Confluence Series by DMS, IIT Delhi puts spotlight on Operations and Strategy Challenges

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MBAUniverse.com News Desk |
July 25, 2016
Confluence, the seminar series organized by the Department of Management Studies, IIT Delhi conducted the second edition of the series based on two core managerial topics – operations and strategy.

The event, held on April 11, saw two sessions: the morning session which delved into operations and had eminent business leaders presenting their views on ‘Operations: Organizational Growth Driver’ and the afternoon session which saw various industry leaders sharing their thoughts on the theme “Reinventing Strategy; Rediscovering Growth’.

MBAUniverse.com is the Official Management Portal of Confluence Series.

This edition of Confluence began with the inauguration by Mr Devin Narang, Chairman of The Narang Group, who in his inaugural address highlighted the idea that to run an industry, it begins with human capital. He also spoke of his family business and the changes that it had gone through. He also highlighted the importance of looking at new technologies particularly in the renewable energy sector in which his business deals. The inaugural session was presided over by Prof S K Jain who opened the session with a short speech that touched upon a range of issues pertaining to operations and strategy particularly in light of the current economic slowdown.

The session on operations was chaired by the Professor of Operations, Prof. D K Banwet. In his opening speech he gave the audience a brief introduction to the world of operations and how it was closely related to other organizational functions.

The first speaker for the day was Mr Anant Kishore, COO of Indorama India. He spoke in great depth of the various factors that account for operational costs and how these costs could be minimized effectively for greater organizational effectiveness.

Mr Giriraj Niyati CTO and VP of MoserBaer, was the next speaker. He highlighted the important aspects of greater operational effectiveness – quality and customer centric plant performance. With MoserBaer as the basis for his presentation, he effectively showed how quality is not just about controlling but also about building quality into the process.

Bharti-Walmart was represented by Mr Gaurav Saxena, DGM for Strategy and Logistics Planning.  With Walmart’s excellence in supply chain value chain, Mr Saxena’s presentation revolved around supply chain value chain and he touched upon various aspects related to this such as optimization of capital by asset utilization, rationalization of costs by sustainable operations and optimized supply chain with increased sales.

The next speaker was Mr Singh Khalsa CSD Training and Internal Communication, Aircel. He gave a presentation with the topic “Operations is Common Sense”. He presented operations from an HR perspective and said that the most important job of an HR executive was to ensure that salaries were paid on time. He also illustrated the importance of the clarity of the objective of the organization to the employees.

The last speaker for the session on Operations was Mr Rajiv Bajaj, CFO & Company Secretary, Panasonic AVC Networks India Co. Ltd. He outline four international operations strategies, quoting pertinent examples. He further went on to describe how globalization and restructuring and internet have caused changes in the macroeconomic environment. He pointed out how the ultimate focus should be on operations and strategy and that constant and consistent innovation is a Panasonic forte.

The afternoon session was based on strategy and had the topic “Reinventing strategy; rediscovering growth” for discussion.

The chair for the session was Professor for Marketing Prof R K Baisya. He gave a brief overview on the topic, stating that consulting is bound to change in the time of a downturn.  He said that the current crisis is not a national crisis or a regional one, but was a global one and that its impact on different nations is different.  He said India is capable of overcoming the current crisis due to our huge domestic market.  He said that while an organization can opt for both offensive and defensive strategies during good times, the onus should be on survival during a downturn.  Intelligent investments are the necessities of the day, he said, and setting the tone for the discussion, threw the session out for other panelists.

The first speaker for the session was Mr. Oscar de Mello, Country Head, Reward Information Services, Hay Group India.  Being the leaders in performance evaluation and rewards consultancy, the Hay Group is reinventing its strategies and thereby helping other global business giants in rediscovering their own.  Taking examples from the Fortune list of World’s Most Advanced Companies, Mr. de Mello said that the current downturn is an opportunity for the mighty to stay on the course and to expand its global reach. The same applies for smaller firms, he added, and gave an overview of the Total Rewards Framework as propounded by Hay Group.

Sameer Sathe, Partner, Universal Consulting, was the next speaker for the session.  He laid stress on “Flexible Strategies”, and said that strategies are never completely rigid.  He said that the kind of mindset that the top management sport is different in boom time and in the time of downturn.   He said that Darwin’s law of Survival of the fittest is especially valid during the downtime, and that flexibility is the key skill of the fittest organization.  Only adaptive and flexible organizations can survive such times.  “Think balanced, think counter intuitive”, was his advice.

The next speaker for the session was Mr. Ashutosh Gupta, Vice President, EValueServe.  He said that in planning for the time of a downturn, one should balance fear and greed.  Since the Indian domestic sector was growing, impact of the current downturn on India would be limited.  Organizations should implement counter-measures, and should invest and innovate, but in a conservative manner.  He said that common practices in downturn are cost reduction, strategic acquisitions and mergers, value pricing and a balance between focus on growth and cost.  Outsourcing, focus in core business and strengthening focus on marketing and sales is the way out. 

Mr Naresh Priyadarshi, Head of Business Consulting, Synovate Business Consulting put forth the viewpoint that “solutions” change but “strategy” stays the same. He said that this recession gave one the opportunity to learn, build skills and to rediscover. Presenting numerous case studies from the real world he illustrated the different solutions various firms had come up with in recent times.

The final speaker for the session was Mr Siddarth Vishwanath, Associate Director of PriceWaterhouse Coopers. He talked about the right  time to reinvent strategy.  He mentioned the various measures PWC has taken in light of the current economic recession. He also relied on various real life examples to highlight his presentation.

Confluence was organized in association with FICCI.