IIM Amritsar successfully concludes its Operations & Strategy Conclave, SANKSHETRA 2019

Amritsar: Indian Institute of Management, Amritsar successfully conducted its fourth annual Operations & Strategy Conclave, Sankshetra’19 on November 9, 2019.
Sankshetra’19- the Operations & Strategy Conclave, witnessed well known experts from various industries across the country having perceptive discussions on different aspects of Operations and Strategy. The veterans from the industry interacted and reflected with the budding managers on the recent trends and developments in the domains of Operations and Strategy.
The theme for the Operations panel discussion was ‘Managing the unexpected: Building resilient supply chains amidst disruptions & complexities’ while the theme for the Strategy panel discussion was ‘Dynamically Sustainable Approach in Creating Competitive Advantage’.
The Conclave commenced with the lighting of the lamp of wisdom & knowledge by Prof. Nagarajan Ramamoorthy, Director- IIM Amritsar. Welcoming the esteemed panellists, he emphasized the fact that since 2015, IIM Amritsar has hosted many conclaves to help students gain practical knowledge from industry veterans.
Brief on Panel 1:
The eminent panellists in Operations Panel included Mr. Vikas Bhaskar (Head – Solutions Design, Program Management and Business Excellence, Stellar Value Chain Solutions Private Limited), Dr. Rakesh Sinha (Global Head – Supply Chain, Manufacturing & IT, Godrej Consumer Products Limited), Mr. Salil Kapoor (Mentor – Supply Chain Labs & Former COO & EVP – UPBG, Voltas Limited), Mr. Joydeep Sarkar (Chief Operating Officer, Hicare Services Pvt Ltd.), Mr. Shailen Shukla (Head Logistics, Jumbo Electronics Company Ltd.) ,Mr. Ramnath Sadasivan (SVP & Head – Distribution & Logistics, Reliance Retail).
Introducing the theme for discussion, IIM Amritsar students delivered a presentation on the theme of the operations panel and briefly introduced the audience about “Managing the unexpected: Building resilient supply chains amidst disruptions & complexities”. The team of presenters comprising of Mr. Rishabh Jain and Mr. Saurabh Lohani of MBA-05 batch stated that how several factors including economic instability, climate change and natural disasters, political and government changes, technological changes and cyber threats have impacted the supply chains on a large scale and the importance of having a resilient supply chain.
Mr. Salil Kapoor was the moderator for the first panel. He explained the audience about how supply chain is the core of the business and how a sudden disruption in it, can severely impact the business. He also stated that businesses need to be ready to face any challenges and should be flexible in their approach.
Mr. Vikas Bhaskar stated that supply chain is the orchestrator of supplier to the customer. He also emphasized that the world is getting volatile and inflexibility is getting in the system pretty fast. So, in order to deal with the situation, all businesses should follow a customer oriented approach and contingency and flexibility plan should also be in place.
Dr. Rakesh Sinha explained that disruptions are both on the demand as well as the supply side. While the supply side disruption is easier to deal with, the demand side disruption is often severe and risky. Companies should have a flexibility in entire value chain and should make use of technology to deal with the situation.
Mr. Ramnath Sadasivan stated that India is a country with multiple tastes and requirements, so the constant use of planning and data analytics can help in a great regard. Companies need to be aware of the ecosystem, always have a contingency plan in place and switch to the alternative source if the situation demands so.
Mr. Shailen Shukla stated that since 90% of consumption is imported from outside, hence some sort of disruption is bound to happen. However, flexibility, agility and fast response can help a lot in dealing with the situation of disruption in supply chain. He also gave the example of Qatar which dealt with this situation very efficiently.
Mr. Joydeep Sarkar emphasized that risk management should be the top priority for most of the companies. He also stated that India is a country which doesn’t plan in advance and hence managing the disruptions becomes a challenging task. Also, since the cost of customer acquisition has increased in the recent years due to increase in customer choices, companies need to go extra mile to manage the disruptions.

Brief on Panel 2:
The eminent panellists in Strategy Panel included Mr. Ankur Dhawan (Chief Operating Officer, Buddy4study), Mr. Avinash Chandra (Senior Director, Capgemini), Mr. Aditya Singh (Head – Jewellery International Business, Titan Company Limited), Mr. Satish Pandey (Head – Strategy, Marketing & Corporate Quality Management, Siemens), Mr. Saurabh Saith (COO, Orion Nutritionals Private Limited), Mr. Anuj Chopra (Head Strategy Planning & Operations, Haier).
Introducing the theme for discussion, IIM Amritsar students delivered a presentation on the theme of the strategy panel and briefly introduced the audience about and “Dynamically Sustainable Approach in Creating Competitive Advantage”. Mr. Arvind Singh Bakshi of MBA-05 batch emphasized the importance of having a strategy and the need for organisations to have a sustainable approach with respect to economic, social and environmental factors.
Mr. Avinash Chandra was the moderator for the second panel. He stated the fact that strategy is required in almost all spheres of life. He also explained the audience about the reduced shelf life of strategy.
Mr. Saurabh Saith emphasized the fact that earlier most of the organisations were not having strategic departments and the major decisions were taken by the functional leads of various departments. However, this is not the case these days. He further explained the B2C perspective and stated that constant adaptation is required in terms of making strategy.
Mr. Ankur Dhawan explained the B2B perspective and stated that there is a flow of digitization in recent years. The mission and vision of the companies haven’t changed but the path which they are taking has changed tremendously.
Mr. Aditya Singh explained the importance of competitive advantage and how it is incorporated into an organisation. The value the customer wants from the organisation, competition that the customer faces and value that the company provides are all part of the competitive advantage.
Mr. Satish Pandey stated the importance of dynamics and explained that competitors are also changing with a change in technology. He also highlighted the changing perspectives and cited the example of camera emphasizing on the fact that mobile has become its competitor now.
Mr. Anuj Chopra stated that competitive advantage is not much different from sustainability. He also explained that sustainability is the need of the hour and companies need to adopt it in their approach.
The students of IIM Amritsar showed great enthusiasm during both panel discussions. The discussions were made highly interactive through a healthy Q&A session between the panellists and students. The Conclave successfully concluded on a high note at 5:30 p.m. in the evening.