A two day event, Serveskriti was a great success amongst the students of top B-Schools and corporates, as the event witnessed participations from all across the service industry with Bharti Airtel as the Principal sponsor, ONGC as Associate sponsor, Easy Cabs as Logistics Partner & Business World & Business Standard as Media Partners.
Speaking at the occasion, Mr. Kohli, said “I heartily congratulate FMS for initiating a MBA full time programme specializing in the service sector. Indian ethos of services is continuously evolving in the service sector and is very promising for the future. The real opportunity for India to help make a mark for itself globally is the service sector. It consumes millions of educated Indians as it employs them in telecom, software, BPO, entertainment, healthcare, financial services and other service areas”.
On India becoming the next superpower, he said “India will be the most powerful country in the world as it continues to build more and more islands of success in terms of companies such as Wipro, Infosys. One can smell the success of service if one visits their campus. We will do well to achieve a global status if we concentrate on bringing in such islands of success”.
The seminar was spread across 3 sessions followed by a Movie Marketing Workshop by Yash Raj Films and a Play by Evam, the famous theater group. Day 1 started with Mr. Kohli sharing key insights of Bharti Airtel Ltd. and its functioning. He enlightened the students with the dynamic environment witnessed by the telecom sector and the operations of his company which make it a leader in the telecom space.
A session on ‘Branding the Experience’ highlighted key elements that are brought together while designing a service product. The speakers of this session were Mr. Sam Balsara, CEO & MD, Madison Communications, Mr. Sunder Hemrajani, Director S&D;, Reliance Capital and Mr. Ratan Jalan, CEO, Apollo Lifestyle while the same was chaired by Dr. Harsh Verma of FMS. A healthy discussion on the topic by these eminent speakers led to an enthralling build-up to the event.
The HR session titled ‘Employees –The Fulcrum of Customer Delight saw participation from Mr. Biplob Banerjee, VP – HR, ABP Pvt. Ltd., Mr. Deepak Mohla, Managing Director, TMI Network and Mr. Deepak Dhawan, Vice President & Global Head, EXL services . Chaired by Prof. Kuriakose Mamkoottam, Faculty Member-FMS, the sessions gave an excellent overview of the intricacies of the people’s side of the business, efficient recruitment, selection strategies and the practices followed by companies in managing people’s careers.
The session was followed by the presentations of Taksha – the Annual Business Paper competition , the theme of which was based on the concept of Serveskriti. The judges had a tough time deciding the winners with brilliant minds from premier B-Schools presenting their brilliant ideas. Finally, the teams from FMS were declared as joint winners with IIMA team ending up a close second and IIT Kharagpur bagging the second runners-up prize.
Day 2 started with an insightful session on Redefining Services: The Technology Way. The session witnessed participations from Mr. Ashwani Koul Regional Manager – Influencer Sales, IBM, Ms. Priyadarshini Narendra, Associate Director, Technopak Advisors and Mr. Aloknath De, ST Electronics. The session was chaired by Prof. M.L Singla of FMS. Topics on effective leverage of technology by various companies and the role of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) in defining and delivering an ‘on demand’ business model. The session led to some interesting conclusions like the feasibility of the evolution of a ‘before demand’ business model over the existing ‘on demand’ business model.
The sessions were followed by a Movie Marketing workshop taken by Mr. Tarun Tripathi, Head Marketing, Yashraj Films. This alumnus from St. Stephens and IIM L left his job to venture into the unexplored world of movie marketing. His innovative marketing mantras encouraged students to traverse the turf of India’s biggest industry- Bollywood.
The event concluded with an intriguing performance by Chennai’s famous theater group Evam, which is an entrepreneurial venture of B-school graduates. The group captivated the audience through the creative enactment of their popular play “Python Hyssssteria.”
Capturing the essence of Serveskriti-2007, Prof. Jay K Mitra, Dean FMS, said ‘Experience economy is the driver of the global economy and ultimately people are living to experience a moment of truth for themselves.’
Prof. Mamkoottam, the Convenor of the seminar said ‘Experiences are very critical for today’s consumer and motivated employees are paramount for memorable experiences.’
“With stalwarts from the corporate world sharing their insightful thoughts and valuable experiences, the seminar proved to be a great learning experience for all the students”, said Kailash Karthik N., Secretary – Seminars & Conventions Committee after the event.
Serveskriti 2007 was a platform for the students, to interact with some of the great minds from the business fraternity and also display their creativity and professionalism. It truly represented the spirit of the course and its culture – the culture of service!