The conference witnessed eminent speakers from industry & academia deliberating and sharing their insight on the increasing importance of Role of Innovation in Business. A number of participants presented Research papers in areas like - Innovations in Manufacturing Sector; Innovations in Services Sector; Innovations in Knowledge based services & Innovations in Agriculture and Food Processing Sector.
Convergence 2013 saw presentation of over 150 research papers by scholars and academicians, on subjects like business model innovations, issues and challenges for fostering innovative culture in India, policy support for nurturing innovative culture in India and leadership for enhancing individual and organizational innovativeness.
The list of eminent speakers who shared their insight at the conference included Mr. Pradeep Swaminathan, Executive Director (Finance) at BEML; Dr. N Prabhu Deva, Chairman, Karnataka Health Commission; Mr. Ravi Garikipati, President, [24] 7 Innovation Labs; Mr. Gunwant Singh Saluja, MD & CEO, Mongia Steel; Prof. Zina Kyriokos, an NGO (France); and Dr. R.S Nirjar, Executive Chairman- Board Of Governors (IFIM Business School).
The speakers focused on the need for innovation in today’s competitive business world and stressed on the need for products and services to differentiate themselves. Prof. Zina from France spoke about innovation in the hospitality industry and highlighted the importance of bringing about changes in services provided in this industry, especially for a country which depends heavily on tourism. Speaking about the healthcare industry in India, Dr. N. Prabhu Deva said, “Innovation is needed in medicines to provide better healthcare.” Mr. Gunwant Singh Saluja shared his experiences as an entrepreneur.
The conference also consisted of three panel discussions where eminent panelists deliberated on specific issues under the conference theme.
The experts on first panel discussion on “Affordable Quality Healthcare: Will Medical Travel Be India’s Next Big Thing?”, stressed on the need for providing affordable healthcare to all. The panel concluded that standard of the facilities available in India are still sub-standard and Innovation is much required to uplift medical facilities. The second panel discussion on “Analytics Industry- Is It Undergoing a Tectonic Shift?” focused on emerging need & scope for business analytics in the industry and how it is rapidly evolving. The third Panel Discussion on "Fostering a Culture of Innovation" deliberated on challenges faced in a company with respect to innovation and how best a favorable ecosystem can be created.
Some of the major institutes that participated at the conference include IIM- Lucknow, IIM- Bangalore, University of Houston Clear Lake (USA), University of Evansville (USA), MIT Sloan (USA), IIT- Madras, XIME- Bangalore, University of Pardubice (Czech Republic), Christ University- Bangalore and Bangalore University. The key participants from industry include Genpact, IBM- India, HP- India, Harman International, Bosch Ltd, Biocon Ltd and Wipro Ltd among others.
Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more news and updates from top B-schools in India.
