Monday, October 26, 2009

THE AWE-SAMPARK 2009

Sampark-the first Business Conclave organized by the Department of Management Studies (DoMS), IIT-Madras lived up to the buzz it had created over the last week. The theme for the event was “Innovation” and it was sponsored by Business Line Club and Karur Vysya Bank. The highlight of the event was the eminent speakers who came from diverse backgrounds but bonded by the common thread-“Innovation”.

The event began with the Head of the Department, Dr. C.Rajendran delivering the opening address.Dr.M.S.Ananth, the Director of IIT-Madras, lauded the selection of the theme for the first conclave and stressed on the fact that the passion towards success supersedes any failure in the process.

The session began with the keynote address by Mr.Naveen Kulkarni, Director (Business Development) - Philips Research Asia. He shared his experiences as an Entrepreneur before joining Philips and had the audience glued as he articulated how “entrepreneurship” was a gene and not just a trait. He described how the anatomy of “entrepreneurship” works with knowledge in the brain, passion in the heart and fire in the belly. He then moved on to share what they do differently in Philips. He underlined the importance of creating a fine balance between exploration and exploitation for meaningful innovation. He also gave a deep insight on the broad approach towards innovation followed in Philips. He ended his address with his philosophy for future entrepreneurs-“Think big, Start small, and Scale fast”.

The second speaker for the day was Mr. Rajaram Venkataraman, Principal Innovation Architect - Infosys Technologies Ltd.He set the tempo for the day with his opening words- “Innovate or Die”. He started off with some startling statistics regarding the decline of some major companies which substantiated his earlier words. He then moved on to discuss more about “Process Innovation and the role of IT”. He drew similarities between 2 very successful companies, Toyota and Infosys, which conscientiously lived with the philosophy of “The best never rest”.

The post lunch saw the most interactive session with the highly energetic CEO of Consim Info (BharatMatrimony Group), Mr. Murugavel Janakiraman. He also happened to be the youngest speaker and struck an instant rapport with the audience. The audience listened to him as he shared the journey of “Bharatmatrimony” from an idea and how it has become the second name for “online matrimonial services”. He was quick to point out that he too found his soul mate through the site. He emphasized on the importance of “incremental innovation” for sustainable success in this competitive and demanding business scenario. He ended his speech with the words which reverberated in the hall along with the applause he received from the overwhelmed audience-“Do not wait for any breakthrough idea for innovation. Your passion can create and drive innovation”.

The stage was set for Dr.Ravinder David Koilpillai who is a Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Madras to take the session forward. He spoke about “Technology Evolution and Innovation-A Telecom Perspective”. He engaged the audience with some insights into the history and development in the field of Wireless Technology. He elaborated on the basic flowchart of Innovation process and also spoke about the importance of patents. He ended the address on a positive note expressing his optimism and excitement about the immense potential in the field of Telecom.

As the session moved towards the last lap with everyone engrossed in reflecting on the various speeches on innovation, Mr. N.K Subramaniyam, Executive Director Saksoft limited took the stage. He introduced the topic “Business Intelligence and Innovation” and elaborated on the reasons for choosing the topic. He started with the concepts of Data warehouse and Data Mart and their commercial viability in current business scenario. These techniques have found immense applicability in the banking, manufacturing and marketing sector for Data mining, for making business decisions and for helping in coming up with newer business strategies. Mr.Subramaniyam ended his lecture stressing on the fact that business intelligence would be the top priority requirement in the near future.

The day long intellectually stimulating interaction with all the speakers lived up to its promise of delivering the 3 Es-engage, exchange and empower through this event-SAMPARK. The speakers spent time answering queries of the students even after their respective sessions. The event concluded with a hope that the coming years would take this initiative to a new level altogether. 



Team DoMS Interface,
Batch of 2011

2 comments:

  1. Mr. Murugavel Janakiraman was electrifying.. showed how simple desires can lead to innovations & if pressed more lead to big business.

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