SIBM Bengaluru students get corporate insights from Alchemy

Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (SIBM) Bengaluru hosted ALCHEMY- the Management Conclave 2013.

Day 1

The discussions focused on 2 specializations: Finance and Marketing. The finance session focused on the topic “Cracking the Conundrum - From Gloom to Glory”. It began with a session from Mr. V Balasundaram, Chartered Accountant and Cost Accountant, Director of Finance, Frost and Sullivan. He talked about the economic issues that the country is facing especially about the depreciating value of rupee.

This was followed by a highly interactive panel discussion where financial corporate presented their views. The panelists were Mr. Ganesan Balakrishnan (Consultant, HP Global Analytics), Mr. Rajiv Kumar Gupta (Executive Director, Marketing at SBI Life Insurance), Mr. Ganesaraman K (AVP, Global ERP and India IS at 247 Customer), Mr. Vimal Bhutani (Head of Training, DBOI, Deutsche Bank), Mr. Prakash V (Deputy Chief Executive Officer, United Amara Bank Limited). The moderator for the session was Prof. Ravi Kumar (Placement Head and Faculty, SIBM Bengaluru).

The post lunch session started with a talk on finance by Mr. Bala Subramanium. This was followed by an insightful speech given by Ms. Renuka Krishna (AVP, Talent Acquisition Group, KPIT Cummins). She focused on the theme of Alchemy: Change, Revolutionize, Lead.

An exciting panel discussion on marketing followed these speeches. The theme of the panel discussion was “Badalta Bazaar- The Market Makeover”. The discussion focused on shifting base of marketers from urban India to rural India. The panelists were Mr. Pankaj Dubey (MD, Polaris India), Mr. Yogesh Pathak (VP and Regional Head, Kotak AMC), Mr. Narayan (Co-founder, i-Vista Digital Solutions), Mr. Sekhar Rao (Executive VP, Ratnakar Bank). The session was moderated by Prof. A Vidyasagar (Faculty at SIBM, Bengaluru).

Day 2

The highlights of the event were the keynote speakers of the day Mr. Partho Dasgupta, Managing Director of Nippon Electrical Company India Pvt. Ltd. and Mr. Sudhir Rao, Managing Director at Skoda Auto India.

Mr. Partho Dasgupta spoke on the key strategies of NEC and Blue Ocean. He mentioned how every industry is presently looking at Blue Ocean strategy and its application to the present context.  Mr. Sudhir Rao on the other hand focused on what youngsters seek in the corporate world as well as in the political sector. He mentioned that change, revolutionize & lead is an individual’s choice and should also be ready to overcome hurdles. He also mentioned that change has an inward meaning and concluded that one of the most difficult things to do is to change yourself.

The post lunch session focused on, how change is imminent & the biggest challenge today is to find a way to successfully sustain and lead in the corporate world. To enlighten the students on this profound thought Mr. Ravi Shankar who currently heads the people function at MindTree addressed the students. He has 31 years of experience in multiple fields of HR and immense knowledge on a broad range of subjects like Business Strategy, Information Technology, TQM and Service Quality. He talked about the importance of the decision making based on analytics. It gave a new perspective to look at the opportunities for the growth of an employee in an organization.

This was followed by a panel discussion where distinguished Industry experts shared their thoughts on the theme for the day “HR Painting the Moving Canvas”. The distinguished panelists were Mr. Jagadeesan Srivathsan, Talent head practice at P&G, Mr T.V. Krishamurthy, Group Manager HR TITAN, Ms. Annapurna A, HR Head for Essilor Brands at Essilor India Pvt. Ltd., Mr. Paulson Joseph, Director HR at Anexi and Mr. Phaneesh Rao, Senior Vice President and Head of Human Resources, India and Middle East at Atos India Pvt. Ltd., who was the moderator for the panel discussion. The topics of discussion were centered around Employer Branding and HR Analytics. The moderator Mr. Phaneesh Rao started off by stating that as name gives an individual an identity similarly an organization must also make an identity for it to retain, sustain and grow. The learning gathered from this discussion was how to set individual goals that align to the business goals because every employee wants to know how his/her contribution helped towards the growth of the organization.

Satkala 2013

Another event that happened simultaneously was Satkala-The Art Exhibition. It was officially inaugurated by Ms. Renuka Krishna (AVP, Talent Acquisition Group, KPIT Cummins). The theme of Satkala 2013 was “Colors of Life”. It was a corporate art exhibition showcasing talent of students from various sectors like paintings, sculpture, photography, origami and many more.

Mr Supreet Adiga from Chitrakala Parishad judged the event and gave away the results for winners in various categories. The winner were as follows:

Painting category:

1)      Pooja Swarana

2)      Ganesh Koteshwar

Photography category:

1)      Subramanya B S

2)      Ganesh Shankar

Winner of unconventional arts was Swati Singla, SIBM-Bengaluru.

Ms. Nishu Dikshit organizer of Satkala said “It was an absolute riot of color. People painted the canvas with the colors of life.”

Ms. Snehal Moon from the junior batch says “I had a great time at Satkala. It was a very interesting experience to be a part of this event. It is a great platform for us young and budding artists”.

Ms. Vela Rafiz from the organizing team says “Alchemy 2013 was woven around the theme Change, Revolutionize and Lead where business leaders and industry experts shared their profound thoughts and experiences with students. It was a two day event covering three specializations: Finance, Marketing and HR.”

Ms. Raghavi Maheshwari from the junior batch says “ Alchemy 2013 is the management conclave which saw thought provoking and insightful discussions from 21 speakers of the corporate sector.”