IIM Indore recently concluded a two-day event, ‘Colloquium 2018: the Annual Business Conclave’. The conclave was organized by the Industry Interaction Cell of IIM Indore. The theme for this year was “The Elevator Story”.
The conclave was attended by business biggies like Mr. Gunjan Srivastava, MD and CEO at Bosch and Siemens Home Appliances (BSH), Mr. Amitabha Sinha, Partner, Cornerstone, Mr. Vijay Khandelwal, Head of Customer Service Unit at Amdocs, and Mr Sandeep Chaudhary, the CEO of AON Consulting, India and chair of the Emerging Markets Council.
Mr. Gunjan Srivastava sharing the story of BSH in India on the first day of conclave talked about how the company turned its attention towards emerging markets and attributed BSH’s success to the company’s focus on product diversification.
“With a focus on storytelling rooted in consumer insights, the company has reported 19% brand awareness in India making it an incredible success story”, he said. His talk was followed by a panel discussion on the topic: “World Class Business Practices: Difficult to Replicate in the Indian Industry”.
Srivastava and Amitabha Sinha, partner, Cornerstone participated in the discussion. They both emphasized on combining people and technology where cost-cutting is a challenge and semi-automation is an advantage to people and the working preferences of Indians.
The discussion was moderated by Professor Srinivas Gunta from IIM Indore which witnessed the exchange of amazing ideas like the existence of different ways in which the west and the east look at business practices. The panel discussion concluded on a note of integration of business practices across the globe.
Mr. Sinha further shared some thoughts on topics like leadership development through his own experiences and talked about the change that can be witnessed from earlier times to now in terms of options that people have, with a special emphasis on the ease of going abroad for our generation.
Second day of the conclave begun with a talk by Vijay Khandelwal, Head of Customer Service Unit at Amdocs, on “Era of Digitization: Power of Growth”. He went on to talk about it is imperative to build capabilities and adaptabilities to changing times. Finally, he concluded with a lesson on accountability: “Ownership and accountability are not about ‘Why can’t I do it?’ and more like ‘How can I make this happen?’”
Another speaker of the day was, Sandeep Chaudhary, CEO of AON Consulting, India and chair of the Emerging Markets Council, who led a discussion by stressing on the importance of personal evolution along with building your professional competencies.
He also told students that an organisation must establish the “Why” of its mission before anything else. Chaudhary concluded by expressing that it was always a pleasure to interact with the leaders of India’s tomorrow.