ENARADA, Bangalore, September 11,2013:
Convergence 2013 – the annual Operations and IT summit of Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (SIBM) Bengaluru was organized recently in Bangalore by the Operations Batch & Placement Committee of the B-School. The event was organized on the theme “India Seeks Revival” with the focus on “Challenging the convention”.
The two-day programme which was attended by over 350 MBA students was sponsored by Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), Lord’s Plaza, TEOCO, Zoom, Freecharge.in and Management Paradise.com.
The event began with the Operations Summit involving two interactive sessions followed by a panel discussion on the most happening topic “Is FDI imperative for India’s supply chain integration”. The panel discussion comprised Tarjinder Singh, Vice President of Robinson Cargo & Logistics Pvt. Ltd., Rajesh Kumar, Director of Planning Operations, Entercoms, Ishwar Rao of COO SIPL and Rajesh Agarwal of IBM. The discussion was moderated by Faculty & independent consultant Arvindan Ramachandran.
Co-founder, MD and CEO of Forum Synergies shared his experiences in the field with the students in an interactive session after the panel discussion. He stressed on the need to challenge conventional wisdom to create a niche in any field. Panel discussion was followed by a session on Warehouse Management System where Senior Director of Manhattan Associates, Veda Ramachandran emphasized the importance of changing the conventional warehouse into a technological one.
An exciting session awaited the students in the afternoon as the presence of Abhishek Ekal, Vice President of Dabbawala Foundation, Mumbai and its Secretary Sakharam Gawde added to excitement among students.
The duo gave a glimpse of the working of their organization to the assembled gathering and the secret behind their 99.9% efficiency and 100% customer satisfaction. Needless to say the inputs given by them were inspirational to the B-school students. There was also Kurukshetra – the battle, the online quiz out programme, which was quite enthralling.
On the second day of the event there was IT summit which began with an equally engrossing and exciting panel discussion on an equally thrilling topic “Indian IT’s midlife crisis. Parag Patankar, Senior Director, Industry Strategy & Insight, Oracle, Chandramouli C M, Director, Globalization Advisory and Talent Practice, Zinnov Management Consulting, Ms. Sonali Khopkar, Associate Director of Capgemini (India), Amlan Nayak, Director Development, Teoco Software Pvt. Ltd. and Ravindra Athayle, Director, Banking & Financial Services CGI, were the participants. Sabari Thampi, Director, Arowana Consulting, moderated the panel discussion. The panelists opined that Indian IT industry was going through a low phase which cannot be termed as crisis.
On the final day the grand finale to the Kurukshetra – the Battle ground was held where the participants were asked to provide a solution to the business management of MTR to overcome their problems. The team from Welingkar, Mumbai won the battle and the cash prize of Rs. 15,000/-. The team from IIM Trichy were the runners up and pocketed Rs. 10,000/-.
The event was indeed an eye opener both to the students and the organizers. Mohit Bhasin, one of the organizers said “It was indeed good exercise and would help us a great deal to succeed in future. Arushi Bafna, one of the participating students said “The event exposed them to the working of the industry. It was a memorable experience”.
