In a move to bring Brand IIMs under spotlight, Europe Chapter of Alumni Association of the six Indian Institutes of Management held The IIM Global Management Summit. The theme of the summit was 'The Changing Face of Business' and was attended by over 200 delegates. This was the second such summit.
Opening the summit, Mehmood Khan, chairman of IIM Alumni Association Europe, said the event was an opportunity to stimulate business discussion and global networking, and to promote the global brand of the six Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs). He said that 100 MBA graduates are recruited into the City of London every year.
The Summit saw 35 keynote speakers and industry specialists, and held panel discussions in several areas.
Dr. Devi Singh, Director of Indian Institute of Management Lucknow, while speaking at the Summit, lauded the efforts of their Europe alumni from all six IIMs and pledged greater support for future events.
Harpal Randhawa, Founder of Sabre Capital worldwide pointed that global companies from emerging markets are successful due to their superior execution and new industry models rather than cheap labour, giving examples of companies ranging from Posco in Korea and Yue Yuen in Taiwan to Embraer in Brazil and Tenaris in Argentina. He surprised the audience by asserting that the next global cement giant is in the making in Nigeria, a place which the world assumes is still too risky for business.
The conference spanned business areas of current interest. Underscoring the business challenges of climate change, Mark Purdy, Policy & Corporate Affairs, Accenture, presented some key findings of his forthcoming research report. The research interviewed management at 500 companies of various sizes across six countries, and identified that although over 45% of them see it as a major issue for business, fewer than 20% have made it their strategic priority.
Professor David Begg, Principal Imperial College London however pointed out that action on climate change is not straightforward because it requires not only a compromise between poor and rich nations, but also between current and future generations.
Several other speakers focused on key innovations and growth areas. Amjid Ali, Head of HSBC Amanah UK, explained the global potential and policies behind Islamic Banking. Martin Kochman, Head of Europe BPO at Cognizant gave examples of clinical trial, equity research and fund accounting as future areas of smaller-scale higher-value processes that will be outsourced.
Talking about "Distributed Innovation", Prof. Gerry George, Head of Rajiv Gandhi Centure at Tanaka Business School, Imperial College London, emphasized the special relationship with IIMs. Clifford De Souza, Partner at Emerging Markets Group, identified systemic factors at the root of the ongoing US sub-prime crisis predicting further financial innovations will emerge for better risk transfer.
The highlight of the summit was the arrival of Ieuan Wyn Jones, Deputy First Minister for Wales and Minister for Economy & Transport. He, along with his team from International Business Wales, announced that a trade mission from his country would be visiting India in November 2007.
Other key speakers included A. S. Lakshminarayanan, Country Head of Tata Consultancy Services, UK & Ireland; Nish Kotecha of Sphere Partners and President TiE UK; Uday Dandvate, CEO SonicRim, Ltd; and Pradeep Banerji, CTO of the Sword group.
Sharing the rationale for the initiative, IIM Alumni Association Europe said, "Though initially constrained due to the closed nature of the Indian economy prior to the reforms era, with the opening up of the Indian economy in the 1990s and with thousands of alumni placed in important positions in the top companies and locations all over the world, the IIM alumni network is now rapidly enhancing the influence and reputation of the Indian Institutes of Management on the global business scene like the IITians have done in the field of technology. We have over 700 alumni in Europe and more than 1500 in the USA as a testimony to this."
IIM Alumni Association Europe represents over 700 alumni of India's leading business schools - the six Indian Institutes of Management. It's a culmination of over 6 years of efforts made by the alumni bodies of individual institutions to bring the alumni within Europe together.
The IIM Alumni Association Europe also announced they will hold more business and cultural events in London in 2008 to further build their network and promote the IIM brand.
