Guest Lecture 1516

Talk by Astha Aravind

Prof. Ashta Aravind, Banque Populaire Chair in Microfinance, Burgundy School of Business, France delivered a talk on various facets of microfinance. He initiated the talk by highlighting his research orientation which initially was in the area of hard core finance, subsequently moving to behavioral finance and CSR. During his visits to various countries, particularly in Africa, he realized that the poor have to be helped to become entrepreneurs to emerge from the poverty trap.

One mechanism of doing this is by providing quality credit. But the poor often face the problem in accessing the same due to their inability to provide collateral coupled with their limitation in repayment of loan in large installments. There are three institutional approaches that provide credit to the poor- Mainstream financial institutions, money lenders and microfinance institutions. Prof. Ashta Aravind highlighted the advantages and constraints in each of these modes. Giving the example of Mohammed Yunus of Bangladesh, a noted pioneer in the area of microfinance, he highlighted how microfinance can help the poor. In this context, he also mentioned the SKDRDP initiative. He also spoke on various dimensions of providing quality credit to poor, managerial issues in these institutions and dimensions of micro-lending.

Librarians’ Day Celebration

‘Purpose of education is not the accumulation of information; its ultimate tenacity is to make students autonomous learners. In this process, teachers are expected to facilitate in the knowledge construction process of every learner’ said Dr. C.G. Venkatesha Murthy, Professor of Education, Regional Institute of Education (RIE), NCERT, Mysuru., while delivering a brainstorm session ‘Paradoxical web of Information, Knowledge, Reading and Learning’ to the MBA students of SDMIMD. The session was organized as a part of Librarians’ Day celebration on August 14, 2015.

Speaking about the process of learning Dr. Murthy said learning is the act of acquiring new or modifying and reinforcing, existing knowledge, behaviour, skills, values or preferences. It involves analysing and synthesizing different types of information, which demands critical reading ability. So, learning is more a process than a mere product.

Earlier, Dr. N.R. Parasuraman, Director, SDMIMD addressed the gathering and highlighted the importance of library in teaching-learning and research activities. Dr. Sunil M.V. Librarian welcomed the audience and provided an overview about Librarians’ Day. Faculty members, students and staff were the participants for this brainstorming session.

Talk on ‘Why be ethical?’

Students of the first year PGDM course had the privilege of listening to Poojya Brahmachari (Br) Sujaya Chaitanya, the youngest monk in the Chinmaya Mission on August 8, 2015 on the topic “Why be ethical?”

In his characteristic way, Br. Sujaya Chaitanya talked about survey results published in a daily. In the survey most people opined that good people suffer, the speaker queried the audience as to whether they would agree with the survey results. Not surprisingly, 90% of the audience echoed the opinion that good people suffer most. He set out to analyse if it is true using logic or Nyaya! He gave six rules of mind and proved that purer the mind, happier the people! If it is so, good people really don’t suffer!

Providing of this foundation is very much required as everybody wants to be happy and if by being good, one is to suffer, why be good at all?!! But Poojya Swamiji established through logic that it is not so. Thus the topic “Why be ethical” was amply covered!. The session was followed by a lively discussion with the students.

‘Dream Big’ said Jai Narayan

Mr. Jai Narayan, a Life Skill Trainer at Tata Elxsi delivered a motivational speech to SDMites on Saturday, August 1, 2015. The central theme of the speech was "DREAM BIG".

Mr. Jai emphasized the fact that one need to take charge of one’s life to achieve something big and meaningful. He said this is possible by dreaming big and working hard towards achieving the same. He summarized the whole process saying, shed your inertia, introspect the purpose of life, pursue your goal with focus and hard work and make a difference by leaving behind a legacy.

Jai also shared as to how students need to prepare themselves to embrace the corporate world as they graduate, which is very different from the campus world and where interdependency is key to success. He also shared his own moments of truth from the real world to appreciate difference between customer satisfaction and customer delight as Customer is a key for business success.

Overall, it was an inspiring talk by Mr. Jai giving a guiding torch to students to grow and develop as an individual, professional and a successful corporate executive as they step out of the Institute on graduation in to the corporate world.

Lessons Learnt in My Journey

The Entrepreneurship Cell - Swayam of SDMites organized an invited talk by Alumnus Mr. Subrahmanya Rao on July 12, 2015. Mr. Subrahmanya is the founder and CEO of Discover Dollar – A financial service company that provides insights into merchandise and helps retailers to substantially reduce overpayments, leakages and frauds.
Mr. Rao shared the experience of his journey as an entrepreneur and the hardships faced during his talk “My Start-up journey and lessons learnt”. He called upon the students to think big on ideas in early stages of entrepreneurship and to wisely choose the partners. Mr. Rao spoke, how by learning from the mistakes made in the early stages of his entrepreneurship journey, one could avoid the pitfalls and speedup the growth process.

Institute to Industry - A Transition Story by an Alumnus

It was a great experiential learning for the new batch of PGDM students from an alumnus of the Institute, Mr. Jacob Thomas, Campus Recruitment Lead (Kerala), Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) during the course of the talk ‘Institute to Industry – A Transition Story’ on July 11, 2015 at the SDMIMD Auditorium. Mr. Jacob planned the session to make the new SDMites understand the importance of application- oriented learning and the need to consider a holistic approach. In this talk he said ‘knowledge does not make one complete, wisdom does’. Students need to understand the timely application of the needed skill in the most effective manner. He argued that students are institutionalized to the thinking that what they believe is correct. The new SDMites were given an idea of how institutions work and how budding mangers have to equip themselves.

Invited Talk by Dr. Pradeep A. Rau

‘Marketing demands good communication skills apart from a good knowledge about the global happenings including such topics like GDP, economic indicators, demographics, and social media. Social media is replacing many other forms of communication including the telephone calls’ thus said Dr. Pradeep A. Rau, Professor of marketing and International Business, The George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA during the invited talk organized on July 3, 2015.

Dr. Rau emphasized the role of advertisement and brand building to develop customers on an international scale. Raising questions about India’s capabilities, he provided insight to the possible changes in the future including a shift of world’s trade towards China and India. In his talk he stressed on the need to improve the manufacturing capabilities in India if India is to be seen as the future’s manufacturing hub. The talk touched upon several aspects of global business and management education. Dr. Rau kept the session interactive by involving the students in question-answer discussion. He also informed the students about the benefits of studying an MBA program and also about the differences between the US and the Indian students.

‘Passion’ is the Mantra for Success

On June 18, 2015 a life timer at TCS, Ms. Anjana K.R., General Manager – HR, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Bengaluru, gave a perspective of TCS as an organization and shared her views on what it takes to succeed as a professional. Ms. Anjana had an interactive session during which she articulated the skills and abilities management graduates should have to succeed in the workplace. Ms. Anjana emphasized that to be valuable in corporate life we should follow our passion.

Learning from Success Stories

Mr. Sunil D.A.G. Kutty, Head – HR, Ujjivan Financial Services Pvt Ltd, Bengaluru, delivered the invited talk on ‘SFB – Managing Transition @ Ujjivan’ on June 18, 2015 at the Institute auditorium. Mr. Sunil shared the success story of Ujjivan with the PGDM 2015-17 attending the Orientation Lecture Series 2015. The students were able to amalgamate the best practices of Ujjivan in this lecture. Decentralized management team, strong corporate governance, geographically diversified business with localized management, robust risk Management, strong IT enabled (backed), excellent relationship with investors, good ROI, good relationship with local Regulators & Administration, are some of the areas touched upon by Mr. Sunil during his talk.