Sustainable Supply Chain - Building Strategies For The Future

Supply Chain Management in India is poised to undergo major changes and disruptions, owing to the increased business focus on sustainability and also the impending launch of GST. It is a question of when, rather than if, these changes will take place. So, SAMIKSHA, the Industry Interaction cell of NITIE, decided to conduct a panel discussion on the topic “Sustainable Supply Chain: Building Strategies for the Future”. The panel discussion had distinguished panellists from leading organizations. The panellists were -

1.       Mr. Abhijit Deshpande, Senior Partner, VCT consulting group.

2.       Mr. Mahesh Khetan , Head (AVP) - Supply Chain Management at Pantaloons Fashion & Retail Ltd.

3.       Mr. Shreyas Malkan, Founder, Passion for Logistics, External Advisor Supply Chain to McKinsey & Co.

4.       Mr. Dushyant Singh, Director-Commercial Due Diligence, M&A-focused strategy consulting lead at Deloitte.

5.       Dr. Sachin Kamble, Associate Professor, National Institute of Industrial Engineering, Mumbai.

The moderator of the event was Mr. Rajesh Pednekar, International Expert - Pharma Supply Chain & Operations, Healthcare SF.

The panellists engaged in a healthy discussion on the topic which was witnessed by an audience comprising of over 200 students. The event kicked off with the panellists sharing their views on the topic. Later on, the questions raised by the audience were taken up for discussion by the panellists.

To kick off the event, Dr. Ashok K Pundir, Dean- Student Activities addressed the audience and spoke about how Operations and Supply Chain are core to the institute. It is not just a subject, but a way of life at NITIE. He attributed the relevance of the Panel Discussion to the students by saying that the learnings from the industry stalwarts is something that is missing from the classroom teaching and hence, complements it. He also reminded the students that their Summer Internships are approaching and the learnings from the discussion will help them with the same.

Mr. Rajesh Pednekar, a distinguished alum of NITIE himself, donned the role of moderator with panache. He formed a great connection with the panellists and the audience alike through his jovial-yet-captivating style of speaking. He reminisced his days as a student by recalling how NITIE used to be jokingly called as ‘Notorious Institute for Torturing Innocent Engineers’ at that time. He also remarked how well the Institute had progressed over the years. Coming with a vast experience in the pharma industry, Mr. Rajesh stressed upon significance of the discussion topic on the Indian pharma companies. He spoke about how the rising Patent expiries present a lucrative opportunity for Indian Pharma companies, which have a significant share in the global Generics market. He concluded his part with a thought-provoking quote-

“A good Supply Chain professional makes Supply Chain more efficient, But a great Supply Chain professional completely eliminates it!”

Mr. Mahesh Khetan initially touched upon the ‘sustainability’ part of the topic by introducing the audience to the 3 sustainability pillars-

·         Environment

·         Economic

·         Social

He spoke about how these pillars have become a compulsion, rather than just an option, these days. Drawing upon his experience in the retail business, he also shared some upcoming trends in this industry.

Dr. Sachin Kamble, one of the most popular professors at NITIE, explained how the implementation of GST in India would impact the supply chain strategies. With the help of an illustrative presentation, he first explained the existing tax structure for transfer of goods and then moved on to the changes that will take place after GST.

Mr. Dushyant Singh, being a M&A consultant, focussed on how a company’s existing supply chain influences the merger and acquisition related decisions. He segregated the investment decisions into 2 parts-financial and strategic investments. He shared the 4 important questions to be asked in a Financial Investment decision-

·         Is the company market large?

·         Does it have a unique model?

·         Is the business sustainable in future?

·         How to exit?

He also shared the 4 important questions to be asked in a Strategic Investment decision-

·         Does the investment increase my market?

·         Does it bring in new capabilities?

·         Cost- benefit analysis.

·         What to do immediately after the deal?

Mr. Abhijit Deshpande extensively used the example of TOYOTA to explain his points. He started with a story about the origin of the company and how it overcame initial failure to become the most successful automobile company in the world. He touched upon the topics of lean manufacturing, waste elimination, continuous improvement, platform sharing, etc.

Mr. Shreyas Malkan put forward some thought-provoking arguments. He spoke about how sustainability never used to be taken seriously before, but not anymore. He shared a personal incident from his stint at PepsiCo to explain how understanding between two firms is important while attempting a horizontal collaboration. He also spoke about concurrent planning, where agile decision making is given importance over scheduled decision making.

Towards the end, the panellists addressed the questions asked by people from the audience. And thus, the event came to a conclusion.