Everything was in place, elite panelists
sitting in front of an energetic crowd. The topic“Emerging from the global economic
turbulence- the turnaround strategy”. It was symposium- 2009. Mr. K.K. Chaudhuri,
the hounourable director of out institute started the proceedings with the
mention of the Lehman brothers, its rise and most importantly the fall. He
stressed on innovation and admitted that the next five year plan would be the
decider for the nation’s economic growth. He also had a warning that the silver
lining is not yet here, and that we could still have another “tsunami” and get
stranded in that economic wave. One of the sub-topics of the symposium was
“Financial innovation- the road to survival”. It was accepted by all that
innovation was the key to survival and more importantly growth. One of our panelist,
Mr. S.B Mookerjee, Asst. Director, Talbot Asset talked about the reasons for innovation. He
stated that imperfections in a system are one of the major causes for
innovation. He talked about globalisation and its role in the innovation of the
economy. The roadblocks to innovations were also discussed upon. According to
him, We live in a funny era, where borders are erased everyday as we are
becoming a global village. But on the political side we are creating more
borders! Issues like the sub-prime
crises were talked about and steps necessary to prevent such crises were
discussed. One of the solutions given by Mr. Mookerjee was the implementation
of IFRS which according to him was a step in the right direction. Mrs. Veena
Hingarh talked about the IFRS(International Financial Reporting Status), its
ares of focus, and its usage in various industries. She had an in-depth
analysis of the IFRS and brilliantly explained its importance in our turbulent
economy. Mr. K.S. Singhwan, Chief GM, SIDBI expertise as a banker was shown in
the talk where he mentioned about the RBI, its policies and also about the
innovation that the banks and other financial institutions should take to come
out of this situation. The success of this interaction was clearly seen by the
questions asked by the students paying attention to each of the detailed
analysis of the expert panelists. In return they were more than happy to
clarify their doubts.
HR session
An opportunity doesn’t come to you, you
yourself have to create one. Symposium 2009 was one of the opportunities which
this institute created for its students. One of the best methods of education
is discussions, well this method was followed quite religiously by our
institute and they presented us the chance of listening to some of the most
experienced people in the industry. So that when we go and join the rat race
after our MBA we are better equipped to face it.It is the human element which makes an
organization and not sole profit or equipment. Even the most sophisticated
equipment and machinery fail if you don’t have the right talent. Human resource
as a subject has been introduced and gained high importance in management with
the expansions of organization in management. It is one of the most difficult
and uncertain field which is related to the human aspect of the organization.
Ergo, the study of the human element of an organization is very important for a
student of management who is about to enter the industry. And what better
teachers than the people from the industry itself coming and sharing their
experiences with them.
The second session of the symposium was
related to human resources. The topic for the discussion was Talent Management
– an innovative and creative practice. The panel consisted of three esteemed
speakers who were introduced by our own faculty, Prof. Robin Sen Gupta.Mr.Chiradip Bandyopadhyay, Head HR, IMRB was the one to kick start the discussion. The
main focus of his discussion was the fundamentals of talent management. After a
kind of theoretical discussion,Mr. Gautam Chakraborty, GM HR, Haldia
Petrochemicals came forward with his version of Talent management. He focused
his talk more on the grooming and overall development of the employees. The
talk was quite interesting as he was giving us personal inputs.Last to take on the podium was Col. (Retd.)
Shivaji Samaddar. They say the people from the forces are the best managers to
be ever born; he proved the thought quite right. Col. Samaddar is the HR
representative of Ambuja Realty.They all described talent, in their own
distinct way, as an essential resource for any organization. Hence, it’s
necessary to carve and mould it in a way which extracts the optimum usage from
it. This is management lingo called EVP (Employee Value Proposition).
Unlike other resources, talent is what is
concerned with a highly volatile and complex source – Human being.
Consequently, it requires high knowledge and study of the human behaviour to
bring out the best in your employees. It is the changing times and shifting
needs that is requiring for a talent management. A talent therefore cannot be
bought. It will only be useful when it is developed.
MARKETING
Session
Innovative
Marketing Strategies and Growth Opportunities
Symposium served as a fruitful learning experience for the
students of AIM-K. The panel of members consisted of Mr.Deodatt Brand Manager,
TATA Steel, Mr. L.B Singh, V.P, Matches Business, ITC and Dipak Sen Gupta,
A.V.P, Nestle India Ltd (Sales East). The seminar was conducted by highly
knowledgeable senior managers from the corporate set up. This helped us a great
deal in getting an insight of how the companies are working at re-inventing and
innovating their existing marketing strategies in order to cope with the fierce
competition and also the economic turbulence. The esteemed speakers spoke about
the different innovative marketing strategies adopted by different FMCG
companies, telecom industries giving us a proper understanding of the nature of
innovativeness undertaken by them.
The
various factors which affect a company when venturing into the different folds
of the market were also discussed. Also, the growth opportunities i.e. where a
company can look to capture the untapped market or resources were mentioned by
the august panel of speakers. Another vital topic that arose from this
discussion was the need for new inventive plans in the ‘STP model’. If the
segmentation, targeting and positioning aspects of marketing were further
expanded by introducing challenges and opportunities faced by the company, it
would give a holistic approach to any organisation.
