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.

Read More

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.

Read More

Guest Lecture by Mr. Colin Mendes

On the 8th of November, 2014 Mr. Colin Mendes, General Manager and Head Human Resources, Domestic Projects Group at Voltas Limited, graced the campus of Sydenham Institute of Management Studies, Research and Entrepreneurship Education with his presence. The guest lecture was organized by the Corporate Relations Committee. Sir has over 20 years of experience and is an expert in the field of employee benefits, compensation, rewards and employee engagement.

The Guest lecture was on ‘Leadership during times of complexity and change’, a topic that is relevant to all management students. Sir started the discussion by emphasizing and explaining change as a constant factor in all our lives and expounding on the role played by technology while taking managerial decisions. He explained how data analysis and data mining are shaping the world as we know today as against earlier techniques of intuition. In order to inspire the young minds, Sir discussed and gave examples of leaders who have been instrumental in changing the course of events such as Mahatma Gandhi, Barack Obama and current Prime Minister Narendra Modi, highlighting the common thread which makes the leaders stand out amongst the crowd. He then shared an interview of Miss Avani Davda, CEO of Starbucks, with the batch walking them through her success story and elucidating how sheer dedication, hard work and vision can lead one to unprecedented success. He also shared the story of the young entrepreneur Farrhad Acidwalla who is listed amongst the top 25 young entrepreneurs of the world. He blessed the batch saying that he would love to see one amongst his audience become the next Farrhad Acidwalla emphasizing on how the youth can lead..

The students gained insights on the relevance of leadership in today’s competitive environment, concluding with an active question answer session. We thank Sir for answering all the questions patiently and look forward to having further interactions with him.

Read More

Blood Donation Camp by SSR at SIMSREE

“Blood is that fragile scarlet tree we carry within us” - Osbert Sitwell

SSR (Student Social Responsibility) Committee in association with Tata Memorial Hospital, Lions Club (Juhu) and Think Foundation organized a ‘Blood Donation Camp’ and ‘Thalassemia   Checkup’ at SIMSREE on 26^th August 2014. The event commenced with a very informative session about blood donation and Thalassemia by Mr. Vinay Shetty, Vice President of Think Foundation. Mr. Vinay has been responsible for running a structured program for testing for Thalassemia minor in colleges in Mumbai University, which has now spread to various corporate offices and residential areas.

The session helped break myths about blood donation and educated the students about the importance of blood donation. It also had detailed information about Thalassemia and pointed out the importance of Thalassemia checkup for every individual. Think Foundation is trying to ensure that no child is born with Thalassemia major and the students were encouraged to check whether they were Thalassemia minors by conducting free tests. After the session, the blood donation campaign was carried out.

The camp witnessed an enthusiastic participation of 89 people wherein 450 ml /bottle and 350 ml/bottle were contributed by male and female students respectively. People from outside the college were also allowed to participate in the camp. This camp spread the feeling of contentment among the students of SIMSREE as the message given out in the session was that every individual can save 3 lives. Also dual sided English and Marathi version badges of “I donated blood today (मी आज रक्तदान केले)” were distributed to spread awareness across everyone in the college and outside the campus. Each blood donor was thanked and given a token of appreciation for his/her contribution. The process was smooth and painless; thanks to the cooperation of nurses and friendly doctors. SSR Committee would finally like to thank Dr. Sangeeta Pandit (HOD, Finance, SIMSREE), who guided the committee throughout the process.

Read More

Guest Lecture by Mr. Ramu Menon

SIMSREE was honoured to have Mr. Ramu Menon, (Director Consulting - Consumer Goods/FMCG at Cognizant Business Consulting) on 7th August, 2014. He is an alumnus of IIM-K & an IT leader with 23+years of global experience in managing IT value creation for the consumer goods industry leaders namely P&G and PepsiCo.

The topic for the guest lecture was - Breakthrough Technologies in IT Sector like Social, Mobile, Analytics, Cloud (SMAC).

The enthralling session began with what traditional business meant. In earlier days, traditional business was characterised by Captive Markets, Brand Driven Messaging (which was one way i. e from producers to consumers), Limited Choice, Lack of Information (Both ways – From producers to consumers & vice versa), Reined in by umpteen regulations and Unfulfilled Regulations to go beyond. On the other hand, current business is characterised by Open Market Access, Customer Driven Communication, Inclusive Organisations, Democratisation of Information, Open Regulations and Abundance of Supply and Opportunity Creators.

Next topic was drivers of this transformation in business. The below factors responsible for bringing about this change were discussed.

• Digital Metamorphosis
• Inclusive Internet
• Belongingness
• Magnification
• Sliver Casting – Self Directed Communication (Fetching information from small group)

Then the discussion veered to impact of business. The new business comes with new rules and new players, for example - Kishore Biyani’s new model for Big Bazaar. New business has also led to extreme transformation, for example Philips foraying in to an entirely new category of Healthcare. Challenging core competency is one of the important changes happening due to new nature of businesses.  Also the concepts of Fluid Core, Radical Adjacencies and Externalisation were duly explained.

Next in line were the technologies enabling these transformations collectively named as SMAC – Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud. At the centre of SMAC there are intense social users, volumes of data created by consumers, leveraging footprint i.e. electronic DNA, multitude of platforms, own control & drive your own experience kind of things.

Some of the popular examples of application of SMAC are:- 

• Amazon Pre Shop – Shipping products to consumers based on forecasting
• Coke Freestyle Fountain – A dispenser giving coke with customized flavours
• Miller Colors Smart SKU – Based on Customer spread anticipate sales & perform community sensing
• Dynamic Car Insurance

Active participation of the students was marked by the number of quality questions asked by them and Mr. Ramu Menon answered each of them with due diligence. SIMSREE thanks him for taking out his valuable time and coming on to the campus to interact with students through a guest lecture.

Read More

SIMSREE carries out 'Voter Registration Drive' on 65th Republic Day

SIMSREE celebrated 65th Republic Day of India in a unique way this year. What is the meaning of a Republic Country? It is a country in which supreme power is held by the people and their elected representatives. So it is quite evident that people should vote for an appropriate candidate to have good governance. Therefore, SIMSREE’ites tried to make people aware about the importance of voting and enroll them with Election Commission of India on this Republic Day. In the wake of upcoming parliament elections which are going to be in the months of April and May, SIMSREE’ites tried to contribute in small manner to it.

Student Social Responsibility (SSR) committee of the institute took a pledge to bring about a change and it carried out voter registration drive in association with ‘Vote for Better India’. It is a non-profit, non-political and non-governmental organization which aims at creating awareness among people for voting. In the upcoming election about 15 crore voters are going to cast vote for the first time, which are nothing but young people. ‘Vote for Better India’ is focusing on creating awareness among the youth and thereby developing a sense of responsibility towards the country in them.
    

40 enthusiastic students from the institute participated in this drive with one common objective of making maximum people aware about voting & registering them for the same. The location chosen was Cuffe Parade, Mumbai. Since people from this part of the city are known to be less enthusiastic about voting despite many highly educated and high-profile people living in this part. As in the past it was observed that the results of few seats in some other parts of the country were decided by a minute difference of votes, SIMSREE’ites identified this opportunity to change the trend. The rationale was very clear, ‘Vote and vote wisely, else keep regretting for the next 5 years’.

The drive started at 11:00 AM with excitement on every volunteer’s face. During the drive, team met many people having various questions regarding voting process and registration. The team was successful in enrolling and making people across different strata aware about the entire process. The drive covered people from security guard to managing director of top notch MNCs. There was a massive response from people, which actually made the drive and its purpose successful. In the end the drive gave volunteers a unique sense of pride.  This pride was a testimony of a productive 65th Republic Day celebration.

Read More

SIMCON organizes Confluence'14 successfully

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read More

The Corporate Connect - Mr. Bhupendra Bhate

The Corporate Connect gave SIMSREE students a chance to interact with another veteran from the corporate world - Mr. Bhupendra Bhate, Head, Industrial Products, Integrated Engineering Services (IES), L&T.

Mr. Bhate has a strong experience of more than 30 years. Sir started his career with Godrej & Boyce Ltd. where he worked for nearly 10 years. After that, he joined Atos Origin as General Manager and then moved onto Softdell Systems Inc. where he was the COO. For the last 11 years , he has been working with L&T.

The session was conducted at L&T office, Powai on January 23, 2014. Mr. Bhate started the session with an introduction to the company and its verticals. While talking about the culture of his current organization, he said that the mind-set and culture of the company, which is influenced by top management, play a vital role in product development and its success. The designer or the architect should be given utmost importance in any undertaking. But in Indian companies they hardly get their due attention. Improvement on this front will help in developing better products.

He compared western culture to the Indian culture .He elaborated how the analytical ability accompanied by individual goals has resulted in a lot of inventions and discoveries in the Western world. A small country like Israel has achieved its success on the same principles. He stressed upon the need of more rational and analytical thinking.

Mr. Bhate talked about the importance of core education. He advised that students should possess thorough knowledge in their graduation specialization and a post graduate degree like MBA should act as polishing tool.

Mr Bhate then illustrated how the application of these principles has guided his organization to the number one spot in all respects. His organization encourages employees to develop new ideas and to act upon them. The result is that IES has 79 intellectual properties to its name. This has helped IES to stay way ahead of its competitors.

It was a pleasure interacting with Mr Bhupendra Bhate and learning many things in the little time that we got. We whole heartedly thank Mr Bhate and hope that we find many more opportunities to interact with him in the future.

Read More

The Corporate Connect - Mr. Rajendra Saboo

The Corporate Connect continued going from strength to strength, this time having a freewheeling interaction with Mr. Rajendra Saboo, Senior General Manager (Corporate Affairs) & Company Secretary, Supreme Industries Limited.

Mr. Saboo has been with Supreme since 1987 and is involved in every aspect of corporate management, such as strategy, planning, review of acquisition and joint venture proposals, driving top line growth and net results to name a few.

The session was held at Supreme’s office at Nariman Point on January 15, 2014. Mr. Saboo started the session with an introduction about Supreme and the sector in general. He explained about how the company came into existence and how it has grown leaps and bounds, especially in the last decade, the products that Supreme develops and why they are the leader in the sector.

The session then turned to technicalities with Mr. Saboo giving intrinsic details about every sector Supreme is in and what their future targets are. He talked about how a strong distribution network is essential for business like theirs. He said that the company’s focus is on localised marketing, which is the key to success in this industry. On being questioned about China being a competitor, he turned it down straightaway, explaining about the manufacturing processes and constraints plaguing the imports in this sector due to high freight cost and when asked if he sees volatility as a challenge, his answer was simple: Volatility is the game now.

Mr. Saboo also talked about the management principles followed in Supreme Industries. He talked about how good management and good business model, both are essential; one factor cannot substitute for the other. He also advised students to be aware of what his happening in the world around and read at least one financial newspaper daily for developing business acumen.

It was a pleasure interacting with Mr. Saboo and learn so much in so little time. We whole-heartedly thank Mr. Saboo and hope that we get many more opportunities to interact with him in the coming time.

Read More

Guest Lecture by Mr. Chandrasekaran Ramamurthy

The SIMSREE students witnessed a guest lecture by Mr. Chandrasekaran Ramamurthy, Chief Reinsurance Strategist, Mahindra Insurance Brokers Limited on 26th Dec, 2013. Mr. Chandrasekaran has more than three decades of experience in domestic and international insurance and reinsurance industries, spanning India, UK and Middle East. Previously he has worked as Director, RCS Managing Consultants Private Limited, Member of IRDA Sub Committee, Senior DGM – Technical Operations, Kuwait Reinsurance Company, Kuwait, General Manager, GIC of India, Asst. General Manager, International Business Development, Manager, Aviation. He spoke in detail about ‘Insurance Sector in India’. 

Starting with a brief history of the sector, Mr. Chandrasekaran spoke about how the Indian Insurance business was in a nascent stage prior to the year 2000, as it was mainly restricted to the public sector. The period was marked by lack of marketing efforts and ineffective distribution practices. Post 2000, the insurance sector in India opened up for private players as well. From then on until now, it has grown by around 7 times. He opined that it is a sector with high growth potential. In terms of turnover, he expects it grow to INR 1 Lakh Crores by 2015, INR 3 Lakh Crores by 2020, and as high as INR 10 Lakh Crores by 2025. In short, the insurance sector in India is poised to touch great heights.

He further stated that if all the insurance companies in India aimed to contribute up to 1% of the GDP, it would be a big achievement for the insurance industry. He also sounded positive on the growth of reinsurance business in India, saying that India is soon to become ‘Reinsurance Hub of Asia’.  ‘Reinsurance’ means ‘Insurance for the Insurance Companies’. 

Delving into numbers to back his statements, he pointed out that there is a cap of only 26% on FDI in Insurance sector in India. This means that the remaining 74% of the Indian insurance pie is handled by only the domestic companies. There lies a huge opportunity of utilizing the money generated through insurance business for the development of Indian Economy. 

Moving on to a related and highly relevant topic of ‘Customer Complaints’, he said that like any other sector, there are unsatisfied customers in this sector as well. Most of the claims are related to motor and health insurances. The key areas of customer complaints are as follows:

i) Policy, Endorsement not received: 16%
ii) Display in claims settlement: 22%
iii) Policy Data Errors: 9%
iv) Repudiation of claim: 8%
v) Dispute in quantum of claim: 9%
vi) All other claims: 36%

The lecture was very beneficial as students gained a lot of insights regarding the insurance sector and its potential. Taking full advantage of the opportunity to interact with such a senior industry professional as Mr. Chandrasekaran, the students posed him a gamut of questions, to each of which he gave elaborate answers and explanations.

Read More

Guest Lecture by Mr. Mahesh Balasubramanian

At SIMSREE, continuing the tradition of guest lectures by eminent industry personalities, Mr. Mahesh Balasubramanian addressed the first year students on Thursday, 26th December. He is the Executive Vice-president, Kotak Mahindra Bank and also an alumnus of the institute from the 1991-92 batch.  The topic of the guest lecture was ‘Ring side view of Retail Banking’.

Mr. Balasubramanian elaborated on how the banking industry has moved from a ‘product-centric’ approach to a ‘consumer-centric’ approach: ‘Every customer is a segment’ is the essential of the approach.  “The banks are now taking a holistic view of the customer’s overall profile and what banking products he/she wants to use. The bank tries to keep the overall revenue from the cumulative products’ earnings at the maximum, thus in turn keeping the profits maximum. He elaborated how capturing an account has become easy, but retaining that account has become more difficult, in the changing conditions. This is where the ‘Relationship Managers’ come into picture: it is a bridge that connects the bank with the customer. With about 7,000 branches opened in 2013 alone, the opportunities in this sector are enormous.”

 Mr Balasubramanian also explained ‘the Kotak way’ that has delivered in last few years to make the bank to figure amongst the top five in private banks total capital category even though having lesser customer base. The bank thus plans to achieve more and more as it grabs and retains more and more customers.

The presentation was followed by a brief Q&A round where Mr. Balasubramanian was asked both sector specific and general questions. Mr Balasubramanian, with his immense knowledge and understanding of the sector, answered them promptly with a humour element added to it, taking examples from amongst the students. The students surely benefited from these valuable insights.

Read More

HUL VP visits SIMSREE campus

A Guest Lecture was arranged by the Corporate Relations Committee for the first year students of SIMSREE on the topic- Managing Business in a VUCA World. The speaker for the lecture was Mr. Kabir Ahmed Shakir- VP, Finance, HPC Division, Hindustan Unilever Limited. Mr. Kabir is a finance and business professional with over 20 years of experience, distributed equally between developed and D&E markets. He worked in various positions at Unilever, India before becoming the Director - International Funding (Treasury) at Unilever N.V and the Finance Director - Global Supply Chain at Unilever. 

Mr. Kabir explained the meaning of VUCA, which is an acronym for Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous with present-day examples. He mentioned the post-2008 situation where the economic equations have changed, the fluctuation of crude oil prices, the volatility of the rupee, the economic policies of the government, the uncertain tax structure, and the unpredictable consumer mind. He stated that the VUCA world has created many challenges for the business world. Since consumers have a wide variety to choose from, they frequently change brands. To face this challenge companies have to come out of their comfort zone and give utmost importance to quality. In a scenario of tough competition, if a company tries to maintain or reduce costs by compromising on quality then it might lose ten times of what it saved in the cost cutting process. He shared his experiences from a market survey which highlighted the importance of quality, where a girl with limited income wanted to use the same brand with increased price by reducing her quantity of consumption.He explained that costs should be reduced by minimizing inefficiencies. He also explained that the way to fight recession is through innovation.

 

Mr. Kabir shared a very interesting insight. He talked about the price as a brand. When the sachets of products are sold at low prices, it is not the brand, but price that is the USP of the product. This is the reason companies maintain the same price for years irrespective of the inflation. For this companies have to acknowledge that every unit of the business can't generate profit. Some units have to work to connect with consumer's demand and continue to generate revenue.

While talking about HUL, he said that it has deep-rooted values.He expressed that the leaders of HUL have shaped it in different ways and are responsible for where it is today. Robust Suppply Chain Management (SCM) and agility in SCM and production center make the product a success within months of its inception. This is the reason many other companies try to partner with HUL in India. He reinstated HUL's quest for sustainable developing.

It was a pleasure interacting with Mr. Kabir and we look forward to many such opportunities.

Read More

SIMSREE'ites at the 2nd edition of Inclusive Innovation Summit

Businesses in India are being buffeted with grim head-winds on many fronts. Innovation is the need of the hour to achieve profitable growth in such a difficult environment. Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) partnered with Singapore Management University (SMU) to organize the 2nd edition of Inclusive Innovation Summit based on the theme 'Innovating Practices in Turbulent Times' on 28th October 2013 at Vivanta by Taj President, Mumbai. 11 SIMSREE students accompanied by Prof. Sangeeta Pandit attended this conference.

The seminar was inaugurated by Mr. Ninad Karpe (Chairman, CII Maharashtra State Council) who welcomed the speakers and the audience. This session included a speech by Mr. R Mukundan (Chairman, CII Western Region & Managing Director, Tata Chemicals Ltd.) emphasizing on affirmative inclusivity, a presentation by Professor Rajendra Srivastava (Provost & Deputy President, SMU), an addressal by Mr. Madhukar Sabnavis (Vice Chairman & Country Head, Ogilvy & Mather Pvt. Ltd.) which included many interesting audio-visuals. The inaugural address was delivered by Mr. Jayant Kumar Banthia (Chief Secretary, Government of Maharashtra) who mentioned about the challenges faced and innovations undertaken by the government.

The pre-lunch session was divided into two sub-sessions. The first sub-session had a live video conference from Singapore addressed by Professor Arnoud De Meyer and Professor Peter Williamson from Singapore Management University (SMU). It was moderated by Professor Rajendra Srivastava. The theme of this session was 'Leveraging the Asian Innovation Environment'. It focused on the growing importance of innovation in Asia and the possibilities for companies to take advantage of the highly dynamic innovation environment. Using China as a case study, the session looked at ways in which Asian companies are approaching the challenge of ramping up innovation on the basis of re-innovation and by industrializing research and development.

The topic of the second sub-session was 'Business Model Innovation-Lessons from the East and West'. Mr. Srivastava opened the topic with a wonderful comparison between an expensive French restaurant and an inexpensive Chinese restaurant and explaining the DuPont model. The key take-away's from this session included creating values for customers first and then thinking about extracting values, the need to invest in the right combination of assets which includes tangible as well as intangible assets and the opportunity cost of not doing business model innovations. It is important to innovate your business model and improve its reach to all sets of customers.

The post lunch session included two panel discussions. The topic for the first panel discussion was 'Connecting the Last Mile'. The panel included Mr. G Sunderraman (Executive Vice President, Godrej & Boyce Ltd.), Mr. Manoj Dawane (Vice President, Ericson India), Mr. Vishwesh Palekar (Senior Vice President, Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd.), Mr. Amit Paithankar (Managing Director, Emerson Process Manaement) and Mr. Biten Kathrani (Director Enrichment & IP, Johnson & Johnson Ltd.). Professor Shantanu Dutta from Singapore Management University (SMU) moderated this panel discussion. This panel discussion brought together leaders from the various fields to discuss the challenges they faced to bridge the gap between developing ideas and increased product development. The topic for the second panel discussion was 'Milking the Cows'. The panel included Dr. Ranjan Banerjee (CEO, Renaissance Strategic Consultants & Visiting Professor, Carlson School of Management), Mr. Kannan Tinnium (Technology Leader, GE Global Researh), Mr. Tarun Agarwal (Head- Alternate Channels, Products & Innovations, Development Banking and Financial Inclusion Group, Ratnakar Bank Limited) and Ms. Nilima Achwal (Executive Producer, Villgro's SEED). Professor Srinivas Reddy from SIngapore Management University (SMU) moderated this panel discussion. This session voiced the views and perspectives of the panelists on ways to cultivate the culture of innovation by encouraging and tapping the entrepreneurial spirit of the employees.

The last session, 'Lessons from Hidden Gems' was dedicated to entrepreneurs who did not succumb to the economic meltdown. This daring group of individuals included Mr. Mahesh Murthy (Founder & CEO, Pinstorm), Mr. Paresh Rajde (Founder & Chairman, Suvidhaa Infoservice P. Ltd.) and Ms. Sweta Mangal (Co-founder & CEO, Ziqitza Health Care Limited). They shared about how they remained undettered by all the obstacles in their path to succeed in their venture and to make the world a better place to live in. Professor Rajendra Srivastava was the session chairman and delivered the concluding remarks by thanking CII, all the panelists of the day and the sponsors.

The key take-away from the summit was learnings from our Asian neighbours like China, Korea, Japan etc., about how they are moving up the rising curve and the innovation models that they use. The panelists during the Q & A round provided a glimmer of hope and a shinning example of what can be done by us and the business models that we can adopt for inclusive innovation. All in all, the 2nd edition of Inclusive Innovation Summit was a grand success and we hope to get many more similar opportunities in future as it gives us tremendous industry exposure which is quintessential in today's competitive environment.

Read More

Raining Awards at SIMSREE – Sydenham Management Institute shines at Award functions

SIMSREE ruled the awards’ sweepstakes at the B-School Affaire event held at Taj Lands End, Bandra. SIMSREE won two awards in the ‘Dainik Bhaskar National Education leadership Awards’ ceremony and one award in the ‘Dewang Mehta Business School Awards’ ceremony held on 23rd Oct, 2013.

We were crowned ‘Outstanding B-School (WEST) & ‘Industry Related Curriculum in Marketing’ in the ‘Dainik Bhaskar National Education leadership Awards’ ceremony and ‘Business School that Encourages Leadership as a part of the curriculum’ in the ‘Dewang Mehta Business School Awards’ ceremony. Apart from these awards; the students of SIMSREE including ‘Vernon Fernandes’, ‘Gaurav Mehta’, ‘Vishal Nandkumar’ , ‘Mallikaarjun Patil’, ‘Nishant Poojary’, ‘Divya Roongta’ took the award tally to six by winning awards in various categories.

We congratulate the students and the faculty for the impressive feat.

The awards won in different categories:

• Outstanding B-School (WEST) - Dainik Bhaskar National Education Leadership Awards

• Industry Related Curriculum In Marketing- Dainik Bhaskar National Education Leadership Awards 

• Business School that encourages Leadership in the Curriculum- Dewang Mehta Business School Awards

• Best Management Student - 3rd Prize, Vernon Fernandes - Dewang Mehta Business School Awards

• PPT Presentation - 3rd Prize, Gaurav Mehta & Vishal Nandkumar - Dewang Mehta Business School Awards

• Paper Presentation - 2nd Prize, Mallikaarjun Patil, Nishant Poojary & Divya Roongta - Dewang Mehta Business School Awards

Read More

Guest Lecture by Mr. V. Sarangapani

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

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

Read More