Indian IT Industry – Moving up the Value Chain and Managing Non-linear Growth

The Centre for Software and Information Technology Management (CSITM) at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) invites you to a participatory workshop with industry practitioners and academicians on managing non-linear growth and moving up the value chain in the IT industry. This is the first such conference of its kind being organized by CSITM and the IIMB Post Graduate Programme in Software Enterprise Management (PGSEM), and will provide a forum for exchange of thoughts and generation of new ideas on the opportunities and challenges in achieving the growth and value objectives.

The day-long conference is being designed to highlight industry and the academician’s perspectives through panel discussions. The workshop will enable dialogue between various stakeholders of the IT industry, academicians and researchers of the Indian IT industry.

Date: May 28, 2011

Agenda

08:00 - 09:00 Registration
09:00 - 10:30 Panel Discussion between industry leaders and thought leaders from academia
10:30 - 11:00 Break
11:00 - 13:00 Research Paper presentations
13:00 - 14:00 Break
14:00 - 15:30 Workshop – Part I : Coffee table discussions moderated by thought leaders
15:30 - 16:00 Break
16:00 - 17:00 Workshop – Part II : Presentation by workshop participants
17:00 - 17:30 Prize Distribution and Valedictory function

More Details

Brochure can be downloaded @ http://www.iimb.ernet.in/sites/default/files/u166/CSITM_WORKSHOP_BROCHURE.pdf

Event home @ http://www.iimb.ernet.in/node/2435

Know Your Alumni Series: Part 4

A Quick Take with Akshat Kumar

 PGSEM Batch: 2007

Total Years of Experience: 6 Years 5 Months

Current Organization: Wunderman (A WPP company)

Current Role and Responsibility: Digital Media Strategist for Nokia Global. My remit is to mine consumer insights to position Nokia's product and services. I plan digital touch-points across earned(social) media, bought media(search and display) and owned media(dotcom).

Role Before Joining PGSEM: Senior Software Engineer, Finacle at Infosys

Role After Completing PGSEM: Digital Media Strategist, Nokia at Wunderman

LinkedIn Profile Link: http://in.linkedin.com/in/akshatkumar

 

Q. Tell us about your journey to where you are today?

It's been fun so far and to the point of sounding clichéd I owe a lot to PGSEM and IIM Bangalore. I joined PGSEM while I was working as an Engineer with Infosys. By the time I finished my first quarter, PGSEM had given me enough confidence to make a jump to something I had wanted to for a very long time and I was lucky to find a startup that was willing to give me an opportunity to try out something in digital space. I worked with a few startups during my PGSEM period and honed my skills in the digital marketing space. It was not very easy to manage work and studies but then I did it pull it off. And then they were extra-curriculars as well in the form of SAC which I think made PGSEM even more fun! As soon I graduated, I got the opportunity to spearhead planning for Nokia's digital business in India(thanks to Linkedin) and it's been good so far.

Q. Tell us something about the family?

I come from a family which has got three generations in law. My father recently retired as the Chief Justice of the High Court and now heads a Government Commission. My mother, elder brother and elder sister are also lawyers. So in a way, I am the black sheep of the family but then I add colour to the otherwise legalese dining-table conversations :)

Q. 3 words to describe you.

PGSEMer, PGSEMer and PGSEMer

Q What could have been an alternative career for you?

Writer. I still moonlight as one and write for Lonely Planet India.

Q. What is the most challenging aspect of your role?

1.Consumer. Understanding the Indian consumer which is as diverse as it can be and demands the moon from the marketer.

2.Competition. Comes across all price spectrums. In the form of products and/or services as business struggles to survive.

3.Digital. The digital landscape in our country which is as diverse as it can be. While there are places in our country that struggles to get the basic piece of the digital infrastructure right, every marketer wants to have a piece of Youtube in his marketing strategy. It is a challenge tackling such a paradox.

4.Social Media. A beast in itself. It can make companies change their logos(the recent case of GAP.) One can never imagine how powerful can consumer's voice be.

Q. Your personal slogan.

Stay hungry, stay foolish(Stewart Brand)

Q. Whom do you consider as your Role Model and Why?

Anand Mahindra. For building multiple businesses from scratch, putting Indian cars on the global map, acquiring the then scathed company and for supporting the cause of humanities.

Q  What was the influence of PGSEM in the professional life?

Tremendous! I owe a lot to PGSEM and IIM Bangalore for getting me the professional platform I desired and for SAC for helping me become a more well-rounded personality. The academics offered at IIM Bangalore is unmatched and I glad that I am able to implement a lot of what I have studied.

Q. What is your message for PGSEMers?

Network with alumni, industry and batch mates, use Linkedin smartly, spend time with Professors and to add fun to your life, please do volunteer for SAC activities.

Introducing Voice of PGSEMer

Starting with the below post, we are introducing a new section on the voice of PGSEMers. In line with the 'Know Your Alumni' series, these posts will focus on insider views of PGSEM students on the course and their experience.

Hi from Venky, PGSEM 2010. Thanks to IIM Bangalore for conducting an excellent part-time MBA program meeting the needs of Software Professionals in Bangalore. Just to give a bit of background about myself, I am a techno functional person with project managerial skills and one of the co-founders & directors of 7 years old 150 People Company CRMIT(www.crmit.com) in Bangalore with a total experience of around 12 years in IT field. Though I have lot more subjects to go through in next 7 quarters, I thought of sharing how some of the subjects that I learn t in three quarters helping me in my day to day work

 In the first quarter we had Microeconomics, Financial Accounting and Strategic management. Microeconomics reemphasis the fact that delivering under constraints is the key challenge for any manager, financial accounting helped me to better understand my own company's balance sheet, P&L and cash flow statement and Strategic management provided great insights on different proven strategic frameworks available to formulate the right strategies for your company's needs in this competitive environment

 In Q2 we had Quantitative methods, Macroeconomics and Managing Organizations. Managing Organizations provided me techniques on designing a scalable organization as you grow and inputs on key people related challenges and solutions to handle. QM emphasized the importance of "numbers" in your day to day decision making and Macroeconomics gave me the understanding that management is not just about managing company, customers and people but also able to expect and manage macro economical fluctuations like Inflation, Exchange rate, Interest rates, Unemployment, GDP growth etc

 Now in Q3, we have Marketing, Law and Managerial accounting. Introduction to marketing is a great subject to understand better your company's strengths and weakness, competitive challenges, customers preferences and use them effectively as the base to segment, target and position your products and services. Law is an interesting subject to understand the legal framework, typical legal challenges you would possibly encounter with your employees and customers, ways of handling them and best practices to be followed in Contracting / licensing. Managerial accountings provides insights on managing your overhead expenses, effectively playing with your fixed & variable costs and provides a structured approach of budgeting, planning & control your operations to build an effective, efficient & profitable Organization

 In net I am delighted about choosing the right program that helps me practically in my day to day job and I enjoy every class conducted by excellent faculties of IIM Bangalore. I also got an option to do a 3 months exchange program with a well recognized college in USA and I am hoping to gain a lot from the same