Prabandhan 2009 Day 3 (20th September 2009)
When the Prabandhan team woke up today, the exhaustion was apparent. The 2 fun-filled, eventful days had surely taken a toll on everybody. Running helter and skelter organizing lectures under Kiran, or trying to manage over-enthusiastic crowds for the offline competitions Adhikansh and Nirmiti, are not easy tasks at all. Nevertheless, we were excited that the conclave was moving ahead with gusto, and were looking forward to an even more eventful final day, to end the festival in style.
But what followed was completely unexpected. While the team awaited Mr Ashok Bhagat (VP, Societe Generale and speaker for the day), the honourable commissioner of Kanpur City, Mr. L Venkateswaralu walked in along with the speaker and our honourable director Prof. Dhande ! Apparently, the commissioner had got to know about the conclave due to the extensive media coverage, and expressed his desire to be a part of the proceedings, much to our delight.
The day started with Prof Dhande expressing his profound views on management education, questioning the motivation behind it. The Director firmly asserted his disagreement with the traditional beliefs associated with MBA education, like the ruthlessness ingrained in future managers, or profit-making being the sole purpose. Instead, social welfare and wellbeing are much more important objectives for a manager, Prof Dhande noted. He also emphasized the importance of philosophy as an ingredient in the managerial discipline, which according to him should be taught much before the traditional subjects. After all, finding ethical answers to questions like, What should be the goal of our life? should come much earlier in the scheme of things for an MBA, which will enable him/her to keep things in proper perspective. In the end, Mr Dhande urged the students to indulge in introspection, transform their thinking process, and realize that social contribution is a measure of a managers success, not financial contribution to oneself.
The honourable commissioner of Kanpur city carried the discussion forward by demarcating two major concerns for an individual the concern for ones own self, and the concern for values. He accepted that sometimes human beings dont have a choice in such matters, but when they do, it is necessary that they choose the right path. Someone with a pleasure seeking attitude will maximize his/her own welfare, and if the entire society takes such an approach, there are bound to be conflicts leading to imminent doom. Mr Venkateswaralu also emphasized the need for strategy formation for every task be it the need to market a product, or to promote a cleanliness drive in a city. Both these include the need to bring about an attitudinal change in people. Therefore, managerial capabilities are as crucial for educating people about using soaps, as they are to attract them towards a particular brand of soap. He also expressed his desire to interact with MBA students at IIT Kanpur frequently, whether through formal or informal channels, and hoped that we grow together and contribute to the greater good of the society.
After the inspiring thoughts put across by the Director and the Commissioner, Mr Ashok Bhagat took to the stage. Agreeing to the views, he opined, Human intelligence has to be used in the proper way. Profit and greed are different entities, he argued, and should be easily distinguishable.
Mr Bhagat then conducted an interactive session on Risk Management in International Business. Explaining in a lucid manner, he categorized the various types of risk, namely Credit, Performance, Country, Currency, Transportation, Transaction structure, and Fraud risk. The rest of the session revolved around these risks, and methods available to evade them. The speaker wound up the session with a real life example from the early 90s, where around 50 importers from India were cheated, how it could have been prevented, and how it necessitated the need for 2 new rules to be drafted by the RBI.
After the inspiring and thought provoking session, Prabandhan 2009 was yet to be called complete, as the online events team and the Website team were gearing up to handle the web traffic expected for the last quiz under Chunauti, while the Prachaar team continues to receive posters for its Low cost Housing advertisement competition.