NICOM: Day 2 Snapshot

Session 1:

The speaker for the first session was Mr. Kartikeya V. Sarabhai, the founder and the director of the Centre for Environment Education (CEE). Mr. Sarabhai shared his vast experience with the audience and related to the fact that in nature, we don’t have the concept of waste, its a human concept. Mr. Sarabhai gave examples on how a billion dollar drug was derived from a snake’s venom, how Cuba innovated in times of turbulence, how Kutch developed innovatively after the earthquake of 2001 and even on how BRTS was successful in traffic management in the city of Ahmedabad. “Innovation takes a geometric path rather than linear path”, quoted Mr. Sarabhai. He further addressed the students as to how Nature brings innovation and how to foster that innovation. “The world is running out of resources and we need to think creatively”, he said. He ended with a note of suggestion to students asking them to think creatively and foster innovation.

Session 2:

The speakers for the second session were Professor Neculita from the University of Galati, Romania, Mr. Darma Mahadea from the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa and Professor R J Mody from the Institute of Management, Nirma University. Professor R J Mody shared his views on public interest theory, capture theory and on different types of regulations in United States and India. “Developing countries do not need charity, they want to trade”, said Prof. Mody. Professor Neculita gave some valuable insights into the evolution of European economy from the global crisis perspective. Prof. Mahadea shared his experience of how the South African economy evolved and transformed during the times of turbulence while fighting against issues like joblessness, illness, unemployment and inflation. The day ended with the management students of IMNU gaining valuable knowledge from startling speakers as how to manage effectively and efficiently during the times of turbulence.

The track sessions during the day covered variety of themes such as “Emergence of Indian Multinational Companies", “Supply Chain Management Integration”, “Relevance of Corporate Social Responsibility during the Turbulent Time”, “World Economy Evolution from the Global Crisis Perspective”, “Value Based Pricing to Survive in Turbulence”. More than 50 papers were presented during the five parallel track sessions by academic scholars, practising professionals and management students.

mIMNUrma

The name ‘mIMNUrma’ is derived from the combination of the words ‘Minerva’, who, in ancient Roman mythology was the god for all wisdom and knowledge along with ‘Institute of Management, Nirma University’.

The institute provides a platform for budding MBA aspirants to compete with the very best in the country and to showcase the depth of their knowledge and awareness. A quiz is being hosted in this regard for future “MBA students” to test whether they have it in them to be great managers of the future.

‘mIMNUrma’ is a quiz conducted by India’s premier business school ‘Institute of Management, Nirma University’ for MBA aspirants. This quiz is open for all MBA aspirants that include students who are currently pursuing their undergraduate degrees or those who have passed their graduation and have appeared for CAT 2010. The quiz would be conducted on January 9, 2011 between 4:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Nirma International Conference on Management (NICOM) 2011 gets underway

The 14th Nirma International Conference on Management (NICOM) commenced today, at the Institute of Management, Nirma University. The three-day event is focused on the theme ‘Managing in Turbulent Times: Creativity, Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Leadership & Learnings’. It is the perfect platform for the brightest minds from the industry and academia to come together and brainstorm about how best to lead an organization through turbulent times and address the wide gamut of challenges faced by businesses globally during recessionary business environment. The conference would see broad principles emerge that can help guide behaviour of managers on how to use lean times as opportunities for innovation, fresh thinking and growth.

The conference was inaugurated by Mr. Harsh C. Mariwala, Chairman and Director, Marico Limited and Dr. Rafiq Dossani, Director, Centre for South Asia, Stanford University and former CEO - India Operations, Jardine Fleming Investment Banking Group. The other dignitaries who also chaired the inaugural dais were Dr. Karsanbhai Patel, Founder of Nirma group, Shri Rakeshbhai Patel, Vice President, Nirma University and Dr. N. V. Vasani, Vice Chancellor, Nirma University.

Mr. Mariwala shared with the audience as to how he converted the business of Marico from being an unbranded player to a branded powerhouse. “People and Innovation have led Marico to what it is today”. He also said that it is important for the employees to be involved as it leads to commitment and is an important aid in innovation that is necessary in today’s competitive environment. Marico’s innovation focuses on product, staff functioning, finance and human resources. It also encourages its employees to take risks to innovate, as persistence is important for innovation and collaboration amongst departments. Marico also practices In-house facilitation to encourage and reinforce innovation amongst its employees. He summed up by saying that in the current scenario organizations need to “Apply conventional thinking that will lead to innovative solutions. Apply an open mind that will lead to wonderful solutions.”


Prof. Rafiq Dossani stressed on four goals of higher education namely; Quality, Access, Equity and Cost. He also quoted that, “By 2011 India will be the single largest producer of engineering graduates in the world”. This has been due to the increase in the number of engineering institutes as well as the increase in the disposable income of households. He also suggested that Indian institutes need to focus more on Group projects and Journal Writing in their curriculum to grow and compete with their American counterparts. He summed up by stating that the challenges faced by the current education system include the conflicting nature of the objectives of the stakeholders and the weak power of the government in the era of coalitions.

The inaugural ceremony was followed by a plenary session by Mr. Sanjay Verma, Professor, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad who enlightened the audience on the topic “Knowledge Management during Turbulence”. He stressed on the fact that one needs to think out of the box and be observative while seeking knowledge. He also said that “Each person has immense capability; the only thing that is required is to challenge oneself.” He talked about the challenge faced in bringing out the tacit knowledge residing in the minds of the people. He quoted that “We have to move from know what to know how”. He explained the importance of knowledge management in MNCs like Tata Steel, Infosys, ONGC and Mahindra etc.

The track sessions during the day covered variety of themes such as “Creativity & Innovations: "Technological Implications”, “Turbulence in Business and Society”, “Leadership during Turbulence”, “Learnings from the Downturn”, “Entrepreneurial Culture for Managing Turbulence” and “Functional and Cross-Functional Challenges during Turbulence”. More than 50 papers were presented during the five parallel track sessions by academic scholars, practising professionals and management students.

Lessons on Healthcare Marketing

Dr. Balasubramanian is the M.D. of Sankar Eye Hospital, Bangalore. He is an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad and has 43 years of corporate experience.

Dr. Bala Subramanian talked in depth about healthcare marketing and the challenges such as synchronizing demand with supply and delivering consistent service quality. He explained all the Ps of Service Marketing namely Price, Product, Place, Promotion, People, Physical Evidence and Process with respect to day to day operations and marketing activities of Sankar Netralaya. He elucidated how marketing of services is drastically different from marketing tangible products. In Mr. Subramanian’s words “In healthcare marketing how to make the organization consumer focussed is the key to success”. Every communication, every process and every transaction, right from the time the consumer enters the hospital premises in his vehicle to the time he is billed and discharged, must be carefully planned and designed keeping customer at the centre stage.

He illustrated the five dimensions of Service Quality namely Reliability, Assurance, Tangibles, Empathy and Responsiveness citing the example of Sankar Netralaya. He emphasised that Service Quality, which has three aspects namely Interaction, Physical Evidence and Outcome, does not give customer satisfaction in isolation; it is just one part of customer satisfaction - the other two being situational and personal factors. These lead to certain expectations by the customers. Sankar Netralaya follows a Gap model where the focus is to bridge the provider gaps between the expected service and the perceived service received by the customer. He reiterated “How successful an organization is in bridging this gap between promise and delivery is the measure of its competitive advantage”

He explained that the reason of existence of Sankar Netralaya is to serve the community but since it understands that in order to survive it’s important to raise revenue and be self sustainable hence its business model is a mix of Corporate and Community Service. The hospitals need support in the form of donations only for trainings and equipments, in all other respects they are totally self sustainable.

He signed off with the message that though there was strong scepticism that a charitable hospital can never attract corporate clients and hence its business model will not be successful, but by carefully embedding customer focus in every activity for the chosen target market they were able to dispel the myth and carve a niche for themselves.

It was a great learning experience and gave a bird’s eye view on service marketing and specifically healthcare marketing.

Mr. Rajdeep Sardesai adresses students on 'Media & Governance'

The students of Institute of Management, Nirma University witnessed an exciting insight into 'Media and Governance' from Mr. Rajdeep Sardesai, Editor-in-Chief, IBN18 Network. Mr. Sardesai focused on the changing media forms, the ethical issues and the government’s role associated with it. "The primary job that journalism was expected to do was of a watchdog which has now turned into story telling". He also suggested as to how ‘journalism’ transformed into ‘media’ over the last decade. "More than 300 news channel are coming up with few of them waiting for licenses and media is becoming larger than life. In short, it can be called McDonaldization of media. Media is becoming clogged", said Mr. Sardesai.

Mr. Sardesai commented on the 3 C's on which the media is based on, namely crime, cricket and cinema. But the main concern echoed by him was the missing nature of the 2 C's which are conscience and creditability. He also spoke about the business models of media which according to him are still in nascent stage in India. He also pointed out that with Facebook and Twitter becoming so powerful, it is also, now a responsibility of the people to help create governance through media. The session concluded with a question answer round where Mr. Sardesai answered some queries of the young students. In all, the session was an exciting and informative way to catch a glimpse of the functioning of media in India.