The PAN IIM World Management Conference, held from 5th to 8th November 2014, brought together the 13 widely varied IIMs in an endeavour to promote the future of management studies in the country. Though in its infancy, the event has become a milestone in leveraging brand IIM to a global audience. This year the Second PAN IIM World Management Conference, supported by the Ministry of HRD and collectively organized by the 13 IIMs, was hosted by IIM Kozhikode.The theme of the conference was “Globalizing Indian Thought”, the vision of IIM Kozhikode to drive the twin goals of excellence and inclusiveness.
The conference was inaugurated by Mr.Guillaume Sicard, President, Nissan India, with Prof. Kulbhushan Balooni, Director (In-Charge), IIM Kozhikode. Kathakali and other traditional dance performances brought out the flavour of Kerala before the delegates from all over the globe. The four day- long event was graced by the presence of eminent speakers including IIM professors, experts from the industry, policymakers and scholars in management discipline who came together for an exchange of management ideas and research practices in exploring new frontiers of management science.
During the inaugural event, Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani, Hon’ble Union HRD minister spoke about how India has strengthened its global presence right from Information Technology to space technology. Guillaume Sicard, President, Nissan India, in his keynote said, “The key word in India is “Synthesis” – synthesis of culture, ideas, generations and knowledge. While synthesis has defined India’s culture, heritage and art for centuries, it is also defining business environment, practices and processes.” Mr. Santosh Desai, MD & CEO, Future Brands, India highlighted how culture resonates with the mindset and behaviour of the Indian consumers. He defined culture as “a soap which rinses away the impurities resulting from daily struggle of living.” He said that Indian journey of consumption is a business innovation along the path of familiarity which would necessitate that ‘Modernizing Indianness’ and ‘Indianising Modernity’ go hand in hand.
Prof. Ashish Nanda, Director, IIM Ahmedabad gave a global perspective on Indian Management and mentioned about the greater understanding prevalent in India along with creation of knowledge in India. He spoke about an explosion of research in new areas such as Indian entrepreneurship, Governance, Family Business and Leap Frog. On the other hand, Ravi Kant, Former Vice Chairman and MD, Tata Motors, India, said, “We need to be more experimentative and look at alternate future.” Prof. Hrishikesha Krishnan, Director, IIM Indore spoke about “Building innovation capabilities in India”. Drawing references from his book “Jugaad the systematic innovation –the challenge for India”, he tried to understand why India does not quite fulfil its innovation potential and is considered a “laggard” with respect to other countries. Prof. Krishnan demonstrated the eight steps to innovation excellence from “Jugaad to Excellence” by suggesting India should go for “experimenting with low cost at high speed”.
The visit by Mr. Abhishek Bachchan, actor and sports entrepreneur, was an added attraction and it rendered a completely diverse perspective to the conference as Junior B welcomed the students to join the dynamic Indian Film Industry which has in store management challenges as in marketing of movies and the analytics that goes behind the multi crore movie projects. He enthralled the audience with his wit and humour as he spoke about the globalization of Indian movies and how he intended to take Indian sports like Kabaddi to the international level.
After a successful first year on the theme “Emerging issues in Indian management”, this year, the conference steered the path of integrating India with the outside world. It was an immense learning opportunity for the entire management fraternity and provided some food for thought for the students who have the unique privilege of taking India to the world.
This article has been published by the Media Cell of IIM Kozhikode.
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