The second day of the Academy of International Business Conference 2016 being held at IIM Indore witnessed 40 paper presentations, 12 poster presentations and a panel discussion. The day concluded with two expert talks as well.
The paper presentations included various case studies of firms such as TVS, ITC etc. and topics including Competitiveness of Enterprises Established in Rural Areas: Insights from a Hilly Terrain of India, Visible Growth Strategies for India: A Case for Inclusive Growth, Organizational Politics: Antecedents and Consequents, etc. The technical sessions also had poster presentations which included topics like The Factors Affecting Employee Retention in Service Industry, India: The Most Emerging in the World, Rethinking Business Networks: The Case of Islamic Banking, etc. Every session had a feedback from the Session Chair.
The highlight of the second day of the conference was a panel discussion. The topic for panel discussion was ‘International Competitiveness of Firms from India: Is it Human Capital, Innovative Capacity or IT Enabled Services?’ The panelists included Dr. Amit Kapoor, President & CEO of the India Council on Competitiveness, Mr. Kirankumar S. Momaya, Professor, SJMSOM, IIT Bombay, Mr. Sanjeev Chanchondia, Operating Partner, New Silk Route, Mumbai, Mr. Sanjeev Nandwani, Zonal Development Commissioner, SEZ’s & Additional DGFT (East and NE Region) and Mr. Siddhartha Sengupta, Managing Director of SBI India International Business. The discussion was moderated by Professor Rishikesha T. Krishnan, Director, IIM Indore.
While welcoming the panelists, Professor Krishnan mentioned that the Indian exports have been declining and questions are being raised on the monetary policies or the RBI, but this debate focuses on how competitive we actually are in the global markets and what factors contribute to the same.
Mr. Kapoor noted that the three most important factors in the market are land, labour and capital which need to be clearly understood by the business minds. Mentioning about the quality of labour, he said, ‘We have more than 42 million graduates in our country who are unemployed and we need to find a way via which they can develop some innovative strategy for the country’s growth. We need to find ideas which can help then get employed, and this needs to start from the local talent hiring’.
Mr. Kirankumar shared his experience from the time he spent in Japan and gave a brief description of the comparison between Japan and India’s economic growth. Comparing the age factor for any country he said, ‘Today as a young country we can achieve the growth rate of around 10-12%, but a few years later, we may not be able to do so. And for this, we need to learn how to balance the trade- both domestically and globally’.
Agreeing with Mr. Kapoor, Mr. Chanchondia mentioned that we need to create smart institutions with smart documentation and smart processes, so that the hired people don’t get stuck for any moment and the work goes smoothly.
Mr. Nandwani said that leadership plays utmost important role in growth, and it would help in empowering and offering resources to inculcate a culture of making people brave enough to take more risks in investments. Mr. Sengupta then discussed how large is SBI domestically and what is its geography globally. He noted that we need to recognize our key capabilities which can help us in attaining growth.
The discussion was followed by a Q&A session.
Mr. Siddhartha Sengupta, Managing Director, SBI, India International Business also delivered an expert talk on the topic Internationalization of State Bank of India. He discussed about how the 209 year old State Bank of India started with West Bengal and today is established across 37 countries. He then discussed about the reasons behind internationalization of SBI, entry strategies, kinds of business models for investment for developed and developing countries.
Professor Elizabeth Rose, University of Otago, New Zealand delivered a Guest Talk on the topic ‘Internationalizing Firms: Value Chains, Knowledge and Performance’, wherein she discussed about her research. Her research focused on investigating knowledge gathered through the value chain dispersion (configuration across the countries) and coordination, for international new ventures and traditionally-internationalizing firms.
The last day of the conference would witness talks by experts from various eminent Institutions including China Europe Business School, IIM Kozhikode, IIM Bangalore, IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Calcutta, etc.