Guest Lecture by Mr B V Rao

The Corporate Relations Committee Sydenham Institute of Management Studies, Research and Entrepreneurship Education (SIMSREE) organised a guest lecture Mr B V Rao, News and Media Director at Reliance Industries Limited, who graced our campus with his presence on 15th November, 2014. He has over 30 years of experience in the industry, having worked as editor, group editor and also been an active visiting faculty at MICA and Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication.

The session started with an active discussion on some “housekeeping tips” which had the students in splits, following which there was an active discussion on the current state of news and media, the stars of TV media including names like Barkha Dutt, Arnab Goswami , Markandeya Katju, Rajedeep Sardesai amongst others, leading up to the business of news and media. He talked about the state of creativity and flow of idea in the media industry. There are innumerable TV channels, Magazines and newspapers in circulation today. While trying to survive in this competition of getting the highest TRPs and engaging the viewers for longer times, channels are losing out on creativity of its content. While discussing this current state, he mentioned that there is not dearth of talent but the medium has become too big for the message. For TV, it’s turning out to be a battle for content which is turn taking its toll on the art of journalism

The session slowly steered towards the things we can expect with the advent of technology and digital media, and how we can hope for a real turn around in the way things are run in the industry.

The interactive session helped the students gain a lot of insight into the business of news, stars of the media industry and the way forward. Sir encouraged open discussions and answered all the questions very patiently. We thank him for sharing his knowledge and thoughts and look forward to having further interactions with him.

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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.

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Motivational Mondays : Summer Internship interview by Ankit Lahoty

    

 Where did you do your summer internship from? What was the size of the company?

ANS : I did my internship from Barclays Shared Services (BSS). Barclays Shared Services (BSS) provides operations support and services to businesses across Barclays. It has more than 13000 employees.

       What project you worked on and what was the timeline for execution of different stages of the project?

ANS : I worked on process optimization projects, and was also trained on vendor terminals like Bloomberg and Reuters. The timeline was well defined as there were two performance reviews held during my 2-month internship. Every intern is assigned some goals after a meeting with his manager and timeline for the same is decided then.

       How did you execute the project?

ANS : I have never worked in a bank before so it was bit of a challenge to understand the processes at the first go. However, with good support from my team I was able to grasp the nuances quickly. While setting my goals, my manager asked for my suggestions and based on that we had a good discussion. So it was kind of open environment where I could give suggestions and also, where I could ask anyone for help if in doubt.

       What were the key challenges that you faced while doing your internship?

ANS : The first and foremost challenge was the shift I was working in, 5 pm to 2 am. :D. Being an early riser it was quite a task for me to stay awake. Frequent visits to coffee machine helped me during initial 4-5 days. Jokes apart, it was fun and a great learning experience.

The other challenges that I faced were just related to my project requirements for which I got support from my team.

       Tell us about your key learning’s while doing the project. What was your overall learning after the completion of the internship?

ANS : It is fun to learn new things on the job but at the same time you have to make sure that you learn them real fast and take action on them quickly.

Another important thing is communication. You need to be able to understand the requirements of your client and be able to communicate your suggestions and concerns clearly. It’s better to have a lengthy discussion at one go rather than short calls every now and then.

Barclays as an organization spends a lot of time on its employees in order to develop better professionals out of them. I learnt the importance of networking during my internship. We were also encouraged to meet directors and higher management and just have discussion with them on any topic we like.

       How supportive was your corporate mentor in the execution of the project?

ANS : I worked for two teams, so two managers (AVPs) and one senior manager (VP). And all were really supportive. They took note of my suggestions, we had discussions based on those suggestions, and I could always share my concerns with them. It was a very nice working environment and there was always some fun thing going on the floor.

      While doing your internship, how were you connected with your academic mentor at your institute?

ANS : We were not allocated any academic mentor. However I am sure if any of the students have any query ever, even after the course, our beloved HoDs and other faculty members will always be there to guide us.

      How was your interaction with other employees during your internship period? Would you like to come back to the place for a job?

ANS : Sure, I would love to. My team is a bunch of fun people and I would love to work with them again.

      Share a memorable incident from your internship days.

ANS : During a town-hall, where people from higher management address multiple teams, the country head of my vertical introduced me to the Head of Operations and appreciated the work I had done.

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Guest Lecture By Mr. Anil Talreja

On 2^nd November 2014, SIMCON organized a guest lecture by Mr. Anil Talreja, Partner at Deloitte Haskins & Sells. Mr. Talreja spoke on “Private Equity”.

Mr. Talreja started his lecture by giving the basic idea about Private Equity. He explained in very simple terms, how high net worth individuals and institutions make investments and acquire ownership in companies.

After explaining the concept of Private Equity, Mr. Talreja compared the Private Equity investments in India with those in Western countries. The discussion mainly revolved around the Private Equity investments in family owned businesses. He explained why family owned businesses in India are somewhat skeptical about the involvement of an external investor in their business.

Mr. Talreja then continued by explaining the structure of Private Equity investment. Though the structure is very complex in real life scenarios of Private Equity investments, he kept it simple by including only the most important blocks of the structure such as Investors, PE House, Management Company, Investment Company etc.

Mr. Talreja talked briefly on Venture Capitals as well. PE and VC are similar as they both are in the business of buying low and selling high. But they are different on many parameters, one of them being the target companies. While Private Equities usually target mature and underperforming companies, Venture Capitals usually target startups and early stage companies.

Mr. Talreja then discussed about some real life case studies such as Vodafone tax evasion issue which the Supreme Court ruled it in favor of Vodafone. Then Sir talked about GAAR (General anti-avoidance rules) and stressed on the importance of its implementation in India.

The lecture was very engaging wherein the students asked a lot of questions and Mr. Talreja answered them all. The students at SIMSREE found the lecture very beneficial. We thank Mr. Anil Talreja for taking time out and giving this very important lecture.

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SIMSREE Spreads Smiles

When a long awaited child was born, his parents were very happy. But as he grew up their joy began to fade. The child was differently abled ! He became a burden on his parents. They tried to take care of him but could not cope up with the pressure for too long. Helplessly,they dumped him at a famous temple in the vicinity and disappeared. The police registered a case and the boy was named ‘Billa No. 144’.  The same boy is now called ‘Shantharam’ in Asha Bhavan! Asha Bhavan at Kodoli, Satara is home to many such special children. 

On the occasion of Diwali, SIMSREE and its Student Social Responsibility Committee took the initiative of lighting up the lives of these children. We collected clothes, stationery, various other gift items and sweets and distributed the same among those children. 

Even though these children barely understood the significance of Diwali celebration, the warmth and the festivity was evident from their reaction and joy. The students of SIMSREE spent a day at the orphanage and came back home feeling enriched with the experience. And the smiles of the children only reflect that the experience was mutual! 

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The Corporate Connect - Mr. Bhavin Sanghavi

On the 19^th of September, 2014 the Corporate Relations Committee of SIMSREE organized a ‘Corporate Connect’ session wherein ten students got a chance to interact with Mr. Bhavin Sanghavi (Associate Director at BNP Paribas Securities India Pvt. Ltd.). Mr. Bhavin Sanghavi is a Chartered Accountant and has vast experience in capital markets and risk management.

The interactive session held at his office helped students of SIMSREE to get an insight into the functioning of capital markets. Sir spoke about his journey in this industry and shared some of his experience over the years.

The session started with a discussion on the recent trends in the finance industry. Sir emphasized upon the fact that change in investor sentiments towards India after the election of a stable government at the centre has resulted in a high amount of foreign capital flowing into the country. He stated the role and importance of FIIs for an emerging economy like India. For young investors, Sir stated the importance of conducting an in-depth fundamental research of a company before making any investments. He advised the students to concentrate on certain companies or sectors, study the reports and follow their stock prices on a regular basis before investing.

Sir then spoke about the various derivative instruments available and the pros and cons of each of them. He explained the risks associated with the use of derivative instruments as a tool for excessive speculation stating the example of the financial crisis of 2008.

Sir explained how dedicated apps and online portals have made it very easy and convenient for people to invest in the markets and this has resulted in a direct connection between the brokers and the investors. Furthermore, he also answered questions on topics such as Mark to Market, Asset Management, Bargain Hunting, High Frequency Trading and e-commerce.

He ended this knowledge sharing session by advising the students to have patience and self-belief and to be persistent in their efforts. He also spoke about the importance of balancing work and family life. All in all, it was a very fruitful session for all the students who got the opportunity to interact with him. We thank Sir for his time and his valuable inputs.

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Guest Lecture by Mr. Sudeep Nair

Like the age-old adage goes, “change is the only constant”, companies too have to keep transforming and reinventing themselves. But how and when do they transform themselves is the billion dollar question. To answer this question, SIMSREE Corporate Relations Committee was honored and privileged to have on campus, Mr. Sudeep Nair, Global Head – Business Transformation at Jardine Lloyd Thompson on 26th of August, 2014. Mr. Nair is an IIM Ahmedabad Alumnus and has prior experience in Cognizant, Switzerland as the Head of Cognizant Business Consulting.

To train the naïve business minds of the batch, Mr. Nair kicked off the session by giving a basic idea about how a typical business organization looks. He explained that any organization is built on three basic blocks viz. the front end, the middle office and the back end; and also mentioned that the core competency of a company comes from any of these three basic blocks.

The discussion slowly steered towards how an organization should constantly assess itself using Porter’s five forces and adapt to the changing attitude of the customers. Mr.Nair focused on the point that regulatory hurdles could also be considered as a force that could disrupt the industry.

After assessing the operating model, if an organization feels that a major overhaul is due, it should set its sights on a target operating model that it could capitalize on in the long run. This transformation roadmap can include people, process or technology. Mr. Nair mentioned that implementation is the most difficult part in any business transformation after the vision and methods are set, especially if the change involves transforming people.

After sharing insights on business transformation Mr. Nair threw the floor open for Q&A. The enthusiasm of the batch was portrayed by the number of quality questions asked by the students, which Mr. Nair answered patiently. The session gave the students an understanding of the various aspects of business transformation.

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