Friday, January 18, 2013
Cognizance
CORPOSTRAT (CENTRE-STAGE)
Corpostrat, one of the few Centre Stage events of
Cognizance 2010, is the flag ship event of the Department of Management
Studies, IIT Roorkee. This is not just another B-Plan Contest that we are now
used to seeing in almost every college event. This aims to get the best out of
the contestants’ both idea wise and also tests their marketing, strategy and
decision making skills.
Corpostrat invited ideas and abstracts to address
the growing problem of the digital divide. As many as 70 entries were received
of which 8 teams were selected to participate in the first round on 26th March,
2010. Teams from BITS-Pilani, IIFT Delhi, IIFT Kolkata, NMIMS Mumbai, DCE, MIT
Manipal etc were among the final 8. The first round was the Presentation round
where the participants were given 20 minutes to present their ideas and 10
minutes for the Q&A round. The judges for the event included Prof. Vinay
Sharma, DoMS, IITR, Prof. Shishir Sinha, Dept. of Chemical Engineering., IITR,
Prof. M.K.Barua, DoMS, IITR, and two other judges from Onida India. The ideas
presented were innovative, ground-breaking and impressive to say the least.
Ideas varied from providing Tourist Kiosks at select locations to Building
movable bridges on rivers to opening Innovative online Music Services. It
obviously was a tough event to judge as was seen by the small margins of
separation between the winners and the rest. But eventually 5 teams were
selected who then entered the final round of Corpostrat.
The final round of Corpostrat was where
participants had to fight it out in the open, a real world simulation of
strategy and skills. Teams were given a budget of 100 INR each with which they
had to make any sort of purchases and then make stuff out of the same and then
try and sell them back! Different teams had different ideas; one team
introduced gambling games, card games etc whereas another had mini-bowling and
ring throwing games to attract money. Another team completely based its
strategy on a shoot the cane game and ran all around the campus attracting huge
crowds. While another team coerced a customer into buying a self made Sachin
T-shirt for a princely 700 bucks! It sure was fun for all the teams who were
each assigned volunteers from the organizers. 3 hours hence the winner had to
be decided and BITS-Pilani came out on top making 2010 INR with NMIMS a close
second at 1950 INR. What’s more, the teams got to keep the money they made! A
wonderful Return of Investment of almost 20 times!
Pranay Sharma, Sayantani Chanda & Rishabh
Bhandari from NMIMS Mumbai were declared the eventual winners of Corpostrat
based on scores from both the rounds with Kushal Agarwal & Abhishek Kaushik
from BITS-Pilani taking second spot. Aniruddha Jhawar, Sitanshu Gupta &
Ashish Vaya from IT-BHU, Varanasi took the third spot. The winners took home
12000 INR, the First runners-up took home 8000 INR and the second runners-up,
5000 INR.
All in all, the event lived up to its billing and
attracted huge crowds on both the days. The completely new format of Corpostrat
seems to be a huge hit and certainly is here to stay for the years to come!
SPOT EVENTS(SPECTRUM)
MAGNATE:(27-28th March)
Three rounds of electrifying thoughts and ideas.
Participants were screened on their analytical and logical abilities in the
first round, which was a written test. The fun started in the second round as
they participated in Extempore, which gave the event 7 participants. These 7
participants were then asked to participate in a mock press conference where
one by one they assumed the role of a controversial personality and were
grilled by the rest of the participants as reporters. Divya Jain and Lekhsmi P
of IIT Roorkee secured the first and second positions respectively and Rishabha
Garg from AMU secured the third position. The event was judged by Dr. Rajat
Agarwal, Dr. Nagendra Kumar, Mrs. Samiksha Jain and Mr. Tapan Susheel from HT.
All in all, the event was a great hit.
DOMS STOCK EXCHANGE (26-28th March)
Department of management studies organised a game
simulating the real stock market scenario. The game was named DOMS Stock
Exchange (DSE) and attracted a participation of more than 120 teams from all
over the country. The USP of the game was that one could trade in the Stock
Market through SMS or by calling .The screening was done through a business
quiz which included questions mainly from current business affairs and some
general topics also, out of the 120 teams that participated in the first round,
40 teams were shortlisted based on their performances in the quiz. Each team
was allotted a broker who took their orders and sold or bought the shares for
them. The game could also be played though mobile phone as continuous news
updates were sent to the teams through SMS. The event saw participation from
varied spheres like civil as well as Earth Sciences, not to mention the ever
eager Management students who trade in the real stock markets on a regular
basis, many teams from other colleges participated and performed exceedingly
well.
The concept was appreciated by all the participants
and was termed as a great learning
experience by those who want to learn trading in real markets.
MIND YOUR BUSINESS (26th-27th March)
Mind Your Business is a business simulation game
designed to give a feel of how various functions are linked to each other and
how each contribute to the overall success of a company. The first stage of the
event was held on 26th and was a simple business quiz to test
the basic knowledge of business terms. The event saw close to 100 entries for
this round. The best eight teams were chosen to compete in the second
stage. In the second stage each team was provided with a laptop
containing the business model simulated on excel. After a brief introduction,
the teams were explained the rules of the game. As the day progressed the
environment grew fiercer with teams trying to out bid their rivals and gain
market share. The winning teams were decided on the size of their asset base.
The event was a huge success mainly because of the enthusiasm shown by the
participants and the successful coordination by the event coordinators.
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Silver Jubilee Alumni Meet: Shaping the Future
It
is always an emotional subject for anyone to be back to the roots. And it
becomes even more touching when it happens after a long time. DoMS, IIT Roorkee
also witnessed it on 24th and 25th November 2012. The
occasion was silver jubilee alumni meet, a chance for former students and now
industry stalwarts to return to Roorkee after a gap of 25 years. The alumni as
well as the institute both were equally jubilant for the moment. Not only these
two days gave us a chance to meet them but it also provided an opportunity to
listen and learn from these experts. A total of eight eminent personalities
gave their views, opinions and thoughts on the topic “Shaping the Future” which
has now achieved relevance as never before. The event went on for two days and
proved immensely helpful for students to get an insight and understanding of
real world business.
Day
One: 24-Nov-2012
It
was a fine day and the students were eagerly waiting for the occasion. Four
distinguished people from industry put forward their vision. Their brief
introduction is mentioned below:
Mr. Arvind Mohan Mathur (AM):
Mr. Arvind got his engineering degree from IIT Roorkee in 1987. He then joined
IIT Delhi and completed his masters in 1990. He earned his doctorate from
Michigan State University in 1996. He also holds an MBA degree from New York
University - Leonard N. Stern School of Business. He has over 12 yrs of
experience in the Pharmaceutical Industry in business management, market
access, consulting, strategy and marketing & sales capacities. Currently he
is the Head, Hospital/Specialty Business at Novartis.
Mr. Gaurav Saxena (GS):
Mr. Gaurav is also passed out from IIT Roorkee in 1987 with a degree in
chemical engineering. He has around 25 years of industry experience and
currently serving as an AVP at Reliance Industries Limited.
Mr. Siddhartha Guharay (SG):
Mr. Siddhartha obtained his chemical engineering degree from IIT Roorkee in
1987. He then joined the University of Missouri-Rolla and completed his masters
in 1991. He is having more than 30 years of industry exposure. Currently he is
working as Chief Engineer-Process at MottMacDonald Pvt Ltd.
Mr. Mayank Sharma (MS):
Mr. Mayank completed his graduation in electronics and communication
engineering from IIT Roorkee in1987. He has over 9 years of working experience.
Currently he is the VP and Head - Africa Market Unit at Comviva.
As
evident, the profiles of the guests were very impressive and everyone was
expecting an intellectually satisfying session. The event started with
welcoming the alumni by Dr. Rangnekar, our head of department. Then a brief
profile of our department was presented to the guests. Then the session started
in the form of a panel discussion followed by question and answers. And the
summary is given below:
Q:
How do you see IIT Roorkee ten years down the line?
SG:
Always draw your lesson from the past. Adapt according to the outside world.
Visualization of the future plan is very important.
AM:
Future is uncertain and it is difficult to see it. However trend is visible for
us to see. IIT Roorkee has definitely grown on its reputation. To shape the
future, we must have to shape ourselves first. We should also prepare for the
change. One should need to focus on learning new things. Based on that
capability, future can be shaped. Another key aspect is innovation and this is
where we should concentrate and contribute.
GS:
Study of the engineering sciences gives us certain tools. But this does not
alone guarantee success. One important characteristic is the spirituality
quotient. Mr. Gaurav mentioned the Deepak Chopra’s book “The Seven Spiritual
Laws of Success”.
MS:
One must keep the passion for excellence. If the passion is not present, future
can’t be held. The example of the Ganga Canal was cited by Mr. Mayank to show
how this passion resulted in an engineering marvel.
Q:
What is your idea about entrepreneurship and how one should approach for
starting a new business?
AM:
Being entrepreneur is the coolest thing. One does not need to get permissions
from others to do anything. But entrepreneurship also carries a certain amount
of risk and this should not be avoided. Therefore the here comes the Passion,
the first ‘P’ of entrepreneurship. Without passion, one can’t get success in
anything. One must also focus on the initial five to ten years of the business
as they are the most challenging ones.
MS:
For every success story, there are hundreds of untold failures. We should still
remember the success. Every failure brings more possibility for success.
Failure as popularly believed, may not be dramatic. We should be ready for
failure and recover from it. Entrepreneurship is deemed to be working
independently which on the other hand, is actually working according to many
stakeholders like consumers, partners, employee etc.
SG:
In an entrepreneurial venture, trust between partners is extremely important
factor. Hence the selection of the partner is very important in
entrepreneurship. The example of Dhirubai Ambani was quoted to suggest that we
should not get too upset by failures. At the end it is the belief which works.
Additionally, attitude is a vital factor. Knowledge can be gathered, skills can
be developed but attitude one carries with oneself. And that decides the
success or failure. Lastly, there is need of the value based education system.
GS:
the primary purpose of entrepreneurship is “how to serve better than others”. This
is the theme of any business. One should learn about the need, explicit and
implicit and act accordingly.
The
panel discussion was concluded with this note and now it was the time for
questions from the audience.
Q:
How conducive is environment for entrepreneurship when compared to 25 years
ago?
MS:
It is certainly much better. There was no concept of venture capital then. Now
a days funding is very easy and environment is positive. One should note that
first group most often comes from a near circle such as family, friends etc. Even
the big business enterprise capital is actually small funding from some very
rich people. The share is low as it carries great risk.
Q:
Please tell us about your journey.
AM:
After my graduation, I worked for BPCL at Bombay for one year. Then I joined
IIT Delhi to pursue my master degree. After my masters, I went on to join
Michigan State University for my PhD. I have also got two patents in my name. I
also for around 7-8 papers published including one of them in the “Nature”.
Later I completed my MBA from New Jersey. One should plan according to the
goal. The sooner you know what you want to do, the better focused you are.
SG:
After graduation, I worked in Haldia Petrochemicals Limited which has government
has stakeholder as well. Generally government organizations are viewed with
certain denigration. One should not overlook the status and contribution of
PSUs. These PSUs have actually built our nation. There is no dearth of talent
either. The fault lies somewhere else. Another point was, an engineer should
acquire the hand-on experience. This is required in case of better management
even.
These
were the questions in front of the guests which were aptly responded. Then a
note of thanks was delivered to all our esteemed guests and it marked the end
of the day. It was truly an enriching experience for all of us and we were
eagerly waiting for the next day.
Day
Two: 25-Nov-2012
The
second day was even more rewarding to us. Apart from the panel discussion, we
also got to listen to two other eminent personalities from industry, Mr. P.
Balaji and Mr. Parag Gupta. They spent some valuable time with us and shared
their views on a range of topics.
Mr.
P. Balaji, VP & MD, Nokia India is an IIT Roorkee alumnus. He got his
engineering degree from IIT Roorkee in electronics followed by post graduation
in management from IIM Ahmedabad. He has over two decades of experience in IT
and Telecom industry working with organizations like Sony, Ericsson, Lucent,
AT&T and Tata group. Another great speaker is Mr. Parag Gupta, MD, Vopak
India. He also earned his degree in mechanical engineering from IIT Roorkee and
did his MBA from IIM Ahmedabad. Mr. Parag also has about twenty years of
experience in sales, marketing, business development and general management. These
alumni talked about how to gear ourselves for the future, what skill sets one needs
to have particularly in entrepreneurial context, a brief yet insightful idea
about current industry and also gave valuable advice to students.
After
the enriching session, it was the time for discussion on the subject line
“Shaping the Future”. This day again saw four eminent personalities from
industry. The format was the same, panel discussion succeeded by question and
answers. Their brief introductions are as follows:
Mr. Anupam Singh (AS): Mr.
Anupam got his engineering degree from IIT Roorkee in computer science in 1987.
He completed his masters from PHTO Utrecht, Netherlands in 1991 and also holds
an MBA degree from IIT Delhi in 2000. He has more than 20 years of experience
in building engineering teams from scratch, leading start-ups as well as large
product teams. He is the Co-founder at SharedReach.
Mr. Amit Dayal (AD):
Mr. Amit completed his graduation in computer science from IIT Roorkee in 1987.
He then joined the University of California and completed his masters in 1989.
He has also done MBA from University of California in 2000. He is having more
than 20 years of experience and currently working as Vice President
Engineering, Yahoo.
Mrs. Shivani Arora (SA):
Mrs. Shivani did his graduation in computer science & technology from IIT
Roorkee in 1987. She completed his master from IIT Delhi in 1989. She is also
an accomplished badminton player. She has over 20 years of experience and is
currently working as technical manager at Alcatel Lucent India Ltd.
Mr. Vineet Shukla (VS):
Mr. Vineet got his engineering degree in industrial engineering from IIT
Roorkee in 1987. He completed his masters from IIT Delhi in 1988. He is having
more than 25 years of experience and is currently working as a Program Manager
at Tata Technologies Ltd.
In
addition to these distinguished speakers the occasion was also graced by other
alumni. We had Mr. Alok Mahajan from KPMG, Mr. Sanjay Saxena from HDFC Ergo,
Mr. Pradeep Ahluwalia from State Street Corp, Mr. Ravindra Gupta from Man
Diesel, Mr. Bhupinder Singh, Mr. G. Srinivas from NPCIL, Mr. Sanjay Keshwani
from Dassault System, Mr. Deepak Chawla from ZenPrise, Mr. Deepinder Setia from
CONTRAIL System, Mr. Amitabh Diwakar an architect and Mr. Arun Agarwal from
Shell. These experts also shared his views with the audiences.
As
again, the profiles of the guests were very extraordinary. The event started
with welcoming the alumni by Dr. Rangnekar, our head of department. Then these
guests were introduced to our department through a presentation. Afterwards the
panel discussion began.
Q:
How do we shape the future?
AS:
Future is actually in our hands. My belief is, the way you can shape the future
is by acquiring the entrepreneurial spirit. Passion is a very important factor
for the success. Another factor is persistence which is also essential for
success. The next factor is ownership. One should remember that ownership is
never assigned, it is always acquired.
SA:
Basics of communication are very important. Another thing is that we
desperately lack planning. We might be good in execution but we must focus on
planning part.
VS:
We are deciders of our own futures. Vision is really a big thing for shaping
the future. Also consistent teamwork is the key for the success. Conviction is
significant for success as well. Lastly, knowledge is something which can be
acquired but wisdom can’t be.
AD:
Technology is the new mantra. Whatever you do, technology will be a part of it.
Therefore we should embrace, not go away from technology advantage. Future of
technology is around products, not the services. So we have a mindset that we
have to build great products.
It
was a fruitful dialogue and next was the specific queries round.
Q:
With respect to IIT Roorkee, how do we go about i.e., what is the road ahead?
SA:
IIT Roorkee has lots more potential than it has today. The major area of focus
is planning. People in other countries put a lot of efforts in planning which
is not happening in India. Also, a lot of people want to do things for IIT
Roorkee but they have time constraints. IIT Roorkee should produce a game plan
to go about how to get best results from people who do not have enough time but
have the will to contribute.
Q:
Apart from passion and persistence, how important is the idea?
AS:
Ideas are necessary but converting them into tangible thing is the key. It is
therefore more important to spend time thinking. Ideas can’t be generated by
sitting at home. Expose yourself to the outside world and learn what is going
on around the world.
AD:
before any idea, we have to check whether it is required at all. The reason
being, if it is not satisfying any need it is not fruitful.
Q:
Talking in the context of Indian IT industry, we see a lack of innovation. How
we as managers, can mitigate this issue?
AD:
Usually a lot of focus is given on services rather than products. However
products are the area where there is a lot of scope of innovation. Services
generally have optimization rather than true innovation. This has been recognized
and there is increased focus on innovation. Now most of the service
organizations also operate in product domain.
VS:
Today the market is changing which is giving a lot of push for the product
development. In the future, we expect to see innovative ideas from this section
mainly.
AS:
Prima facie, product development provides a comparatively low return on
investment to the service provider. People should understand what product
development is. Building or creating a product is the easy part. The tough part
is to sell it and manage it over the time. But that is where revenues are
generated. In comparison, the service industry is a lot easier. However product
development is very learning and it adds tremendous value to the person.
Organizations always look for a person with significant product development
exposure.
Q:
What are the must-haves for starting up an entrepreneurial spirit?
AD:
the first thing we should look for is, are you solving a problem or it is just for
the sake of it. The next important consideration is, do you have the right
team.
AS:
Finding the right team is like marriage. We need to spend time with a person to
evaluate if we can trust the person. It is extremely important. Second, it is
not about the idea but the passion about the idea.
SA:
One must be ready for the failures. Once we know we can handle it, we can focus
on it in a much better way.
VS:
Learn to be risk taking. Discipline is very important yet we should also have
enough flexibility to take up new challenges. Discipline should not be
translated into rigidness.
This
was the last query and it marked the end of the session. A note of thank was
delivered to all guests. This marked the formal conclusion of the session. Overall,
it proved to be a very useful session which would definitely help students in
their grooming as future managers and leaders.
Vyan 2012
Finally the date arrived. It was 19th Nov 2012 when the finals of these two events were scheduled. There was so much excitement in the air that students reached the department before the time!! However apart from the events scheduled, something else was also in store. We were fortunate to listen to Mr. Devesh Singh, an eminent lawyer and a professor in IIFT Delhi. He walked us through the constitution of India, gave an insight of the judicial system of our country and also explained some well-known cases. He also talked about some of the contemporary issues. For management students it was indeed an interesting and satisfying experience to learn about something which is not our domain. The interaction was well received by the students and faculties alike.The judges had arrived by then and it was the time to begin the show. First our department was introduced to the guests. Jury members were impressed by the diversity, the calibre and strength of our departments and student’s potential. The panel consisted of distinguished experts from industry and academia. All guests were welcomed by our Head of Department Dr. Rangnekar. After that each expert shared their journey and experiences with us. We were benefitted from knowing how these people thought and planned; what challenges they faced and how they overcame them. We also came to know about some of the major challenges faced while starting up a new venture. These suggestions and learning would surely increase our understanding and knowledge. Students were participative in the discussion and posed different set of questions which was answered skilfully by these experts.
After the sessions, the competition began. Vicissitude was scheduled first and then it was the turn for Evangelist. The stage was set and everyone was prepared to see the battle of the brains.
Vicissitude: Don’t Fear Predicament, Plan It
Vicissitude is a national level business plan competition, organized by DoMS, IIT Roorkee. It tests not only business skills but also the vision to see the future. The event saw national level participation and was a huge success. Entries were received from all India colleges. Finally a total of six teams were selected and called on for the final round of presentation. These six teams are listed below:
• FMS_Jeevan
• DoMS IIT Roorkee_Shabd Shiksha Sansthan
• IIM Lucknow_Samaksh Kisaan
• IIM Calcutta_Paradigm
• Great Lakes_Enerture
• IMI_Tilzmatic
Each team was allocated 20 minutes for presenting their entrepreneurial idea, showing their business acumen and queries & answers. As teams started coming and started giving their presentations, the excitement level begin to rise. Each was better than the rest and people were indecisive about a particular choice. The eureka moment came when our home team was called for showcasing their idea. There was huge appreciation and support all around and people were cheering up the teams. This presentation went off very well and even earned positive comments from judges. After all teams finished with their presentation, the lunch break was announced.
Evangelist: More than Just a Fairytale
After lunch it was the turn for another show Evangelist. It is a national level engineering project competition. It gives us a platform to mix technology with business i.e. how technology can be converted into a profitable venture. Like Vicissitude, this event also saw a huge participation across the nation. This event saw five finalists as mentioned below:
• IITM Gwalior_XTECH
• IIT Roorkee_Team Value Dales Stream Mapping
• Ansal Institute_ Piezoelectric Roads
• Ansal Institute_ Team Halo Aviators
• Team Selcoth
Every team had 15 minutes for presenting their ideas along with question answer session. The teams were well prepared and it became really tough for the judges to decide. This event also had one home team from IIT Roorkee which received home audience support. The round also brought light on the bright future for India in technology and sciences. The potential to transform a technology or a scientific theorem into a real world application was acknowledged and received everyone including panel members.
After both events were over and it was the moment to announce the result. Not only participants but audiences were also having a sense of anticipation. Finally the envelopes were submitted after some half an hour discussion among judges. There was a pin drop silence and everybody was praying for his team.
First it was the turn of Vicissitude participants. The envelopes started to be opened and names begin to pour in. The atmosphere became electrifying when home team Shabd Shikha Sansthan was declared winner. It was another feather in the cap of DoMS cap and there was a sense of pride among the students. A huge round of applause was served for first and second runners which were Tilzmatic and Paradigm respectively.
After Vicissitude it was the time for Evangelist winner’s pronouncement and again silence crept into the atmosphere. It was an even more intense competition and no one was in a position to predict anything. The host started to name the winners. And again it was IIT Roorkee team which won the competition!! IITR has won both events and there was nothing more one could have asked for. It re-established the brand IITR in not only business but also in technology. Appreciation was given to the first runner up, Team halo Aviators. There was a tie between XTECH and Piezoelectric Roads for second runners up position.
However all teams were equally good and admired by the audiences. The event ended with congratulating all winners and a note of thanks delivered by our HoD Dr. Rangnekar. The judges again showed their admiration of DoMS student’s energy and participation. All of us were happy and feeling fortunate to be a part of this. The VYAN was over but the memory will always be there.
Monday, January 7, 2013
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