IILM institute for Higher Education organized the Third Annual Entrepreneurship Conference on 7th April 2017 at its Lodhi Road Campus.  The conference was centered on the theme “Mobilizing Entrepreneurial Thinking in an Uncertain World”. The focus of the conference was on fast changing uncertain world and opportunities for entrepreneurship and associated risks, structured around three key sessions.

The conference started with the welcome remarks by Dr. Daisy Mathur Jain from Entrepreneurship Development Cell, IILM. In her welcome address she pointed out the tremendous growth in Entrepreneurship in India for our youth brimming with ideas and energy. She took the opportunity to mention that IILM does its best to promote and inspire this new generation through their undergraduate program – BBA in Entrepreneurship – inspiring students to be innovative in their thoughts and actions to grow their family businesses or to grow as entrepreneurs themselves.

The Opening plenary entitled “Mobilizing Entrepreneurial Thinking in an Uncertain World” wherein Mr. Rajiv Chawla, Founder & Chairman of JaiRaj Group of Industries, Ms. Padmaja Ruparel, Angel investor and President Indian Angel Network, and Dr. Sarandeep Singh, Chairman and CEO of Women Entrepreneurship and Empowerment (WEE) Foundation shared their journey and inspired the young entrepreneurs of tomorrow. Mr. Chawla spoke about the exponential entrepreneur and elucidated the five step process to reach there – digitization, deception, disruption, demonitization and dematerialization. Ms. Ruparel, citing significant historical examples, emphasized that India is the most entrepreneurial country and urged the youthful audience to “Just go build it and make it happen!”. Dr. Singh, in his thoroughly engaging speech, underlined the importance of the disruptive mindset, the need to ask the question “Why not?” instead of “Why?” while starting on the entrepreneurial path.

The panel discussion on “Women Entrepreneur’s – Breaking Barriers using Science And Technology” had award winning young women entrepreneurs sharing their experiences and wisdom – Ms. Neha Upadhyay, Founder and Macrobiotic Coach – Guna Organics, Ms. Pooja Bhayan, Founder – Lets Barter, Ms. Ankita Gulati, innovator of a series of Multimodal books designed to help the visually impaired, and Ms. Tarusha Mittal, COO and Co–Founder of Cloudrino. Each of them was part of the WEE Foundation and had started with a problem that they wished to solve, and came up with innovative answers. Through the discussion all four emphasized the importance of perseverance, to get up and start again every time you fall, before you can see some light. They also encouraged the budding entrepreneurs to seek help and support which experienced entrepreneurs and mentors are more than willing to offer.

The closing plenary was based on the theme “Entrepreneurial Journey: Lessons Learned from Front Liners”. Mr. Aditya Singhal, Founder and CEO of IML Jeans Co, Mr. Vaibhav Lall, Founder Khojdeal, Mr. Samit Saxena – Founder & CEO of DJNNI, and Ms. Sonal – CEO and Founder of White Cub Dairy Free Ice Creams were the distinguished panelists. Mr. Singhal underlined the importance of understanding the customer’s needs, treating them as being special and to analyse the demand for the product. He further emphasized the significance of a supportive environment and people around the young entrepreneur to allow the germination of the idea to a full blown set-up. Mr. Lall stressed the importance of translating the idea into action immediately on conception – “Don’t wish for it, work for it!” as he put it. Mr. Saxena urged the aspirants to check the suitability of the idea in the current context and to not get intimidated by the competition, highlighting the approach – build, measure, learn – as the key to success. Ms. Sonal shared her entrepreneurial journey inspiring the students, the entrepreneurs of tomorrow, to take timely action and to market their product well.

The active participation from students and faculties made the conference a great success. It provided an engagement opportunity for students and faculty to listen to new ideas and experiences from distinguished speakers and also to network with established entrepreneurs and investors.

HR CONFERENCE 2016

“Rise of Virtual Team: Sustainability & Effectiveness in a VUCA world “

IILM Graduate School of Management

16, Knowledge Park II, Greater Noida-201 306

17^th December, (Saturday) 2016

IILM Graduate School of Management, Greater Noida is in continuous pursuit of all-round excellence in Management Education by narrowing the gap between academia and industry. To that end, IGSM, Greater Noida organized a day-long HR Conference on the theme “Rise of Virtual Teams: Sustainability and Effectiveness in the VUCA World” on Saturday, 17th December, 2016 at its Greater Noida Campus. The Conference aimed to provide insights on dynamism of virtual team in a volatile economic environment. It focused on socio-emotional communication strategies and the changing role of leadership for virtual team effectiveness.

Inaugural Session:

The Conference began with a Welcome Address by Dr. Taruna Gautam,Director, IGSM, followed by an introduction to the Conference theme by Dr. Shyamali Satpathy, Conference Chair. Dr. Gautam addressed the students about the dramatically changing business environment where team members have to overcome space, time and cultural barriers to deliver and sustain in the competition. She also highlighted on new information age, internet of things and artificial intelligence are disrupting existing business models and affecting their long term feasibility. Dr Satpathy threw light on sustainability and effectiveness of virtual team in the era of globalization. She emphasized on the role of Socio-Emotional communication strategies and leadership for the effectiveness of a virtual team.

The Chief Guest of the Conference Mr. Anurag Gour, Marketing Head, Microsoft

Mr Gour during his Inaugural session discussed about his experience at Microsoft where he has been associated for over a decade. He also discussed on Digital Transformation due to the change in the VUCA World and about the challenges faced by the companies due to paradigm shift in the global business landscape.

With supporting facts and figures he spoke about the changes in the VUCA World and the constant transformations in the Fortune 500 companies. He said that technical infusion has lead to uncertainty and consequently to opportunity. He laid emphasis on employee engagement and role clarity for effective people management. .

The Keynote Speaker of the Conference  Mr. Sunny Sharma, Founder, Foetron In.

Mr. Sharma elaborated on the broad idea about the changes in the VUCA World.  He stressed on the fact that most important asset is the data which people do not want to share and it is very important to gain trust which comes from working in a team continually. He stated that the young people today do not want to be judged but want solution to their problems. He concluded the session by stating that the world is volatile and it for us to decide how to cope up with changing environment.

Both the speakers concluded that in order to get succeed, HR personnel must understand their responsibility towards the business, objectives and mission of the organization. The session was very interactive and students took deep interest in exchanging ideas with the speakers.

Session 1: Socio-Emotional Communication Strategies for Virtual Team Effectiveness

After the inaugural session, the conference proceeded to its first technical session where Professor Arun Gupta, moderator of the session, introduced the panel members and gave a brief idea about the objectives of the session.

The first panel member of this session was Ms. Runa Maitra, Founder & Director of People Talent Management. She started the discussion by sharing her own experience in working in different environment. She also said embracing technology like social media would increase networking and employee engagement.  A leader needs to keep people motivated, happy and actually connected with the organization which leads to increase in productivity. She laid emphasis on ability to understand and manage emotions in a virtual team for conflict management.

Manuel Pardhe, HR Head, Thompson Digital was the next panel member to talk. He shared his experience of working in different sectors seeing a lot of volatility. He also focused on the power of technology which makes it possible for the organizations to increase their connectivity which in turn leads to effective communication among the team members of different time zone. He also shared his experience of working in gulf country and in America. Lastly he concluded by saying if the organizations do not adapt to the technology they won’t survive.

Ms. Anjali Singh, Zonal Manager, Mahindra and Mahindra was the last panel member of the first session.  She continued the session mentioning the VUCA World gives a lot of challenges but gives opportunities as well. By giving example of UBER, she tried to explain how a disruptive innovation also has a social aspect that is of giving a lot of employment or empowerment. She also discussed on team dynamism and role of emotional intelligence to resolve conflict in a virtual team.

Session 2 – Virtual Team Dynamics and Role of Leadership for Virtual Team Effectiveness

The second session moderated by Professor Rajkishan Nair introducing the panel members to the audience.

The first speaker of the session was Mr. Murlee Dhar Shyamm, Vice President HR, RJ Corp Healthcare. Mr. Murlee initiated the session by quoting “An organization must focus on seeking for best employees, should be customer centric and should respect individual effort”. He also spoke about sustainable business practices by exploring new ideas that necessarily entailed risk. Further he reflected upon challenges that have been happening across the last decade with some influence areas key areas like globalization, digitalization and innovation.

He further contributed to the session by stating that the strongest point of virtual team is its ability to collaborate across the world. He gave the example of a company named “Thread less” that uses crowd intelligence. He concluded the session by stating that a leader has a huge responsibility to make organizations future ready.

Mr. Anup Mittal, AGM, Retail Sales, Vodafone Ltd. was the second speaker of the session. He continued the session by sharing his own experience of working in a startup that delivered services like bouquet to the customers from there he explained the concept of “Virtual” He elucidated that virtual is something that is connected intangibly. He further continued the session by saying that leadership is a born quality. And some leadership qualities are to be developed as per the situation’s demands.  It is just the vision, mission, cohesiveness, and what the leader brings on the table.

Mr. Govind Kohli, AGM, HR, Jiva Ayurveda was the last speaker on this panel. He spoke about the role of leadership and mentioned that great leaders by themselves were not good enough for building world class companies; it required the concerted effort of talented employees who were aligned to a company’s mission and vision to transform a dream into a reality. As a leader, one has to ensure that he has to create social aspect of everything.

Valedictory Address & Vote of Thanks

Mr. Murlee Dhar Shyamm gave the Valedictory Address focusing on urge to be wiser, thoughtful, and doing a lot more research, to have clear vision for team effectiveness. He stated that the change in the VUCA World will make every organization to change the way it operates.

The students showed interest and responded with great enthusiasm while putting up questions to the panelists and guests speakers. The conference concluded with Vote of Thanks proposed by the conference chair Dr.Satpathy. She acknowledged all those who had contributed in making the conference a success.

Empowering HR through Technology: A way forward

IILM Gurgaon organized a National Conference on ‘Empowering HR  through Technology: The Way Forward’ on September 30, 2016.Through this conference it aimed to  create a platform where HR professionals could share their  insights on the sweep of technology in the area of Human Resource. The world of human resources has experienced something of a revolution over the last decade. Much of that change is due to advances in technology and the opportunities found when hiring managers began embracing the Internet as a new tool in their toolbox rather than just an interesting way to pass the time. The World Wide Web has forever changed the way we do almost everything — and change is good. Change is the only constant force in this dynamic and competitive world. The conference was a confluence of corporate speakers and academia experts to merge the practical and the theoretical spectrum together. This will aid in better understanding of the changing HR arena and how converging HR and technology can create value. The sessions were  power packed with the theme to bring forth the clarity of concepts and actionable steps for the audience.

The  Objective of the conference were 1.To advance the field of HR by incorporating latest technology leading to increase in productivity. 2. Removing human biases through technology in HR practices, increasing value for the organization. 3.Recruiting employees, engaging employees, acquiring talent, retaining employees, optimizing employee performance through technology  4.To understand the ethical value of social media in HR practices.

There were 3 sessions. The conference began with lighting of the lamp  by our Chief  Guest Mr. Kamal Singh Director General National HRD Network and Mr. Kaustav Mitra Director Xecute  HR solution and Dr. Sujata Shahi Senior Director IILM Gurgaon campus. Dr. Sujata welcomed the guests and all the participants of the conference. The theme of the conference was introduced by Dr.Pinky Goswami.  In her speech, she stressed on the importance of transition in HR keeping up to the requirements of the Millennial, “A generation born to the digital world”.

Dr. Kaustav Mitra  gave the keynote address and talked in detail about the changing nature of HR in all its functions. The plenary session members were, Ms. Vishwapriya Associate Director HR PWC,Mr. Manish Anand– (Vice President IT  Max Life Insurance) and  Mr. Raj Nehru (Director HR Schneider Electricals). All the plenary speakers gave very interesting presentations about the new age HR and the way it has got about the multi faceted changes impacting an entire organization. It was  well appreciated by the participants. The moderator of the plenary session Dr. P.Goswami summed up the session along with a Q&A round.

Session 1: Driving Employee engagement with modern HR Technology

The global forces are reshaping the workplace, the workforce, and work itself. After years of struggling to drive employee engagement and retention, improve leadership, and build a meaningful culture, executives see a need to reinvent  a new design of the organization. Four powerful forces—from demographic upheavals and the rise of digital technology to rapid business-model innovation, and socially driven evolution in the employer-employee relationship—are driving change for both HR functions and the organizations they serve, creating talent challenges and potential solutions radically different from those faced by previous generations of leaders. The speakers for the session was Mr. Debabrata Bannerjee (VP Enterprise Business Application Apollo International) Mr. Kishore Das (HR Advisor and Consultant DCM ) Ms. Pooja Goswami  (  Head- People Function HR EKO India Financial Services ) Ms. Prerna  Kapoor(Sr. Manager Compensation & Benefit – Pepsico) Ms. Sukanya Devi (Student PGDM Term 4). The moderator for the session

Session 2:  Managing People Performance through HR Analytics

The working environment is increasingly becoming very complex and ambiguous. This has put human resources into a challenging situation in terms of making definite   decisions in the workplace. HR has to look constantly at new tools for making risk free decisions, and this is where the help of HR analytics comes in. HR analytics is the use of statistical methods like factor analysis, correlation and regression and making use of different sources and variables to arrive at meaningful insights. It helps HR understand the dynamics in the workforce.  The speakers for the session were Ms. Neeti Kumar (Manager HR  Xceedance) Ms. Manu Gupta (Founder of Innokreat which provides customised Employee Wellness and Analytics Software Solutions to HR) Ms. Shyana Mehta(Student of PGDM Term 4) and Mr. Asif Mir Shabbir (Student of PGDM Term 1). The session moderator Prof. Richa Bhargava finally opened the session for the participants to put up questions to the speakers.

Session 3: Recruiting Talent through social media and ethics of social media: A look into the challenges and downside

Every month million people use Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.  Such social platforms, with the largest audiences available. Recruiters are increasingly turning to the social web to market their companies to job seekers and to screen prospective employees. Is the use of social media an ethical form of screening for recruiters to use, or are they taking candidate research too far and invading their privacy? Recruiters may argue that social media is a public platform, unless the candidate makes it otherwise, and that it’s their own choice to share the content that is available to anyone who searches for it. This session  discussed the challenges  and  downside. The speakers for the session was Mr. Mayank Arora(Cargill Hr Head),Mrs. Malbika Bose(Black Barry- HR head) Mrs. Arti Kohli  Ashwani(Bausch&Lombs HR head)Ms. Sonam Yadav (Student of PGDM  Term 4). Prof.Ruchi Shah the moderator of the session summed up the session discussion on the positive and negative influences of social media in the HR sector.

The conference concluded with a vote of thanks by Prof. Shivani Ahuja.