“When the going gets tough, the tough gets going”, has been rightly said for start-up theme base Pan IIM Alumni Meet 2015 at Delhi on July 26 at Taj Vivanta.
We were given a warm welcome by Mr. Saif Khan, the chief facilitator for the event, who made the entire show go on with tremendous enthusiasm.
The event was completely action packed by key note sessions, panel discussions, music performances, book promotion & quizzing.
The very first Keynote session on Impending disruption in financial eco system by Mr. Prashant Priyadarshi from GREX highlighted the role of technology in the banking industry & the importance of investment in an unlisted company. He explained how important it is to identify the fund moment along with the ever changing information of the company.
This was followed by a Panel discussion on Key elements to look for before you invest. The hot start-ups market provides a very lucrative platform to invest in companies that are just starting. The very basis criteria of cash flows, growth & profitability do not hold good while looking at a start-up before investing. As per Mr. Sanjay Negi (CEO, Market Insight Consultants), it will be largely dependent on who is making the investment. Of course, the market scenario, management team and B-Plan play a critical role in deciding where to invest. Narratives at the start of the company will play a key role to attract an investment. Mr. Vivek Agarwal(Co founder Squareyards), Mr. Sanjay Negi(CEO, Market Insight Consultants), along with the moderator, Mr. Rajiv Maheshwari(CEO Anand & Anand) concluded that the key points a investor looks at would be:
- Returns/Commercial Value
- Evolution to multiple cities – or, global expansion scope
- How close is the company to become a dominant player in the market?
- And, how good is the team?
The next key note session was on Creating and Enabling Business Ecosystem for Innovative, Inclusive & Sustainable Development by Mr. Chandradeep(CD) Mitra (CEO, PipalMajik & Anvention Consulting and Advisor, CEI, IIM Calcutta). He mainly focussed on creating a stronger Made in India brand for ourselves. It was highlighted in this session that creating few ‘Silicon Valleys’ in India will not sustain & shift of focus to grassroots is the key.
The next panel discussion on Key Financial elements for sustaining businesses was a very interesting one as many organisations, specifically start-ups struggle with. Mr. Rajiv Agarwal(MD &CTO Makit), Mr. Chirag Mehta(Director Clip Financial) & Mr. Iqbal Singh (MD, IFM Global) highlighted the importance of keeping your assets light for sustaining businesses in the initial growth phases.
Key Note Session on Building Cities, thus building sustainable business models by Mr. Nitin Seth (MD & Country Head Fidelity Worldwide Investment & Chairperson, NASSCOM) was the highlight of the event. Mr. Nitin discussed on six key points for building sustainable cities
- Economic Engine
- Physical infrastructure
- Natural environment
- Social ecosystem
- Governance
- Citizen participation
The session was very educative with examples from real-life cities where a lot of the above said things were in practice.
This session was followed by lunch & a musical event. The music was thoroughly enjoyed with IIM alumni singing to the tunes of ‘Jaane kahan gaye wo din’.
The next key note session, by Mr. Ajay Ohri (Founder, Decision Stats) on Analytics – What to look for sustaining your growing business highlighted the importance of analytics in today’s world. The various models – LTV, RFM analysis, Cohort analysis, Strategy models, are utilised by various companies to extract the right information from the chaos of raw data that is being fed into their customer streams by internet. The session was full of in-sites in the ecommerce space.
The panel discussion on Strategy to execution – building sustainable business models with Ms. Shipra Sharma (Director Tattva Spa) & Mr. Salil Agarwal (CEO Suvitama) highlighted the importance of scale vs. sustainability. Ideally investors look at scale & it is very important to keep assets light and focus on customer service.
The next discussion on Key levers to get your start-up up and running with Mr. Pranay Gupta (Partner 91SpringBoard), Mr. Amit Grover (Founder, AHA Taxis), Mr. Amit Bansal (Founder, HelpingDoc), Mr. Amit Agarwal(Founder Whiz Kidz Media) brought in the spotlight on the KPIs of the organisation, which keep on changing from one stage of progression to the next stage. Three key rules would be – to figure out your family first to get the best support, identify your cash flow model & to get out of the comfort level of making mistakes.
The last key note session on Legal challenges to set up businesses & get foreign investment by Mr. Joyjyoti Misra was very intuitive. He emphasised on getting all the approvals, doing the basic hygiene check & regulatory compliance check on your organisation.
Apart from the sessions & discussions, we had Mr. Mohan Prasad with his newly launched book – Legacy. Besides that, we had De’Arco chocolatier bringing forth their love for chocolates. The quizzes made the event full of fun & every alumnus was found scratching their brains for the right answers. All in all it was a day full of knowledge sharing, networking and entertainment.
IdeasMakeMarket.com was the proud official media partner for this event which highlighted innovation and seamless execution.
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