Samanvay 2013

Some experiences in life have an everlasting impression in our mind. This year’s Samanvay was one such experience which will be cherished by all of us for the years to come. Managing VUCA was the theme for the 7th edition of Samanvay where VUCA stands for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity. DoMS was the most vibrant place in IIT Madras this October with the convergence of some of the top minds in B-school and the Industry taking on the challenges of the new VUCA world. The nerves were running high leading up to the event and the challenges equally big, but the hard work and dedication of all the co-ordinators with the support of the faculty took Samanvay to a whole different level this year.

Cyclothon and the Flash Mob

The event started on an exciting note with a barrage of enthusiastic students from all over the Institute taking part in the cyclothon on the evening of 17th October. Prof. T. T. Narendran flagged off the event which announced the commencement of the 7th edition of Samanvay. Refreshments awaited the participants at the finishing point and Certificates were given to the first 100. At around 8’o clock on the same day, the student fraternity of the Institute was in for a special surprise when a sudden flash mob appeared in front of the Himalaya mess. The flash mob was a perfect signal of the excitement and the pleasant surprise that were to be witnessed in the next three days of Samanvay.

Inauguration
On 18th October the moment that we were all eagerly waiting for and working towards arrived. Everyone gathered in the IC&SR auditorium of the Institute for the official inauguration of Samanvay. Mr Awdhesh Krishna, MD, Global HR head, Nomura Services India Ltd. Was the Chief Guest of the Inaugural function. The ceremony began with a prayer song followed by an opening address by our HOD Prof. G. Srinivasan about the department and his expectations from this edition of Samanvay. Mr Awdhesh Krishna delivered an inspiring speech on the theme of Samanvay, ‘Managing VUCA’. Though the concept of VUCA gives a negative feeling he urged the students to approach the VUCA world with a positive mind-set which would help them find the right opportunities out there. ‘Learning Agility’is the mantra that will take us to success in a VUCA world. He discussed the megatrends in the industry like changing face of technology and sustainability. He concluded the speech with his own quote that says, ‘What matters is not competence but Character, not success but Significance.

The Conclave
Individualism can only go so far. Real Excellence is beyond its reach, far beyond the horizon that only togetherness can unravel. On October 19, 2013, the students, alumni and faculty of DoMS, along with the corporate leaders, gathered together in a ‘Management Conclave’ to aggregate their distinctiveness, to exploit the pull of ideological differences and to experience the sheer brilliance of collective coherence. The Management conclave was a panel discussion on India’s Demographic Dividend – A boon or bane’ The panel members of the conclave included many of the industry stalwarts. We had Mr.CharathNarasimhan, CEO Indian Terrain, and also an IIT-M alumnus. Mr.P Suresh, Chief Operating Officer of Bhartiya International was another panel member. We also had Ms, VidyaMuralidhar, HR Manager at Ashok Leyland andProfessor V.R Muralidharan, Professor of Economic at the Department of Humanities and Sciences, IIT Madras. The Guest of Honour for the conclave was Mr. T.V Karthikeyan, CFO L&T Infrastructure Development Projects Limited. He also heads the F&A at L&T Ltd., ECC Division. The panel discussion was moderated by Mr.ArunSubramony, a Ph.D student at Department of Management Studies, an entrepreneur, and an MBA graduate from the Kellog School of Business. The panel discussion shed light on various aspects of the Indian economy that needs to be looked upon, if we are to take advantage of the current demographic dividend and make it count for the future. The speakers stressed on the importance of bringing about a good coverage of quality education across the country, to address the needs of employability and improved economy. They also spoke about the importance of setting up necessary infrastructure that would address the growing needs of our country. They also spoke about reforming the labour laws to favour the growth of business and address the employability and unemployment issues. The speakers also responded to the questions posed by the audience at the end of the discussion. The event concluded with a wonderful speech by Mr. T.V.Karthiekyan, the guest of honour for the day. Mr. T.V Karthikeyan, being a CFO of an infrastructure organisation, delved more into the need for sophisticated and world-class roads, bridges and transportation structure that would enable easy flow of trade, favouring the economy of the country.

Valedictory Function

As all good things must come to an end, the beautiful and pleasant evening of October 20, 2013, saw the curtains being drawn down on Samanvay 2013. The valedictory ceremony of the seventh edition of Samanvay was attended by the faculty, alumni and students of the Department of Management Studies. Mr Ambarish Das Gupta, Head of KPMG operations India, Mr Raman, KPMG India, Professor R. Nagarajan, Dean of International & Alumni Relations graced the occasion with their presence. Mr Ambarish Das Gupta delivered the keynote address. He spoke about the consulting industry and the qualities that are needed for a consultant and outlined the importance and contribution of the consulting industry in growing economies. Mr Ambarish Das Gupta captured the attention of the audience with his wit and humour. He also took questions from the audience. Finally the Vote of thanks delivered by Samanvay Core Coordinator Shine Nagpal brought us to the end of Samanvay 2013 with the hope of returning bigger and better next year.

Courtesy
DoMS Interface Committee
Class of 2015

Growing Up with Big Data

It was yet another full house at the IC&SR auditorium, where Mr. Anand Rajaram had arrived  to talk about Big Data. A renowned IIT alumni and Senior Vice President, Global E-commerce, Walmart, besides donning many other high profile roles, Mr. Anand Rajaram took the stage with ease and familiarity of an old student. Mr. Anand Rajaram, a recent recipient of the distinguished alumnus award from IIT-Madras, an alumnus of Stanford University, is also the founding partner of Cambrian Ventures. He has worked with Amazon as its Director Of Technology, previously. His talk was pitched on the four generations in the evolution of data driven applications. The first one as he explained was all about collecting, storing and processing private data like payrolls, employee records of an organisation etc. This, he said, was followed by the second generation where businesses tapped into public data that could be collected online. Formulation of Wikipedia and other related websites were products of the second generation of data driven applications. With further advancements, “semi-public” data came into existence in the third generation. Social Networks cropped up in this generation. He stated an example, as to how useful these social networks are in finding product-consumption data across geographies from websites like twitter, facebook etc. This information was used to stock up retail stores accordingly and hence very helpful in market basket analysis. He drove the point better when he quoted Eric Schmidt; “Every two days mankind were creating as much information as we did from the dawn of civilization up until 2003”.  Just like how combining oil and oxygen could fuel a rocket launch, combining private, public and semi-public data , he claims, is set to launch a new generation of endless possibilities. This along with the penetration of smart phones and mobile applications, data is set to provide fodder for many more ideas and concepts. He calls this fourth generation, one of Social Sciences Revolutions. And in this generation we are set to meet “The Big Data”. As data becomes big and bigger at a rapid pace, he advises that data modelling should adopt a “data-rich, model-light” approach, wherein one uses simpler algorithms that can accept frequent changes in volume and nature of data. He concluded on a note that claimed us all to be on the cusp of social sciences revolution, where business possibilities are limited only by one’s imagination.

Courtesy
Padma Priya
Class of 2015

Navigating the Current Macro Economic Landscape

A real charmer of the audience, Mr Kamlesh Jain kept around 120 students of IIT Madras quite captivated and enthralled by his presentation, here at DoMs. The students though mostly from the management department, also included a good number of B Techs and M Techs as well. As it happened to be so, Mr. Jain was an Ex-employee of Lehman Brothers and thus had the first-hand experience of the 2008 Economic crisis which had hit the world. He explained, along with funny titbits, how the world evolved and gave a bird’s eye view of the World’s Economic environment, thus justifying the topic he presented to the fullest using his excellent oratory skills.

Firstly, he shared his experience at Lehman brothers which had been a AAA rated company by various rating agencies. He shared how, on the day the company fell, he was still interviewing candidates from the IITs and how nobody, not even the managerial employees of the companies saw the downfall coming. This, as indicated by him, was the trigger of sorts for him to start viewing the world economy as a whole and observe the changes on a much higher level than before. He narrated how in 2001, the Global Bubble started, when the then US President George Bush Sr. and Mr. Greenspan, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, both mitigated this bubble using all that was within their grasp. But as was inevitable, the bubble burst around mid-2007. Global financial crisis, Sub Prime Losses and a stiff credit crunch was faced. The price of each share of the Lehman Brothers crashed from a whopping $157 to $2.  The 2008 events were encapsulated in the documentary: “Too Big to Fail”. Here, we saw Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae fall in the area of Mortgage Guarantee, as Sis AIG in Investment Exposure and finally we have the famous penny stock by Citibank. And Surprise, Surprise! America the world’s most ardent capitalist country whose economy is completely dependent on the fate of its markets, turned tail and transformed into a socialist frontrunner when the US government started its Bailouts. Ironically it was the Public sector saving the private sector in this capitalist economy.

In 2009, the Bailout bubble started, which was also the year of Obama’s famous change reign; as also the time when Bernanke fired his Bazooka and reduced federal interest rates down to 0% which over shadowed Greenspan bringing it down to 1% and Global Stimulus Package was launched. As a temporary solution the US did what it could do to save itself but in 2011, Europe was in trouble. The PIIGS were in a soup as they say and high inflation hit all who had been scoring through high debt.

 Here, now Mr. Jain took the opportunity to influence our young minds towards future technologies and potential future global GDP contributors. With the help of well-established pie charts and graphs he depicted how the BRIC nations had an important role to play and the economic roadmap of the future. Japan who had developed the first metro almost a hundred years ago now was predicted to have a stagnated growth in the future by most experts. The OECD alone today contributes 65% of the Global GDP. Thus in 2030, India is predicted to contribute 7%, china 28%, US 18%, EU 12% and Japan 4% of global GDP. The key players would be the BRIC nations and the Frontier Nations. The Sri Lankan and Pakistani Stock Markets have had 111% and 45% returns over the last 2 decades. Statistical proof of growth was given as: Dow 46%, Nikkei 3%, Hangseng 120%, Shanghai 42%, and Nifty 461%. Thus, in 2060, Global GDP contributors would be: India 18%, China 28%, US 17%, EU 9% and Japan 3%. It is the growth potential that drives the Indices and at $15Trillion the US has a debt hangover that could last a decade. Today and in the future, there is ‘More money and Less Value’ for all commodities like Dollar, Euro, Oil and Gold.

Mr. Jain predicts a structural change which is already in motion. Financial markets are at “The New Normal” and Investment bankers’ pay checks have slimmed down whereas recruitment pay checks have fattened he jests. The few ‘Game Changers’ are estimated to be Energy efficiencies, Technology Disruptors, Wars and even the Frontier Nations. New growth Drivers of Innovation, Positive demographics, Favourable climate changes, productive uses of oil resources, efficiently managed public finances; all of which seems a myth today shall be the key areas of turnaround successes in the future, he envisions.

He concluded by saying that the current on-going wait for that one change to occur, a change that would trigger the bigger change to improvements, should be over soon. It could be anything - EU triple Dip recession, A fight for Water..

Or the most effective one,         

                                          ‘The wait for the Dollar to fall’

Courtesy
Hakimuddin Rassiwala
Class of 2014

Photo Courtesy:
Arun Tilak

Class of 2014     

Governance of Distributed Manufacturing and Service Networks

After a hectic schedule of assignment and case studies, it was time for a refreshing MILS session in operations domain by N Viswanadham. He is a Professor and Executive Director for the Centre for Global Logistics and Manufacturing Strategies (GLAMS) at the Indian School of Business (ISB). He has held several prestigious positions before joining the ISB such as Deputy Executive Director of The Logistics Institute-Asia Pacific and also Professor in Department of Mechanical and Production Engineering at the National University of Singapore; GE Research Fellow during 1989-90 and Tata Chemicals Chair Professor at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

 He started the session by covering the history of manufacturing and explained the evolution of manufacturing industry. Firstly, he explained mass and lean production, as part of mass production he mentioned about the invention of the assembly line by Henry ford along with his division and specialization of work force. He demonstrated how vertical integration provides cost advantage and better control. During the 1950’s “Customised production was the need of the hour”, during which Toyota came up with Lean Manufacturing. Secondly, He talked about automated machines and systems along with integrated information systems (for example: ERP, APS, WMS). He also explained integrated manufacturing-service networks and it’s constituents, viz. the supplier, the service and the demand networks. Next he gave an overview on product and process modularity and outsourcing during which he made it obvious that modular products and standardized production processes leads to outsourcing. He also gave an overview on the Global supply chain network, along with the importance of suppliers, Assembly (Manufacturing hub), Distributors (Inventory hub) and retailers in the supply chain system along with Inbound and outbound logistics with respect to the manufacturing firm.

He recalled the global trade collapse in vivid detail and its impact on supply chains. Globalization and highly connected supply chains amplified and transmitted the market collapse across the globe; Resources became expensive; High concentration clusters became vulnerable. “Shortage of talent to deal with new realities” was the need of the hour all over the world owing to the collapse. He described the shift in resource landscape during the last century and how the prices of natural resources, energy, food and water and material all fell but the past decade seems to have wiped out all the price declines that occurred over the past century. Today, demand is soaring, new resources are scarce and extraction is expensive. And the horror story of how shortage of one resource is rapidly impacting others.

He illustrated the Ecosystem model consisting of the Supply chain ecosystem at the centre and having four links: Resources, Institutions, Delivery service infrastructure and Supply chain networks (SCN’s). Resources comprise of equipment manufacturers, infrastructure, roads, ports, airports, banks, skill training, education, innovation, vehicles etc. Institutions referred to Legal and regulatory systems, quality control and environment laws, industry associations and labour unions, government investment in innovation, SEZ’s, trade laws and tax systems. Service delivery technologies and mechanism comprises of logistics, transformation and trade facilities, delivery planning, distributed networks, supply chain dash boards.

He also describe that governance has three major parts: Partner selection, coordination and control. Partner selection can be based on structural features (asset specificity, capabilities) and relational link (with government, social organizations, cluster management etc). Coordination is determining who does what and when and communication the same to everyone in the system. Execution is to monitor order status so that processes works as per plan and control exceptional events. He also mentioned about three types of network governance: Highly centralized external brokers (Li & fung, Olam international), Participant shared governance by elected board (Health care, Dairies, cooperatives) and Participant shared governance with a lead player by producer driven (Cisco, Nike) or buyer driven (Wal-Mart, Carrefour, Levi).He gave example of Li & Fung while explaining Orchestration model by stating that it has developed deep knowledge and internal system to identify quality suppliers in emerging markets, help them design and manufacture for western customers and make on time delivery despite of poor infrastructure.

He concluded by stating that Manufacturing has undergone structural changes from human intensive to fully automated;  vertically integrated to globally dispersed; fully owned to orchestrated owning ; strong ties with trusted suppliers to order configured SCN’s; Managing immediate suppliers to managing entire networks and Reactive to proactive multi-tier risk management. Development needs integration of social networks, inter organizational theory, machine learning, optimization, game theory with SCN’s.

Courtesy
Ravinder Reddy
Class of 2014

Photo Courtesy:
Arun Tilak

Class of 2014     

Capabilities needed to be successful in Global Organizations

 Mr. John Wyatt , the president of Wyatt consulting , a firm that specializes in providing consulting services to senior management on leadership, organization design and change management,  was here at DoMS to interact with the students and enlighten us on some of the essential skills we should possess to attain leadership roles in MNC’s.  During the past 13 years, John’s consulting practice has been focused on working with CEO’s and other senior executives in Fortune 200 organizations to design and lead major organization changes. John’s recent CEO or business unit head clients include: HP, Motorola, Fannie Mae, Lyondell Chemical, ITT, Kimberly Clark and Mercer Human Resources Consulting.

According to him, for a person to reach leadership role in any MNC, behavioural skills are more important than technical skills. Here he quotes six behaviour skills/ capabilities or the essential building blocks. They are: Self-awareness and self-management, reaching out to collaborate, Confident but not arrogant, Able to deal with ambiguity, to be culturally sensitive and able to sell ideas.

‘Self-awareness and self- management’ means that one should be able to do self-monitoring and possess a social radar. ‘Reaching out to collaborate’ means that one should foresee how one’s actions would impact others, and should take the initiative to communicate. ‘Confident but not arrogant’ entails that one should present themselves as positive and assertive but at the same time should avoid acting arrogant and should avoid looking at others condescendingly. ‘Can deal with ambiguity’ means that in corporate world, often we are faced with decisions involving right vs. bright. It means certain solutions are right but other solutions which might not be right may seem bright or attractive. We should be able to deal with decisions of right vs bright, accept responsibility without full authority and constructively work through conflict. ‘To be culturally sensitive’ means that we should be sensitive to values and behaviour of other people’s culture. We should be able to adjust our own behaviour accordingly. ‘Can sell ideas’ means that we should understand the stake holder’s needs and implement ideas so that their needs are met.

These skills need to be possessed to develop new capabilities in any organization. Mr. Wyatt also emphasized that we as students should start developing these skills right from now. Also, he mentioned that certain undesirable behaviour like Challenging but not listening, not being a team player, being not able to manage emotions and ‘me first’ orientation should be avoided.

He gave us insights regarding subtle cultural differences present among different nations and that which should to be taken care of while working in that country. With around 25 years of experience in consulting, Mr. Wyatt recollected examples from his own experiences and motivated students to develop essential skills required to reach leadership roles in MNC’s.  

Courtesy
Praveena
Class of 2014

Photo Courtesy:
Arun Tilak

Class of 2014