Day 2 Highlights

Full Throttle – The Automobile Conclave This year Manfest set the stage discussion ‘Full Throttle: The Automobile Conclave’, with an underlying theme: ‘Moving into top gear: getting India on the road ahead’.

Dr. Wilfried Aulbur, CEO Mercedes Benz India; Mr. D P Singh, VP S&M Goodyear India; Mr. Rajeev Kapoor, President and CEO Fiat India; Mr. Dilip Chenoy, Director-General SIAM and Mr. Dilip Chhabria, Founder DC Design. These were the names which glittered at the conclave which was held on Saturday, January 23 at IIM Lucknow. The sizeable audience gathered at the conclave was a mix of B-school students from across the globe, industry stalwarts, IIM Lucknow alumni among others. It was an enriching 2 hours of discussions which touched upon several relevant issues in the automobile industry in India. All in all, it was an enriching experience for everyone.

Talk the Walk

Excellence, enterprise and energy form a veritable recipe for success for the future torchbearers of industry. The youth of today need is a little nudge in the right direction, a smidgeon of guidance to set the gears of their illustrious careers in motion. Manfest aimed to provide just that with Talk the Walk. Dr. Wilfried Aulbur, CEO of Mercedes Benz India and S Ramadorai, Vice-Chairman Tata Consultancy Services interacted with the students. Mr. Wilfried Aulbur started the conclave with an interesting dialogue on 'Luxury Marketing. He talked about the importance of 5Ps which have made Mercedes the leader in its market segment. He was followed by Mr. Ramadorai, who talked about the 'The future of IT in India'. He is one of the pioneers who introduced the concept of offshore development centers. He emphasized on the leading role of India and China in these recovery times. This event attracted many-a student who wanted to get a chance to listen to such recognized leaders at such close quarters.

Nirvaan

Abhiyan, the E-cell of IIM Lucknow organized Nirvaan-2010, the flagship entrepreneurial event of Manfest. This event gave the students an opportunity to interact with many entrepreneurial aspirants, eminent personalities from the industries, faculty and PE/VC/Angel investors.

This year, the MBA students had the pleasure of hearing from Mr. Emmet Brady, an authority on Biomimicry, an emerging thought process for new business ideas. The co-founders of Sanchetana Microfinance Private Limited, Mr. Lokesh Singh & Mr. Niraj Pareek talked about their success, followed by Mr. Rajiv Sabharwal, Executive Director at Sequoia capital will be sharing his views on emerging entrepreneurship opportunities. Mr. Brady who started off the conclave by bringing out the three elements that are important for success: planet, people and profit. He extolled the merits of an emerging discipline, Biomimicry which studies nature’s best ideas and then imitates these designs and processes to solve human problems. This subject is being taught in eminent universities like Stanford and UCB.
He gave many success stories of companies like Damien Chrysler, Qualcomm and Novomer who designed their products influenced by nature. He talked about the Eastgate Buildingin Harare, Zimbabwe which was inspired by termite mound. It was designed to be ventilated and cooled by entirely natural means. This has saved about 3.5 million dollars for the company in terms of electricity.
He spoke of the importance of imbibing nature’s design to business systems. He suggested that we create conditions which are conducive to life. He believed that the students of IIM Lucknow can make it happen. This event was a great success among the budding entrepreneurs.

Anjuman - The Corporate Luncheon

Anjuman 2010 played host to a diverse group of leaders from the corporate fraternity. The key note speakers included the likes of senior leaders such as Mr. Ramadorai, the former chairman of TCS and Mr. Pankaj Saluja, Senior partner at Bain and Co, Dr. Wilfried Aulbur, CEO of Mercedes Benz India.

Mr.Wilfried Aulbur talked about the importance of sustainable mobility in India. He believes that the infrastructure at present is not adequate to meet the demand of the automobile industry. He also emphasized on the need for Indian manufacturers to innovate and design products that are suitable for the country’s infrastructure.

Mr. Ramadorai then talked about the India’s role in recession times and also stressed that reverse brain drain is quite visible .Mr. Pankaj Saluja then talked about the infrastructure bottlenecks in the country and the method in which foreign firms should enter India. He believes that by participating in mainstream segments, localizing 4Ps, and investing in local talent would bring in definite success.

In addition, the audience included over 80 senior leaders from the corporate fraternity and the students from IIM Lucknow. The event saw the leaders mingling with the students for a short tete`-a-tete.