“Work hard in silence and Success will make all the noise.” Synonymous to this was The Business Conclave 2017, organised by Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, Bangalore at The Lalit Ashok. The event started on a high octane note, with an illustrous panel of speakers and budding management students. This year Business Conclave added a new section by conducting a workshop on “Parallel Thinking”, which saw immense participation from students, an interactive session conducted by Mr. Manish Sampat, where he narrated how to tackle any given problem just by coordinating and planning the way think.
The beginning of the event was marked by the Director Dr.Suresh Mony, giving a brief insight on how businesses have shifted their horizons today with the influx of new technology and innovative methods. The speaker session opened with Mr.Prakash Iyer, Ex-MD Kimberly-Clark, where he talked about how we should keep looking forward but always take take care of people who are less fortunate than us. He gave a resonating statement “To be successful in life we should necessarily have PHD, P for Passion, H for Hunger and D for Disciplne.” Mr. Sanjay Anandram, Governing Board Member of TiE, left an imprinting thought in everyone’s mind by his words, “ Build a good business, worry about valuation later. A good entrepreneur has to know-am I here for the valuation or am I here for the value?” Mr. Nagaraj Prakasham, talked on “Ignoring the Billion”, where he spoke about how to differentiate yourself from others when you want to be an entrepreneur. He told us the best quality of an entrepreneur is that when others see a problem, an entrepreneur sees opportunity and finds a solution to it.
The speaker session was followed by a panel discussion on the topic, ‘Predicting Possibilities: Adapting to the ever-evolving business paradigms.” The panel constituted of four eminent personalities- Mr. Anand Sri Ganesh, VP & Head of Product Management of The/Nudge Foundation; Ms. Renu Rajani, Vice President Infosys; Mr. Vijay Menon, Marketing & Communication Consultant & Author; and Ms. Debleena Majumdar, Storyteller, Entrepreneur and Start-up Adviser. The discussion was moderated by Mr. Sudheesh Venkatesh, CPO of Azim Premji Foundation.
The panel discussed various aspects with Mr. Ganesh throwing light on customer centric views on changes, Ms. Rajani discussing technological advancements and being prepared to work with robot colleagues. Mr. Menon took from the interviews he conducted with various CEO’s and shared his knowledge on how small, medium and large businesses cope with change; and Ms. Debleena helped us discover how the art of storytelling and stories in itself will never be surpassed by the changes enveloping us.
This engaging session was followed by a highly enriching interview session of Mr. Ajay Nanavati, Chairman of Syndicate Bank by Ms. Shruti HM from the Indian Express. They discussed his 30 years of experience in 3M and how he developed from the first employee of 3M in India and went on to take leadership and top management roles. One major takeaway for all young and enthusiastic millennials from this conversation was the experienced suggestion of Mr. Nanavati when he says that one should carefully understand what it is they would like to have written on their tombstone! This is what should be the key driver for all our actions which will eliminate confusion and ambiguity while making decisions.
There were praises galore from all the attendees once the event concluded and vast experience of the panelists, speakers and the interviewee left everyone present with lessons that they can put to good use, not only in their business endeavors but also in their daily lives.
~ Alolika Biswas & Eeshanesh Jha (PGDM 08)
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