The CII HR Summit on Developing Future Leaders in India was conducted on Tuesday, 28 July 2015 at Hotel Le Meridian, New Delhi. The 14th edition of the CII HRM Summit focused on ‘Developing future leaders in India.’ The Summit covered various aspects of building leadership skills in today’s young corporate professionals and entrepreneurs – both at a personal level and at an institutional level.

IILM Institute for Business and Management, Gurgaon participated in the conference as Quiz Partners with CII . The attendees were Dr Sujata Shahi, Ms Aparna Kaushik, and Dr Kiran Sakkar Sudha with students from PGDM 15-17 batch. The quiz had three rounds where the entire content was formulated by the IILM Institute for Business and Management, Gurgaon. The quiz winners were declared at the conference. The first position was taken by DCM Shriram Ltd, Ist Runner-up was Fortis Healthcare Ltd and the IInd Runner-up was Secure Meters Ltd. HR managers below 35 years of age were eligible to participate in the quiz.. The CII awarding fraternity announced IILM Institute for Business and Management as their Quiz Partners with special thanks to Dr Sujata Shahi and Ms Aparna Kaushik to lead the process for them effectively.

Opening Key Note Speaker for the conference was the eminent speaker, author Mr Gurcharan Das. The theme of his speech was Leading in a VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity) World. He stressed on issues like traits of future leaders: Determination, Humility and Attitude. He outlined that people should be hired for their attitude not for the skills. Skills can be taught if the employee recruited has the right attitude. He opined that Never Say No and can do attitude plays an important role in identifying the potential leader. Mr Das suggested that the best way to hire the right attitude candidate is to catch them young. The corporates should ensure structured integrated internships program which should not run in isolation and as an isolated activity. He suggested that organizations should promote campus hiring and do summer hiring. He advised corporates to ensure that recruitment and selection process should focus on locating right attitude.

Mr Das’ session was followed up by a panel discussion on Leadership – Nature or Nurture?. Eminent panelist include Mr P D Rai (MP, Sikkim), Mr Banmali Agrawala (President, CEO: GE South Asia), Mr Pramod Bhasin (Chairman, The Skills Academy and Founder and Vice Chairman: Genpact), Mr BalajiKrishnaswami (Head Communication and Sustainability, Hindustan Power Projects Pvt Ltd).

The main highlights of the panel discussion were focus on leadership development, role of disruptive change and risk taking attitude of the organisations. Mr Bhasin quoted “Culture eats Strategy for Breakfast”, hence organisation needs to ensure right culture to nurture leadership.

The next session was on “If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t you Happy? The panelists for the session were Mr Harpal Singh (Mentor & Chairman Emeritus, Fortis Healthcare Limited) and Prof Raj Raghunathan (University of Texas, Austin). The session evoked answers to many questions such as what are the determinants of a happy and fulfilling life, why people are not happy even if they are very successful. Three basic needs were identified that were regarded as MBA (Mastery, Belongingness, Autonomy) by Prof Raj Raghunathan.

This session was followed by the session on Personal Journey of Leadership. The session focused on leadership as more a journey than a destination. The speakers were Dr Subash K Bijlani (President, Magnus Engineers Pvt. Ltd), Mr K Ramkumar (Executive Director–ICICI Bank), and Mr S Sandilya (Chairman Eicher Goodearth Limited).

The last session of the day focused on the  different aspects of Entrepreneurship. Mr Indrajit Gupta (Co-Founder and Director, Founding Fuel Publishing Pvt Ltd), Mr Hindol, Sengupta (Editor-at-Large, Fortune India), and Mr AnkurWarikoo (CEO, Groupon India) presented various thought provoking insights into the main stream ideas and challenges related to the aspect of Entrepreneurship in India.

The conference was a great learning experience and students have expressed their desire to attend more such events to understand the industry perspectives and their requirements from the future managers.