SPJIMR hosts the Leadership and Institution Building Seminar
January 5, 2007

An eminent and a distinguished panel of guests, spanning diverse fields like the Indian Army and the NGO-CRY to corporates like the NCDEX and Morgan Stanley, a powerhouse moderator from CNBC-TV18 and a captivating discussion on Leadership and Institution building... all of that and much more happened at the SPJIMR auditorium during the first seminar conducted by the CLP (Contemporary Leadership Practices).

The evening bore witness to Lt Gen Aditya Singh, AVSM bar, ADC, General Officer Commanding in Chief, Southern Command, Indian Army speaking about the Southern command of the Indian Army and the institution therein and also the concept of Naam Namak and Nishaan, which binds the Indian Army together. He also spoke on the national security needs, and values of secularism, unity and tolerance from the Indian Army which can be applied to every organization.

Mr. Ravikumar Chairman and MD of NCDEX spoke on creating value for farmers through an institution like NCDEX and adapting to already existing models in an innovative manner to suit the business needs. Simplicity with impact interspersed with huge doses of humour marked his speech. Represent ing the social sector, Mr.Irwin Fernande s, Director Western Region, CRY spoke about the founder of CRY and his leadership role in building CRY as an institution.He said that organizations must grow beyond the leader and should not be dependant on personalities or individuals. He highlighted that the social transformation of organizations, the ability to adapt and overcome crests and troughs to build a brand, helps make great institutions.

Ms. Kimberly Blewett, VP and GM Morgan Stanley Advantage services spoke about cross cultural adaptation and her experience on adapting to the Indian culture. She mentioned about the three cultures in operation, the individual cultures which people bring in, the geographic culture and the organizational or corporate culture. She said that bearing the cultural torch was very important.

Mr. Vivek Law, Consumer Affairs Editor from CNBC TV18 took the programme forward into a panel discussion. It was a power packed discussion conducted deftly and with great panache by a power house moderator. The topics of discussion ranged from defining leadership to CSR responsibilities and cross cultural leadership. A friendly banter between the General and the NCDEX chief was the highlight of the discussion and enthralled the audience.

Learning can never be complete without academic inputs, and Prof. Lata Dhir, the convener of the CLP program from SPJIMR provided the insights on leadership and the institution building from the academic perspective.

The Contemporary Leadership Practices was born out of the need to focus on an effective and symbiotic relationship between the Industry and the Institute in the field of Leadership. CLP is an initiative to gather first hand inputs from thought leaders and institution builders across domains in the field of Leadership and Institution building, and the seminar was a step forward in that direction.