Horizons 2009 – the annual management conclave of the Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode was held at its scenic campus from October 9 to October 11, 2009. The seminar was organized by the Industry Interaction Cell of IIM Kozhikode and focused on the theme - “Refueling growth - Gearing up for a new Economic Landscape”.

Delivering the welcome address, Director Debashish Chatterjee, expressed the need for redefining fundamentals of business to make business growth ‘omni-directional’. He said that an overtly profit motive diminishes the capability of organizations to make it. He further said that businesses of the future will be certified by the community and not in financial markets. He stressed on the need for a platform such as Horizons, where industry leaders and practitioners can share and enlighten future managers on the challenges and opportunities that business leaders face today. He concluded by saying that making profits is less important than making people who produce these profits.

Mr Govind Shankarnarayanan, CFO, Tata Capital, speaking on “Financial regulations – Lessons that the West can learn from India”, pointed out that low interest rates and easy credit are part of a social contract in US. This public choice has led to many things including financial innovation, increase in inflation and market influence on regulator. Indian regulators, in comparison, have a more holistic view of the economy. He stressed on the need to look out for warning signs, have stricter trading practices, cap on executive compensation and exchange for asset trading.

Mr Pulapre Balakrishnan, Independent Economist, began with a discussion on origin of globalisation and the financial crisis and their correlation. He pointed out the asymmetry in treatment of capital and labour. He said that labour mobility should be a part of globalization discourse. He said that over-pledging the needs of finance is counter-productive, expressing his opinion through the following words - “I would rather see finance less proud and economy more content”. He stated that irresponsible banking practices, and not globalization, are responsible for the financial crisis. US regulatory complex failed to detect lowering in credit standards. The crisis proved that risk can be disintermediated but not eliminated. The infallibility of finance and financial markets is questionable.

A Panel Discussion on the topic “India and the Global crisis – Opportunities and threats” has an elite panel including Mr. Govind Shankarnarayanan, CFO, Tata Capital, and Mr. Pulapre Balakrishnan, Independent Economist. Prof. K.K. Ladha moderated the discussion. Several issues were discussed including RBI independence, development of organizational capital and managerial intelligence and the generation of political will. The speakers argued that the failure of the western model does not mean that our model is correct. Importance of reaching a political consensus and social cohesion was emphasized. The general consensus was to invest in education and infrastructure sectors and ensure equitable distribution.  

Mr Utpal Seth of Rare Enterprises spoke on “Investment Management – New challenges in a volatile market”. The speech dealt with various dimensions of volatility and its effect on finanacial markets. The talk was interspersed with interesting quotes including – “It doesn’t matter whether you are right or wrong, what matters is how much you lose when you are wrong and how much you win when you are right”. He also said that “Markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent”. Mr Seth shared some tips on efficient investment management and various styles of investing. He taught students to identify megatrends, variant perception and inevitables. He also quoted Archimedes saying - “Give me the right fulcrum and I will lift the world on my shoulders”. He declared that an investor should embrace volatility and change.          

Mr. Pradeep Kumar, Scientist, ISRO, shared details on the Chandrayaan mission and the challenges faced during the launch.

On Day 2, the first session saw Mr. B. Ramakrishna, COO, Idea Cellular (Kerala), speak on the subject - “Redefining Business Transactions: Increasing Speed and Reducing Costs”. The telecom industry has largely remained recession proof, recording a growth of about 40-50% in the last 3 years, with India being the fastest growing telecom market, with a size second only to China. The core competence that Idea is looking at is the ability to track micro transactions. Some of the challenges facing the operators are high competition, decreasing voice revenues, regulations and customer controlled pricing. The revenue of the future is expected to be dominated by data access, with internet penetration poised to be 16% by 2015. With networking constituting a bulk 55% of the costs, a possible solution could be infrastructure sharing which would reduce capital expenditure by 40%.

Mr.Srinivas Acharya, Dy MD Sundaram finance discussed the role of NBFC’s in the country and how they operate quite differently from the banks to tap the bottom of the pyramid.

Mr. Ramesh Nair, COO, Sterlite Industries India spoke of the harsh conditions faced by miners and the political conditions that make mining in a few African countries difficult. Other challenges faced are commodity price movement, efficiency of operations, environmental, health and community needs. India offers tremendous opportunities for mining with the fourth largest recoverable coal resources, seventh largest recoverable bauxite resources and government plans to spend $514 bn on infrastructure and $117bn on power by 2012. However the industry, he said, is still waiting far a direct boost.

Mr. Pratik Pota, Executive Director, South, PepsiCo India, dwelt upon “Kick-starting growth in Unfriendly Environments”. The subcontinent was seen as an unfriendly environment for Liquid Refreshment Beverages (LRB) with annual per capita consumption as low as 16 bottles in India and 81 in Pakistan compared to 149 bottles in China and 600 in the USA. PepsiCo’s growth story was scripted by competitive measures like stable pricing, investments in chilled spaces, relevant innovations, insight based marketing programs, increase in access points and a focus on PET packs, resulting in 25% market growth in 2009.

Prof. Abhilash Nair, Professor at IIMK started the event proceedings on day 3 – ‘Ascension’ saying that government regulation may gain acceptance but not all regulation is desirable.

Mr Gautam Khanna, Vice-President, HealthCare, 3M India, delivering a talk on “India – The next healthcare services destination”, said that “Being Healthy is financially good for the nation.” He described India as a ‘Country in Transition’ with a major segment of the population having no insurance. He discussed the plight of Indian health-care sector by highlighting the deficiency in public health-care systems.

Mr. S. C. Dixit, Director, Operations, Shapoorji Pallonji & Co. Ltd, described a typical phase of downturn, by giving various diagnostics such as reduced inflation and stringent government regulation, which may or may not be dull. Mr. Dixit compared the spending on infrastructure with spending on other emerging markets and developed countries.

A panel discussion on the topic – “India in the new century – where do we go from here” was conducted in the second half of the session. The elite panel included Mr. Gautam Khanna, VP, health-care, 3M India, Mr. S. C. Dixit, Director, Operations, Shapoorji Palloonji & Co. Ltd and Mr. Abhay Sinha, Head, Support Systems, Cable & Wireless, Europe, Asia & USA. Prof. Jyotirmoy Bhattacharya, Asst. Professor at IIM K moderated the discussion.

Mr. Abhay Sinha, Head, Support Systems, Cable & Wireless, Europe, Asia & USA, speaking on the topic – “Offshoring and India - New challenges and opportunities from emerging markets”, discussed the history of outsourcing in India from an IT/ ITeS standpoint.

Says IIM Kozhikode, “Horizons 2009 witnessed three days of power packed discussions among a gathering of the best industry leaders, academicians, policymakers and management students in the country. Showcasing enriching panel discussions and hotly contested debates threw up infinite new ideas for everyone, and culminated in providing a definitive direction for bright young business managers to think about and work towards.” A Business school wide white paper competition has been launched to commemorate ten years of Horizons and reflect on the discussions that occurred during Horizons 2009.