IIM Ahmedabad Inaugurates 10th Edition of its Annual Business Summit, "Confluence 2008"

IIM Ahmedabad Inaugurates 10th Edition of its Annual Business Summit, "Confluence 2008"

Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad kicked off the tenth edition of its Annual Business Summit - Confluence 2008 - with the formal inauguration ceremony. The event started with the traditional lighting of the lamp by the dignitaries present on the occasion.

Mr. Raman Arora, the Secretary of Confluence 2008, welcomed the guests and the participants and introduced the central theme of the event - Creation of Wealth. He also gave an insight into the events that shall unfold over the course of the next three days. Prof. Atanu Ghosh introduced the guests and highlighted the contribution that each of them had made to wealth creation in different roles and fields.

The opening address was delivered by the Chief Guest, Ms. Mrinalini Sarabhai, a recipient of the prestigious Padma Bhushan Award. Ms. Sarabhai stressed that the idea of wealth should go beyond economic prosperity and emphasized the importance of cultural wealth, which she felt is declining in the current generation. She advised the youth to take pride in their Indian heritage and not to blindly imitate the foreign notion of wealth.

Mr. Satish Pradhan, Executive VP, Group HR, Tata Sons, expressed his happiness at the choice of the theme for Confluence and praised the event as, 'a truly amazing effort emanating out of IIMA'. He added that the theme is relevant in the present times. Mr. Pradhan felt it is more important that wealth be distributed, rather than being created for only a few. He recalled the philosophy of J. R. D. Tata that 'what comes from the people must go back to the people' and showed how Tata Group’s governance structure represents this idea.

Mr. Pradhan felt that there is a need for innovation in management and governance practices, which is an opportunity as well as a huge challenge for young leaders. He summed up his address with the idea that 'in times of crisis what is required is an intense spirit of discovery underlying values, communities and environment'.

Mr. Mehmood Khan, a product of IIM-A (Batch of 1977) and currently the Global Leader of Innovation Process Development at Unilever, described his presence at Confluence 2008 as a home-coming. He went on to define wealth creation as a 'creative process of turning an enterprise into a successful one by meeting expectations of all its stake holders'. Mr. Khan opined that innovation should be a balance of creativity, capability and discipline. According to him, opportunities for wealth creation lie with a set of more than 6 Billion people who should be adequately supported by a consistently improving technology.

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* Contributed by -
Pratik Ved,
Secretary - Media Cell,
IIMA Confluence 2008,
Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

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