Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar or XIMB, one of the top ranking B-schools in the country (33rd in NIRF 2017) on September 22-23 hosted a group of its most successful alumni as part of its 30th anniversary of establishment celebratory event marked as XIMB Business Excellence Summit at XIMB campus. The summit had panel discussions on topics which aimed to discuss the challenges XIMB would have to surmount in the next ten years.
In his opening remarks, Dr. Fr. Paul Fernandes, vice-chancellor and director, talked about the need of young people having faith and commitment for a better future. “There is a need to think, reflect, inspire, and empower minds to achieve wings of excellence,” he added. Sidharth Rath (Group Executive, Axis Bank) while marveling at how impactful the change in the next 30 years will be said, “India is at the cusp of a big change, the seeds of which are already sown.” He was part of a panel that discussed strategies which XIMB needs to adopt to surmount these challenges and be an enabler in the VUCA world (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity of general conditions and situations) with A.L. Jagannath (Senior Director, Dell-EMC Alliance, VMware) adding, “If we are not prepared to change, we will be VUCA-ed.”
Being a congregation of business leaders, leadership was natural a hot selling topic at the summit. And there were loads of wisdom from seasoned practitioners. Sidharth Rath told students that without compassion, you cannot become a good leader. Ashish Pati (COO, Care Hospitals) added that leadership is not a part of education system. “It is something we develop over time.” “Try to help others; if you can’t, at least don’t harm them,” was the message from Rakesh Kumar (Senior Consultant and Program Director, International Solar Alliance).
Sunita Raut, (Chief Inspiration Officer at Own consulting practice), Sanjib K Ambasta (Senior VP, Aftermarket Business CV & Vespa 2W, Piaggio) and Prithwish Mukherjee (Marketing Head, Vodafone, Kolkata) also spoke about constructive thoughts and views on leadership. Leadership talks were given by Shreeprakash Hota (Associate Director, HSBC), Subrat Sarangi (Associate Professor in Marketing, KIIT University), and Dipankar Das (Business Development Head & APAC Sales Leader, BridgeI2I).
Paying tributes to his alma mater, Simanta Mohanty (VP HR, Community Empowerment Lab) said “90 percent of what I learnt was from XIMB.” Nilanjan Roy (Business Head, Global Health & Group Benefits, Cigna TTK) gave a heartfelt talk about how having a mentor is very important.
Mrinalini Khusape (Head Special Projects- Sales and After Sales, Skoda India), Lalit Desiraju (Senior Director, Capgemini), Krishna K V (Senior VP, Transactional Banking, Yes Bank), and Vijay Sinha (Senior VP HR, JSW Energy Ltd), and Sanjay Nayak (Strategic Business Practice Head-Industry Solutions, Infosys BPO) delivered motivational speeches during the session by insisting on using persuasive leadership to get people to contribute. “If you create values, money comes on its own,” said Chittaranjan Mohanty (Own Venture, Former Executive Director, JP Morgan Chase). Ashok Dash (Director-Partner Development (Tier I System Integrators), Microsoft) gave a brilliant sermon on Growth Mindset.
How management education could foster entrepreneurship was also discussed in one of the summit sessions. Chandra Sekhar Chitrala (Managing Director, Catalyst IT Solutions) was of the view that management education is giving a huge boost to the employment of our country while as Om Prakash Agarwal (CEO, Plastend) believed that entrepreneurship can be taught but a calculative risk is also involved. Susanta Mishra (CEO, Placidivision Pvt Ltd), Zafrullah Khan (President HR, Emcure Pharmaceuticals) andAshok Singha (Managing Director, CTRAN Consulting Ltd.) discussed the topic further, with Singha remarking, “Being an entrepreneur, we consistently have to be innovative”.
“Be Industry fit and industry relevant,” Sudhansu Sekhar Mishra (Chief Safety Officer, (National President XIMB Alumni) East Coast Railway) told the gathering while talking at a discussion on the Industry-Academy interface and how the industry’s linkage with XIMB would create excellent opportunities.
Chandra Sekhar Chitrala (Managing Director, Catalyst IT Solutions) and Sunita Raut (Chief Inspiration Officer at Own consulting practice) suggested “Use network to get data out of business.”
Rahul Patnaik, the Student Representative of XIMB, presented a vote of thanks to end the memorable event.
(Curriculum magazine was a media partner to the event)
