Life @ SJMSOM, IIT Bombay

[floyd&vodka]

Hi All

This is a thread to talk about anything and everything that happens at SJMSOM, IIT Bombay. This will be very useful for all the JMET aspirants as they will have a good idea of what all events usually go on in the SJMSOM campus. This will also be useful for the present SJMSOM students and the alumni and will give them a place to share their news and opinions of the happenings in this college.

I am a First year student on SJMSOM and have joined the college on July 25th. It might seem as if it has only been about a month and I may not have much to say. However, the problem is that I have so much to add, that I wondering where to start from.

I will try to compile the data of most of the events that took place here over the last month or so. The student community will keep on updating this thread as and when the other events shape up.

Expecting a good response from everyone!

Regards
Ramesh
Batch of 2006-2008
SJMSOM, IIT Bombay

P.S: This is NOT a thread to clear JMET queries. There are other threads open for this purpose.

[floyd&vodka]

2-3 September, 2006, IRCC Auditorium, IIT Bombay, Mumbai

www.som.iitb.ac.in/events/2006/finconti/

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We take this opportunity to cordially invite you for the third event in the SJMSOM's Continuum-2006 series - The Finance Continuum on 2nd and 3rd September. The theme of this event is “Emerging Markets Strike Back”.

At Finance Continuum 2006, we propose to take a fresh look at key elements that constitute the present and future growth of Emerging Economies and the various opportunities and challenges that come along for global investors. For this we propose a series of talks by leading policy makers, industry leaders and brilliant academicians on the topics that cover the entire gamut of emerging economy issues.

List of speakers at Finance Continuum 2006:

• Mr. Rajnikant Patel, MD & CEO, Bombay Stock Exchange
• Ms. Ritu Anand, Deputy MD & Chief Economic Advisor, SBI
• Mr. Nainesh Jaisingh, Head - Private Equity India, Standard Chartered
• Ms. Susan Thomas, Asst. Professor, IGIDR
• Dr. Ashok Nag, Senior VP, RiskRaft Consulting Pvt. Ltd
• Mr. Saugata Bhattacharya, VP & Chief Economist, UTI Bank
• Mr. Venkat Subramanian, VP, Iflex Ltd

The first day of the event will culminate in a panel discussion on “From Money Markets to Hedge Funds: How to address the changing needs of investors?”. There will also be a lucky draw for the audience at the end of the day and a chance to win attractive prizes.
On 3rd September morning, we have a workshop on “Stock Picking” conducted by www.equitymaster.com

For details, concept document and schedule please visit the event website.
Looking forward to an active participation .

[floyd&vodka]

Being in an institute as prestigious as SJMSOM, IIT, we have got a chance to attend a lot of Guest lectures from top corporates from the industry. Infact, in almost a month now, we have had around 20 guest lectures here at IIT. I will try to list the details of a few of them here:

1) 24th July (Interaction with SJMSOM students)
Prof. Yasheng Huang
Associate Professor of International Management
MIT Sloan School of Management
and
Prof. S.P. Kothari
Head, Department of Economics, Finance, and Accounting
and Gordon Y Billard Professor of Management
MIT Sloan School of Management
A discussion on the collaboration between SJMSOM and MIT Sloan School of Management and a general talk to India-China Issues .

2)25th July (Institute Lecture)
Prof. S.P. Kothari
Head, Department of Economics, Finance, and Accounting
and Gordon Y Billard Professor of Management
MIT Sloan School of Management
WHAT HAPPENED AT ENRON ?

3) 26th July (Interaction with SJMSOM students)
Ms. Mukti Khaire,
Assistant Professor, Harvard Business School
Experience at SJMSOM and HBS.

4) 29th July (SJMSOM Lecture Series - Diksha)
Dr. Anoottam Ghosh, CEO Uniqema (erstwhile ICI group Co.)
Cultural Integration Issues in Mergers and Acquisition

5) 9th August (SJMSOM Lecture Series - Diksha)
Mr. ChandraShekhar, Head HR CapGemini India
Definition of Success

6) 11th August (Lecture org by E-Cell)
Dr Shrikant Parikh
Serial Entrepreneur
Co-Founder, Globe RangerCorp (USA) and InfoAlive.
How to think of an idea

7) 12th August (SJMSOM Lecture Series - Diksha)
Mr. Subinder Khurana, CEO, MarketRX
The Evolving Face of Consulting

8] 19th August (SJMSOM Lecture Series - Diksha)
Mr.R.Rengarajan, Retired GM, RBI
Credit Risk Management

9) 17th Aug 2006 General Discussion
Prof. Murugappa (Murgie) Krishnan, Yeshiva University, New York
Liquidity in an Emerging Market: Evidence from India's National Stock Exchange

10) 23rd August (SJMSOM Lecture Series - Diksha)
Mr. Shailesh Joshi, Feedback Ventures
Reforms in the Electricity Sector - Indian Experiences

11) 23rd August
Mr. Rajiv Lochan, Associate Principal , McKinsey & Company
Guest Lectures on Corporate Strategy

12) 25th August (SJMSOM Lecture Series - Diksha)
Mr. M.D. Agarwal, Chief Manager, IS Refinery Systems, BPCL
IT Systems in Refinery

13) 25th August (SJMSOM Lecture Series - Diksha)
Mr. Prakash, Senior Business Manager OLAM International
Risk Management in Commodity Markets

14) 28th August (SJMSOM Lecture Series - Diksha)
Mr.Jiten Apte, founding partner, Wizarth Advisors, Pvt. Ltd. (a boutique M&A advisory firm)
Experience at Wizarth Advisors, Pvt. Ltd.

15) 30th August Guest Lectures
Mr. Jagdeep Kapoor, Chairman, Samsika Marketing Consultants
Guest Lectures on Corporate Strategy

More to follow soon ...

Ramesh
Batch of 2006 - 2008
SJMSOM

[floyd&vodka]

L!VE, the magazine of SJMSOM brings in new facets, perspectives and new insights into the business world. It caters not just to the demands of the Systems professional but also the Operations, Finance, Marketing and HR. There is thus a well rounded view of the managerial world. This is a harbinger of the times, wherein all of us aspire to be not just marketing or finance or operations or HR professionals but well rounded managers equipped to handle the vagaries of corporate life.

The AUGUST Issue of L!VE is attached in this message.

Back issues can be downloaded from:

http://www.som.iitb.ac.in/cgi-bin/st...i/query?id=209

Comments and Feedback of any sort are welcome.

Cheers!
Ramesh

[floyd&vodka]

Now some short notes on some of the events we have had here. I will be unable to explain everything. I am just copy pasting the notes that are already available with me:

Tuesday 24th-25th July, 2006
Prof Kothari of MIT Sloan School visits SJMSOM
Prof. Yasheng Huang, Associate Professor, MIT Sloan School of Management and Prof. SP Kothari, Gordon Y Billard Professor of Accounting at Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology visited SJMSOM/IITB on 25th July 2006. Prof. Huang, who co-authored the definitive paper “Can India overtake China”, was here to deliver lectures on “Policy framework and development strategies: India and China” .
Regarding India, Prof. Huang said that the need of the hour is to develop a comprehensive education framework particularly in the primary education.Huang, a trenchant critic of the development model followed by China, mentioned that the low quality FDI reflects inherent weakness in the economy and that the growth preceded huge investments in infrastructure in 1990s . China has high financial inefficiency & a weak stock exchange. Most of the big companies are heavily backed by the state & thus the private sector and the entrpreneurship have been largely ignored.
Speaking on the subject of political environment, he opined that the democratic government of India scores over its Chinese counterpart on the issues of transparency and accountability.Government system in China can take some quick decisions but at the same time its bad decisions can prove detrimental to the country's growth & people due to the lack of feedback mechanism.
Making a point on the sustainable growth of India, he quoted "India is achieving 8% growth with 50% of China’s investments and 10% of its FDI. To me this is a picture of more sustainable growth."
On the management education front, Prof. Kothari mentioned about the ongoing talks between MIT and SJMSOM on the possible linkages in the near future. He later delivered a lecture on "What happened at Enron?" followed by an interactive session with the student community.

[floyd&vodka]

Wednesday July 26th, 2006
Ms Mukti Khaire, Assistant Professor, Harvard Business School, visits SJMSOM, IIT Bombay

In a recently held event, students of Shailesh J Mehta School of Management at IIT Bombay had an opportunity to interact with Mukti Khaire, Assistant Professor, Harvard Business School.

Mrs. Khaire, an alumnus of the institute, did her Masters of Management at SJMSOM and then continued to receive her PhD in Management from Columbia Business School. Presently she is an Assistant Professor at Harvard Business School. She teaches the first-year MBA course, “The Entrepreneurial Manager.” She also teaches in the HBS Executive Education programs, including custom executive education offerings.

During the interactive session that lasted for about one and half hour students were able to gain immensely from her rich experience in academics and industry.
She gave an insight into the management programs and the pedagogy at Harvard.
She remarked that management doctoral programs have very little in common with MBA program resulting in immense value addition. Mrs. Khaire advised students with an academic bent of mind to pursue doctoral programs and went on to explain the opportunities available and the intricacies involved.

She emphasized on the creation of a communication plus application model, which would link the enormous research work done at Technology and Management Institutions in India, and create a platform that will take these ideas to completion. This was followed by a rigorous session of Question and Answers discussing the economic, political and social feasibility of the model. She also applauded the magnitude of work done by the E-cell and SINE in the last year and appreciated the success of the International Seminar on Entrepreneurship and Navonmesh conducted last year.

Finally she encouraged students to continue with the rich tradition of SJMSOM and come out as all round personalities ready to meet corporate challenges.

The visit by Mrs. Khaire is a precursor to the Mumbai Alumni Meet to be held on the August 26th, 2006

[floyd&vodka]

Sunday August 9, 2006
MR. Chandarshekhar- Head HR, CAPGEMINI Visits SJMSOM, IIT Bombay

An interactive and inspiring ‘Diksha’ session by Mr. Chandrashekhar – Head, HR of CapGemini was conducted at SJMSOM IIT Bombay on the 9th August,2006.
The ‘Diksha’ is a ground for corporate interfacing at SJMSOM, a regularly held occasion, where an eminent person from the corporate is invited to share his knowledge and experience with the school crowd.
The basic talk of this Diksha was focused on discussion about success – its parameters, its importance, its achievement, its interrelation with happiness. By mentioning various parameters of success like fame, money, satisfaction, power, happiness – he laid special emphasis on contributing to the success of others. He also mentioned and exemplified how sometimes achievement of one parameter of success nullifies some other parameter. He told the crowd to acquire a practical rather than an unrealistic, idealistic approach and to be successful by at least society’s definition than be failed by our own definition.
Mr. Chandrashekhar mentioned that it is practically not possible to achieve success only on our own terms but one has to take the society along with ourselves. He also mentioned that there is nothing called permanent success. Even very successful people had their share of ups and downs and their own periods of success. Giving examples from his own personal life, Mr. Chandrashekhar emphasized on believing in creating one’s own destiny, ruling one’s environment rather than being governed by it, acquiring knowledge and learning, giving emphasis to the morals and acquiring a non-escapist attitude towards life, having patience while achieving success.
All in all, a very informative session which made the crowd to introspect and see where they are headed.

[floyd&vodka]

12th August 2006
Mr. Subinder Khurana, CEO - MarketRx, Visits SJMSOM, IIT Bombay

Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management (SJMSOM), IIT Bombay played host to Mr. Subinder Khurana, CEO - MarketRx on 12th August 2006 as part of the continuing lecture series, 'Diksha', held at the school. Mr. Khurana was accompanied by Ms. Shama Taneja, Director HR at MarketRx.

MarketRx is a highly specialized consultancy firm that provides consultancy mainly for marketing and sales ROI in the pharmaceutical vertical. The firm has a global presence and has as its clients the who's who of the pharmacy industry. It has consistently registered growth rates of over 40% since its inception six years ago.
During the lecture, Mr. Khurana provided insights on the evolving face of consulting. In the 50s, consultants acted as advisors and the focus was on ideas rather than actions. Many a times, these ideas were not weighed against the practical difficulties in implementing them, and hence, organizations ended up with huge reports that could be put to little use. In the 90s, there was a radical shift in the approach towards consulting. Big management concepts such as e-Commerce and ERP together with the increasing focus on Information Technology laid the foundation for consulting as we know it today.
Consulting is no longer only about strategy but also execution. To be successful, a consulting firm must leverage functional / domain expertise and be able to quickly apply it to the problem at hand. Hence, there is an increasing need for specialized consulting as opposed to the generalist approach of the past.
Mr. Khurana emphasized that high-end data analysis & modeling, data warehousing & management and application of cutting edge technology are the key drivers of consulting today. He talked about how the consultancy business, like any good business, must be globally consistent and locally optimized.
Mr. Khurana further went on to elaborate some of the challenges faced during the consultancy process. Data available for analysis may be incomplete or unreliable. Some organizations have certain processes / practices that cannot be altered (the 'Holy Cows') and such issues must be taken into consideration while developing the optimal solution.
Responding to a question, Mr. Khurana emphasized the importance of getting a 'buy-in' from managers at all levels on the proposed solution. He said that if this is not done, it may be very difficult to implement the solution. Softer issues like managers' concern about loss of control must be addressed before the re-structuring plan is taken up for implementation.
The session ended with Mr. Khurana pointing out that consulting as a career offers tremendous opportunities and challenges.

[floyd&vodka]

19th of August 2006
R. Rengarajan, Retired GM, Reserve Bank of India, Visits SJMSOM, IIT Bombay

Mr. R. Rengarajan, Retired General Manager of Reserve Bank of India visited SJMSOM, IIT Bombay on the 19th of August 2006 to deliver a Diksha on "Credit Risk Management".

Mr. Rengarajan started his session with the basic definition of Credit and went on to explain Credit Risk - a possibility that a counter party fails to meet obligations, a risk that is inherent in every Commercial Bank's operations. He said that while lending money, a bank should know the party to whom it is lending - through analysis, proper enquiries, studying of the Balance Sheets.
He mentioned various guidelines to Credit Risk Management like Policy Guidelines, Lending Guidelines, Credit Assessment and Risk Grading, Approval Authority, Segregation of Duties, Internal Audit. Mr. Rengarajan then went on to explain the various Lending Guidelines mentioning that they should reflect changes in the economic outlook and evolution of the bank's portfolio. The Principles of Lending should include safety / security, liquidity, desirability, profitability, etc.
Mr. Rengarajan also explained how risk is transmitted from the environment to the industry to the business, and finally, to the lenders. The Spectrum of Risks includes both Financial and Non-Financial risks. A fine balance is required between these types of risks to avoid a Reputation Risk. He further said that there are various Safety (or Comfort) Zones to the funds loaned which include apart from the amount owed to the bank plus interest, the customer's expected profit, customer's resources, personal guarantees, pledges.
The various things that should be looked into by the banks while lending money include Promoter's Profile (constitution of borrower, vintage, length of association with the bank, net worth of the concern, tax payments, market enquiry report), Business Risk Profile (sales turnover, borrower's status), Finance Risk Profile (leverage, profitability, current ratio, sales to current assets), Security Risk Profile (cash collateral, immovable property mortgaged).
All in all, a very informative session for all the students in general, and students planning to take up finance, in particular.

[floyd&vodka]

Saturday, August 26, 2006
SJMSOM alumni meet held in Mumbai

The Mumbai Chapter of Shailesh J.Mehta School of Management (SJMSOM), IIT Bombay organized its Alumni Meet-06 on Saturday, August 26, 2006. The meet was held at The Rodas Ecotel in Hiranandani Gardens, Mumbai and was attended by over 100 people comprising of alumni, faculty and students.



The evening began with a welcome address from the Alumni Coordinator of Class of 2007, Mr. Vineet Shukla. This was followed by a speech by Prof. N.L. Sarda, HOD, and SJMSOM. He stressed the importance of synergies between alumni, faculty & students that could be leveraged to benefit the school. The school celebrates its 11th year since its inception in 1995 and he shared his views on how the school can move from strength to strength.

Alumni from Class of 1998 were felicitated by Prof. Sarda as year 2006 marks their 10 years of association with SJMSOM and then the gathering was updated about the latest developments and happenings in their alma mater.

The ‘Alumni Speak’ followed this. The nostalgic alumni took the stage and spoke about their cherished memories of SJMSOM. They shared their views on SOM and on how they visualized the growth of the school in times to come.

The formal part of the meet culminated in a speech by Prof. Atanu Ghosh wherein he responded to the comments made by the alumni and also stressed the potential in integrating SJMSOM alumni with IIT Bombay alumni in a mutual way.

The lighter part of the event started with interactive fun games and moved onto the dance floor, thus setting the mood for informal interaction and exchange of views between the alumni and the present batches. The evening, in all was both successful and enjoyable.