Guest Speakers

On April 10, 2014 we had a guest lecture by Ms. Sugandha Srivastav (Jr. Consultant at Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations) on The Indian App Ecosystem.After deliberating a lot about the challenges facing the Indian app market,Ms. Sugandha says “‘If there is a challenge, there is an opportunity” and emphasized the importance of seizing the opportunity to tap into the potentially huge Indian app industry. She also explained the various business model innovations in the app industry for monetisation like Freemium, Subscription, In app purchasing, Advertising & In app advertising and urged us to use the right model keeping in mind of the price sensitive Indian customer. In a market that is growing at the rate of 89% YOY,there is huge unexplored ocean for entrepreneurs.Ms. Sugandha concludes by stressing on the importance of looking at Mobile for Development rather than solely for Entertainment.

On April 3, 2014 we had a guest lecture by Dr. Akhil Prasad (Country Counsel India and Company Secretary with Boeing International Corporation) on the issues, challenges and the way forward for handling the Manpower in India.He stressed that as future managers it is imperative for us to know how to manage manpower effectively and efficiently.We should provide a work environment with congenial atmosphere so that any issue between the managers and workmen can be resolved amicably.Today India is one of the emerging and fast growing economies in the world.India is not alone in this race, Dr. Akhil provided insights about the scenario of Labor markets (Man power) in other emerging economies such as Argentina, China, Indonesia etc. by comparing them with India.This helped the students to understand that while there are some best practices that are followed in India many more are ought to be implemented.Dr. Akhil mentioned that as companies are growing more global,off shoring and on shoring are becoming more common as they are economical,efficient and effective. While India has a good share of the pie in Services industry, there is more to be done in Manufacturing.Even in services sector, India’s cost arbitrage is under competition, so it should focus on Value added services. The way forward for India is to have greater focus on education,training and skill development; aim to become the global base of manufacturing and ensure that legal and tax regime should facilitate investment and growth.

On August 18, 2013 we had a guest lecture by Mr. Satyendra Shukla (Founder and CEO, Four-S Services).Mr. Shukla explained how the companies are valuated using the analogy of valuating the price of a house.First we look if the housing industry is booming, then consider the locality of the house, its size,furnishing and any landmark nearby (ex: Park Facing). Similarly companies are valuated by considering their industry growth, infrastructure,real estate value of the property and credibility.He urged that ‘Ends should never be put before the means’. Investors will forgive the promoters when they make genuine mistakes but not when they behave unethically. A case in point would be a company which will show a lot of money under debtors (ghost or non-existing) which the company never gets in the future.Mr. Shukla spoke about the FII in India. FII’s started growing from the year 2003 and peaked by 2007, and now the equity money is drying up. Many of the projects which started were left half done either because of lack of government support or bank’s support. He substantiated by pointing out that only a few companies have performed, and their valuation was high when the investment was made and also the returns for the investors is less because the rupee value depreciated considerably.He gave insights on Mergers and Acquisitions in India. Here a promoter will sell his company when the valuation is high, when he is old or the business is heading downhill.And a buyer will buy to create a positive vibe in the market by projecting itself as a growing company, to gain access to products or technology, kill the competition and grow faster than his competitors.He mentioned that rating is the relative ability to pay ones obligations in time. Past track records and transparency determines ones intention of paying ones obligations, which in turn determines the credibility and rating.The credit rating agencies could not foresee the problem while rating the mortgage backed securities as AAA during the sub-prime crisis and to overcome these catastrophes he is working on a model to quantify the rating parameters.Mr. Shukla ended by quoting Napoleon ‘I want only lucky Generals’ while addressing as to how the startups need luck in addition to credibility.This interactive session enlightened the students with the current trends and practices in financial world of Investment banking, Credit rating agencies and Mergers & Acquisitions.We look forward to meet more such personalities through the guest lectures and learn from them.

On May 7, 2011 we had a guest lecture by Mr. Siddhartha Paul Tiwari (People Development & Training Head, Google Japan and Asia Pacific, Tokyo) & Mr. Sohail Singh Ahuja (Google Asia Pacific, Singapore) on Diversity and its importance in today’s corporate environment. The speakers introduced the concepts of diversity to the audience. They also talked about the advantages of creating environment in organizations that encourage learning from others and capture the advantage of diverse perspectives. The guest lecture ended with people presenting their views on whats truly multicultural in today’s world. The speakers also emphasized on business diversity and presented scenarios across the world.

On February 21, 2011 we had Prof. R. R. K. Sharma from IIT Kanpuramongst us to talk about various manufacturing strategies implemented by worlds leading manufactures. Prof. Sharma started with comparing the strategies adopted by US and Japanese firms. Several other concepts like Shop within a Shop (SWS), Plant within a Plant (PWP), Management by exception, etc. were discussed during the one and a half hour session.

We had Mr. Punit Malik, Managing Director (Capital Finance) from Yes Bank to share his views about PPP in India, particularly in infrastructure domain. The guest lecture, one of the many held on campus as a part of the Idea Series focused on various aspects of PPPin the infrastructure sector with dedicated focus on the multiple financial vehicles and tools that are employed in the sector along with the role of banks in such projects.

On 17th, November 2010, we had with us Mr. Dasgupta, VP – Group HR, Biocon, to share his ideas on this contemporary issue of talent crisis. Speaking on the topic he talked about the talent management practices in biotech sector and Biocon in particular. He started the lecture by defining talent as a recurring pattern of thoughts, feelings or behaviour that can be productively applied. He emphasized on the need of talent acquisition as more and more companies are getting into new areas and thus requiring a lot more people with the requisite skills.

On 12th and 13th November 2010, we had with us Dr. Vinay Bharat-Ram, CEO, DCM Limited, to enlighten us on various topics relating to macroeconomics. Some of the topics discussed were exchange rate dynamics, import substitution, Keynesian economics, the economic recession of 2008, and salt water and fresh water economics.

On 22nd September 2010, we had with us Mr. Mukul Singhal of the private equity firm SAIF Partners to share with us his knowledge of and experiences in the area of private equity. An alumnus of ISB and IIT Kanpur, Mr.Singhal enlightened us on several PE-related topics such as valuation techniques, investment cycle, structure of a fund, term sheet, portfolio of SAIF, and so on.

On 13th September 2010, we had with us Dr. Ashwin Rao, Executive Director Morgan Stanley Research Division.Dr. Ashwin threw valuable insights on the changing landscape of finance industry and spoke at length about the importance of Quantitative finance in USA and other parts of the world. He shared his experiences in the finance industry and apprised the future managers about the kind of pressure built up on the people sitting on the trading desk.

Mr. Deepak Wadhwan visited DMS to give a guest lecture about risk management. Mr. Wadhwan is Senior Advisor at KPMG India. Mr. Wadhwan gave his valuable insights about financial advisory, risk advisory and risk maturity. He also talked about moving from hazard wise risk management to opportunity based risk management.