IIT Roorkee Management Dept symposium sees host of eminent industry figures talk about ‘The Next Level’ in Business
Roorkee: A host of executives and leaders from major corporate firms and multinationals interacted with students of Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, during its National Level Management Symposium held on 24th – 25th February 2018.
The 11th edition of the annual Confluencia had a line-up that included executives and leaders from successful business organizations such as Samsung, Domino’s Pizza, Philips Healthcare, Reliance, BlackRock, Dunnhumby, and Godrej.
The theme of Confluencia was “The Next Level”, which encapsulated the rapid pace of change and disruptions emerging today and how business organizations, entrepreneurs, and managers cope with them.
Speaking about Symposium, Dr. Zillur Rahman, Head, Department of Management Studies, IIT Roorkee, said, “The Next Level of adaptive and resilient businesses are the ones that are well equipped to handle change and create blue oceans of opportunity. The speakers discussed ideas, values and attributes that are fundamental for businesses to make the transformation to that ever-elusive next level.”
The dominant themes of the interactions between the speakers and Management Students were the effects of technological disruptions such as Artificial Intelligence, Big Data and Analytics on various spheres of life and business, namely Talent Acquisition, Finance, Healthcare, Retail and Employee Engagement. Ideas of humility, constant learning, willingness to change and adapt were reinforced by the speakers and brought forth through examples from their own experience in the industry.
The event provided students a window into the industry, its work culture and best practices that they would soon be taking up themselves. Many speakers expressed that their motivations behind coming to academic events such as Confluencia were to stay in touch with the young managers and the trends and opinions that are driving them.
Day One saw students interact with Mr. Sandeep Tyagi, Director – Human Resources, Samsung Electronics, Ms. Richa Singh, Chief Executive Officer, Philips Healthcare@home, Ms. Kamalika Deka, Regional Head-HR, North Domino’s (Jubilant Foodworks Limited), and Mr. Manoj K Prasad, Vice President-Talent Transformation, OD and Learning, Reliance Industries Limited. The evening session ended with a panel discussion between Mr. Madan M Varshney, Senior Vice President, Flex Foods Ltd, Mr. Manoj Sadavarte, Unit Head – Godrej, Mr. Manish Vashist, Engineering head at Godrej & Boyce Mfg. Co. Ltd. and Mr. Anup Kumar, General Manager, BRIDCUL.
Day Two began with Dr. Anthony Kilili, India Head of Dunnhumby, providing insights into what the “Next Level” is in retail industry and customer engagement. The next distinguished speaker was Mr. Nishant Govil, Managing Director, BlackRock.
Mr. Sandeep Tyagi praised the interaction and arrangements at the event as “extremely good” and the students and faculty as “very well informed and updated”. Ms Kamalika Deka, a TED speaker and constant lecturer at academic institutes felt that “Students were practical and very much aware of what’s happening around the world”. Mr. Manoj K Prasad who shared his rich knowledge from 20 years of experience in global HR leadership found the students “Interactive, Innovative and full of energy.”