Reflexions - 2K18

The 2^nd edition of Reflexions, a flagship event of Prabandhan, presented by Department of Industrial Management and Engineering, on ‘Revolutionary Innovation OR Remastered Ideas: Way forward for the global business ecosystem’ was concluded with a promising and on a cheerful note. The event opened with thunderous applause and unrelenting questions bridging business world with the real world. Reflexions saw participation of 7 eminent personalities and thought leaders from their respective industries in Mr. Sambasivan G, CFO at Tata Sky Ltd, representing Television Service Industry,  Mr. Sameer Dhanrajani, CSO at Fractal Analytics representing Analytics Industry, Mr. Bhavesh Lakhani, CTO, SBI Mutual Fund representing Banking and finance Industry Mr. Imran Saeed, Director, with Absolutdata Analytics representing AI Industry Mrs. Annapurna A, Director, Human Resources at Inspirage representing Supply-Chain Industry,  Mr. Rohit Gandhi, Editor-in-Chief, DEMOCRACY NEWS representing News Service Industry and our very own Professor Amit Shukla, Faculty OB & HRM. The talk focused on facets of innovation, whether it is incremental or revolutionary and how both of them in their way are indispensable for the growth.

Rohit Gandhi initiated the discussion and acted as moderator for the whole panel. He put insightful questions to the panel regarding the type of innovation dominant in the industry and the support it offers, the role of education in shaping revolutionary ideas and importance of research and development in disruptive innovation. Each of the panel members had diverse views with relevant examples from their respective field. Mrs Annapurna A explains the innovation that has been brought about in the talent acquisition industry through the various small personalised steps that have been taken attuned to every candidate. She introduces the key to all ideas and the need to stick with that idea no matter what, to promote true innovation and shared the current question of fear in young India's mind, about digitisation and job market. Mr Sambasivan G talked about the overall landscape in the television industry and the idea of consumer behaviour driving innovation and the need for it. He shared his experience about the radical change in the industry and how one needs to adapt to the change and should be in a position to be a part of the change in this world and emphasised that the roles of the CFO are constantly interchanging with the CTO and the CEO. Mr Sameer Dhanrajani talked about the availability of data, the need for research that is motivated and well defined. Mr Imran Saeed talked about the modern-day analytics, the effect of innovation on the world, the dimensions of development and the issue of communication aspect which he says is equally important as the technical aspects. Mr Bhavesh Lakhani emphasised about the shift in paradigms in the banking industry and the key to innovation there being effective change management.

Moving on to the current dearth of innovation focused study in Business Schools, the panel emphasised on the co-creation concept of academia and corporates. Mr Sambasivan added on the point that the time for a specialist is to be a multi-skilled specialist who can deliver on multiple areas all at once. Mr Rohit Gandhi talked about the importance of identification of the right problems in the right areas and innumerable doctoral candidates who say that they have improved areas of study but in very small increments. Mr Lakhani forwarded the idea of technology in all aspects of learning and contributing incrementally to the world. Talking about the same, Professor Amit Shukla emphasised on the necessity for incremental innovation and the idea of case study-based learning which through Gestalt Psychology to discretely understand the idea of innovation, its application and how DIME has been committed to incremental innovation and has been trying to inculcate the same in the students. While Mr Sameer Dhanrajani drew a comparison between the Chinese and Indian education system and suggested how India should revolutionise the education system to make it more relevant to the industry.

Concluding the event Dr Raghu Nandan Sengupta, HoD IME Department, put forward the culture of IME Department where faculty played an immense role in student life as a mentor and Guru during and after the college life and distributed the mementoes to respective dignitaries amidst a round of applause. Students of MBA IIT Kanpur is thankful for this engaging and knowledgeable session.