing will add a new dimension to our growth story, we should not overlook our services prowess. The rapid growth of services in India is not only sustainable but is also poised to help drive manufacturing in the country.

SIM’ergence ‘15 provided the platform for the students to meet and understand the views of corporate stalwarts from across several industries which would guide them to prepare the necessary strategies when they actually start dealing with challenges in their corporate career. This grand event was witnessed by both 1^st & 2^nd year students of SIMSREE and by many students and professors from other eminent business schools from Mumbai as well.

The event started with the traditional 'Lighting of the lamp' along with Saraswati Vandana.

Dr. Sandhya Dhabe (Director, SIMSREE) delivered the welcome note in which she summarized the idea behind the theme of this event, wherein she said that true knowledge is a combination of classroom teaching and practical understanding.

 Mr. Shankar Jadhav (Head of Strategy at BSE & Director on the Boards of Bank of India Shareholding, Marketplace Technologies and BSE Investments). "How to improve infrastructure and employ more and more people every year is the big question, the young population thinks of getting jobs, we should change our mind-sets to think of how to create jobs." According to him, it is important to create jobs.

SIM’ergence'15 was honoured to have Mr. Raj Nair (Founder & Chairman, Avalon Consulting Group) as the Chief Guest for the event. Renaissant means rebirth, there is immense opportunity in the “New India”. While sentiments have been good in 2015, they will change in 2016. This can be seen on the BSE index as a parameter, which can be called as the temple of Indian capitalism. The Indian middle class is ever growing, predicting that nearly 80% would be middle class in next years.  He gave many examples including his own, citing the story of “Avalon” and motivating the students to emphasize that it is important for management students to understand the big picture and not get lost.

Mr. Satish Jamdar (MD, Bluestar) was the Guest of Honour at SIM’ergence ’15. According to him, with increasing growth, there is an increase in demand for skilled people, but there is shortage as many are unorganised and unemployed. Skill building is critical. He encourages students to add value to themselves by means of education. Sustainable inclusive growth would happen when maximum portion of the population participates.

Keeping in line with the theme, the first panel discussion was based on ‘Inclusive Growth: Role of Corporate India’.  The industry stalwarts participating in the discussion were:

1.       Ms. Amisha Vora - Joint Managing Director, Prabhudas Lilladher

2.       Mr. Anand Pillai- Sr. Executive VP, CLO, Reliance Industries Ltd

3.       Ms. Aparna Sharma - Country Head, HR, Lafarge

4.       Mr. Himanshu Goyal – Country Manager, IBM India

5.       Mr. Ullas Kamath, JMD & CFO at Jyothi Laboratories  (Moderator)

The esteemed moderator opened the discussion by discussing the topic and inviting all panel member to air their views.

Ms. Aparna Sharma started off the panel discussion by saying that sectors such as agriculture, energy, and infrastructure are the pillars to sustain economic growth and that the composition of these sectors is critical. Elaborating on this, she said that corporate India’s contribution should be to enhance productivity, reduce labour issues, focus on skill development, reskilling in the unorganised sector, participative leadership and reducing the gap between public and private sector.

According to Mr. Anand Pillai, “the Government has no business to be in business”. Academic institutions should be involved in imparting skills to students to remain competent in the industry and focus has to be tailored for the skill and not only for the purpose of seeking or getting a good job. The role of corporate India is to bridge the gap between corporate and college, motivate the people to be skilful and channelize corporate social responsibility towards this. He encouraged students to introspect.

Ms Amish Vora highlighted the fact that to pursue inclusive growth, India should focus on increasing financial literacy. People need to start saving and investing those savings. In view of this, she feels the “Jan Dhan Yojna” is indeed a step towards growth as less than 2% of our population have DeMat accounts. We need capital to grow and retail investors participating would be the key.

Mr Himanshu Goyal was of the opinion that perspective matters. Advancement of technology inculcates constant learning and advance planning of the needs of the industry. Industry and academics become one when the industry demands are put forth in the curriculum of the students. Due to the computer science subject, the services industry thrived. Vertical skill focuses on specializing while horizontal skill broadens horizons.

After this, the moderator, Mr. Ullas Kamath started the discussion by posing questions to the panel members - what should industry do to make people employable? Is India’s service industry threatened by China or Japan? What should the government of India do to ensure companies continue to grow?

He summed by emphasizing on the role of planning, the role of continuously honing skills, providing an ecosystem. “Why is it that South Korea, Japan became world class? India has lagged behind due to limited Government support, but collective intelligence in India is good”. The Build-Operate-Transfer model needs to be more willingly adopted.

There were various questions posed to all the panellists which they patiently answered and the students would have continued asking questions, was there no paucity of time. We are thankful to all the panelists for taking time out of their busy schedules to interact with the students.

The topic for the second panel discussion was ‘Triple Bottomline – The Sustainability Mantra?’ which aims to discuss the 3 Ps – people, planet and profit as a sustainability strategy for companies. The industry stalwarts participating in this discussion were:

1.       Mr. Akalpit Gupte - Director Compliance at Deutsche Bank AG

2.       Mr. A.V. Suresh - President, International Operations and CEO, Eureka Forbes Limited

3.       Mr. Bhaskar Bhattacharya - AVP, CHR, Hindalco Industries Limited

4.       Mr. Praveen Vashishta - Chairman, Howden Asia & Middle East (Moderator)

5.       Ms. Shraddha Pradhan - Director- HR, Bristol-Myers Squibb

The moderator Mr. Praveen Vashishta kicked off the session by saying that in the 19^th century, profit was not the sole factor behind doing business, it was looked upon as a by-product of doing business. Sustainability is now being looked at seriously by many as now there are awards being given for sustainable practices and legislations are also being passed in support of sustainability. Sustainability can be difficult to measure. The 3 pillars of sustainability -people, profit and planet form the triple bottomline of a sustainable strategy.

Mr. A V Suresh explained the difference between CSR and sustainability saying that the 2% donated by companies is CSR but providing employment that results into growth in the community is a sustainable model. Every rupee spent by a company should be with a view of sustainable growth. People should be given the opportunity to earn. Raising awareness about the environment, educating others and investing in technology all lead to sustainable development.

According to Mr. Akalpit Gupte, the industry is driven by profitability. It is however importance to find out the ways and means by which this profit is generated. After the 2008 sub-prime crisis, banks changed business practices. The entire banking system needs to be remodelled for sustainability with more focus on ethics and values. Steps should be taken to change people’s mind set and make them think about how their actions affect others to make a more socially responsible society.

Mr Bhaskar Bhattacharya highlighted that most people start and end business with top line and bottomline and therein arise the problems and the concept of Triple bottomline came to be established. The Government earlier used to have only the fire department which later added the pollution control department and later still, renamed it as Environment department. All companies today have a department pertaining to Health, Safety & Environment. We must be sensitive from the perspective of greenery, pollution, clean water etc for the next generation.

Ms. Shraddha Pradhan added a psychological dimension to the discussion saying that sustainability is the responsibility of every individual for which values are list of Dos and Don’ts. A person’s conscience is the best guidance for responsible behaviour. A satisfaction survey mainly consists of customer, people, community, stake holders and shareholders. If the customer, employees and community are taken care of, there is sustainability. There is degree of correlation among these factors. 

The discussion threw up many insights like more transparency required in all transactions, sustainable development needing more awareness, education and advertisement. The panel agreed that if sustainability is practised the right way, it will not affect profitability. People and companies must be willing to change their mind-set and attitudes about sustainability and at the same time have courage to do so. There are many dimensions to sustainability and it is in the hands of the people and companies in a way to be the change they want to be. Many questions were posed to the eminent panellists by the student audience and the guests were very patient to answer them all.

All in all, the entire event was a grand success. Students of SIMSREE got a lifetime opportunity to interact with many industry stalwarts and that too on the single stage. They got tremendous amount of knowledge from the eminent guests that served the purpose of the event. SIMSREE thanks all the guest speakers who graced SIM’ergence ‘15 despite their tight schedules and making the event a grand success.

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Guest Lecture by Dr. S. Srinivasan

On Wednesday, 7th January 2015, Dr. S Srinivasan delivered a lecture at SIMSREE on the topic of 'Stress Management by Staying Alert'. He is the Chief Learning Officer at Wockhardt Foundation and MD at Wellness Consultant and has four decades of experience in healthcare and human behaviour.

He started off the discussion on a lighter note by explaining how stress forms an integral part of our lives. He stressed upon the importance of wellness and life skills by demonstrating several examples. Striking a balance between work and personal life is of essence and stress management involves mutually balancing the two in order to lead a stress free life. Stress is not what happens to us but how we react to whatever happens to us. In order to manage stress, we have to manage our reaction and not the stressor. And only an alert mind can manage its own reaction. So it is imperative that we stay alert and control our emotions and reactions to a particular situation.

He further emphasized the importance of 5S management in lifestyle which includes – sleep, sex, snacks, stamina and spirits. By using the 5S, we can manage the 6^th S i.e. soft skills and get ready to tackle the 7^th S which is ‘Stress’.

Dr. Srinivasan explained the concept of 'Amygdala effect' and also how different parts of the brain help generate different emotions and responses to a particular situation, sometimes increasing the stress levels. He emphasized upon the difference between 'high road' and 'low road' and how managing the two leads to effective management of individual stress levels. He then shared some anecdotes of how people who overcome their limitations and inhibitions lead a 'Balanced Life'.

We are really thankful to him for giving us great insights into the literal meaning of the word 'Stress' and giving us some tips in order to overcome it. The entire session ended on a positive note and it turned out to be a great learning lesson for all of us.

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MINDZ'14 by SIMSREE in association with JLTI

SIMSREE successfully hosted a first of its kind insurance broking competition named MINDZ’14 in association with Jardine Lloyd Thompson India Pvt. Ltd. (JLTI) in October- November 2014. The event was organised and coordinated by the Corporate Relations Committee, SIMSREE.

           

About JLTI

JLT India Pvt. Ltd. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group. Set up in May 2007 as a Global Shared Services Centre for the Group, JLT India has grown significantly to become the second largest office of the Group, supporting both Employee Benefits and Risk & Insurance operations of the Group. It is the first company in the Group (and one of the first companies in India) to achieve the international standard for business continuity management, ISO 22301. JLT India provides a multitude of services under 7 main verticals viz. Operations, Finance, Group Business Process Management, Information Technology, Knowledge Services, Legal Risk & Compliance and Human Resources.

About Mindz’14

Mindz 2014 is an inter college insurance broking event, that tests the statistical, strategic and analytical skills of the participants along with their ability to work in teams.

Format: The game comprised 3 rounds which involved an online quiz, an online insurance broking simulation game and a case study presentation round.

Timeline: The 1st and 2nd rounds were held between 12th October and 18th October and the last round was held on 26th November. 

Prizes:

●      Rs. 50,000/- for the winning team

●      Rs. 30,000/- for the runner up

●      Gifts and certificates worth Rs. 20,000/- (total) for teams that complete Phase 1

Participation: Entry into the event was by invitation only. A total of 8 prestigious b-schools namely SIMSREE, ISB Hyderabad, NMIMS, NITIE, SJMSOM, SIBM Pune, SIMSR, SCMHRD had been invited to this competition.

Unique features:

●      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

This 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 Finale:

The Final round of Mindz 2014 - the case study presentation was held on 26^th November, 2014, at JLTI, Mumbai. The top 5 teams qualifying from the second round (Periloscope), both from B-schools and JLTI were given three primary topics to present on. Their presentation and ideas were judged by a panel comprising the JLTI management and their esteemed global counterparts.

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.

At the end of all presentations, the judges adjudged team INVICTUS from SIMSREE and team MAVERICKS from JLTI as winners of JLTI Mindz 2014. They combined to form team BIZ WIZ for the last round. The team from SIMSREE were praised for their leadership qualities and the poise shown by them throughout the presentation and the subsequent Q&A round.

We would like to thank JLTI and all the contestants for making this competition a success. We hope to be back soon with a bigger and better Mindz 2015. Keep watching this space!

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Guest Lecture by Mr. Amogh Gothoskar

​On Sunday, 11th of January 2015, Mr. Amogh Gothoskar graced the auditorium of SIMSREE with his presence. In the lecture organized by the Corporate Relations Committee, he enlightened the batch on 'Securitization and the US sub-prime mortgage crisis'. Mr Amogh, an entrepreneur since 5 years in the financial services sector and the owner and CEO of 'End to End Financial Services', spoke passionately on the topic of the financial crisis of 2007-2009.

He started the discussion by asking the batch a few basic questions on the concepts of securitization and the various types of securitization. He went on to explain the nitty-gritty of securitization and the fundamental differences between the various types. Furthermore, he spoke about the basic securitization process that was carried out in the US before the crisis and the various players that were involved in the securitization process focusing mainly on mortgage backed securities. In the build up to the explanation of the crisis, he also showed some statistics which compared securitization and land rates in the US with the rest of the world and also showed a period based comparison of the same. This helped the batch to get a rough idea of the gravity of the crisis and the sheer enormity of it.

Mr. Amogh suggested that there are many parties to be blamed and held responsible for the crisis, right from the lenders to the investment banks, as well as the rating agencies. He said this situation could have been avoided if the regulators and the rating agencies would have been more alert of what the securitization process was evolving into.

​ ​Talking about Indian investors, he said that Indian investors are generally risk averse and that has prevented such a crisis from happening in India. He also said that one of the root causes for this crisis was the risk taking nature of the American borrowers and investors. American borrowers were enticed into taking up such seemingly easy loans. Also, investors bought securities backed by those sub-prime loans in expectation of higher than normal returns. He categorized an investor's psyche into two categories viz. risk prone and risk averse. He build upon this investor psyche as the base to further explain how this enabled the lenders to sell such risky loans and how these loans got bundled up and found their way into the stock markets as securities which adversely affected the entire financial ecosystem and the real estate bubble finally burst.

In response to one of the questions during the Q&A session, he said that bailing out the big companies to mitigate the problem wasn't the ideal step as it could act as a fallback for the companies in future if they were to engage into such activities again. But in the hindsight, the US government had to bail them out to deflect a domino effect from taking place and the decision turned out to be pragmatic if not ideal. He also added that the government must be focused on creating real employment rather than artificial, temporary employment for the population. With this he ended a very fruitful and knowledge gaining session for the students of SIMSREE.

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Guest Lecture by Miss Tanaz Buhariwalla

On 18th November, 2014, Ms Tanaz Buhariwalla, Vice President at IDA Ireland, graced the campus of Sydenham Institute of Management Studies, Research and Entrepreneurship Education with a guest lecture organised by the Corporate Relations Committee. With over 15 years of experience, she is an expert in the fields of International Business, Business Development, Business Strategy and Planning, Marketing amongst many others.

With the topic being Business Development Strategies of Indian Companies in Foreign Markets, one of the major points of discussion was inward FDI along with outward FDI in India and across the globe. She discussed Free Trade zones, the Cluster effect, the effect of various laws in different regions, the roles of tax structures and so on. The discussion then steered towards the “drivers of FDI”. She gave the students numerous live examples for the same so that they could understand more easily.

She encouraged student participation and answered all the questions very patiently. She ended the session by emphasizing on the future role of FDIs and the power of networking. We thank Ms Tanaz Buhariwalla and look forward to having more and more interactions with her.

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