IIT Kanpur MBA Blog

28th September'18 marked the initiation of the 7th edition of Prabandhan, annual management conclave of DIME, IIT Kanpur, presented by Maruti Suzuki- Way of Life. The opening ceremony began with insightful words by Dr, Amit Shukla, faculty coordinator for Prabandhan, followed by a short address by Dr Deblina Chatterjee. This event was marked by the presence of Dr Tapan Sahoo, Senior Vice President (Engineering, Design, R&D), Maruti Suzuki- Way of Life. He shared his perceptive thoughts on "Sustainability and Innovation: An auto industry Perspective". His thoughts VUCA world struck a chord with students which shows two sides of the same coin - "Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity" or "Vision, Understanding, Clarity, Agility". He shed light on various core values and core philosophy that act as a pillar for sustainability in the automobile industry, notable ones being, customer obsession, innovation, networking and learning. One has t...

This Sunday, was anything but a usual day at IIT Kanpur. The ever enthusiastic students of the MBA course, learnt some clever ways of how brands are leveraging technology to create enduring connections with consumers.  Rahul Khurana, CSD, Geometry Global took an insightful session on 'Experiential Marketing' showcasing some of the best and award winning work and some compelling case studies. He highlighted how consumer experience is set to redefine marketing and the way we have moved from mere encounters to transforming engagements worth leaving an impact on the purchase decision journey. His diverse experience on working on some of the most iconic brand campaigns translated into a stimulating session for the IITians and left them asking for more. He asserted that the industry has moved beyond the difference of above the line or below and how the client's appetite has evolved to seek a holistic solution.  Apart from sharing some captivating ideation...

The Department of Industrial and Management Engineering, IIT Kanpur played host to Dr Dinesh Chandrasekar (Hitachi Consulting) for a lively and informative seminar session on Disruptive Technologies for ‘Digital Desh’. “The Best way to predict the future is to invent it” With this quote from Alan Kay, Dr Chandrasekar proceeded to talk about the disruption that was being brought upon by the software designed businesses, and the wealth of opportunities it has churned up for young management graduates and technocrats to showcase their talents. Expounding upon the generational shift and exponential increase in innovation that has happened over the past couple of decades, he gave two revealing examples which highlighted how the rise of technology has accelerated growth. The contrast between the Moon missions by NASA, which involved immense human effort and economic capital expenditure over a period of 8 years versus the Team Indus - a small team of technocrats from India in the pr...

The Department of Industrial and Management Engineering, IIT Kanpur, witnessed a wonderful seminar on the Internet of Things by Mr. Arun Karna, MD, AT&T Global Network Services India Pvt. Ltd. He brought us closer to how limitless and pervasive the concept of IoT is and talked about the potential multi-trillion industry which has caught the eye of business enterprises that look forward to transform businesses without human-to-human or human-to-computer interactions.  Mr. Karna explained as to how the flow of information occurs from the sensors and control systems to the backend systems that are the hubs of data and API (Application Programming Interface). This back and forth of data can be analyzed to deduce astonishing solutions. He called IoT as the convergence of technologies that can work beyond the human imagination. He gave a business perspective to this scientific phenomenon wherein the stakeholders aspire to increase their revenue, streamline operations, red...

MBA IIT Kanpur organised a guest lecture by Mr. Ravi Kaushik, Country Business Director at Medtronic for a session on ‘Design Thinking: Innovating in emerging markets’. Mr. Kaushik gave a brief idea about the difference between invention and innovation. Where invention is about creating a new solution to a problem, innovation is trying to solve the problem in a better way, by bringing together existing technology. He cited the example of Uber which is trying to solve the problem of transportation using the internet through a new business model. He talked about the two sides to marketing – downstream and upstream. Downstream marketing is mostly associated with product promotion, public relations, and advertising. Upstream marketing, on the other hand, focuses more on the strategy and analytics behind fulfilling the customers’ needs. According to Mr. Kaushik, due to their analytical ability, more engineers can and should take up roles in upstream marketing. Elaborati...

On the bright morning of 25 th February 2017, the students of MBA, IIT Kanpur had the opportunity to interact with the HR Director at IDFC Bank – Mr. Prateek Dubey. Mr. Dubey, with his work experience in various major firms of the country – Coca-Cola, Suzlon Energy, and Jindal Saw Ltd to name a few – provided invaluable insights into the world of human relations and psychology. Sir covered a variety of topics in his talk and kept the seminar engaging with many activities and brainstorming sessions. Mr. Dubey started off with engaging the audience with a rudimentary question – what is MBA? He went on to explain that MBA can be defined as the  most beautiful attitude, as it is the attitude of the manager that makes him a leader and makes all the difference. As an example, he claimed that a Chartered Accountant would probably know much more about how the finances of any firm work than an MBA would, but it takes the decision-making ability and aptitude for quick thinking that...

Inspirational is the word for Ms. Ministhy Nair & her interaction with the students at IME, IIT Kanpur. Ms. Nair is presently the District Magistrate of Barabanki District, UP. An engineering graduate who pursued her management education from XLRI Jamshedpur and finally made her way into the glorious Civil Services!                                       Ms. Nair’s main objective for this meet was to communicate and stress the significance of applying technical and management skills in public administration. Examples can be in administrative and policy making decisions, managing calamities like floods and famines, managing finances , optimizing utilization of resources, waste management etc. Adhaar card, for one, is how technology would help in better administration. Civil services present a platform, a powerful one at that, for the youth to address these issues directly. There are sever...