The Supply Chain Summit 2015 – A Success Story

SKEIN, the Supply Chain and Operations Club of IIM Udaipur in collaboration with State Bank of India successfully conducted The Supply Chain Summit’15, second edition of the annual Supply Chain Symposium on 14^th February, 2015. The clubs and committees of IIMU give ample opportunities to its students to master the tapestry of learning and holistic development while getting hands on experience in organizing events. SKIEN’s constant endeavor remains imparting the students of IIMU the latest knowledge from the World of Supply Chain. It is an initiative to bring together Supply Chain enthusiasts from academia, the local community and industry alike and provide a platform where global leaders can share their opinions and views on supply chain through engagement in panel discussions and thus provide valuable insights to the students.

The event flagged off with an opening speech from Prof. Janat Shah – Director, IIMU who presented his vision for the institute with strong emphasis on research, analysis and entrepreneurship. The umbrella theme for this Supply Chain Summit 2015 was “From Apple to Apple – Supply Chain Transformation”, aptly developed around the global Supply Chain evolving activities and the prominent opportunities in the sector in future. The theme throws light on the transformation that took place from selling of apples in grocery stores to developing and implementing innovative supply chain technologies in companies such as Apple Inc.

The run-up to the event saw numerous online and on-campus competitions being held, with teams from the best B-schools across the country joining the event for battling their knowledge out in the arena in front of the judges.

The event saw two important panel discussions between eminent corporate leaders. The first panel discussion with the sub-theme, “Make in India: How Supply Chain can help achieve the Dream” had panelists Mr. Ajay Jhalani – Head Supply Chain (CHEP India Pvt. Ltd.) , Mr. Chandramohan Gupta – Director Supply Chain (Coca Cola – India and SW Asia),  Mr. Shyamal Chatterjee – Head India Operations (Tupperware) , and Mr. Vinal Kabra -Global Supply Manager (Apple Inc., California). The vast experience these professionals had helped in an engaging and enriching discussion with various strata of Supply Chain management touched upon like Sustainability of Make in India, Importance of Analytics in the field of Supply Chain, protecting the margins in businesses, amalgamation of frontend and backend processes, and problems pertaining to warehousing and storage of food in India. The panel mentioned that roughly 12-14% of India’s GDP goes into logistics and similarly 80% of the price of the product also comprises of supply chain. They also threw light on the importance of new managers coming into the industry and the expectation from them. The speakers discussed about plethora of issues ranging from integration with suppliers, Squeezing of working capital & its profitability, Accurate Demand aggregation, and enhancement in Cold Chain infrastructure.

The second panel discussion revolved around the sub-theme, “E-Commerce in India: Competitive Advantage through Innovations in Supply Chain” with the panelists Mr. Hrishikesh Pore – Head Grocery Online (My247Market.com – A TATA Enterprise) , Mr. Navneet Rai – Co-founder (Tolexo) and Mr. Jayant Mahto – VP Operations (Firstcry.com). The panel discussed about how e-commerce has brought the once backend process of a business i.e supply chain to front end. They discussed the dilemma of maintaining a site that offers products both perishable and nonperishable products.  The panel discussion was mainly interaction driven with students asking questions specifically related to e-commerce industry as well as companies that the panelists are representing. The panelists also discussed the benefits of e-commerce as compared to the traditional method of shopping offline.

The event ended with a felicitation of the speakers and a vote of thanks. The Supply Chain Summit’15 was a resounding success with speakers and participants alike, appreciating the seamless organization of the entire event and the insights they gained through the discussions.

Foundation Stone Laying Ceremony of IIM Udaipur

The much awaited foundation stone laying ceremony of IIM Udaipur was held on 13^th February, 2015 at the site of the institute’s upcoming campus at Balicha, Udaipur.

The Balicha campus, which is spread over an expanse of 253 acres, is set to be the largest IIM campus in the country. The campus will have state of the art facilities in terms of both academics and extra-curricular activities, to facilitate holistic development of its students. In accordance with IIM Udaipur’s constant endeavor to be environment-friendly, particular emphasis is being laid on ensuring that the new campus is a green campus, with over fifty percent of space being reserved for parks. The new campus will also house twenty-seven water bodies of different sizes.

With the vision of setting new standards for sustainable and energy efficient academic institutions, construction of the new campus was initiated on barren land of 300 acres which was devoid of vegetation. With the help of xeriscaping and added area research, a green belt is being created which will be an inspiration for the native arid zone. Traditional water harvesting systems are being employed, to create a self-sustainable campus in terms of water demand, which will help neighbouring villages and surrounding zones to achieve water efficiency. In terms of green technology, the highlight of the new campus is that it will be a net zero-waste campus where all waste will be treated as a resource.

The ceremony began with the unveiling of the foundation stone by the Chief Guest, Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani – Union Minister of Human Resource Development, Government of India. The event also had Smt. Vasundhara Raje – Chief Minister of Rajasthan as the Guest of Honour.

Post the unveiling of the foundation stone, the lighting of the lamp was done by Smt. Smriti Irani and Smt. Vasundhara Raje. The welcome address was then given by Shri. C. K. Birla, Chairman – Board of Governors, IIM Udaipur. Mr. Birla spoke about the role of management institutes as a bridge between academia and industry. He also mentioned that the vision of IIM Udaipur is being committed to research and generation of new knowledge in the field of management. IIM Udaipur would be achieving this, through its mission to inculcate values that will guide the journey of its students as leaders. Mr. Birla also discussed at length about IIM Udaipur’s emphasis on development of the region and on constantly striving to be a world class institute.

Smt. Vasundhara Raje heralded the laying of IIM Udaipur’s foundation stone, as a very prestigious event for the region. She emphasized on the need for IIM Udaipur to become a Centre of Excellence for Rajasthan.

Smt. Smriti Irani then addressed the audience and mentioned the laying of the foundation stone as an initiative to give substance to the dreams of many aspiring students. Ms. Irani also discussed about initiatives that should be taken up at IIM Udaipur, namely world class water management research that would benefit the entire state of Rajasthan, adoption of five surrounding villages by the institute to help improve their standard of living, use of agro-based industry skill development technologies from India and abroad at the institute, and development of a centre for tourism and hospitality on the campus.

Prof. Janat Shah, Director – IIM Udaipur then expressed his gratitude to all individuals, organizations and especially the Centre and State of Rajasthan, for their unwavering commitment and support. Some of the other dignitaries who attended the ceremony were Shri Arjun Lal Meena – MP (Lok Sabha), Shri Phool Singh Meena, MLA – Udaipur Rural, Shri Kewal Nohria, Member – Board of Governors, IIM Udaipur, Shri Shailendra Kumar, Director (Management) – MHRD, Govt. of India, Shri Ashwini Bhagat, Secretary – Higher Education, Govt. of Rajasthan, Prof. I.V. Trivedi, Vice Chancellor – Mohan Lal Sukhadia University, Shri Bhawani Singh Detha – Tribal Commissioner and Shri. Rajendra Pawar, Chariman – NIIT & Member – Board of Governors, IIM Udaipur.

The ceremony came to an end with the playing of the National Anthem. With the laying of the foundation stone, work on the new campus has begun in full swing. Future batches of IIM Udaipur can look forward to moving to a campus with world class amenities that is known for the competitive students it produces, as also for its constant efforts to build a sustainable campus that works with the local community to create an ecology that is beneficial to both the institute and the region.

Arth Samvaad 2015 – The Finance Conclave of IIM Udaipur

Arth-Samvaad is the flagship event of Finomina – the Finance Club of IIM Udaipur. Continuing the success story of previous 2 editions of Arth-Samvaad, the third edition of Arth-Samvaad assures an enriching experience with immense learning through panel discussions and various inter-college competitions. In tune with previous editions, we plan to host some of the most eminent personalities from the financial domain.

Arth-Samvaad aims at the fact that, the future managers should get to know about the current trends in the industry and how the various macro and micro-economic factors interact in order to affect the way business is done all over the world. It is a platform to deliberate on developments in the world of FINANCE.

This year we look at rethinking “Decades of Financial Folly” where the Panel discussion will try to unravel the cause for this euphoria and brainstorm whether the history will repeat itself again or not!

Events:

Slot 1: Panel Discussion

“Rethink: Decades of Financial Folly: Will it be different this time?”

Esteemed guests for the event are:

• Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Partner – Bain & Company
• Mr. Sriram Krishnan, Director – Citibank N.A.
• Mr. Umesh Agrawal, Executive Director – Investment Banking, Axis Capital
• Mr. Niraj Karia, Senior Vice-President – Kotak Mahindra Capital

Slot 2: Vitt Sangram

‘Vitt-Sangram’, is a series of competitions organized by Finomina as a pre-cursor to Arth-Samvaad 2015.

The Great Debate Challenge

We began with two rounds of prelims for our Debate Challenge. First round required the participants to submit articles on the topics; ‘Oil break’ – short term or here to stay? And has RBI killed the Euphoria by delaying the rate-cut? The second round consisted of a 3 minute video submission on the topic “Increasing Regulations on Financial Institutions is Good”. The video was evaluated by an expert panel of faculty members. The finalists who will be battling it out in the grand finale are from IIM Lucknow, IMT-Gaziabad, NMIMS Bangalore and IIM Udaipur.

Workshop on M&A

Finomina, as part of its flagship event, Arth-Samvaad ‘15 is organizing a case study workshop on Mergers and Acquisitions to be conducted by Mr. V.S. Sundaresan, Chief General Manager, SEBI. It is an opportunity to get the expert guidance on the Takeover process and M&A Deals along with first-hand industry insights. The participants will be awarded a ‘Certificate of Participation’ for the workshop.

Slot 3: Face Off

Face Off is a showdown between a stalwart speaker and a panel of students from the college. Mr.V.S. Sundaresan, Chief General Manager, SEBI will interact with a student panel on some interesting but contentious topics, utility of which is hugely debated when it comes to practice Vs theory.

The Quizzing Challenge

This will be a Two- Phased online quizzing challenge focused on the financial world where prizes will be awarded to the colleges that get the highest scores at the end of the challenge. Being a two-phased quiz competition, it will see only the best make it to the top and the league rankings. It will generate inter-college competition of a new dimension and will see participants from all over India.

Check out more details at-

Website: http://finomina.iimu.ac.in/arthsamvaad/arth-samvaad-15/

FB page: https://www.facebook.com/FinominaIIMU

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Finomina_IIMU

Mail: finomina@iimu.ac.in

The Leadership Summit 2014 organized at IIM Udaipur concludes on a successful note!

Indian Institute Management Udaipur hosted the third edition of its annual flagship event, The Leadership Summit 2014 on 23^rd August, 2014 at the Durbar Hall, City Palace, Udaipur.

The Leadership Summit is a student-driven initiative which is organized by the Media and Industry Cell (MiiC) of IIMU. The event serves as a platform for corporate leaders to share their opinions and views on select themes through diverse engaging panel discussions. The panelists comprise of distinguished leaders from industries and academia. The objective of the summit is to get unique insights from the leaders and get to understand the direction in which the economies, corporate policy making and businesses are heading viz-a-viz globalization and competition. The first two editions of The Leadership Summit have been immensely successful. The umbrella theme for the Leadership Summit 2014 was “RETHINK: A paradigm shift in the Leadership Trends of India“.

The event began with a Welcome Address by Prof. Janat Shah – Director, IIM Udaipur. Prof. Shah laid emphasis on the initiatives on which the institute has a strong focus such as Immersion, Research, Analytics, Entrepreneurship and Social Responsibility.

Dr. V Raghunathan – CEO, GMR Varalakshmi Foundation & Ex-President, ING Vysya Bank served as the Chief Guest in the event. Mr. Puneet Dalmia – MD, Dalmia Group of Industries was the Keynote Speaker. Both the leaders laid emphasis on the need of a social purpose behind every leadership initiative.

The event had three student moderated panel discussions. First Panel’s theme was “Rethink Approach: How to think, act and lead in this era of Globalization?” with participating speakers, Mr. Balaji R. Narayanswamy – General Manager, Mindtree, Mr. Sukanti Ghosh – Member of Global Management Committee, APCO Worldwide and Mr. Vishal Mathur – VP Sales, Eicher Motors. The panelists discussed the key challenges faced in Globalization, skills and opportunities present in going Global.

Second Panel’s topic of discussion was “Rethink Boundaries: Can we learn Leadership from boundaries beyond corporate world?” with participants Mr. Ramkumar – Executive Director, ICICI Bank Limited, Mr. Praveen Mathur – Major General (Retd.) & Advisor, Director General Hydrocarbons, Ministry of Petroleum, Mr. M P Vasimalai – IIMA Alumnus & Founder, DHAN Foundation and Mr. Kalyan S. Bose – Senior Volunteer, SPIC MACAY. The panelists discussed the various facets of leadership development citing examples from multiple avenues.

Third Panel saw discussions on the theme “Rethink Convention: Women in Leadership Roles – Changing the rules of the game!” with panelists Ms. Arnabi Marjit – GM-HR, Lupin Pharma, Ms. Namrata Gill – VP, Organizational Development and Talent Management, Mahindra and Mahindra and Ms. Neelima Khetan – GM, Sustainability and CSR, Coca-Cola India. The speakers discussed in detail about the challenges faced by women in the corporate world, the possible solutions and the changing landscape in the business world.

The event also saw a special segment on Big Ideas Session delivered by Mr. Sanjay Panigrahi – CEO, Sahaj e Village Ltd. who spoke largely on the Rural India and the potential of management principles application in the sector.

The event received a very good response and concluded with felicitation of the speakers and vote of thanks. The event is a student driven initiative of IIMU which aims to bring the business community of Udaipur, global leaders, faculty and students of IIMU on a common platform where they can exchange knowledge and insights and work towards establishing possible future sustainable partnerships.

Vedanta Group served as the Title Sponsor of the event while Wonder Cement helped as the Associate Sponsor of the event. Along with them, many other organizations came forward to extend their help in organizing this event. The other sponsors of the event were:

Media Partner: Rajasthan Patrika

Co-Sponsor: Eve’s Corporate Channels India Private Limited

Organizational Partner: UCCI

Printing Partner: Lucky Offset Printers

Magazine Partner: City Angle Lifestyle Magazine

Supporting Sponsors: Aravali Minerals & Chemical Industries Private Limited and Shree Rajasthan Syntex Limited

Mall Partner: Lake City Mall

IIM Udaipur successfully hosted the second edition of its annual HR Conclave – Spandan 2014!

Indian Institute of Management, Udaipur successfully hosted the second edition of its annual HR Conclave – Spandan 2014 on 3^rd August, 2014 at Hotel Radisson Blu, Udaipur.

Carrying forward the legacy from the last year’s inception of Spandan, this year’s conclave was conceptualized around the central umbrella theme, “Rethink: Changing HR practices with Changing Times”. The event began with an opening address by Prof. Janat Shah – Director, IIM Udaipur. He spoke on the importance of collaboration of academia and industry on a common platform like Spandan for discussions critical for the reinvention of the HR Industry. Prof. Shah also laid stress on the IIMU’s strong focus on Research, Analytics, Immersion in the three forms of Rural, Corporate & Global Immersion and Entrepreneurship & Intrapreneurship in his speech. He also threw light on the student driven initiatives through different clubs and committees at IIMU citing the example of Spandan been organized entirely by dHRuva – The HR Club of IIM Udaipur.

Prof. Sunil Maheshwari – Adjunct Faculty, IIM Ahmedabad and Ex-Advisor to the HRD Ministry, Govt. of India, served as the Keynote Speaker in the conclave. Prof. Maheshwari brought in his research statistics in his speech which showcased the changing trends in HR and the challenges posed to it in the current scenario. His mathematical study was based on a survey on leadership traits collected from a sample of MDP candidates who occupy top leadership positions in India and the persistent need-gap analysis in their skills. He concluded his speech with mentioning the importance of investment in faculty development and pedagogy modification with time in management schools.

The event then proceeded with panel discussions on the three sub-themes for the summit:

• Rethinking Convention: Implications & consequences of social, mobile and digital media on HR practices
• Rethink Approach: Are the present leadership programmes creating ‘leaders’ or ‘followers’?
• Rethinking Structures: Pyramid organizational structures to job sharing and part-time/flexi-roles: Implications & Consequences

The participating corporate leaders in the discussions were Mr. Aashish Singh – VP Head HR, Sutherland Global, Ms. Padma Rajeswari Tata – Senior Dr. & Head, Dr. Reddy’s, Mr. Sugato Palit – Exec. Dir HR & Admin, Experion, Mr. Vinod Rai – Head Corp. HR, Maruti Suzuki, Mr. Ashwani Prashara – Head HR & IR, RIL, Mr. Prabhu Aggarwal – Chief Learning Officer, Jindal Steel, Mr. G. Ravishankar – President HR & Strategy, CRISIL, Mr. Debaprata Mahapatra – Head HR Elec. & Auto IC, L&T, Ms. Sangeeta Malkhede – Assoc. VP HR, CSS Corp, Mrs. Sangeeta Singh – Partner, Sanguine Consultants and Mr. Vinod Behari – Exec. Dir. HR, RECL.

The key things highlighted in the discussions were usage of social media in employee engagement & networking, technology, communication, feedback and references. Traits of a leader, differentiation between a leader and a follower, main hindrances in current leadership development and initiatives and strategies in different industries taken for leadership development, were also focused in the discussions. Organizations strive towards adopting best HR practices and to align HR strategies with the organizational strategies to succeed in the long run. Hence, the emerging practices like pyramid organizational structures and change management were also brought in the discussions by the panelists.

The interactions were enhanced by the questions put up by the students and faculties in the audience during the panel discussions. The event was very well received by the IIMU community. Kathan 2014, the second edition of the annual HR Magazine of dHRuva – The HR Club of IIM Udaipur was also released marking the success of the event. IRIS – The Photography Club of IIM Udaipur helped in covering the event by capturing pictures and videos. The event concluded with the felicitation of the eminent speakers of the event and a vote of thanks.

IIM Udaipur aims to set new benchmarks in the field of management education and research and events like this come under the channel of initiatives aiming to create a platform for discussing subjects and issues that are most relevant to the current times and future trends.

The underlying purpose of the event is to bridge the gap between the industry and academics providing students with an opportunity to understand the dynamics of HR domain and to enrich the knowledge and perception of HR practices from the interactions with the experienced corporate leaders.

IIM Udaipur presents the second edition of its annual HR Conclave – Spandan’14 – One day to go!

Indian Institute of Management, Udaipur presents the second edition of its annual HR Conclave – Spandan 2014 to be hosted on 3^rd August, 2014 at Hotel Radisson Blu, Udaipur.

IIM Udaipur aims to set new benchmarks in the field of management education and research and events like this come under the channel of initiatives aiming to create a platform for discussing subjects and issues that are most relevant to the current times and future trends. Carrying forward the legacy from the last year’s inception of Spandan, this year’s edition is conceptualized around the central theme of “Rethink: Changing HR practices with Changing Times”. The conclave will see the participation of learned practitioners on the likes of Mr. Rajeev Bhadauria, Director Group HR, Jindal Steel & Power Ltd and Mr. Vinod Rai, Head – Corporate HR, Maruti Suzuki from the field of Human Resource Management who will share their insights and knowledge with the student managers of IIMU.

A drive towards adopting best HR Practices remains the top level strategic challenge for business organization in today’s complex corporate environments. With the aim to explore the transformation in HR practices to cater to the new business priorities of modern times, the umbrella theme will be explored by the esteemed speakers in panel discussions on three sub-themes:

• Rethinking Convention: Implications & consequences of social, mobile and digital media on HR practices
• Rethink Approach: Are the present leadership programmes creating ‘leaders’ or ‘followers’?
• Rethinking Structures: Pyramid organizational structures to job sharing and part-time/flexi-roles: Implications & Consequences

Spandan’s inaugural edition, held on 20^th October 2013 at The Sheraton, Udaipur focused on the theme “Transforming HR for new business practices” with distinguished participants like Dr. T. V. Rao popularly known as the Father of Indian HR, Mr. Bomi Manekshaw – President HR, Cadilla, Mr. Rajandra Ambekar – Global HR Head, Wipro, Mr. Ganesh Ramakrishnan – Senior Director HR, Oracle Financial Services among others participating in the summit.

The underlying purpose of the event is to bridge the gap between the industry and academics providing students with an opportunity to understand the dynamics of HR domain and to enrich the knowledge and perception of HR practices from the interactions with the experienced corporate leaders.

Things which differentiate IIM Udaipur – Faculty!

Great educational institutions have faculties and academics as their biggest assets. The most important element which plays a critical role in IIM Udaipur’s objective of imparting quality education is the faculty team at the institute. The selection process of faculty at IIMU is designed to consistently attract the best of the teaching and research talents from the PhD programmes of India and abroad. While putting together the faculty team, the practitioners and academicians are tested for excellent potential in their respective domains. Prominent faculties from the top B-Schools of India like IIMA, IIMB, IIMC etc. also visit to bolster the academic wealth of IIMU.

IIM Udaipur has over 22 permanent and over 30 visiting core faculties contributing to a faculty to student ratio of 1:5.5. This ensures personalized attention to the students resulting in their better learning, grooming and hence forth, transformation. The number of research and working papers published in the journals across the globe within just three years on inception reflect that some of the best management research work is carried out in the IIMU campus.

The faculty incorporates best pedagogical means and practices comparable to those followed in the best B-Schools of world in the development of students. The craft of teaching and the methodologies of deliveries are complemented by the well-equipped infrastructure of the institute and technologies like research tools, digital library platforms, latest journals and Bloomberg Financial analysis & research lab.

The current faculty force includes professors, researchers and consultants with significant experiences in the field of teaching. Senior industry professionals also join the permanent faculty for lecturing the students about their business acumen. Intellectual entrepreneurs who have created enterprises executing business strategies blending with ideas also contribute in the learning process of students in sync with another pillar of the institute, entrepreneurship. The academic curriculum of the institute is overseen by Prof. Jahar Saha, Former Director – IIM Ahmedabad. The visiting faculty of IIMU has prominent names on the likes of Prof. Jagdeep S. Chokkar, Former Dean – IIM Ahmedabad and Co-Founder of Association of Democratic Rights Foundation (ADR) which recently bagged the IBN and NDTV Indian of the Year Awards. Other pioneers in their own rights of different management domains like Prof. Ramesh Bhat (IIMA), Prof. L. S. Murthy (IIMB), Prof. Sunil Unny Guptan (IIMA) and Prof. Janat Shah, Director – IIMU join the list of faculties teaching at the institute.

Each faculty of the institute is aligned to the goals, vision and values of the institute and dedicatedly prepares the students for responsible positions they would take up in various management roles. All faculty members are always approachable and their guidance and support is available to students and alumni even outside the classrooms for tutorials, live projects, internships, placements preparation, job guidance and clubs & committees events. IIMU possesses the potential of best teaching minds and has a long term aim to become the hub of management research in the country.