The Indian Institute of Management Rohtak organized a management conclave at its campus at Rohtak on October 29, 2022. The theme of the event was “Maneuvering Disruption through Resilience, Collaboration, and Execution”. Industry stalwarts from renowned organisations like Devarshy Ganguly, Marketing Head, MagicBricks; Venkatesh Kidambi, Global Head, Digital Marketing & CRM, Kimberly Clark; Puneet Kapoor, CMO, Ebro India; Vijaya Kumar Ivaturi, Co-founder and CTO, Crayon Data, Munender Soperna, CIO, Dr. Lal Pathlabs, Vinod Bhat, CIO, Vistara, Shiv Kumar Bhasin, CTO, NSE India Ltd and Pradeep Ramakrishnan, CTO, KFC (Yum Foods) participated in various panel discussions.

Director, IIM Rohtak, Prof Dheeraj Sharma set the tone of the conclave by emphasising on the issue of accelerating marketing transformations and applying behavioural analytics in the evolving business environment. “Today, we are in an era where individuals are expanding resources and investing in experiences. With changing consumer behaviour globally, we are going to witness a seismic shift in people’s mind set. People today are more idealistic, socially-conscious, and more experience-oriented than any of their preceding generations. He further added, “Meaningful innovations are more important than simple innovations. While we manage these disruptions and innovations, and become resilient, we need to be vary at the same time and continue to acquire the basic skills. In our endeavour to acquire high-end skills and technical advancements, we are forgetting our elementary abilities. If one has a strong understanding of the basics, the innovations and technological advancements will aid in transforming growth rather than creating dependency. Thus, students should have their focus on basic skills rather than complex and less useful skills” 

 While discussing the topic “Accelerating Marketing Transformation in Evolving Consumer Environment”, Devarshy Ganguly, shared his thoughts on the competitive advantages and challenges faced by the organization. He also elucidated the learning curve he faced while moving from the FMCG industry to his current role, and directed the students that it is not necessary to follow the context- disruptions are brought by challenging traditional models.

Puneet Kumar reminisced on his experience as a fresher in a marketing role, and the subsequent shift from the FMCG industry to the F&B industry.

Another panel discussion was held on the topic “Applying Behavioral Analytics in Dynamic Business World”. During this discussion, the speaker Munender Soperna, CIO, Dr. Lal Pathlabs spoke about how companies in the healthcare industry prepare to deal with uncertainty and unforeseen challenges in the market. He also shed light on the shift from customer service enhancement to customer experience enhancement.

Shiv Kumar Bhasin, CTO, NSE India Ltd. spoke further on handling uncertainty, reflecting on the challenges faced by NSE in making their platforms scalable— horizontally and vertically. Engineering and bringing the right talent to the table are two facets which the company constantly invests in.

Vinod Bhat, CIO, Vistara spoke about the dynamic nature of industries such as the airline industry where demand and supply constantly fluctuate. It is therefore imperative to capture the customer vis-à-vis consumer behaviour and cost perspectives. Mr. Vijaya Kumar Ivaturi, Cofounder and CTO, Crayon Data, stressed upon the importance of finding the balance between relevance and novelty. The panelists also engaged in a Q&A session with the students and shared relevant takeaways regarding the industry.

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