Team News Riveting
Raipur, November 5
Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Raipur launched its flagship Industry Interaction event, “Leadership Summit 2022” on Saturday with the theme ‘India’s New Stride: Building For The Future’.
The summit aims to provide a unique platform for industry experts and students to interact and discuss key ideas which would help the upcoming management professionals in tackling future challenges in a proficient manner. Sandeep Upadhyay, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Centrum Capital was the Chief Guest at the inaugural ceremony. Prof. Ram Kumar Kakani, Director, IIM Raipur and Prof. Parikshit Charan, Chairperson, Corporate Relations, IIM Raipur were also present on the occasion.
Prof. Kakani in his welcome address highlighted the importance of cognitive skills, conative skills, and emotive skills that makes a leader stand out from the crowd.
The welcome address was followed by a keynote address from the Chief Guest. He shared some important statistical figures related to the Indian economy and predicted India being the 3rd largest economy in the next 3-4 years. He added that Government policies have been aiding this growth, starting with GST and more overarching changes on the policy front. In the last 5 years, India emerged as the ground for start-ups to grow and have developed more unicorns than any country in such a short span of time. The Guest of Honor, Shri Rakesh Sinha, Senior Executive Vice President – National Head – Acquisition & ROCE at Kotak Mahindra Bank, encouraged students to figure out their own uniqueness, develop awareness, remain focused, and build wealth.
The inauguration ceremony was followed by panel discussions. The first-panel discussion saw insights on the topic ‘Building Agility for Volatile Business Scenarios’, which was moderated by Prof. Pankaj Singh, Associate Professor, HRM & Organizational Behaviour, IIM Raipur. He gave a brief introduction to this interesting topic and initiated the discussion. Upadhyay stated that the underlying need should be defined to have flexibility around the organization’s business model.
Umanath Kumar, Head – Sr. Partner, Human Resources, Pfizer inspired future leaders to understand the structure of doing things and strive to make processes better, easier, and simpler. Shri. Ganesh V S, CHRO, Managing Director, Jockey, stated that versatility is all about adaptive business models that accept the agility of situations. Satyen Kanabar, Head Project Monitoring, Renewable, JSW, highlighted the importance of visualization of complexity and embracing agility in achieving goals.
The second panel’s discussion was on the topic ‘Building Leadership Talent from Grass Roots’, moderated by Prof. Sanjeev Prashar, Professor – Marketing, IIM Raipur. Ms. Shreya Krishnan EVP and Head – Marketing and Communications, AON spoke of diversity and how it is needed for growth of organization and the industry. Rakesh Sinha, Senior Executive Vice President, National Head, Acquisition and ROCE at Kotak Mahindra Bank, said that the future of the banking sector lies in letting go of the legacy organization and adopting an agile organization. Shri. Ajit Chaturvedi, CEO, Hindustan Times Learning Centers Ltd, stated that leaders learn from everyone including their superiors, subordinates and peers. Venkatesh Kidambi, Global Head Digital Marketing Platform & CRM, Kimberly-Clark, shared from his personal experience that one’s environment defines the kind of leader one becomes, a leader doesn’t just lead a team they also lead themselves.
The last panel of the day was on the topic “Driving Business Value through Technological Innovation” moderated by Prof. Sumeet Gupta, Dean – External & ERP, IIM Raipur. Ms. Reena Evans, Director Operations, Swiggy, being in the industry for over 13 years, talked about how e-commerce adapts itself from industry to industry, and how most industries in the digital space are backed by cloud, AI or other technological developments, leading to automation and ease of data usage.
Dr. Rahul Mahale, Head – Commercial Excellence, Galderma, enunciated on the pharma industry, stating it was among the last to be digitized. Being a highly manpower-driven industry, digitization was slow but well-received. Dr. Khushbu Gupta, Senior Product Manager, Adobe, illustrated a story on how technological gadgets have evolved with time in terms of features and commonality. In organizations, digitalisation has itself evolved as a term and keeps revamping itself to match the dynamic tech-development standards.
Ashwinder Matharu, Chief – Operations Strategy & Investments, The House of Abhinandan Lodha, emphasized how turning business meetings and processes virtual has benefited the company in terms of saving time. He further said that technological innovations aren’t only accepted within the organization, but they should also be adapted in the business model.
The event came to a close with the students of the PGP batch thanking the third panel and other speakers, thereby concluding the first day of the 6th Leadership Summit. The second day awaits a plethora of discussions across sectors, imparting more experiential knowledge from industry experts to the students of IIM Raipur.
