The 19th
Nirma International Conference on Management (NICOM), organized by the
Institute of Management, Nirma University (IMNU), commenced at 10:45 am on 7th
January, 2016. NICOM has been an annual event at IMNU providing a platform for
an interactive discussion between academicians and industry veterans on a
plethora of topics under a common theme. The conclave started with a welcome
address by Dr. S. Garimella, Director, Institute of
Management, Nirma University. Director General, Anup Singh then spoke of
ambiguity and uncertainty in this day & age and shared encouraging
words to fight challenges in the face of the same.
The guest of honour Mr.
Ramakant Jha addressed the audience by imparting knowledge on how the
aspirations of society grow with corresponding growth in various fields. He
also discussed about smart cities and the fuelling it provides in the overall
development of the nation.
Dr. Ram Shankar Katharia, Minister of State for HRD, the chief guest for the
day, then addressed the audience with thanks for the invitation and the chance
to impart his wisdom to budding managers. He spoke of how Gujarat has shown
commendable development in the past decade and extended the accreditation to Prime
Minister Narendra Modi. The country has come a long way from the poverty and
lack of education that it witnessed a few years back, although the issues still
exist to quite an extent today.
The post
lunch session began with Mr. Dipesh Shah, VP GIFT City and Mr. Shishir Rai,
AVP, GIFT City, addressing the students on the topic of “Developing Smart City
in India-Experience of GIFT City”. Mr. Rai spoke about how building a smart
city needs smart planning. What makes GIFT a smart city is its smart plan and structure.
Mr. Shah first defined their concept of GIFT City as smart in terms of economy,
mobility, financial services and IT. He went on to elaborate on the features of
GIFT City which are many and varied- smart infrastructure, technologically
driven, retail and entertainment hubs, fire safety, security, energy
management. Mr. Shah ended the session by saying that any vision or concept
requires hard work, dedication and perseverance.
Sanjay Kaul spoke about innovations and start-ups in India. He gave out a
different perspective to the topic saying that entrepreneurs take up a business
to earn profits whereas start-ups have the fundamental of trying out something
new. As education grows, economy improves, and there is more disposable income, an increase in
technology and connectivity; creates great opportunities for start-ups. Fast
internet penetration in India has been an important source for the start-up
culture. India is the fourth fastest growing start-up country in the world,
with cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad being its fore-runners.
Mr. Chirag Dhebar spoke about digitalization. He
changed the words Digital India to Digit-All-India. He originated the
digitization of all things in India, just like Aryabhatta created the number 0
and Bhrahmaputra explained the use of the same. Mr. Dhebar analogized the
ancient digitization with the modern day digitalization. He asserted that
Indians have not only the correct technology but also value the appropriation
of its uses. Sir discussed about the contribution of MBA students to digital
india through training and skill building projects. He concluded with the staunch
belief that technology is the only choice for us to create a collected
knowledge economy through digital India.
Day 3 of
NICOM started with Mr. Hasmukh Patel (IPS) addressing the students on the topic
of change management. He spoke about his experience in Bhavnagar where his
first mission was to create respect for law through strict and impartial
enforcement of law and responsive and accountable police administration. He spoke about how he started with implementing small but important steps such as
instilling a sense of security, involving people in
their own security etc. He also elaborated on their strategies such as
behavioural change strategy and motivation strategy.
The second speaker of
the day was Ms. Komal Shah from E-Spark, Viridian Ventures who spoke about
accelerating entrepreneurs. Ms. Shah talked about a host of topics such as
valuation versus value creation, differentiation versus me-too products, red
ocean versus blue ocean and desperation versus creativity. She explained the
concept of a red ocean, an intensely competitive market where a customers is
pulled in many different direction by numerous companies/brands. In such a
scenario, a start-up should ideally attempt to create a small niche out of the
red ocean; create their own blue ocean where they are the market leaders.
The chief
guest for the valedictorian session, Professor Ajit Prasad, Director,
IIM-Lucknow, conducted the session on The Crisis in Global Strategy. He started
the session by emphasizing on how the Indians are too obsessed with quantity
nowadays, as opposed to quality. The difference between strategy and operations
efficiency was discussed. Prof. Prasad mentioned that the managerial obsession
with growth is hazardous to strategy and how positioning is as important a part
as strategizing is.
The guest of honour Mr. Sesadri Rajaram, Managing Director,
Erhardt + Leimer then took over the stage to discuss about globalization and
operational efficiency. He said that successful strategy goes hand in hand with
sustainability. Compliance with physical and social environment is dire, and
contribution from our side to the community should take place.
The Best
Paper Awards were distributed by Prof. Nikunj Patel. The second prize went to
Professors Sweety Shah, Amola Bhatt and Shahir Bhatt and the first prize went
to Professors Ritesh Patel and Mitesh Patel for their contributions to the
field of management.