As one of Asia's finest business schools, SPJIMR has persistently built on its unique strengths of imparting high quality management education by emphasizing on twin objectives of 'Influencing Practice' and 'Promoting Value Based Growth'. SPJIMR strives to integrate education with action oriented research, team building activities and simulation exercises, thereby orienting management studies to meet the challenges of an ever changing business environment.

At the institute, several concurrent initiatives have been undertaken over the years, primarily to foster business-academia integration. Amongst them, SPJIMR Academic Conclave, scheduled from January 14 to 17, 2010, stands out as a major one. It facilitated mutual understanding of strengths and challenges, through focused discussions, seminars, symposiums, and trigger thoughts and insights into current and relevant issues, faced by managers of today.

Operations Management Symposium

SPJIMR Operations Management Symposium, part of the four-day SPJIMR Student Academic Conclave, was held on 14 January 2010. The symposium addressed some of the key issues in achieving the mantra to sustain competitiveness in this fast changing world. "Enhancing Corporate Competitiveness through Supply Chain Management" was the apt choice of theme for conducting the symposium, first in the series of five which primarily focus on business-academia integration. The panel speakers and participants included dignitaries from academia as well the corporate world.

The keynote speaker Dr. Arabinda Tripathy, Professor & Dean, Vinod Gupta School of Management IIT Kharagpur, set the ball rolling by throwing some light on the common initiative taken up to achieve the 3 A's Agility, Ability and Adaptability - VMI, Postponement strategy, IT capabilities, and partnership with other players. He discussed how these initiatives should try and solve supply chain problems rather than just shift it from one entity to another in the chain. He emphasises the need to go to India 2 and India 3 for effective supply chain management.

The senior executives representing the corporate followed. Mr Abhijit Chaudhari , Director, SCM ISPAT Industries Ltd took us through the evolution of supply chain management showing how it has evolved from product based to process based. He summed up the need for future with a Nordic saying: "If you want to teach your son how to fish, teach him the ways of the ocean", thus emphasising the need to know the environment one is operating in.

Mr. Harsh Babarkar, Director AP Regional Planning Team, Johnson & Johnson Medical Asia Pacific said that since product innovation no longer gives you competitive advantage for long; there should be process innovation long with it to give product to the customer differently. Operating in medical devices industry, he said that there is need to be green as well as compliant to build the trust which is essential to customers they serve.

Mr. Prasad Kurup, Leader, SCM Practice IBM Global Business Service, India gave the technology perspective on how it plays an important role being an enabler. He said that SCM is the most fractured group of business applications possible and for successful implementation and to be able to leverage on strong IT capabilities the CIOs and COOs have to collaborate. Mr D V Ranganath Head SCM Bajaj Auto Ltd showcased how Bajaj Auto has been able to achieve good relationship with its vendor through its initiative 'Bajaj Auto Vendor Association' and how by challenging and supporting the supply chain partners can lead to a collaborative growth.

A video documentary 'Glimpses' was also shown which captured the insights of senior executives on supply chain issues, across the sectors. The symposium is the first of its kind to be held at SPJIMR and should go a long way in enrichment of management science concept by capturing the essence of management practices through business- academia integration.

Information Management Conclave

'Indian IT-BPO domestic market - The next wave'- was the theme of this year's SPJIMR Information Management Conclave 2010 that was held on the 14th of January 2010. The event started off with the keynote address by Prof. Krishnamoorthy , the Dean of L&T Academy, which provided a holistic view of the domestic market and addressed issues related to inclusive growth, digital divide and IT diffusion.

This was followed by a presentation on domestic market by Mr. Rajdeep Sahrawat who is the Vice President, NASSCOM. He spoke about the Indian IT-BPO industry, domestic product development and education sector.

Mr. Anand Rangachary , Managing Director of South Asia and Middle East of Frost & Sullivan, came in next. He is a SPJIMR alumnus and his presentation mainly focused on the healthcare sector and its relevance to the domestic market.

Next we had Mr. Sudipta Sen who is the Regional Director of South East Asia and CEO & Managing Director of SAS Institute (India) Pvt. Ltd. He addressed issues related to business intelligence and analytics and its importance to the Indian domestic market.

The event concluded with a panel discussion. In addition to Prof Krishnamoorthy, Mr. Rajdeep Sahrawat and Mr. Anand Rangachary the panel was also joined by Mr. Sunil Jose (MD, Sybase India), Mr. Suresh Mhatre (VP, TCS) and Prof Oscar D' Souza. The panel discussion was covered by Network-18 and was moderated by Mr. Ivor Soans who is Managing Editor, Network 18. The discussion focused on the potentials of the domestic market with a special focus on the e-governance, mobile applications and MSMEs.

Finance Conclave

The SPJIMR Finance Conclave was held on 15th January 2010 and was attended by over 350 participants. Dr. Samanta, who has been recognized as one of the hundred most influential people in the world of finance, delivered the keynote address on the topic 'Paradigm shift in risk management'. Dr. Samanta is presently the CEO of ThirdEyeRiskInsights and was formerly the Director of Standard and Poor's, USA. Dr.Samanta presented his powerful insights into the various dimensions of risk management. He made the challenge of risk management come alive in front of audience and then provided creative solutions to beat the monster.

The keynote address was followed by a panel discussion on the topic 'Challenges facing the CFOs'. The panel was chaired by Mr. Arvind Mahajan, Executive Director of KPMG, and comprised distinguished members who put forth diverse perspectives. The panel included Mr. D. Thyagarajan, CEO of Carnation Consulting, and Ex-Director, CRISIL; Mr. Indranil Sarkar, Senior Vice President, Srei Infrastructure Finance Ltd; Mr. Govinder Singh, Sr. VP & CFO Tata Housing Dev. Co.Ltd.; Mr. Ramen Ray Mandal, Country Head, Investment Banking ING Vysya Bank India; Mr. Suresh Jain, Head, Corporate Finance, Essar Oil Ltd. They covered various dimensions like financing, cost optimization, hedging, foreign exchange risk, commodity prices and financial innovation.

Marketing Effectiveness Conclave

SPJIMR Marketing Effectiveness Conclave, held on January 16, 2010, covered two sequential events: the SPJIMR Marketing Impact Awards and an expert panel discussion on 'Making Marketing Accountable'.

SPJIMR Marketing Impact Awards (SMIA) is a truly unique event which rewards marketing initiatives based on their impact. Each year, this event felicitates those corporate houses that have solved a business problem or exploited a market opportunity with marketing initiatives that are significantly more impactful than those of their competitors.

With 22 entries from reputed brands like LOREAL, Intel, Microsoft, Dabur and the likes; SMIA 2010 got off to a flying start. 13 entries were short listed for the next round, which called for a detailed case study on the marketing initiative. Based on deliberations by marketing faculty, 4 teams were selected for the final round - Mahindra & Mahindra, HDFC Bank, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance & R.K. Swamy BBDO for their Raymond Strategy. The SMIA jury includes eminent professionals from the areas of Marketing Research, Consultancy, Advertising, Corporate and Academia. Prof. Vithala Rao, Deane W. Malott Professor of Management, Cornell University Johnson School and Mr. K. S. Ramesh, ex. MD Cavin Care, among others constituted our esteemed Jury this year

Professor Renuka Kamat delivered the welcome address, inaugurating SMEC 2010. After introducing and felicitating our eminent jury members, it was time for the first presentation. ICICI Prudential Life Insurance spoke about how they managed to grow their customer base even during times of economic recession and financial panic. R K Swamy BBDO spoke about how their consistent advertising campaign over the last 8 years on behalf of Raymond, had helped Raymond become a market leader. HDFC Bank spoke about how they used technology and various innovative metrics to estimate the potential value of each customer. After a brief tea break, Mahindra and Mahindra spoke about how they have been able position their 3 vehicles in the MPV sector, to minimise cannibalisation of sales.

Next, Dr. Vithala Rao, delivered the key note address, on Enhancing Marketing Effectiveness. He spoke about both the importance of, and the means for measuring your marketing expenditure's effectiveness. This was followed by a short quiz and a brief presentation by one of our alumni for the benefit of the audience. Mr. K Ramesh, then led an insightful panel discussion on Making Marketing Accountable.

Mahindra & Mahindra were thrilled to be pronounced overall winners of SMIA 2010. HDFC bank came in at a commendable runners-up place. Professor Kamat, ended the event on a great note with her Vote of Thanks. All in all, it was a great event that added value to students, faculty and the 110 odd corporates who took the time out to attend the event.

Consulting Symposium

The SPJIMR Consulting Symposium 2010 was organized by the SPJIMR Consulting Committee, which endeavours to harness the interest of students in consulting as a career. The event was scheduled on 16th January at 3PM at the SPJIMR Auditorium.

The theme for the event was "Galloping in the slow lane: Finding opportunity in adversity". The theme communicates the following … "The recovery signals have been flashing green lately, the downturn seems to be producing a rebound and the economies are resurgent. As the world resurrects from the throes of recession, 2010 requires companies to have a fresh perspective about managing business and the ability to navigate through today's new normal. Companies across the globe must prepare to face tomorrow with poise through sustained innovation that would provide them an opportunity to win in a flat world. We believe that finding this opportunity in adversity holds the key to success for them to stay ahead in the growth curve".

The theme was address through two events lined up for the evening.

First, a keynote address by Dr. Nitin Pangakar, Faculty in the NUS Business School & Academic Director of the NUS MBA program for about an hour and a half.

Second, a panel discussion by

• Mr. Thomas Kuruvilla - Director, Arthur D. Little
• Mr. Kuldeep Jain - Partner, McKinsey & Company
• Mr. Abheek Singhi - Partner & Director, BCG
• Mr. Vikram Oza - Features Editor, Bloomberg UTV
• Mr. Atinkumar Saha - Director, Private Wealth Management, Deutsche Bank
• Dr. Nitin Pangarkar - Faculty in the NUS Business School & Academic Director of the NUS MBA program
• Dr. Ganesh Natrajan - Vice Chairman & CEO, Zensar Technologies Ltd

HR Symposium

"Does HR really add value to an organization?" was the theme of SPJIMR HR Symposium 2010. It was the Sunday, 17th of January 2010 and it was the day when Mumbai marathon was happening at the other end of the city. Ignoring the marathon and beating the Sunday morning blues, HR professionals from some of the big corporate houses came to SPJIMR to witness and contribute to the simulating discussion that happened on that day.

We started the day with an address by SPJIMR director Dr. Sesha Iyer. The way he introduced our theme and the way he summed up what happened in SPJIMR academic conclave until now, with a humorous undertone, started the day for us with a bang. This was followed by a key note address by Ms.Nandita Gurjar Senior Vice President and Group Head, Human Resources, Infosys Technologies. She spoke about how HR practices have evolved over the years and how HR's role doesn't stop with recruitment. It was a highly energetic speech and it set the tone for the entire proceedings that was about to follow.

After the key note address, our team from SPJIMR under the guidance of our professors Lata Dhir and Dr. Keith D'souza presented the pedagogic innovations that we use to teach Organization Behaviour and Human Resource at SPJIMR. Prof. Lata Dhir started the presentation with an introduction of how we start teaching OB-1 through Personal Growth (PG) Lab and the students took it forward with a small video and presentation on what were the key learning in PG lab and their field visits to various organizations during OB-2. We also showcased the videos where our EMBA participants had expressed their views on the theme.

This was followed by the panel discussion. Mr.V.J. Rao, Vice President - Human Resources, Suzlon Energy Limited, Mr.SC Khanna, Executive Director, Saurashtra Cement, Dr.DVR Seshadri, Professor, IIM Bangalore and Mr.Vinay Razdan, Chief Human Resource officer, Idea Cellular were our speakers and the discussion was moderated by our own intellectual capital, Dr. Keith D Souza, Professor, SPJIMR.

Mr. Vinay Razdan started the discussion by explaining the roles, in which people can deliver by fitting the right person into the right jobs which adds immense value to the organization. He was followed by Mr. VJ Rao who spoke about the need for people with greater passion, the drive to achieve & to excel in their fields. Mr. SC Khanna started next and he, in his speech stressed on the three kinds of jobs that managers are required to perform - Administrative, Interactive & Transformative.

Finally Dr. DVR Seshadri gave an invigorating speech on how leaders create value; managers add value and entrepreneurs multiply value. He also gave us lot of models like the ice berg model which made lot of sense since it was accompanied by real time corporate examples. He also spoke about the need to create a culture of rewarding failures and encouraging innovations.

The closing address was given by Mr.Sanjay Muthal - Managing Director, Nugrid Consulting Pvt. Ltd. and Vice President, National HRD network, and he stressed on how HRM has become even more important today with the downturn, indicating how companies survive the onslaught through effective people management practices which help them in economic value-addition.

Overall the event was hugely appreciated by the participating corporate and we hope to take it to the next level in the coming years.