Inauguration: Day One

Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad kicked off the tenth edition of its annual business summit- Confluence 2008 with the formal inauguration ceremony today evening. The event started with the traditional lighting of the lamp by the dignitaries present on the occasion.

Mr. Raman Arora, the secretary of Confluence 2008 welcomed the guests and the participants and introduced the central theme of the event- creation of wealth. He also gave an insight into the events that shall unfold over the course of the next three days. Prof. Atanu Ghosh introduced the guests and highlighted the contribution that each of them had made to wealth creation in different roles and fields.

The opening address was delivered by the chief guest Ms. Mrinalini Sarabhai, a recipient of the prestigious Padma Bhushan award. Ms. Sarabhai stressed that the idea of wealth should go beyond economic prosperity and emphasized the importance of cultural wealth, which she felt is declining in the current generation. She advised the youth to take pride in their India heritage and not to blindly imitate the foreign notion of wealth.

Mr. Satish Pradhan, Executive VP, Group HR, Tata Sons expressed his happiness at the choice of the theme for Confluence and praised the event as, “… a truly amazing effort emanating out of IIMA.” He added that the theme is relevant in the present times. Mr. Pradhan felt it is more important that wealth be distributed, rather than being created for only a few. He recalled the philosophy of J.R.D. Tata that “…what comes from the people must go back to the people” and showed how Tata group’s governance structure represents this idea.

Mr. Pradhan felt that there is a need for innovation in management and governance practices which is an opportunity as well a huge challenge for young leaders. He summed up his address with the idea that “…in times of crisis what is required is an intense spirit of discovery underlying values, communities and environment.”

Mr. Mehmood Khan, a product of IIMA (Batch of 1977) and currently the Global Leader of Innovation Process Development at Unilever described his presence at Confluence 2008 as a homecoming. He went on to define wealth creation as a “creative process of turning an enterprise into a successful one by meeting expectations of all its stake holders”. Mr. Khan opined that innovation should be a balance of creativity, capability and discipline. According to him, opportunities for wealth creation lie with a set of more than 6 billion people who should be adequately supported by a consistently improving technology. Further stressing on his point, Mr. Khan divulged that in the last quarter, almost half of the profits of Unilever India were driven by demand from rural India. He felt that character is always tested in the toughest of times and hence, one should never give up. He then appreciated the students at IIMA for putting in tremendous efforts in order to organise an event of such scale.

Prof. B.H. Jajoo, the acting-director of IIMA, concluded the inaugural ceremony with the vote of thanks. He added that innovation is a must for wealth creation and expressed confidence that Confluence 2008 as a business summit would fulfill its intended purpose of unraveling the various aspects of wealth creation from all dimensions. Starting tomorrow, a host of events and discussions by eminent speakers are scheduled for the management students and executives.

Day Two

On-campus events kicked off at the tenth edition of Confluence, the annual business summit of the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad. The unifying theme for all the events, lecture sessions and panel discussions was christened “Wheel of Fortune” and it revolved around the concept of wealth and various features thereof.

Workshops

The morning session started with an interesting workshop titled “Business and Law” conducted by Prof. Anurag K. Agarwal, an alumnus of the prestigious Harvard Law School and currently a faculty member in the business policy area at IIM, Ahmedabad. Prof. Agarwal emphasised on the significance of the legal environment for every business entity. He asked the participants to look beyond the theoretical aspects of the law and urged them to consider its practical implications as well. He cited a number of relevant examples from recent times to drive home his point. Prof Agarwal also fielded a number of questions from the enthusiastic audience largely consisting of students from various B-schools across the country who have enrolled for the Management Students Program (MSP) at this year’s Confluence.

Another workshop on “Understanding Business Transformation” was conducted by Prof. Sunil Maheshwari as a part of the Young Managers Program (YMP) at Confluence 2008. The interactive workshop helped the young managers from more than 10 companies understand the challenges faced during business transformation. “All of us have to go through the process of business change and transformation, whether we like it or not. So it is imperative that we understand the pattern behind the chaos that accompanies the transformation process”, said Prof. Maheshwari.

The discussion shed light on the various changes that can be effected along with their triggers and the available instruments for handling them. Talking about the issues during the transformation process Prof. Maheshwari said, “The companies must understand the need for change and also have clarity on what the proposed change aims to achieve.” The participants, who were working across various sectors recounted their experiences and made many insightful contributions. “I have observed that people who are marginalized by the change are the most resistant to it. The change must be humane and properly communicated to all the stakeholders. [Infact] The top managers are the ones who can prove to be a stumbling block”, said Prof. Maheshwari while concluding the workshop The last of the workshops for the day “Leadership skills in Today’s Managers” was conducted by Prof Manikutty of IIM Ahmedabad. The participants were a mix of professionals and B-school students from across the country. The workshop answered the questions pertaining to the essence of leadership and the leadership at organizations. Commenting upon the importance of leadership, Prof. Manikutty said “Leadership is about leveraging the analytical, technological and conceptual abilities of the organization. Without leadership people may do the right thing in the wrong direction.” Moving on to the traits of an effective leader Prof. Manikutty commented, “A leader is a motivator. He not only
delivers results, but also creates a commitment among his followers. A leader has great energy and is constantly energizing others.” He also added, “Organizations that have a good leadership are open, have a general agreement upon organizational goals and people are more energetic.”

Speaker Series

The first speaker session at Confluence 2008 was initiated by Mr. Bhaskar Bhatt, the Managing Director of Titan. He showcased the stupendous growth of Titan Watches starting with Rs. 176 crores in 2000-01 to Rs. 4715 crores in 2007-08. Mr. Bhatt said “Since its inception, Titan has made creativity, change, inventiveness, rule changing & game strategy a part of everyday life. Doing so profitably has been the recent mantra reaping rich dividends for Titan. In 2001 Titan started the transformation process by embarking on a three point program: Prosperity, Progress and most importantly, Pride.”

Mr. Bhatt shared various initiatives of Titan in Corporate Sustainability such as development of Tanishq Karigar Park for the underprivileged with incredible talent, but leading a poor quality of life.The audience applauded Titan for being one of the largest employers of specially-abled people who constitute 20% of the workforce at Titan. He noted that Wealth creation isn’t limited to management. “Wealth cannot be linear, nor can it belong to a simple dimension. It has multiple dimensions and multiple stakeholders.” Commenting on the current state of financial turmoil, Mr. Bhatt remarked “the corporations who have a holistic approach to the concept of creating wealth will perhaps weather the storm better.”

Mr. Bhatt was followed by Mr. Harsh Mariwala, Chairman and Managing Director of Marico Limited. “To make a strong company, one needs a strong culture. Mr. Mariwala gave insights into the lessons he learned during the journey of Marico from an off-shoot of Bombay Oil to one of the largest players in India with an annual turnover of over 1900 crores. “Single minded focus can overcome brute force. Motivating people down the line is critical in a crisis situation”, he said.

The second session of Confluence 2008 was chaired by Prof. M.M. Monipally of IIM Ahmedabad. The speakers were Ms. Sangitha Reddy, Executive Director Apollo Hospitals and Dr. Indiresan, Former Director, IIT Madras.

Ms. Reddy asked the audience present to adopt a much broader definition of wealth and not just wealth as measured in monetary terms. Exhorting the listeners to think beyond the balance sheets, she reminded them that wealth measurement mechanisms presently in use often gave a skewed representation of the reality. Ms. Reddy said, “We must develop a more holistic wealth measurement system that takes into account factors such as Human Development Index (HDI), health care and relevant social parameters.” Talking about the status of the health care sector in India she pointed out that in spite of having a good quality health care the poor in the country do not have access to affordable healthcare. Speaking about wealth creation she said, “Wealth creation must be a humane and ethical. It should help us create affordable health care and good civic amenities.” Answering a question about cost of health insurance Ms Reddy said, “Cost of health care can be reduced by spending money on the health infrastructure and by improving processes so that consumer affordability is enhanced.”

Dr. Indiresan talked about PURA (Provide Urban amenities in Rural Areas) as an instrument for enriching the rural villages. Dr. Indiresan commented, “Wealth is something permanent.” He also presented a plan wherein the rural connectivity would help in creating viable economic units in the rural areas. Talking about the ways in which civic amenities can be provided for the poor people he averred, “Rich people can pay the full capital costs associated with the social and civil amenities and the marginalised sections of the society can be asked to pay the marginal costs.” He also stressed upon the need for creating jobs in the rural areas to fight the problems such as rural desertification and rural poverty. Talking about creating wealth in the rural areas he said, “Civic amenities and good economic opportunities must be provided in the rural areas so that even the rich can be attracted to the rural areas.”

Panel Discussion

Confluence 2008 continued through the afternoon with the first panel discussion titled “The Dimensions of Wealth”. The session was chaired by Prof. G Raghuram of the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad. The eminent speakers on the panel included Mr.Hasit Joshipura, Managing Director, GSK Pharmaceuticals, Mr.Bhushan Punani, Founder and Executive Director, Blind People’s Association, Mr.Arvind Sharma, Chairman, Leo Burnett and Mr.Ashank Desai, Chairman, Mastek.

Prof Raghuram initiated the proceedings and set out the order for the discussion, choosing to give the speakers a good deal of freedom in deciding the dimensions of wealth. Mr Joshipura, while recounting his own experiences in different corporations stated, “… for any sustainable value creation -innovation, efficiency and inclusiveness are the prime drivers.” He highlighted the need for inclusive growth citing the example of USA where growth in the last 15 years has bypassed the middle class.

Mr. Ashank Desai, illustrated how the IT industry has added a different dimension to the adage – ‘wealth is the health of the shareholder’ by creating wealth for its customers as well as employees. He stressed the need for more entrepreneurs who are leaders in upholding cultural values and who can push the government to make things happen by saying “the wealth creation process has its foundation in entrepreneurship.” Mr Arvind Sharma agreed with the other panelists and provided relevant examples to drive home the point that perception of a country, a political party or a corporation can play a significant role in wealth creation. He said “wealth exists in the minds and hearts of human beings.”

Mr Bhushan Punani said that inspite of the progress made by the country on many fronts, the benefits have not reached a large section of our population. He felt that the remedy includes an equitable distribution of wealth, affordable educational opportunities & healthcare to all along with focus on micro-credit. He recommended that a strong political will, focus on humanity and investment in human capital is the need of the hour. Mr Punani stated “Do away with charity, aim for equality, equity, equal opportunity and social justice”.

Events

One of the major events slotted today was TATA Think Tank, a uniquely structured team debate event. Six teams from IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, IIM Kozhikode, MDI Gurgaon, FMS Delhi and SP Jain Mumbai participated in this invitational event. The motions for the debating teams were the past and potential business decisions by the TATA Group which were colourfully worded to generate sharp reactions from the participants.

The first round of debating was between three teams each. The topics of discussion were “Ginger takes away from the taste of Taj” and “This is the right time to grow TATA Capital”. Teams from IIM Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Kozhikode and FMS Delhi qualified for the final round the topic for which was “TATA group should cut down the recruitments from b-schools considering the current economic and financial scenario”.

Arijit Ganguly, Kaustubh Bhatnagar and Vivek Mandhata from IIM Kozhikode went on to bag the first position while Sudeep Kashyap, Peeyush Garg and Srividhya from IIM Ahmedabad secured the second place.

Judges for the event were Mr. Rahul Krishna and Mr. Darius Merchant from TATA Administrative Services. Students were judged on the qualities of originality, manner of speaking and presentation and in the strength of their rebuttals and answering during the cross-questioning phase.

The day also saw the initial briefing of the strategic planning contest “Nestle Munching Forward” being presented by eminent personalities from Nestle. Mr. Balan Kannan, Regional Manager, Sales, Western India, Nestle Ltd, the person behind the launch of ‘Polo’, in India and the conception of ‘Munch’, gave an insight on how Nestle as a company manages the cutting edge in reaching out the last mile to its consumers. Nestle, the fastest growing FMCG Company in India believes wealth creation can happen only through good brands. He also added the offerings should be a balance of acceptability,affordability and availability. “In the era when customers are dictators, availability will be our biggest challenge”, opined Mr.Kannan.

Mr. Nikhil Chand, an alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad and currently working as Marketing Manager, Chocolates, Nestle India, gave a brief description about the ‘Munching Forward’ case study contest. The study given to the students from various b-schools from across India mainly tries to identify the key leverage points for the brand ‘Munch’ such as the target segment, availability to consumers, support on television including celebrity presence in the advertisements etc.

A total of 35 teams have registered for the competition from 14 different management schools across the country. Two rounds of the competition will be held over the next two days, day one will focus on data analysis and strategic thoughts while day two on creativity, attention to detail and impact. Mr. Kannan and Mr. Chand were accompanied by Mr. Puneet Dua, Business HR and sourcing Manager for Nestle South Asia Region. Also planned later during the day is a video conference session with Sam Pitroda, the Chairman, National Knowledge Commission & Chairman and CEO, World-Tel Limited.

Tomorrow, the events will be centred on the theme – “Crisis to Control” which would seek to draw lessons from the major crises the world has experienced.

Day Three

The third day of Confluence 2008 was entirely dedicated to the current financial crisis. All the events and speaker sessions revolved around the broad theme of ‘Crisis to Control’.

Speaker Series

Yesterday evening concluded with an address by Dr. Sam Pitroda, Chairman of the National Knowledge Commission and CEO of World Tel. Dr Pitroda, whose pioneering vision played a crucial role in India’s telecom revolution, stressed the importance and pervasiveness of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in all walks of life. According to him, “…Telecom is not about telephones, it is about restructuring the society” He described some of the challenges faced by him and his team as they laid the foundation for India’s progress in the telecom sector in the 1980s. “The telecom revolution has created wealth, jobs, improved productivity and empowered people”, he opined.

He spelt out his vision of “fibre technology in every home, bringing with it all kinds of ICT capabilities ranging from Video conferencing to virtual reality”.Dr. Pitroda also fielded questions from the audience on a range of topics such as the role of telecom in the transportation sector, the urban rural divide and the politicisation of telecom in the country. Keeping in mind the theme for today, the Speaker Series resumed with Prof. Satish Deodhar of IIM Ahmedabad chairing the session. Lord Meghnad Desai, Professor Emeritus, London School of Economics and Mr. N. Ramchandran, India Country Head, Morgan Stanley were the speakers. The distinguished speakers spoke about the causes, effects and the possible aftermaths of the present global crisis.

Lord Desai opined, “…there are two crises that are prevalent now. One is the crisis in the financial markets and the other is the downturn in the real output cycle.” He stated that the boom that had preceded the present bust was unique in many ways. The developing economies were for the first time active beneficiaries of the boom, the aid being supplanted by FII and FDI flows into these emerging economies. Lord Desai commented that it was the longest boom period in the living history. Moving on to the present financial crisis he said, “Financial innovations which were responsible for the boom are the causes of the downturn that followed.” He also commented that the credit crunch in the global economy was affecting the real output cycle in a bad way. Lord Desai also argued, “Though it may be difficult, the regulators and policy makers must understand that the cycles in the real economies are inevitable.” He stated that the turmoil in the financial markets was because of the exceedingly complex instruments whose risk implications were not understood by the
top management of the various banks. Looking forward, he stressed upon the need to change the governance of international financial bodies such as the IMF and the World Bank. Explaining the rationale behind this need he said, “Eastern countries are now the primary lenders for the global economy, so it is imperative that they have a greater say in how these institutions are run.” Commenting upon the monetary and the fiscal policy that is being used to tackle the crisis he pointed out to the fact that there was no alternative plan to control the crisis. He concluded by saying, “In the worst case scenario, the governments will have to act as a direct lender to businesses and individuals.”

Mr. Ramchandran started his lecture by saying that current crisis was primarily caused by a credit crunch which was felt all across the world. Mr. Ramchandran opined, “There are four major reasons for the credit crunch. They are lax regulatory oversight, leverage, lack of transparency and marked to market method of accounting.” He commented that the contagion which had its roots in the sub-prime sector had spread to the entire credit market across the world. Speaking about the steps being taken to fight the crisis he stated, “… the move from monetary measures to fiscal measures to fight the crisis is unprecedented.” He also felt that the current financial and regulatory frame work must be overhauled taking into consideration the needs and views of the people, government and the business. Commenting on the rapid appreciation of the dollar versus other currencies he said, “We are witnessing a flight to safety.” Talking about the Indian economy he commented, “India does not have a major trade exposure to the western countries vis a vis China and Korea which are heavily dependent on exports. India is better placed to weather the storm.” He concluded the session by saying that we must take adequate precautions so that the expected $1-$2 trillion fiscal stimulus does not create a bubble.

In the post lunch speaker series chaired by Prof. Siddharth Sinha, we had two well-known representatives from the Indian financial sector expressing their view on the current global crisis that the world is witnessing. First Mr. Aluri Rao, Managing Director, Morgan Stanley Private Equity India compared the current crisis with the other crises that the world has witnessed in the part ranging from the Great Depression of 1929 to the IT bubble of early 2000s. He remarked that the current crisis is different in nature as well as its impact. “… Current crisis has pretty much hit every asset class”, he said. . He termed the current crisis, ‘a crisis of confidence.’ However, Mr. Aluri pointed out that Asia today looks different from before and the recovery in Asia is going to be much faster that the western nations. He attributed this to the rise of China and India.

On the other hand Ms. Shikha Sharma, Managing Director & CEO of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co. Ltd looked into the factors that led to present credit crisis. She compared the financial crisis with the war of Mahabharata as both witnessed bright minds leading the world into chaos by letting insatiable greed take reign of their games. She averred that this is the time to sit back and introspect and align incentives to incorporate risk elements. Ms. Sharma pointed out that the current financial turmoil has brought back the importance of basic credit principles like repayment abilities. Commenting on the challenges faced by her in her career, Ms. Sharma considered her decision of taking a stand against copying the instruments floated by the competitors that could potentially harm the customers and the franchise to be the highlight of her career. She opined that
every individual has the power and the choice to avoid the crisis. “Do what you believe is right and makes sense”, said Ms. Sharma while summing up the lessons that one could learn.

Workshop

The afternoon witnessed an interesting workshop on ‘Speaking Strategically and Listening Authentically’, conducted by Dr. Asha Kaul, a faculty member in the communications area at IIM Ahmedabad. Dr. Kaul chose to make the session very interactive and sought the active participation of the audience through innovative exercises. She felt that “Communications cannot be steeped in theory” and made use of video clips to demonstrate some of the practical issues involved in effective communication. She explained that a good speaker should analyse the audience and establish a connection with them. Dr. Kaul brought out the importance of effective listening and illustrated how the same message may be interpreted in different ways by listeners. She also laid emphasis on structuring of content “Speaking style is important to gain the listener’s attention, but, if the audience doesn’t retain the content, the purpose is defeated” she warned.

Events

The GSPC Masterplan, the flagship business plan event of Confluence 2008 has reached its culmination. The focus of the event is to identify business plans that can achieve scalability, sustainability and are economically sound. Initially 165 teams registered for the event. In the next stage, 85 business plans were evaluated. Finally, 7 teams from prestigious campuses such as IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Indore, ISB Hyderabad and XLRI Jamshedpur presented their innovative business plans in the fields of renewable energy, energy transmission and production. The plans explored areas of alternate power generation such as biomass and Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF). “…We are focusing on the B2B space especially in areas such as Surat where textiles mills will be given the option to replace coal with RDF”, said Chinmay, a participant from ISB Hyderabad. He pointed out the calorific value to cost ratio of RDF is comparable with that of coal but since it doesn’t release harmful pollutants in the environment, this shall earn the firms valuable carbon credits. Other ideas also included

‘Strategically placed small scale power plants’ and ‘corporative model for Jatropha based bio diesel production’. The participants highlighted achieving economies of scale and huge employment opportunities. The eminent panel consisting of Mr. Raj Nair Chairman, Avalon Consulting, Mr. P.P.G. Sharma CEO, Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC) and Mr. K Prakash Corporate Communication Manager, GSPC judged the event. The total prize money for the event was Rs. 4,00,000.

Energy plan presented by Saransh Varma, Chintan Shah and Sidharth Vashist from IIM Indore was adjudged the best and received the first prize of INR 2, 00,000 while Mohit Gopal, Anirudh Singh and Milan Saxena from IIM Ahmedabad secured the second place and Deepak Sethia, Ravi K and Vibhav Virlekar another team from IIM Ahmedabad stood third. “…happy and overjoyed to comment “, said Saransh after winning the prestigious event. Judges had a tough job deciding the winners. “The innovativeness and quality in the plans shows the amount of hard work put in by the participants and the concepts were eye-openers for us”, said Mr. Sharma while congratulating the winners.

Another major event today on campus was the first round of ‘Nestle Munching Forward’, the strategic business plan contest. A total of 15 teams from bschools across India were shortlisted to present their ideas before the esteemed panel of judges. On campus today as jury were Mr. Puneet Dua, Business HR and Sourcing Manager for Nestle South Asia Region, Mr. Nikhil Chand, Marketing Manager, Chocolates, Nestle, Ms. Rasika Fernandes, Strategic Planning Director, JWT, Mr. Rajat Kumar Jain, Brand Manager for Nestle Munch and Ms. Rishika Kohli, Communications Manager, Nestle. “It will be the quality and relevance of Idea along with the presentation skills that will help the teams to qualify for the next round”, said Mr. Dua. Six teams qualified for the grand finale of the event scheduled for the concluding day of the summit.

The morning of the third day at Confluence 2008 also witnessed over 50 teams from across India competing in the preliminary round of ‘The Soothsayer A Simulation Modelling Contest’ which tested participants on their knowledge and understanding of macro economic concepts. Six teams would battle it out in the finals where they would develop a model. The model would be evaluated based on the breadth and depth of analysis and the reasoning involved. The finals are scheduled for tomorrow.

Panel Discussion

The panel discussion titled “The Financial Crisis Have we reached the bottom yet?” was chaired by Prof. TT Ram Mohan of IIM, Ahmedabad. The esteemed panel included Lord Meghnad Desai, Professor Emeritus, London School of Economics (LSE), Mr. Aluri Rao, Head, Morgan Stanley Private Equity India, Mrs. Shikha Sharma, MD & CEO, ICICI Prudential and Professor Jayanth Varma, IIM Ahmedabad.

Kicking off the discussion, Lord Desai opined that the crisis wasn’t over yet and suggested that we still haven’t fully understood the extent to which financial institutions have been exposed to the crisis. He stated that there is a “crisis of confidence” which is preventing banks from lending to each other and said that we need to fix this situation before worrying about the mountain of bad debt. He envisioned the current crisis continuing for another 24 to 30 months and felt that it could be sorted out by 2011.

Prof. Varma while agreeing with Lord Desai felt that the liquidity crisis could be effectively dealt with by countries like India and South Korea which have sufficient reserves to tide over the situation. He felt the situation was being exacerbated by the “derivative deals gone bad” largely due to the mark to market losses in crude and metal derivatives. Another cause of concern according to him was the impending crash in the real estate market in India and he declared that the current crisis was worse than the Asian crisis of 1998.

On a more positive note, Mr Aluri Rao felt that the recognition of the problem and the willingness to solve it by all corporates and countries was a welcome sign and stated that “… now there are no laggards in the process”. He felt that there was a need to restore investor confidence, which was crucial for the recovery phase to begin. He stressed that pragmatism rather than ideology was the need of the hour. He said that a V shaped recovery in the equity markets is not possible without a significant improvement in the housing market in the US and expressed confidence that an improvement would occur by 2010.

Mrs. Sharma stated that “the recent events have proved that local markets in Asia are not insulated from those in the West and what we are seeing currently is probably an over correction given that the Indian banking system in particular doesn’t have much exposure to toxic debts. Looking for positives in the current scenario, she said that the crisis is forcing governments and policy makers to think of measures to revive growth. She felt that the turnaround will happen in about 4-6 quarters from now.

Prof. Ram Mohan sought to take the discussion forward by finding the link between the financial arket crisis and the real economy. Commenting on this, Lord Desai said that the financial sector has penetrated a lot deeper into the real economy in the last 20 years. He felt that “banks are not behaving like banks” by not lending among themselves.” “The real economy is always in equilibrium and the financial markets follow the efficient market hypothesis but there is no interaction between the two” he concluded. Prof Varma stated that the financial markets were like a messenger that indicated the deflation of the bubble in the real economy. Mr. Rao felt that there was a delayed response to the current crisis since the initial stages were characterized by a feeling of denial. However, Prof. Varma cautioned the governments, commenting that the governments form only 20-25% of the GDP and cannot carry an entire economy on their shoulders. He expressed the need for pre-emptive recapitalization of banks but hinted that it might be affected by political interregnum in the near future.

Commenting on the expected growth rate in the economy, Mrs. Sharma opined that it might be 5.5 to 6% in 2009-10 and will increase to about 8 % the following year. Though Mr. Rao concurred with Mrs. Sharma, Prof. Varma had a bleak outlook stating “…for 2009-10, 5% would be good news”. However, Lord Desai predicted a trajectory of low growth and felt that government interference with regard to corporate decisions could adversely affect investments.

Prof. TT Rammohan finally concluded the event by drawing attention to the grim outlook of the panelists.

In continuation of the various socially laudable efforts that IIM Ahmedabad has prided itself on, 55 units of blood were also collected for thalassemia patients at Confluence 2008.

Day Four

The fourth and final day of Confluence 2008 was entirely dedicated to how the world should move ahead and look at wealth creation in the wake of various shocks. Thus, all the events and speaker sessions revolved around the aptly titled theme for the day ‘Beyond the Frontiers’.

Session

The Speaker series continued on the third day of Confluence 2008, starting with a session by Ms. Ela Bhatt, Founder, Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) and Dr. Dipak C. Jain, Dean of the Kellogg School of Management. The speakers gave a unique blend of thoughts related to radical and non traditional ways of wealth creation.

Session started with the formal introduction of speakers by Prof. Biju Varkkey, faculty at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. Ms. Bhatt gave insights about her organization SEWA and on the ways ahead in the current scenario. She recalled how her organization was making profits from the second year of operations since its inception in 1972. She quoted “Self employment and self reliance of women have paved the way for their success.” SEWA has trained women and this has considerably decreased deaths in slums, increased the usage of contraceptives and above all increased the employment for women.

In today’s world, employees are sectored into, ‘Public’, ‘Private’ and the unorganized or ‘People’ sector. “Private, Public and People sectors are interdependent, but People have always been controlled by public and private sectors which only tried to suppress them”, said Ms. Bhatt. “Working poor have to organize themselves to form organizations. Only this will lead to their sustainability and eradication of poverty which India is facing ever since independence”, continued Ms. Bhatt.

Ms. Bhatt said, “The current crisis started with the global financial crisis, then turned into an economic crisis and this will soon be followed by an unemployment crisis the extent of which will be hard to predict.” According to Ms. Bhatt the way out from this situation is by building new financial structures for which institutions such as RBI and the IIMs will be highlyrelevant. At the same time, she reminded that climatic changes would also form a part of these challenges. “Simultaneous co-operative growth of economic, natural, human and knowledge capital is essential for a way out”, said Ms. Bhatt. Simplicity, non-violence, dignity of labour and human values are essential for economic growth, according to Ms. Bhatt who also felt that women empowerment and corporate social responsibilities were necessary for the nation to grow.

Dr. Dipak Jain, who was making his first ever talk at any of the Indian Institutes of Management, termed the current scenario as being different from the September 11 crisis. He said, “The crisis that we are facing today is endogenous in nature and is mainly because of systemic problems.” “Wealth has a meaning far beyond money and for us Indians, culture is our wealth and that is the biggest source of wealth which can never be destroyed,” opined Dr. Jain.

He classified the current challenges faced into four categories. First being the ‘nano-second’ culture, the pace at which changes happen is very rapid. Leaders have to anticipate and have to be proactive in such situations. Second is the hyper competition. “…It is time to think beyond the conventional ways and companies have to realize time management and human productivity are the key challenges faced by firms”, commented Dr. Jain. Third challenge according to him is customer demographics. He commented India will become rich before getting old while China will get older before it gets rich considering the fact that more than 70% of Indian population is aged below 35 years. The commitment of Indian parents towards child education will make the biggest difference. ‘Education’ and ‘talent’ will be our wealth and that will be what that makes India super power. The fourth challenge is to find and reward talent. Dr. Jain stressed on the fact that India should focus on providing compulsory education till the higher secondary level.

Dr. Jain concluded his talk by telling that it is the ‘Indianness’ within him that has attributed to all the success he had in his life.

He received a huge round of applause along with a standing ovation from the packed audience in the Ravi J Mathai Auditorium. The session ended when Prof. Varkkey thanked Ms. Bhatt and Dr. Jain for their mesmerizing blend of thoughts.

The post lunch session had an interesting discussion chaired by Prof. Atanu Ghosh, of the business policy area at IIM Ahmedabad and also faculty coordinator for Confluence 2008. The speaker for the session was Glenn Saldanha – MD and CEO of Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Mr. Saldanha, a former consultant at Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) talked about the Indian pharmaceutical industry. He said that though the Indian pharmaceutical industry ranks fourth in terms of volumes, it forms less than 1 % of the global pie in terms of value. He advised that the Indian industry should move over from a hybrid business model that leverages low cost to an innovation led proprietary business model.

Yesterday evening, the speaker series was chaired by Prof. Ajay Pandey of Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad and it had Prof. SP Kothari, Head of Department of Economics, Finance & Accounting, Gordon Y Billard Professor of Management, MIT Sloan giving his views on the current financial crisis. Prof. SP Kothari said that the ripples effect of this crisis could be compared to a ‘Global Tsunami’ and conservatively estimated that its impact would last for a few years.

Giving his views on the possible ways to recover, he said that collective responsibility would increase the confidence on investors. “Merely throwing more money is not going to be a welcome solution. As a long term solution, you have to improve the earning capacity.” Answering a question, Prof. Kothari remarked that rise of a sub-prime crisis in the Indian scenario could not be ruled out due to the increasing trend of lending to people without repayment capacity.

Panel Discussion

The afternoon session continued with a panel discussion titled “Innovation and Creativity Sustainable levers of Wealth Creation”. The distinguished panel featured Dr.Dipak Jain, Dean, Kellogg School of Management, Mr. Vardan Kabra, Founder, Fountainhead Schools, Mr. Prabhat Pani, CEO, Ginger Hotels and Mr.Nayan Parikh, Chief Executive of Nayan Parikh & Consultants (NPC). Prof Errol D’Souza, faculty member from IIM Ahmedabad was the chairperson for the session.

Mr Pani initiated the discussion by echoing the vision of Dr C.K. Pralhad that India, at 75, can be a global leader. Stressing the need for innovation, he commented “If you do what you always did, you’ll get what you always got”. He described in detail the journey of Ginger Hotels right from the conception of the idea to its execution and shared some of the important learning derived from the experience. “The customer is constantly evolving and we need to ensure that our offering to the customer evolves as well” he stated. He felt that innovation and creativity were important tools in achieving differentiation and added that innovation needs to percolate to every aspect of the business.

Explaining his motivation in entering the education sector, Mr Kabra stated there was tremendous scope for innovation which had not been pursued so far. He felt that the teaching profession had been neglected in the country and there was a need to ensure career growth for primary teachers, which would directly add benefit to the schools. Expressing his dissatisfaction at the curriculum being followed in various institutions, Mr Kabra said “We need to prepare the students for life rather than just for the board exams”. Mr Parikh expressed the opinion that creativity was necessary but not sufficient for innovations. He cited specific examples to illustrate how creativity and innovation helped him & his organization to deal with complex challenges while executing projects in the public sector. He explained how an innovative idea like barter exchange could be extremely useful in today’s scenario.

Dr Jain felt that “innovation is a mindset” and went on to add that people who think linearly are rarely innovative. “Outcome is the sight, the process to reach the outcome is the insight” he opined. Dr Jain felt that “the key source of innovation is diversity” and explained how the admission process at Kellogg’s is geared towards promoting diversity. Quoting from the book “Day of Empire” by Dr Amy Chua, he felt that the US has become a superpower because of its relative tolerance for diversity. With relevant examples Dr Jain explained that we need to think of innovation along three dimensions product innovation, process innovation and business model innovation. Looking at the future, Dr. Jain suggested that consumer wellness (healthcare and wealth care), customer engagement (media and entertainment) and customer hospitality (tourism and airlines) are the sectors that would prosper in the coming years. Dr. Jain spelt out the 3 R’s for the future as “Reflection, Renewal and Responsibility”.

Events

The Fourth Dimension exposed the participants to closely approximated business situations. The event involved teams comprising of members belonging to different institutes, eliminating any advantage resulting from prior knowledge of strengths and weaknesses of fellow team members. The newly formed teams needed to come through as a cohesive unit to be effective as a team. The participants were from both the academic and the business world. There were 56 teams that took part in the competition. The event included market simulation and business optimization strategies. The teams displayed admirable cohesion and group work despite knowing each other for a very short time. The first leg of the event tested the teams on demand forecasting and product pricing. The second leg of the event tested them on making optimum staffing decisions for virtual organizations. Over the two legs the competition was intense and the teams were vying for prize money of Rs. 50,000. The team comprising Saurabh Gambhir (IIMA), Srinivas B (XLRI-Jamshedpur), Kanchanvaja (NRIBM) and Vasim Makda (SLIMS) walked away with the first prize of Rs.
30,000. The second prize was awarded to team comprising Puneet Raheja (IIMA), Sunny Bhasin (Nestle), Sakshi Goenka (ICFAI Business School) and Vaibhav Dhawan (TISS, Mumbai) who collected prize money of Rs.20,000.

TATA Globalisation Challenge was an invitation only event open to select few B-schools. The event aimed to put the participating teams in the shoes of the industry titans as they look beyond the domestic shores to power the wealth creation engine.

The event was divided into two stages. In the preliminary stage, eight teams were asked to select an acquiring company and a target company. The teams were tested on their ability to strategize and analyse strategic fit, brand fit and intend among other things. Three teams representing IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Lucknow and IIM Indore graduated to the final round where they had to present the financial structure of the deal along with a bid price. This presentation was followed by a brief question and answer session. TATA group was the official partner for the event.

Sunday morning also witnessed the finals of a strategy game “BootStrat”, conducted in association with Cognizant. The game put the participants in the shoes of business leaders at Cognizant, with a brief to develop the entry strategy for Cognizant Business Consulting into the domain of business and strategy consulting. The event received enthusiastic response with entries pouring in from 33 teams. In the preliminary stage, the reports were evaluated by eminent faculty members from IIM-A and representatives from Cognizant to arrive at the 6 finalists- Team Aspire (NMIMS), D 10 Consulting (IIM A), DreamZ (IIM K),Fulcrum (SP Jain IMR), Team Hitchhikers (IIM A) and Terza Rima (FMS). During the finals, the teams were given 15 minutes each to present their analysis and recommendations to the judge, Prof V Venkata Rao, faculty member in the Computer and Information Systems area at IIM Ahmedabad. This was followed by a short question and answer session where the teams defended their recommendations in the face of cross questioning by the other teams and the judge.

The participants looked at a number of aspects including the dilemma of organic vs inorganic growth, the problems faced in acquiring and retaining top talent, the promising sectors in the current scenario and the long term strategic focus of the organization. After a close contest, the first prize of Rs. 50,000 went to Terza Rima (FMS, Delhi), represented by Shivani Poddar, Gaurav Malhotra and Nikhil Jain while the second prize of Rs. 25000 was bagged by Team Aspire from NMIMS, Mumbai, who were represented by Sounak Nandi,Jubin Pandey and Suvo Ghosh. “…It was a very challenging case and a great learning experience” said the delighted team from FMS, Delhi after their victory.

Vault Operandi was an SBI sponsored two round event which tested teams on their knowledge about the current banking sector regulations and the challenges that banks are facing to adapt to the change. The first round was a qualification quiz with tested the knowledge of the participants about the current practices and norms in the banking sector. 98 teams participated in this round and 6 teams were short-listed (4 IIMA, 1 IIMK and 1 NMIMS) for the second round which was a case study based competition. The 6 qualifying teams were given a case study about a bank and they had to present the challenges the bank may face in trying to comply with the BASEL II norms. Participants were asked to identify the problems and suggest solutions. The team from IIMA comprising Amit Mittal, Chinmay Joshi and Karthik Reddy won the first prize money worth Rs. 50,000 and the team from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies comprising Abhishek A D, Rohit Muhtoo and Vaibhav Kapoor won the second prize worth Rs. 30,000.

Today, in the final round of ‘The Soothsayer – A Simulation Modeling Contest’, five short-listed teams from IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, SP Jain, Mumbai and IMI, New Delhi competed to develop a model for the resolution of the economic crisis in the fictional nation of Xanadu. The teams looked into the indicators of the crisis and evaluated different strategies in terms of their short term and long term effect on the economy. The event was judged by Prof. Joshy Jacob from IIM Ahmedabad. The winning team from IIM A comprised of Anirudh M Reddy, Amit Gupta, Manas Vijh, Meghna Jain, Tejasvi Nori and Vaibhav Shintre. The winners received a cash prize of Rs. 50,000.

Nestle conducted “Munching Forward”, a strategy planning contest for its brand ‘Munch’. The winning team consisted of Sandeep Gupta, Saurabh Sharma, Saifee Ahmed, Rohit Karan and K.V. Krishna from IIMA. A workshop on ‘ Managing Global Brands in a local context’ by Stewart Dryburgh – General Manager, Nestle India followed the contest.

A total of 650 students from all across the country had participated in on-campus events at Confluence 2008. A 6-member team comprising of Anirudh M Reddy, Amit Gupta, Manas Vijh, Meghna Jain, Tejasvi Nori and Vaibhav Shintre ironically named ’Bailout’ from the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad was declared as the best team and awarded the prestigious ‘Award of Excellence’ for the overall best performance across events.

During the last four days, the participants were exposed to thought provoking ideas shared by distinguished speakers from academia and the business world. They had the chance to showcase their talent and managerial abilities in various competitions and events. Participants of the Young Managers Program and Management Student Program were all praise for the structure of the respective programs and the diversity of the content which helped them expand their horizon in today’s challenging economic environment.

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