“Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.”
–Henry Ford
As students of Business Management, it is immensely important for us to gain an insight into the real world business settings, contemporary business issues and challenges and understand ways and means to deal with them. The Department of Management Studies, IIT Roorkee, gives us the opportunity to interact with the veterans of the industry and academia in the form of a plethora of guest lectures, seminars, workshops etc. In the past, we have been graced by the presence of stalwarts from the industry including Mr. D. Bhattacharya, Advisor IFFCO, Mr. Mangu Singh, MD DMRC, Mr. Pradip Baijal, former Chairman TRAI, to name a few. We, at DoMS, IIT Roorkee, organised “Avenir-2014”- a business conclave with the theme “Emerging business synergies in the surging Indian Economy” on 27th-28th September, 2014. This conclave served to provide an excellent knowledge sharing platform for the business heads of various companies on the growing need of honing synergies for various firms and the caveats, if any, associated with the same. The two day extravaganza at the department saw eminent speakers from far and wide, representing various industries share some trinkets of the vast knowledge that they amassed over their years of service and experience.
On Day 1, our first guest speaker was Mr. Syed A Asim, COO-India, Middle East & Africa at Dion Global Solutions Ltd. Being the first speaker for the conclave, Mr. Asim discussed, in detail, the scope and purpose of inter-firm synergies in the world of business and the various advantages the subsequent changes can bring about with several illustrative examples. He also talked about the various recent mergers and acquisitions and their implications on business. He signed off by advising us to start thinking about forming symbiotic synergies for sustainable personal and professional growth and a healthy future.
IIT Roorkee students at the event
For the afternoon session, we had the privilege of having amongst us Ms. Mamta Chander, Director-Strategy and Program Implementation, Talent Hub & Shared Services, Ernst & Young. She told us why India would continue to remain an attractive FDI destination in the midst of policy changes. In continuation with the same, she also talked about how organisations need to cushion themselves against such changes, stay relevant and constantly upgrade and reinvent their strategies to survive. We also discussed about how synergies can help to break barriers in the business world and change organisational structure for the better. She also illustrated the power of globalisation in driving synergies and hence, providing a competitive edge to the organisations.
The final session on Day 1 was conducted by Mr. Mihir Karkare, co-founder and VP at Social Wavelength (Social PR Outsourcing Pvt. Ltd.). He delivered an extremely informative and fun-filled session on trends and practices in digital marketing. We discussed, at length, about various techniques and strategies in social media marketing using several practical examples along with the various performance metrics for the same. This session turned out to be extremely interactive with students showing very keen interest in synergies of various organisations with such PR firms and the various benefits such synergies can reap.
With an immensely interactive Day 1 concluding successfully, Day 2 saw even more participation. Mr. Kushal Sanghvi, Business Head of Reliance Entertainment and Digital mesmerised the students with his enigmatic personality. He spoke on various trends and challenges in social media, the emerging sea of opportunities in the same and what a career in this field holds for us. With the online entertainment revolution, he told us to expect movies specifically made for tablets and phones in the next five years. He also spoke extensively on the power of social media to understand, analyse and forecast trends in costumer behaviour. Being a social media enthusiast himself, he also took a selfie with the students at the business conclave, thereby, commencing the proceedings of the day with vigour and enthusiasm.
Finally, we had Mr. Akshaya Kashyap, Deputy General Manager-Human Capital, Future Generali, engaging the audience with his session on the role of the Human Resource department in honing synergies. He explained how a successful manager must learn to mask himself with changing situations. He also stressed on the necessity of open and transparent flow of communication throughout the length and breadth of an organisation to maintain a sustainable work culture and a healthy social environment. He emphasized on the fact that the employees were assets of an organisation and hence, the responsibility of employee engagement lies with all the departments of the organisation and not just the HR. He signed off by telling us about the importance of the 3Hs: Head, Heart and Hand, which together engage in prayers of different religions. Since work is worship, the synergy between the 3Hs must also be maintained at the workplace.
The business conclave concluded successfully with stalwarts from the academia and industry coming together to share their ideas and experiences with the students of DoMS, IIT Roorkee. Interaction with the experts of their respective fields enriched the young and enthusiastic minds of the students with exposure to the industry and gave us a glimpse of the world where we are aspiring and developing ourselves to belong.
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the article is really good. 😛
Nicely explained. Loved going through it reminded me of B-school days !