Guest Lecture by Mr. Sachin Khandelwal

On 20th of August, 2015, Mr. Sachin Khandelwal, an alumnus of the 1992 batch, was welcomed by the Alumni Committee back on campus for a guest lecture to address the junior batch. Mr. Sachin Khandelwal has over two decades of experience in the finance and banking industries and is currently the CEO and MD of Magma Housing Finance and Chief Sales Officer at Magma Fincorp.

Mr. Khandelwal started the lecture by stating the value of a management education. Sir then opened the floor to questions and students came up with a variety of questions ranging from general ones related to the syllabus and specializations to specific questions about the finance industry. Mr. Khandelwal answered all of the students’ questions with ease and poise.

Mr. Khandelwal spoke about the causes of financial crises and the importance of sticking to the basics. Sir then emphasized the value of inter-personal relationships. Sir also mentioned the changing world order and the importance of regulations. Sir spoke about the need to understand every discipline of management since every job requires an interplay of various management disciplines. Sir then underscored the need to know oneself well and encouraged each student to align current opportunities with their dreams. Sir urged students to innovate and watch out for competing products from related industries.

Mr. Khandelwal explained to students the need to work hard and look for projects that are related to their field of interest to gain experience and start practicing. Sir stressed on the significance of following one’s passion with conviction. Sir mentioned the importance of managing people and time and maintaining a healthy work-life balance.

The batch enjoyed the lecture and was encouraged by Mr. Khandelwal to introspect regularly and follow their passion. We thank Mr. Khandelwal for visiting the campus and sharing his valuable insights with the batch.

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Guest Lecture by Mr. Sanjay Behl

On 23^rd July 2015, as part of the induction program for the incoming batch of 2015-2017, the SIMSREE Alumni Committee was proud to host the Guest Lecture by Mr. Sanjay Behl, one of the most illustrious Alumni of the 1993 batch. Having more than 20 years of experience in the field of Sales and Marketing with prestigious companies like HUL, Nokia and Reliance Communications, Mr Behl is now the CEO of Raymond Ltd.

Mr Behl enlightened the students by sharing thoughts on his own corporate life in the field of marketing. He started the session by speaking about the beginning of his career, as an Area Sales Manager in HUL. Being strongly associated with dish-washing soaps and detergents, he spoke about the difficulties faced by the brand in reaching out to the masses, especially in rural India, where other alternatives such as ash were widely being used as cleaning agents. The students were fascinated to know about how advertisements and branding played a very crucial role in overcoming these limitations.

The batch learnt plenty from this enlightening and interactive session. We look forward to several such interactions with Mr Behl in the future.

He further spoke about the different experiences associated with the various brands and products he worked with in HUL, as a Brand Manager and then as a Marketing Manager. He explained to the students of how a strong inclination towards technology helped him take the important decision of switching from an FMCG company to work with Nokia and thereafter with Reliance Communications. The corporate experiences that he shared left the students intrigued. Thereafter, moving onto Raymond Ltd. where he currently serves as the CEO, Mr Behl gave insights of how technology plays a key role in the global textile major and passionately spoke about the aspirations of the company, especially in Indian and European markets.

Towards the end of the session, Mr Behl emphasized on the importance of constant innovation and change for any brand to sustain. He spoke about how disruptive technology creates a revolution and how it is important for the company as well as individuals to connect the dots to survive and progress in the competitive world today. He advised the students that the key to success is to stay passionate, take keen interest and understand core business concepts. The session concluded with a round of queries, which Mr Behl answered enthusiastically, much to the delight of the students.

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Guest Lecture by Mr. Vivek Bhatnagar

On the 4^th of September, the Alumni Committee welcomed Mr. Vivek Bhatnagar, an alumnus of the 1994 batch, for a guest lecture to address the junior batch. Mr. Vivek Bhatnagar has more than two decades of experience in sales and marketing and is currently the General Manager at Johnson & Johnson Vision care.

The topic of discussion for the session was ‘Sales Channel’. Sir explained the concept of ‘Sales channel’ by giving an analogy that sales channel is like a fluid flowing through pipes and that, size of the pipe, velocity of the fluid and other aspects should be balanced so as to make the flow smooth. Likewise, balancing of types of Sales channel is a must. Sir defined Sales channel as a conduit that helps bring product or service to a place where the customer may buy from. Types of sales channel such as traditional retail, wholesale, e-commerce, door to door, B2B and B2C, modern trade were discussed. This discussion was followed by an explanation on various features of all the types of Sales Channels and their role in describing product features, helping trials, experiencing the product, providing assortment, providing complimentary products, defraying cost pre/ during/ post purchase support.

This discussion was then followed by an interesting task given by Sir. The batch was divided into two groups; both the groups were asked to decide the best sales channel for the product assigned to them which were, 300gram dove soap and new body deodorant, respectively. The groups came up with satisfactory strategies and Sir added value to their solutions by giving inputs.

By sharing his real life experiences Sir explained that products that are well established can be sold through all channels and also discussed various methods of selecting the right channel for a product. The session concluded with Sir explaining the importance of balance of sales channel, strategies to place product and planning to avoid channel conflicts.

Students raised doubts pertaining to various methodologies used for channeling products in to the market which were answered by Sir by giving practical examples. The batch thoroughly enjoyed the session. We thank Mr. Bhatnagar for visiting the campus and sharing his valuable insights.

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Guest Lecture by Mr. Albert Almeida

On 23th of July, 2015, Alumni Committee welcomed Mr. Albert Almeida (COO, Hungama Mobile) - an alumnus of the batch of 1989- on SIMSREE campus to address the new batch.

Mr. Almeida started the lecture by reminiscing about his two years at SIMSREE .A feeling of nostalgia took over him when he greeted eager students.

Mr. Almeida spoke about the importance of these two years and advised students spend this time wisely as these crucial years will never come back. Sir passionately spoke about his experiences in the college and about how he would do things differently given a chance to revisit these two years.

Mr. Almeida advised the students to keep an open mind and explore all the possibilities before settling for their jobs. Sir explained the importance of following one’s passion and marrying it with their means of living. Sir’s advice was to always go with gut feeling in every important situation in life.

                                            

Mr. Almeida then shared with the batch his journey after college and his stints in advertising agencies and media houses. Sir spoke about his experiences and learnings in these years and how every job taught him something new.

In the later part of the lecture sir opened the floor for questions and cleared all the doubts of the students.

Mr. Almeida’s inspiring words left students with food for thought and gave them a different perspective to look at these two years of management. Sir’s lecture motivated students to follow their dreams and never give up on their passions.

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Coffee With Alumni - Mr. Sameer Kanwar

On 25^th July, the budding management aspirants of SIMSREE were pleased to have the opportunity of interacting with Mr Sameer Kanwar, an alumnus of the 1995 MMS Batch. Mr. Kanwar is currently the General Partner at Basil Growth Corporation. Previously, he was the Director at Powerdesk. In the ‘Coffee With Alumni’ session organised by the Alumni Committee in the college campus, the students had a very friendly and meaningful conversation with Mr Sameer over coffee and snacks.

With about 20 years of expertise in the information & technology and services and a great deal of experience in the private equity sector, Mr. Kanwar shared with the students an overview of his entire corporate journey. He spoke to the students about the immense learning he gained in his career including his one year stint in the core IT sector at Essar Information Technology Ltd, where he realised the need to bring about a change and thus decided to plan for MBA. He also spoke about how it was to be a part of Parametric Technology Corporation as the Regional Manager and head things there. He shared his experience about being a part of the merger which took place between APAR Tech and NESS Technologies, during his stint at NESS Technologies.

Mr Kanwar gave a brief overview about how things work in a private equity firm and how the entire process of selecting, accepting and rejecting the decision of investing in a particular start up or a firm goes about. He explained the risks involved in making such decisions and also the future scope in it. Replying to a volley of questions and clearing the doubts of the students, the session came to an end.

With the industry insights gained through this interactive session, the students enjoyed the session and benefitted thoroughly. We would like to extend our sincere gratitude to Mr Sameer Kanwar for agreeing to spend time with the students.

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Coffee With Alumni - Ms. Nafisa Thingna

It was a bright sunny day in the month of gloomy July when a few chosen students got an opportunity to meet Ms. Nafisa Thingna (Vice President at The Times of India), alumna of the 1984 batch. The Coffee with Alumni session, organised by the Alumni Committee of the college as a part of the induction program, took place on 27^th of July, in the conference room at our very own institute. Having over 28 years of experience with Times Group and in the media marketing sector, Ms. Thingna gave us a peek into the management world. The session was engaging as she answered our curious questions and also shared her knowledge with us.

The session began with Ms. Thingna giving us a brief insight about her company, her career, her role as the Vice President. The details she shared about career growth paths and various opportunities in the industry, were particularly motivating and intuitive. Over the course of interaction with students, Ms. Thingna shared her experiences about marketing strategies, role of the salesforce and TOI initiatives in CSR. She also enlightened us about revenue gathering, changing media trends, differential editorial policies, advertising strategies and diversification of print and digital media. Ms. Thingna even tackled the divisive questions and topics in a poised manner.

The students found the session immensely beneficial and look forward to more such interactions. We are extremely grateful to Ms. Thingna for taking time out of her busy schedule and spend time with the students.

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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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