About

SPJIMR  Business-Academia Conclave SBAC is a platform for leading academics and corporate leaders, and a host of CXO-level attendees, to have insightful conversations to connect the dots around issues related to scalable innovation out of India. SBAC  2019, theme ‘Design thinking for Innovation’ took forward the ‘Innovation’ agenda initiated in SBAC 2017 and 2018, with a granular look at the innovation approach using Design Thinking (DT). The focus was on Design Thinking and how this innovative problem-solving process is finding wider use in India’s corporate world. The academic keynote speaker was Prof. Srikant Datar of Harvard Business School who is recognised as one of the world’s foremost experts in Design Thinking. The legendary Ad guru of India Mr. Piyush Pandey was the corporate keynote speaker for the event. Business leaders, leading academicians and global thought leaders engaged in meaningful dialogues to understand and assimilate current best practices in this area and identify exciting new directions for India Inc. Know more: SBAC 2019 report. 

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Speakers

  • Dr. Srikant M. Datar, Arthur Lowes Dickinson Professor of Business Administration, Senior Associate Dean for University Affairs, Harvard Business School

    Dr.Srikant M. Datar is the Arthur Lowes Dickinson Professor of Business Administration, Faculty Chair of the Harvard Innovation Lab, HBS One Harvard Faculty Fellow, and Senior Associate Dean for University Affairs at Harvard Business School. He serves on the Board of Directors of ICF International, Novartis AG, Stryker Corporation, and T-Mobile US, and has worked with many corporations on consulting and field-based projects. He is a member of the American Accounting Association and the Institute of Management Accountants. A dedicated and innovative teacher, Dr. Datar received the George Leland Bach Award for Excellence in the Classroom at Carnegie Mellon University and the Distinguished Teaching Award at Stanford University. He teaches MBA and Executive Education classes in design thinking, innovation, big data, and strategy implementation. He has co-authored a leading cost accounting textbook, ‘Cost Accounting: A Managerial Emphasis’ and ‘Rethinking the MBA: Business Education at a Crossroads .’

  • Mr. Piyush Pandey, Chief Creative Officer Worldwide and Executive Chairman India, Ogilvy

    Piyush Pandey is the Chief Creative Officer Worldwide and Executive Chairman India, Ogilvy and was awarded the Padma Shri honour in 2016. He is the recipient of a number of awards such as being named the “Most Influential Man” in Indian advertising for eight consecutive years by The Economic Times. He was voted Asia’s Creative Person of the Year at the Media Asia Awards 2002. He is also the only Indian to win double gold at Cannes (for his Cancer Patients Association anti-smoking campaign) and a triple grand prize at the London International Awards.

  • Mr. R. Gopalakrishnan, SPJIMR Executive in Residence, Author and Corporate Advisor

    R Gopalakrishnan, noted thought leader, author of several books and a senior corporate leader, led businesses at Hindustan Unilever Limited and later served on the board of Tata Sons. He is now Executive-in-Residence at SPJIMR. Gopalakrishnan has previously served as Chairman of Unilever Arabia, MD of Brooke Bond Lipton, Vice Chairman of Hindustan Lever, ED of Tata Sons and several Tata companies. He also serves as an independent director of listed companies, Akzo Nobel India, Castrol India, and Hemas Holdings PLC, Sri Lanka.

  • Mr. Bharat Puri, MD & Executive Director, Pidilite Industries Limited

    Mr. Bharat Puri has helmed numerous successes during his tenure at leading Indian and Global companies. He started his career with Asian Paints in 1982 and rose to the position of General Manager – Sales & Marketing. He has subsequently held key portfolios in Cadbury where he was in charge of Strategy, Marketing and Sales. From then onward, a series of senior leadership positions at the country, region and global level shaped his career. Mr. Bharat Puri has completed his MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

  • Mr. Vivek Sunder, COO, Swiggy

    Mr Vivek Sunder has been leading Swiggy’s business operations since July 2018. He spearheaded the effort to scale the company across cities, while still continuing to operate as a nimble startup. Prior to that, he has been associated with Procter and Gamble for about 20 years in various roles. Mr. Sunder is passionate about building organisational capabilities and has worked with diverse teams spanning more than twenty nationalities in varied roles. He has been an early adapter and innovator of big data/ analytics across many sales & marketing roles.

    He is a graduate of the prestigious Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Kolkata, where he specialised in marketing, finance and economics, and prior to that studied Computer Engineering from Delhi University. He is a guest lecturer at his alma mater IIM-C, as well at other premier B-schools across the world where he teaches and shares business expertise.

  • Ms. Sonali Dhawan, CMO, P&G Indian subcontinent and Business Unit Head - Fabric

    Ms. Sonali Dhawan, CMO P&G, India Subcontinent, has over twenty years of experience in Business Leadership and Brand Management. She currently heads the Fabric Care business for P&G across India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka. She is appointed to the Board of Directors for Gillette India Ltd and PGHH India Ltd as the Non-Executive Director. Ms. Dhawan was associated with the development of multiple socially relevant award-winning campaigns, including Cannes award winners: Ariel #SharetheLoad; Whisper #TouchthePickle and Vicks #TouchofCare. She was awarded the ‘Top Woman Achievers of 2017’ by AsiaOne magazine and ‘CMO of the year’ by exchange4media in the category of Home products in 2015. She is sixth on the list of IMPACT’s ‘50 Most Influential Women’ in Marketing and Media for the last two years. She also leads the CSR programme for P&G India-‘Shiksha’, which has won multiple awards – including the ‘Best CSR Program’ award by Lokmat in 2017-18.

  • Mr. Srinivas Venkatram, Founder-CEO and Lead Researcher of Illumine Knowledge Resources

    Srinivas Venkatraman is the Founder-CEO and Lead Researcher of Illumine Knowledge Resources. Prior to Illumine he co-founded and co-led INFAC – a company that pioneered the production of industry reports. He began his career in 1989 as a knowledge entrepreneur and went on to set up Illumine in the form of a design and action research lab. Mr Venkatraman experimented with how knowledge can be used as a catalyst for creating sustainable growth/evolution in human systems. Since 2017, he has also been engaged in reflecting on his extensive learnings by organising and systematising his work into a form that is more widely accessible.

Event Agenda

  • Opening address

    Former SPJIMR Dean Dr. Ranjan Banerjee sets the context with his welcome address on What is Design Thinking in his opening address.

  • Research presentation

    Insightful research on the topic ‘Design Thinking in India Inc’ was presented by former SPJIMR Dean, Dr. Ranjan Banerjee and SPJIMR faculty Dr. Suranjan Das which elaborated on how design thinking can drive innovation and concluded that the most critical part of design thinking, the process of finding relevant insights was a highly teachable skill.

  • Academic keynote address

    In his academic keynote address Dr. Srikant M Datar discussed the topic, ‘Design Thinking and Innovations Mindset’. Dr. Datar outlined the six-step process of using design thinking to move from problem to solution by analysing in detail Mahatama Gandhi’s leadership and strategies implemented during India’s freedom movement.   

  • Corporate keynote address

    Mr. Piyush Pandey spoke on Design in Communication and presented insights from his personal experiences. He observed “Sometimes innovation in design comes out of need, because of a problem. Constraints sometimes bring the designer to the fore”

  • Panel Discussion 1

    SPJIMR Executive in Residence, Mr. R Gopalakrishnan facilitated a panel discussion on the topic, ‘Innovations in India: The Role of Design Thinking in Practice’ with panellists Mr. Bharat Puri, MD & Executive Director, Pidilite; Mr. Vivek Sunder, COO, Swiggy; Ms. Sonali Dhawan CMO, P&G and Dr. Srikant M. Datar, Harvard Business School. The panel discussed numerous design thinking solutions practised in their organisations to illustrate the theme and address the audience’s concerns.

  • Beyond Business

    SPJIMR SBAC 2019 concluded with a Beyond Business talk on ‘ Large Scale Cognitive Shifts: How Design Thinking Helps’ by Mr. Srinivas Venkatram, Founder-CEO and Lead Researcher of Illumine Knowledge Resources. Mr. Venkatraman demonstrated, using real-life cases and examples, how people’s lives can be improved with design thinking and emphasised the need to scale this cognitive change.

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Gallery

Academic keynote address by Dr. Srikant M. Datar, Arthur Lowes Dickinson Professor of Business Administration, Senior Associate Dean for University Affairs, Harvard Business School

Corporate keynote address by legendary ad guru Piyush Pandey, Chief Creative Officer Worldwide and Executive Chairman India, Ogilvy

Inaugural address by Dr. Ranjan Banerjee, former Dean, SPJIMR

Research presentation by SPJIMR former Dean, Dr. Ranjan Banerjee and faculty Dr. Suranjan Das on India Inc and Design Thinking

Panel members: Mr. R. Gopalakrishnan, Author and Corporate Advisor (Facilitator); Mr. Bharat Puri, MD & Executive Director, Pidilite; Mr. Vivek Sunder, COO, Swiggy; Ms. Sonali Dhawan CMO, P&G; Dr. Srikant M. Datar, Harvard Business School

Panellists Mr. Bharat Puri, MD & Executive Director, Pidilite and Ms. Sonali Dhawan CMO, P&G

Beyond Business talk on ‘ Large Scale Cognitive Shifts: How Design Thinking Helps’ by Mr. Srinivas Venkatram, Founder-CEO and Lead Researcher of Illumine Knowledge Resources.

SBAC 2019 organising committee included SPJIMR participants, faculty and staff.

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