Annual Alumni Meet Held at SJMSOM, IIT Bombay

Annual Alumni Meet Held at SJMSOM, IIT Bombay

Education is not only the driving force for a leader to move ahead in life but also the motivation to take an occasional pause and reflect back, connect with one’s alma mater and share the richness of one’s journey. The Annual Alumni Meet 2007 of the Mumbai Chapter of SJMSOM, IIT Bombay proved to be that pause.

It was indeed heartening to see so many alumni, especially from the initial batches, come and drive the discussion in the Alumni Discussion Forum, which is a platform for the current batches, faculty and alumni from the last eleven batches to discuss the concerns around management education at SJMSOM. A significant point raised was the need of the alumni to touch base with the current curriculum of management at SJMSOM, so as to revise the basics and to update themselves of the shifting paradigms in their respective domains.

This high-energy discussion moderated by Prof. Shishir K. Jha, VP, SOM Association, concluded on a really positive note with the group recognising the strides made by SJMSOM in the fields of IT, operations, finance and marketing. This nostalgic visit back to campus made the alumni feel at home and brought excitement into the interaction.

Moving ahead to the second venue where an informal gathering was planned, Saffron Spice at Hiranandani Complex proved to be the right place for individual batch-wise introductions, a tour of the campus and student-life in the form of an extremely moving film directed by SJMSOM ’09, an update on the recent achievements of SJMSOM in terms of the diverse profiles offered and the placements touching the stratosphere, new courses like aviation management and the scope of Avenues 2007, the annual international festival of SJMSOM.

The event was concluded with a scintillating song performed by the SJMSOM ’09 band, which inspired the Batch of ’07 to sing the all time favourite "SOM Bhajan". Amidst the cheerful mood, the crowd proceeded for interaction over dinner. It was indeed enlightenment for the current batches as they got to hear about long-term career planning, flow of Indian economy and work-life balance from those who had been there and done that. One senior alumnus from consulting domain talking about ‘atma-gyaan’, another one, the COO from the power sector, stressing the need for a SWOT analysis of self to decide the specialisation instead of market-forces and an entrepreneur emphasising the domain knowledge aspect and mental strength to keep going. One could feel the broad horizons of perspective.

All-in-all, the evening resulted in sharing of reminiscent times, new networks built, rich experience shared and a lot of appreciation conveyed by the alumni to SJMSOM ’08 for such an exemplary event management. The all-pervasive feeling of the occasion is extracted in this one quote - "Education is what survives, after you’ve forgotten what you memorised."

Concluded.

Contributed by -
Nachiket Padwal,
Batch of 2007-09,
Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay.

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