IIM Indore witnessed enthusiastic participation of students, industrialists and scholars from in and around the city on Friday, February 16, 2018, during the long awaited Prabodhan—The Leadership Conclave. The event was organized by Industry Interface Office (IIO) and Executive Post Graduate Programme in Management (EPGP) Batch 2017-18. The event this year focused on the theme ‘Adaptive Leadership’, wherein distinguished industrialists from vivid sectors shared their views.
The event began with a lamp lighting ceremony by Col. Gururaj Gopinath Pamidi (Retd.), CAO, IIM Indore; along with Guest Speakers. Professor Abhishek Mishra, Faculty and Chair, Industry Interface Office welcomed the dignitaries. Professor Ashish Sadh, Faculty and Chair, EPGP was also present. Col. Pamidi while addressing the audience, spoke about the Kargil war and how some essential traits such as courage and sense of ownership imbibed in the leaders led to the victory. ‘Leadership should be flexible and adaptive. Adapting to unique situations is the mantra of successful leadership’, he said.
This was followed by a talk by Ms. Meenakshi Lekhi, Honorable Member of Parliament, Supreme Court Lawyer and National Spokesperson. She noted that leadership is all about solving problems, building trust and generating value in any field. Respecting coworkers and opponents equally is an important character of a leader. She invoked the example of Arunachalam Muruganantham to cite that leadership can come in any field; be it entrepreneurship, social work, corporate life, etc. ‘Leadership is not just the prerogative of politicians, every citizen should take leadership of his or her own life’, she concluded.
With Indore being #1 City in Swachh Bharat Campaign, event also witnessed graceful presence of Ms. Malini Gaur, Honorable Mayor of Indore. She shared her views on the Swacch Bharat Indore Campaign. ‘To reduce the stress of common people by creating a green and clean city, Indore Municipal Corporation has taken various steps in this direction. Door to door garbage collection has been an important component towards achieving this dream’, she said. Discussing about waste management, Ms. Gaur noted that the waste plastics will be used to make roads in the future. ‘Waste to Energy’ is being planned and the resulting biogas will be used to fuel the city buses, she said.
The next session had keynote speeches by Mr. Sameer Arora, Chief Marketing Officer, Syntel and Mr. Warun Nayar, Chief Operating Officer, Sciformix. Mr. Arora spoke on the topic ‘Market Disruption and Innovation’ and said that disruption and innovation are the two faces of the same coin. An irreversible change is happening in the market because of emerging technologies such as AI, Cloud, Big Data, IOT and Mobilty. Alibaba, Airbnb, FB and Uber have dramatically changed the industry dynamics. ‘The pace of change scary, as the average lifespan of companies have come down over the years’, he said.
Mr. Nayar in his speech talked about leadership and said that there are no rules, and there is only a way of being. ‘To be an adaptive leader you need to know every bit of your people. You should see what you cannot see- doing a pre-mortem. Leaders should hold against all odds, Trust your people and they will deliver their best’, he concluded.
The first half of the event concluded by a video titled ‘Leaders of Indore’ by Mansi Chandresea.
Keynote speech by Mr. Dheeraj Gangrade, Executive Director, PwC also enlightened the gathering with his views on emerging technologies. He said that the waves of digital transformation are sweeping across industries and changing the landscape entirely. He also discussed about the eight essential emerging technologies- AI and ML, AR, Blockchain, Drones, IoT, Robots, VR, 3D Printing and noted how they influence our lives.
Mr. Bharat Sastry, CEO, Vistaprint discussed about 5 things that keep on changing namely, our role, industry, boss, team and geography we are in. He shared how he had to adapt to his changing outlook as a result of his movement from FMCG to a Startup. ‘One should renovate before they innovate as to remain focused. ‘Every change is an opportunity and leaders must embrace it’, he said.
The event came to an end with vote of thanks by Professor Abhishek Mishra.