Samvit’09 - The Leaders’ Conclave: Who's who of India Inc. at IIM Lucknow

The Industry Interaction Committee’s cardinal endeavour is to build a conduit from the Knowledge centres of the corporate world to the classrooms of IIM Lucknow. In that pursuit, Samvit (Knowledge potency) was conceptualized to bring the best from the Industry to IIM Lucknow. The flagship event of IIC, Samvit has become an indispensable thread in IIM Lucknow’s brand positioning.


Samvit’09 saw the presence of stalwarts such as Pramod Bhasin (Chairman of NASSCOM & CEO of Genpact), Ajit Balakrishnan (Chairman Rediff.com), Kalpana Morparia (Country Head JP Morgan), Meera Sanyal (Country Head ABN AMRO) and Dr.Biswadip Mitra (MD Texas Instruments). These Industry Leaders were joined by Dr. Sandeep Pandey, a 2002 Magsaysay award winner who chose to throw away a lucrative career to become a social activist. The event was thus rightly titled “The Leaders’ Conclave” given this panel of elite visionaries.


The event was anchored by the affable Mr. Sanjeev Srivastava (BBC India Editor) who ensured that the conclave was as entertaining as informative. The theme of Samvit’09 was “Emerging pillars of the Indian Economy”. The theme was in line with the Indian growth story amidst the wreck of the financial slump where new sectors and a diversified labour force were emerging from the rubble.




The event opened with key note speeches from the each of the leaders. Mr. Ajit Balakrishnan and Dr. Biswadip Mitra shared their insights on technology’s indispensable contribution hitherto and its potential for India. To a question on corruption remaining unchanged, Mr. Ajit Balakrishnan intrigued the audience by focussing on the different facts of corruption and how India emerging from a licence raj era to a fairly liberal environment is per se, progress and an abatement of one type of corruption.


Dr. Sandeep Pandey, renowned for his work for the underprivileged, reminded the audience about the plight of more than a million people who truly constitute the “Unorganized” sector/section and thereby forced to accept punitive measures. His comparison of the price of mineral water to the price of milk drew widespread applause amidst a guffaw. Ms. Meera Sanyal shared her thoughts on the elections she contested. The student community was awed by her rationale and sense of conviction in contesting the elections while managing ABN AMRO in addition to contributing to social welfare activities. A second year student at IIM Lucknow opined that “Ms. Sanyal is the true paradigm of being strong and decisive”.


Mr. Pramod Bhasin delivered a flawless key note address followed by multiple interjections in the panel discussion, and made it clear that India’s progress can be supplemented only by the simultaneous existence of liberalization and social transformation.


Ms. Kalpana Morparia disabused some of the most popular misconceptions about China and drew the panel into an interesting discussion on China’s progress viz-a-viz India. The panel of leaders collectively threw light on how China’s administration is governed by some of the smartest people in the country which facilitates sustained development.


Ms. Meera Sanyal’s parting words to the panel of leaders and to the audience became the cynosure of the talk, when she quipped, “I hope this entire panel joins politics” in the context of Indian Administration needing leaders and visionaries such as those pre-independence.


The panel discussion drew a flurry of questions from the audience including the most appreciated one from a serving captain of the army who said “We have heard of Jai Jawan Jai Keesan. We only talk about the ‘Keesan’, what about the 'Jawan’? Do banks also have models for our needs?”


The 25th of October,2009 saw IIM Lucknow culminate its 25th year by opening a new chapter in its inimitable record. Samvit’10 is expected to be bigger and grander with IIC25 setting the plans in place in advance to add another feather to the School’s cap.

Mahindra War Room 2009

More than 50 teams from the institute battled it out in this national corporate strategy game open to only a select few B-schools in the country. Team Winner’s Curse’s (comprising Piyush Bhomia, Shantanu Singh, Praneet Mishra & Ranjeet Mohapatra) strategy for Mahindra’s Two-wheeler business bagged them the ‘Campus Champions’ crown.

GSK StratEdge

The third edition of the national level case study competition of GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare Ltd. (GSKCH), saw enthusiastic participants work on rural distribution and impulse purchasing.

Communicating effectively - A new paradigm

The Industry Interaction Committee (IIC) organized a Communication workshop to enhance the presentation skills of aspiring managers at IIM Lucknow. Although students at an IIM come in with a sharp skill set in communicating and presenting, they are continually learning the art of persuasion. The workshop was organized for precisely that -honing the persuasion skills of these budding managers.


The workshop was conducted by Mr. Chendil Kumar, a program manager at the NSRCEL, IIMB and a member of the Guest Faculty, IIMB. Mr. Chendil Kumar is also an ace public speaker who has achieved numerous accolades in the Toastmasters Organization, which hones public speaking and leadership skills). Known to be incredibly droll, Mr. Chendil Kumar began with a flurry of anecdotes that emphasized the importance of persuasion skills in the corporate world. He went to explicate the fundamental structures in analyzing the audience and shared with the audience a set of concrete steps to sell themselves effectively when delivering pitches and presentations.


To keep the audience actively engaged, he invited two members from the audience to prepare and deliver a pitch and solicited evaluations of these speakers from the audience. This session perhaps proved to be the most enriching as the students were lucidly shown where the pitfalls lay and how they need to avoid them in the course of making a pitch.


The workshop ended with Mr. Kumar summing up the oft-used models in communication with amusing snippets from his teaching career. The feedback for the workshop was overwhelming, with over 80 students keen on knowing more and requesting Mr. Kumar to host another session. IIC will continue to host communication workshops in 2010 and 2011 catering to different facets in managerial communication.