IIT-B's SJM SOM holds Systems and Consulting Continuums

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MBAUniverse.com News Desk |
August 3, 2016
IIT Mumbai based Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management (SJM SOM) organized a series of knowledge events recently.

The Systems Continuum 2008 was held at institute on February 8. The theme of the event was: The Evolution of IT in the Changing Macroeconomic Scenario. The Consulting Continuum 08 was held at SJM SOM on March 9. The theme of the event was: The restructuring of organizations to make the most of India's current growth scenario. India's leading management portal MBAUniverse.com was the Official Management Portal for both the events.

Continuums are a series of lectures held annually in each discipline of management at Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management (SJM SOM).

A report on proceedings.

Consulting Continuum

The theme of the Consulting Continuum 08 was 'The restructuring of organizations to make the most of India's current growth scenario'. Top notch consultants from Accenture, Protiviti, Strategic Decision Group, Technopak and KPMG delivered their addresses at the forum. Along with the students of SJMSOM, the event was attended by about 40 participants from six business schools around Mumbai.

The event started with an address by Prof. Atanu Ghosh of Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, who introduced the topic and explained to the student how consultants practice the teaching of SJMSOM, to solve real life problems and explaining the lure of the consulting. The introductory speech was delivered by Mr. Sadeesh Raghavan, Managing Partner Accenture Business Consulting. Mr. Raghavan explained the basic philosophy of consulting stating, "Its not rocket science, it is just looking at things differently and beyond the obvious experience and correlation to the current scene." He further stressed on the role companies in emerging economies, something he specializes in, and how world today is not a cluster of discrete islands but a multi polar world. He also shared with us the insights into the culture at Accenture and how a consultant's life, which seems to be filled with CEO meets and field visits, actually requires immense homework.

The next speaker was Mr. Adithya Bhat, Director of Protiviti Consulting. Mr. Bhat, a strong believer in the Indian growth story, put his point forward using some key indicators which suggest that India has a sustainable growth prospect. He also said that when it comes to comparing India and China, India is lesser exposed to global recession than the latter because India has bigger consumer base at home and is relatively less export driven. Citing his personal experience of the merger of Arthur Anderson and E &Y, he elaborated on the role of consultants in a restructuring deal.

Mr Manish Chheda, Associate Director, Strategic Decisions Group also addressed the gathering. Mr. Chheda spoke at length on the restructuring needs of organizations from the top management's perspective. In the process he highlighted the kind of questions that need to be asked while an organization undergoes the process or restructuring.

Post Lunch, the meet saw a very unconventional method of presentation from Amol Deshpande, Associate Director, Technopak. Mr. Deshpande explained the role of a consultant by playing a small game. He stressed on the point that a consultant is not just one who shows the direction but also partners the company. Starting from the contemporary business cycle, he explained the impact of various decisions taken by a consultant on the future of the company. Later taking the case of retail industry, he gave great insights into the recent retail phenomenon,

Last speaker for the day was Mr. Shaswat Sharma, Associate Director, KPMG. Mr. Sharma, stressed on the importance of approach that a consultant should dwell upon. He said that the most difficult and important task is to ask the right questions. Further he elaborated on how to break every problem into smaller problems and to come up with an in depth analysis of the more important of these. He explained that in today's world one should give utmost importance to 'change readiness' than 'change management'.

Next was a panel discussion with the panelist including Mr Sadeesh Raghvan, Mr. amol Deshpande and Mr. Shaswat Sharma and moderated by Prof. Atanu Ghosh. This was a one of its kind panel discussion where the audience was asked to shoot questions straight away. The audience asked questions to all the panelist ranging from career option of a fresher in consulting business to the cultural issues arising in cross border M&A deals. Last in the day, was a case study workshop conducted by Prof Atanu Ghosh.

Systems Continuum

Systems Continuum 2008 was graced by head honchos of companies like Google, Yahoo, eBay, BMC software, Alcatel-Lucent, Virtusa and Headstrong.

The event started with an inaugural speech by Prof. Ms. Karuna Jain, HOD, SJMSOM. This was followed by a key note address by Mr. Mr. Prasad Ram, head of R&D at Google India on 'Role of Innovation in IT'. Mr. Ram started off with the next trends in globalization and localization. He spoke about building an innovative organisation by hiring the best and focusing on users not competition and illustrated the same by several innovations like the personalized iGoogle homepage in India, Gmail basic html page for bandwidth starved India, transliteration and Google maps, amongst others. He also talked about managing innovation by in-house development - demonstrated by the likes of Orkut, Gmail and also by strategic acquisitions like youTube. Mr. Ram stressed on the importance of the 20% rule at Google which led to the development of products like Google News and Google Scholar. He closed his talk by appreciating some unconventional ideas like Novatium, JustDial and OnMobile.

Mr. Pankaj Dhume, VP Global Practices, BMC Software spoke on the 'Future of India based R&D captive centres'. He spoke on how innovation is the key to the future of R&D units and that India offers immense opportunities for innovation. This was followed by a panel discussion moderated by Prof. N.L. Sarda, Dept of Computer Science & Engineering, IIT Bombay and had Mr. Pankaj Dhume, VP Global Practices, BMC Software, Mr. Akhil Agarwal, Vice President, Virtusa (India), Mr. Anurag Singh, VP Headstrong as panelists. The topic of discussion was 'Maintaining Competitive advantage amidst challenges from other technology destinations'.

The post lunch session saw a talk by Mr. Rajan Mehra, country manager of eBay India. Mr. Mehra spoke on 'Leveraging international e-business strategies for Indian customers'. He specifically mentioned GenY which has radically different preferences on the net and the sudden explosion of the touch points in the form of mobile and desktop applications which reach the living room. Keyword search is no longer the exclusive form of search. With the dawn of the video age, communication and to some extent even buying is happening through video; however the biggest challenge is the low Broadband penetration in India which is inhibiting the extensive use of video. Mr. Mehra ended by saying that trends indicate more media and retail companies would get into e-commerce.

This was followed by Mr. Pranesh Anthapur, COO, Yahoo! India speaking on the topic of 'Impact of Rupee appreciation on Indian IT and new business drivers in the current scenario'. The event ended with a talk by Mr. Vivek Mohan, Country Head, Alcatel-Lucent India. Mr. Vivek Mohan quelled any fears of an IT crisis in India in the wake of the dollar depreciation.