The SPJIMR Business-Academia Conclave (SBAC) brings together corporate and academic leaders to drive new and implementable best practices in the business world. The theme for SBAC 2019 was ‘Design thinking for Innovation’ – a fast-growing approach to problem-solving under ambiguity that is rapidly being adopted in India. Corporate leaders and academic leaders came together to understand and assimilate current best practice in this area and identify exciting new directions for India Inc.
The conference revolves around issues related to scalable innovation out of India. In 2018, the theme was around large companies and start-ups partnering to drive innovation. This year SBAC took the innovation agenda forward that was initiated in SBAC 2017 and 2018, with a granular look at the approach using Design Thinking (DT).
At SBAC 2019, one of the world’s foremost experts in Design Thinking, Prof Srikant M Datar of Harvard Business School was the keynote speaker. The Corporate keynote address was given by Mr. Piyush Pandey, Chief Creative Officer Worldwide and Executive Chairman, India Ogilvy. Other speakers included: Mr Bharat Puri, MD of Pidilite; Mr R Gopalakrishnan, ex-Director of Tata Sons Ltd; Ms. Sonali Dhawan, CMO, P&G Indian subcontinent and Business Unit Head – Fabric; Mr Vivek Sunder, COO, Swiggy and Mr Srinivas Venkatram, Founder- CEO Lead Researcher of Illumine knowledge Resources. The event was attended by other senior leaders from the business and industry, entrepreneurs, thought-leaders, academicians, researchers, and students.
SBAC 2019 was held on January 29, 2019, at The Taj, Santacruz.