Sanchita Ghosh

E-Cell Leaders Workshop

Campus Life, IILM Graduate School of Management

Two students of PGDM 2018-20 batch, Sagar Khurana and Harshal Dilwali, were nominated as e-cell representatives to participate in E-cell Leaders workshop organized by National Entrepreneurs Network (NEN) in association with Wadhani Foundation on 21st & 22nd September, 2018 at New Delhi Institute of Management (NDIM), Delhi. The workshop aims at understanding functions and objective of e-cell leaders. The workshop was developed as platform to connect entrepreneurial eco system at e-cell leaders’ level. It helped students to understand different activities, structure of e-cell and networking. The trainer emphasized on roles and responsibility of position holders in operations, monitoring and managing of clubs. An online platform on LEARNWISE was introduced to provide backup support to all clubs. In the end, students earned certificate of participation and recognized as NEN student coordinators in North India.

 

Embrace – Warp to Entrepreneurship: Marketing Conference

Alumni, Blog Catgeory, Campus Blog Category, Campus Life, Career Development (Placement), Conferences, Events, Faculty, IILM Graduate School of Management, IILM Stories

In the recent years, an invincible startup movement has unfolded within our country. India has caught the eyes of the world as it is now home to second most tech startups after China and the ranking in number of total startups puts our country in top 5, globally.
IILM Graduate School of Management and Bizzino strategist presented “EMBRACE” the Marketing Conference on 27/2/2018. The conference aimed at providing students, access world class technology veterans, startup ecosystem, startup founders and their stories and more.


INAUGRAL SESSION
After a brief introduction to the conference, the inaugural session began with inspiring words from Dr. Sanchita Ghosh, Area chair Marketing, and Prof. Arun Gupta, Area chair Entrepreneurship.
The session started with the address from our key note speakers, Mr. Anupam Saronwala and Mr. Sameep Singhania. Mr. Saronwala is an expert of Internet of Things (IOT). He emphasized on the importance of exposure to new technologies for a start up to thrive and survive. He said that convincing investors to finance the venture is very critical and is becoming difficult with each passing day. However, he considered three areas, which if given substantial thought and actions taken accordingly, funding would not be a problem. 
The first area was the team. While building the team, an entrepreneur should have people from multiple disciplines and everyone should have domain expertise. The next was that the target market size should be large enough to boil down to a good amount of target customers. 
He then introduced the audience with the third and the most important point that an entrepreneur should be aware of the fact that his product/service can be easily replicated, if not patented. So there must be a differentiator in the product/service which minimizes the chances of duplication.
The enthusiastic pace set by Mr. Anupam was followed by that of Mr. Sameep Singhania, who through his insightful explanations proved his expertise in the area of block chain development and consultant. He helped the audience understand how block chain functions. He clarified that bitcoin is just one of many applications of block chain. He further added that this is going to be the future of technology, one that will become a necessity for every business. 
As this is an area where youngsters are really interested in so the address was interactive and Mr. Singhania facilitated the understanding of all concepts that came up in the form of questions from the young minds or the future entrepreneurs who were attending the conference.


SESSION 2: PANEL DISCUSSION
The Inaugural session set the theme for the conference. The first speaker of the second session was Mr. Pranav Jha, who runs a startup community on facebook named “Startup Noida”. He emphasized on the power of digital groups, Facebook pages and communities. He added how influence marketing starts off as an activity and then it becomes a trend and that it is possibly the best way of creating awareness about the startup and captures the attention of angel investors.
This was followed by the interaction with Mr. Shashank Singhania, a digital marketing consultant. He threw light on the concept of native marketing and how its use is spreading across digital platforms. He further added that even though some digital products are free, it is difficult to get people to try them. He explained how becoming digital is important for a business as a digital technology can facilitate tracking any information. He then introduced a concept of smart marketing in which fake reviews of a product is added by the company itself to facilitate sales.
Then we had our last panelist for the conference, Mr. Harpreet Singh, who started his address by introducing the concept of startup ecosystem. Then he mentioned some of the common challenges almost every startup faces at the time of its initiation and first few months of survival. He said that it is difficult to find the right mentors and right manpower and dealing with customer non acceptance and family pressure is no easy task. He informed the audience of the A-Z list for the success of a startup where A stands for Attitude and Z stands for Zeal of the entrepreneur. He ended his address by quoting a very famous dialogue of movie 3 Idiots ‘Chase excellence, success will follow’.
This marked the end to the conference after a brisk question answer round between the panelists and the students.

Coffee-with-Corporate

Coffee with corporate: A Panel Discussion on Creating Customer Value in Digital Landscape

Alumni, Guest Blog, , , ,

The marketing department of IILM- GSM organized a conference called , ‘Coffee with Corporate’,on 17th of September 2016. The event brought together some of the key professionals from almost all prominent companies to view the role of digitalization in India. It also provided a valuable networking opportunity and set the stage for further cooperation among academia Industry interface. The conference began with opening remarks by Marketing Area Chair, Dr Kriti Swarup and continued with interactive panel discussions, presentations and briefings on topics of interest to an excited gathering of students and faculty.

Session 1: Digital Wings to Marketing

Mr. Sumit Dave, NIIT Technologies was the keynote speaker for the event. He talked about how future is dominated by the emotions of the customer and to build an emotional connect with the customers, marketers need to build up trust with them. The session was chaired by Mr Suryadeep Verma, Head Marketing HCL Technologies who talked about digital marketing trends and its contributories in marketing. The session concluded with a panel discussion by noted panelists , Mr. Soumitro Ranjan Sen, Sr. Manager Genpact , Mr. Darpan Majumdar, Founder, FYNE Superfood , Ms. Aushi Senger , Digital Marketing Manager, GII R , Ms. Manya Jha, Founder, Morphedo , Mr. Vivek Rathore, Founder, Eyebridge Soft Solution Pvt. Ltd . The session was followed by an interesting Question and Answer session where the students asked the panelists compelling questions.

Session 2 : M- Commerce: The Game Changer & Marketing for a Digital Tomorrow

The keynote speaker was Mr Mausam Kalra, CEO, Lushtrip.com who talked on Global Digital Snapshots and high growth potential for M-Commerce. The panel comprising Mr. Vishesh Gupta, SVP, Net4 India Ltd , Mr. Lakshya Vij, Senior Vice Category Manager, Urban Clap , Mr. Mausam Kalra, CEO, Lushtrip.com, Mr. Sameer Saraf, Senior Category Manager, Paytm , Mr. Pramit Ghosh, Founder Cognitio Innovo discussed in great detail Marketing Automation , M-Commerce , Mobile Banking etc.

Closing remarks :

The session was concluded by Vote of Thanks given by Prof Anita Saxena who conveyed gratitude to all participants, session moderators, panelists and presenters along with students and faculty for their efforts in organizing such an educative conference. She expressed satisfaction with the interactive nature of the discussions while congratulating participants on the extensive networking that had taken place, which would continue going forward.

Guest session by Alumni

Alumni, Campus Life, Guest Blog

A guest lecture was organized as a part of the Alumni connect on 12/3/2016. The session was delivered by Mr. Nikhil Gupta and Mr. Vihav Abhey Ranjan, both alumni of IILM Graduate School of Management, batch 2007- 2009.

Mr.Nikhil and Mr. Vishav are currently associated with United Parcel Services as Strategic Account Manager and National Account Manager respectively. Mr. Gupta has been associated with American express and Matrix Cellular prior to his association with United Parcel Services. Mr. Ranjan has worked with American Express and Earth Infrastructure also.

Mr. Nikhil spoke to the students about the importance of SIP in the PGDM program and how students can benefit from the SIP. He discussed about the application of learnings from the SIP to the different courses. Mr. Gupta stressed upon the importance of selecting the right project during the SIP. He mentioned that the correct project can help the students in gaining in depth knowledge about the topic and also will help them to get an edge in the placement process. Also the SIP would help the students to understand the corporate culture and the expectations of the corporates from the fresh Management Graduates was stressed upon.

Mr. Ranjan discussed with the students about the initial learnings that the students should have from the organisations they would get associated with. He discussed about the difference in the work culture between a start up and an established brand. The students were made aware about the learnings that they would receive by joining a start up and the learnings from a brand. The iporatnce of networking with Alumni and professional associations was stressed upon by Mr. Vishav.

Both Mr. Ranjan and Mr. Gupta mentioned that General awareness, Communication skill, Knowledge about the sector and the job profile are very important factors for getting selected in an organisation either for SIP or final placement.

The session was highly interactive and very informative. Students interacted with Mr. Gupta and Mr. Ranjan after the session and took guidance on choosing the SIP and also for the selection of specialisation. They have agreed to mentor our students.

Guest lecture on Raising Capital in Foreign Markets

Events, Faculty

A guest lecture was organized as part of the State and Society course for PG I students. The session was taken by Mr. Ashish Sharma , an alumni of IILM Graduate School of Management, batch 2008 – 2010.
Mr.Sharma is currently associated with Ernst and Young. Prior to this, he has worked with brands like, Copal Partners and Religare Financials.

The session started by analysing the need for raising capital. The two major reasons of raising capital : Personal and Business was discussed. The different avenues such as Establishment, Growth, CSR activities which are important for an organisation and require a lot of capital investment were thought as the major reasons for raising capital. The process of raising the capital which starts at Sourcing of Funds and ends at Implementation was discussed at length with the students. Mr. Ashish also discussed about the different sources of raising funds such as: IPO, FPO, Venture Capitalists, Private Equity, Bank loans, Family and friends and Crowd Funding etc. The role of various stakeholders in raising funds was also given emphasis. The role of government in maintaining stakeholder satisfaction and the importance of stakeholder satisfaction was also discussed. The students were also made to understand the difference between shareholders and stake holders. Ashish also spoke to the students about the legal formalities and how the funds that have been raised need to be utilised in the various domains.

A case study of Archcoal was also taken up in the session to make the students understand how stake holders interest was important and how an organisation could benefit from the stake holders. The case laid emphasis on restructuring the organisation as they filed for Bankruptcy. The organisation chose to involve various stakeholders like: Employees, Customers, Suppliers, Society, Government, Investors etc. to recover from bankruptcy.

The session was highly interactive and very informative. Mr.Sharma has expressed his interest in helping / guiding the students with their preparation in Final Placements and also to mentor our students. He has been very active in the past and has made significant contribution to IILM.

Guest Lecture on Networking and Stock Markets

Faculty

A guest lecture was organized as part of the Placement Week and Global Macroeconomics, for PG I students. The session was taken by Mr. Deepak V Mohan, an alumni of IILM Graduate School of Management, batch 2011- 2013.

Mr. Mohan is the Co-Founder of Fintrust Financial Services. Prior to this, he has worked with brands like, Ernst and Young and Heidrick and Struggles.

The session for the Placement Week was focused on Networking. Mr. Mohan spoke to the students about the importance of Networking, the do’s and dont’s of Networking, Whom to network with and the various networking platforms. He also emphasised on how to leverage from the contacts in your network and also ways to expand your professional network. Mr. Deepak also shared about his work experience in Ernst and Young and how he was able to crack the deal for “Whatsapp” in Ernst and Young. Mr. Mohan also discussed about the skills that are required to make a career in the Market Research domain. He also discussed about the various challenges faced by him during the initial period of the establishment of the firm – Fintrust Financial Services.

The second session revolved around the Stock Markets. The session was a part of the Global Macroeconomics course. Mr. Mohan discussed about the volatility of the stock market, and how stock markets are effected by the various external forces.

The sessions were highly interactive and very informative. Mr. Mohan has expressed his interest in helping / guiding the students with their business ideas. He is keen to devote time with the students to help them become future Entrepreneurs.