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HORIZONS: Exploring the Frontiers of Management Horizons 2003, the annual management seminar of IIM Kozhikode, started on 15th November with a welcome address by the director, Prof. A.H. Kalro. Prof. Kalro said that traditionally we focus on the past, but success in the past is not an index of success in the future. Director's speech was followed by a keynote address by Mr. Shashi Ullal, former vice chairman, Hughes Escorts Communications Limited. He talked about work-life balance which relates to the increasing burn-out due to exacting demands of the management and growing aspirations of the executives. The approach to be followed under such a situation is the inside-out approach, which borrows concepts from the Indian culture instead of blindly aping the west. Mr. Chander S. Bansal, MD, Transport Division, Alstom, India was the first speaker of the seminar. He talked about the success of Indian manufacturing industry and attributed it to two kinds of factors-internal and external. The internal factors include people development and training; efficient processes like benchmarking, use of IT tools and outsourcing; world-class products, packaging and services; globally competitive pricing and finally customer centric approach. External factors are infrastructure development, good economics and good politics. The evening ended with a scintillating violin recital by Dr. L. Subramaniam which left the audience mesmerized. The second day of Horizons began with a presentation on 'Knowledge workers: International pulls and national pressures' by Mr. Pramode Sadarjoshi, Director, HR, Cognizant Technology Solutions. He covered the practical issues pertaining to knowledge workers and explained the 'Glocal', i.e., Global + Local, phenomenon. He discussed the 'Virtual' corporation comprising the suppliers, customers, corporate IT, distributors, users and business units. In the end, he proposed a stepwise model for assessment and ranking of performance and potential of employees. This was followed by a session by Mr. Shashi Kalathil, Executive Director, Pepsi, who provided his perspective on the brand wars in the Indian market. He specifically discussed responses of "mega brands" to the onslaught of a new order of clones and generics. In his words, generics don't make the brand; rather, the brands make the generics. To handle clutter and proliferation, the brands need to focus upon certain spaces, then own these spaces and never defocus from these spaces. In the post lunch session, Mr. Mridul Sharma from ABN Amro delivered a talk on Build-to-Order Banking. He dealt with the newfound emphasis on providing individualised service without losing sight of economies of scale. The reason behind the build-to-order banking is the dwindling loyalty of the customers - the customers of today have become more demanding. The major challenges in customisation are the economics of investment and returns, managing customer expectation, rising complexity, relationship management across business units and geography and HR challenges. Thereafter, Mr. Ashvin Parekh, Executive Director, Deloitte & Touche Tohmatsu drew on his rich experience to speak on operational risk management and the development of integrated risk management systems. Operational risk can be due to inadequate or failed internal processes, people and system or from external events. He talked about the major challenges involved in implementing integrated risk management. A stimulating panel discussion on corporate governance provided the grand finale for Horizons 2003. The panel engaged in a discussion on "whether the Board and top management are part of the same team having complementary strengths or is bonhomie a sign of sleeping with the enemy?" This becomes relevant in the light of the recent spate of corporate scandals, which have eroded investor trust. The panellists included Mr. Shashi Ullal, former Vice Chairman HECL, Mr. Pandia Rajan, MD, Ma Foi Management Consultants Ltd., Mr. A. K. Agarwal, Executive Director, Corporate Affairs, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited and Prof. T. K. Ramchandran of Calicut University. To set the tone of the discussion, Mr. Ullal pointed to the frauds and magnitude of damage Enron, WorldCom, Tyco and the likes have caused to small investors and that in India, such scams are still to be uncovered. Mr. Rajan expressed the belief that India will be a superpower unless we pull ourselves down and that India Inc. is far ahead in compliance to the corporate responsibility when compared to similar nations. The valedictory address was given by Mr. Pandia Rajan. He discussed about the opportunities, threats and challenges to become an entrepreneur and how he managed to build a 100 crore company brick by brick within ten years. The event concluded with the thanks note by Prof. K. Unnikrishnan Nair, faculty advisor for the Team Horizons. Contributed by: - |
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