Corporate Leaders meet the brightest minds at IIM Kozhikode - Part II

We already covered Part I of the terrific initiative and the great opportunity that the IIC at IIM Kozhikode is providing its students here. Let's look at the 2nd part where we meet some more Corporate leaders. They explore more themes like Personal Branding and Retail Innovations.

Talk by Mr.Rajesh Nair, Head – Markets and Pursuits, Ernst & Young

The Industry Interaction Cell of IIM Kozhikode in collaboration with Hriday, the human resource interest group of IIM Kozhikode organized a talk on “Branding Oneself” by Mr.Rajesh Nair, Head – Markets and Pursuits, Ernst & Young on 7th August, 2012.

The talk on branding oneself was to give the students of IIM Kozhikode a perspective of how to portray their personality in front of others such as prospective recruiters, colleagues and other audience. He spoke about how branding oneself and differentiating oneself was very important in a competitive world. He mentioned that every person needed to be explicit about his achievements in life.

Mr.Nair used his experience to share how famous personalities also use this method to improve their portrayal of themselves. Adding further, he emphasized the importance of adapting oneself to any situation that he is faced with. According to him, every individual had different aspects attached to his personality that he portrayed when he was with his family, friends or colleagues. He used HR concepts like the Johari window to drive home the point that self actualization is very important in life.

Mr.Nair used this platform to insist that each and every student reflect upon their strengths and weakness as an exercise and write down how they looked at themselves as it would be beneficial for them in the long run

Talk by Mr.Sandeep Dhar, CEO at Tesco Hindustan Service Centre

IIMK had the privilege of being audience to Mr. Sandeep Dhar who shared his insights on the topic of "Retail Innovations, including IT, CRM and SCM in Retail" with the students. Alumni of IMT Ghaziabad and the Wharton Business School, Mr. Dhar had a very thoughtprovoking interaction with the students.

Mr. Dhar had a very lively interaction with the students. He discussed the importance of identifying the customer and the challenge it offers in business to customer relationship management. He pointed out the specific issues that plague the retail industry where a ‘customer friendly’ stance will not suffice. He urged managers to turn ‘customer centric’ which involves playing an active and appropriate role in the entire life cycle of the customer.

He recalled his experiences in TESCO and earlier stint at Cititbank to emphasis on the age old business mantra ‘Customer is King’. He discussed the role played by high end IT in collecting consumer data and infact using thermal sensing in reducing their inconvienence while shopping. Mr. Dhar also predicted that the future of retail shopping lay in the multiple channel strategies use where customers mixed both e-commerce and physical retailing. He mentioned TESCO’s step in the same direction called ‘Click and Collect’ where customers ordered online and collected from the retail outlet.

Talk by Mr.Anand Pillai on Personal Branding

(IIMK) recently hosted Mr. Anand Pillaiwho shared his insights on the topic of "Personal Branding" with the students. He has been appointed as a "Member of World Economic Forum, Global Agenda Council on New Models of leadership - 2011" given his thought leadership in the field of Leadership and Innovation.

Mr. Pillai an interesting and energetic speaker engaged the students throughout his talk. His pragmatic approach as opposed to a theoretical or philosophical viewpoint to business, struck a cord with the young listeners. The main emphasis of his talk was on PLB (Personal Leadership Brands). He laid out the five basic steps towards developingones own PLB:

· Recognize your Yearning.

· Rapid Learning

· Natural Flow

· Glimpses of Excellence

· Element of Satisfaction

Mr. Pillai suggested that the basic philosophy was simple, things that one will do without expecting any renumeration or compensation is the thing that defines a person, and exhibit their personality. Once a person adapts the same as their career, he or she is bound to excel, because this creates a unique personal brand which is customized for that individual and cannot have an external replica, said Mr.Pillai

He also shared his mantra that cleared some clichés of personal marketing; mistaking affirmation for accomplishment, security for significance and immediate victory for long-term sustainability. Mr. Pillai ended his talk with a heartwarming note that, ‘It is not the effort that you put in that counts, but the value that you bring along with it. It is not your achievements that you are remembered for, but the way that you impact people’s lives’.

You can read all about IIM Kozhikode here

Read article by IIM Kozhikode author Charan Iyengar here : Charan