IRIS 2002
The Annual Management Festival organized by IIM Indore
7th - 10th November 2002

Since its inception, five years ago, IIM Indore has traveled quite some distance. From being the minnow among the IIMs, IIM Indore has carved a niche in the corporate world in spite of just three batches having passed out of the institute. IRIS is the annual management festival organized by the Indian Institute of Management Indore. The first edition of the festival was held in 2000, within two years of the institute's inception. IRIS 2002 was the third edition of the festival held between the 7th to the 10th of November 2002.

Inauguration Ceremony

The inauguration ceremony of IRIS 2002 was held on 7th November 2002. The Chief Guest and Key Note Speaker for the occasion was Mr. M. K. Sharma, Vice Chairman, Hindustan Lever Limited. The Guest of Honour was Mr. Rakesh Kalra, Managing Director, Eicher Motors Limited. The function was inaugurated by the traditional lighting of a diya by the Chief Guest and the Guest of Honour. Mr. M .K. Sharma subsequently delivered the Key Note address on the topic of 'Corporate Governance'.

He opined that all the current corporate governance models delivered the necessary framework but lacked soul. A small fraction of companies in India actually incorporated the same and its implementation was left to the discretion of individual companies. Mr. Sharma also spoke of the role of independent directors in helping the organization become more accountable; but he rued the fact that the pay offered to them was not commiserate with the expectations vested in them. He also raised the issue that 'policing', while necessary to an extent, could not be the only tool to bring about effective corporate governance. Mr. Sharma also discussed the role of auditors in the corporate governance framework and about the perception that, while auditors are legally responsible to the shareholders in effect they owe allegiance to the management of the organization. He later talked about ethics in managing an organization and mentioned examples from his experience at Hindustan Lever Limited.

External Participation

The four-day festival saw participation from the top B-schools of the country, with about 100 students from Institutes, like IIM Bangalore, IIM Lucknow, XLRI, MDI, SP Jain, MICA, etc. The top Institutes in Indore were also invited. These include IIPS, IMS and Prestige Institute of Management.

Festival Highlights

Formal Games: The festival comprised eleven business games across all functional areas, such as marketing, finance, strategy and general management. Some of the major games included 'Exquizit', the business quiz sponsored by Eicher Motors, 'Ad'apt', the marketing game sponsored by Tata International, 'Strategic Solutions', the case analysis competition sponsored by S. Kumars and 'Word War III', the negotiations game sponsored by Media Partner Naidunia. The cash prizes for the formal business games totaled over Rs. 1.5 lakhs. Then. there were the computer-simulated and networked, stock & derivative markets simulation game called 'Dy/Dx', the supply chain game called 'Chain Reaction', 'Bulls and Bears' - a stock market simulation game, and 'First Among Equals', the Best Manager Competition. . 'Fix-the-Mix', a marketing game, and 'Bank on Us', a banking game also formed the list of competitions.

Besides these, a Panel Discussion was also held among leaders of some of the leading Internet brands in the country. The panel consisted to Mr. Vinay Chhajjlani, CEO, Webdunia.com, Mr. Sanjeev Bhikchandani, CEO, Naukri.com and Mr. Sameer Goswami. COO, Hungama.com, the discussion being chaired by Mr. Arvind Krishnamurthy from Yahoo. Discussing the success stories of their brands, the CEOs stressed the importance of spending wisely and not widely when establishing Internet brands. They discussed at length as how innovativeness of service and reaching out to the consumer is more important than piggybacking on short-term media exposure.

Informals: Apart from the management games, IRIS also had its share of informal games. The informal games package called 'Fun'das' were sponsored by Nestle. Fun'das comprises of 3 games - 'Treasure Trail', 'Slide Rules' and 'Two to Tango'. These were semi-formal games that put to test the participants' quick wit, spontaneity, personality, presence of mind and ability to entertain the audience.

Channel [V] Nite: IRIS also hosted a mega event in association with Channel [V]. The 'Channel [V] Nite' was held on the 9th of November at 9.30 PM in the IIM Indore campus. DJ Bosco and VJ Kim flew in from Mumbai for the event. The crowd danced away into the wee hours of the night, with the impromptu dancing contests held by the VJ adding to the excitement.

The grand finale of the four-day festival was held at Nakhrali Dhani at night. All the participants were taken to the quaint Rajasthani village, where a dance party was organized for them. The participants were charmed by the environment, and the traditional food served to them. It was a night to be remembered, flooded with moonlight and peace, a fitting tribute to a festival that will never end in the minds and hearts of the participants of IIM Indore.

IRIS Coordinator - Mr. Raghav Radhakrishnan
Issued by the IRIS Media Team.