The Business Technology Club (BTC) of ISB hosted the annual Business Technology Conclave on 23^rd October, ’09.  The theme of the conclave was ‘Riding the Asian elephant – Emerging opportunities in the Asian Technology Landscape’. The conclave featured two panel discussions focusing on the Telecom and IT sectors.

Mr. V K Menon, Director of Career Advancement Services at ISB delivered the welcome address.  He pointed out an interesting fact that there is an impending huge manpower shortagel in developed countries in the next several years and that several asian countries (particularly India) are well-positioned to fulfill this shortage.

Telecom Panel:

The panel discussion on the Telecom Industry was titled “Improving the bottom-line:  Next generation business models”.  The discussion was moderated by an ISB alumnus from the batch of 2002 – Venkata Ramanan, Telecom Business Head from 3i Infotech.

The Indian mobile market is different from others in that the subscriber base is predominantly pre-paid (more than 90%).  Mangesh Kulkarni from Nokia Siemens Network felt that mobile internet is the way forward and methods have to be devised for monetization of the online presence of subscribers.

Kapil Bansal from Alcatel-Lucent spoke on the emerging challenges in the Telecom industry with the falling ARPU and increasing subscriber base. “Active and passive sharing, revenue sharing, hosted services and managed services should all be viable business options for Telecom players in this atmosphere”, he said.

NV Subbarao from Tata Docomo talked about the coming era of Data. He said that the trend is definitely towards convergence, and data traffic is going towards a Yottabyte and how Technology Management, Customer Adoption and simplified pricing are all going to be very important to manage this massive growth.

Dr. Manoj Kanagalu from Nortel foresees future business models being based on managed services, rental model and revenue sharing.  Mohan Moghe from Verizon gave a view of US markets and the various challenges therein. “The US mobile market is saturated and the focus is more on innovations and applications for the end user”, he said.  Vinay Goel from Google spoke on the importance of a full browser in a mobile along with a flat data plan to enhance the user experience.

Anshoo Gaur from Amdocs spoke about his company’s vision of ‘Tera Play’ and the continuous movement towards that vision wherein smart devices offer a connected digital lifestyle.  “The new business models will focus on managing and charging for personalized and contextual experiences across multiple devices”, he said.

IT Panel:

Post-lunch, Ganesh Natarajan, CEO of Zensar Technologies, started the second panel discussion on “Asian Markets: New hotspots for IT companies” by saying that India continues to be the great IT centre. He said that there has been a positive shift in the focus of the IT industry – it is beginning to think of how IT can be leveraged in India in the key areas of Education, Healthcare, Agriculture, SME and Telecom.

Abhay Gupte from Logica said that there are three things that will play a significant role in taking our IT industry to the next level – innovation, product automation & deployment and location/geographic challenges.

NV Tyagarajan from Genpact said that the wireless industry in India, from being technologically behind, has leapfrogged to be one of the best-in-the-world. “IT in India needs to deliver value that goes beyond labor arbitrage. We feel that the exciting journey of innovation is coming into India over the next 10 years”, he said.

Haragopal M, who heads Finacle at Infosys said that products are a clear opportunity in this part of the world. “Products are an excellent transition to take IT to the next level. We now have global attention and global respect. We need to continue to launch new offerings, new products”, he said.

Amit Sircar, head of Microsoft Global Services India, spoke about how Microsoft India went through a strategic shift in order to think of India not just in terms of a consumer market or a resource but as an export-centric market.

Suresh Hosakoppal from Yahoo! warned about the risks that the offshore R&D industry in India is facing and how that could affect the growth in the years to come. We need to address these risks to get India back on track; Innovation and Productivity are big tickets items to address these risks.

Finally, Srini Komanduri from Deloitte talked about where the IT demand is going to come from in the future other than the usual outsourcing route. Two big areas he pointed to are the Indian industries (which are continuing to invest in IT) and the government (Healthcare, Transport and e-governance)

Ganesh Natarajan, who moderated the discussion concluded by remarking that Asia is definitely the hub for the future of the IT industry both from the market perspective and from the providing collaborative solutions perspective.

-Sankar G Vyakaranam

The registration for the conference starts at 9:30 AM, followed by a keynote address by the dean of ISB. The first Panel Discussion on the Telecom Industry will discuss “Improving the bottom-line: Next generation Telecom business models” and will be graced by a mix of esteemed panelists. Then, we break for lunch. Post-lunch, we have the second Panel Discussion that will focus on the IT industry, around the theme of “Asian Markets – New Hotspots for IT companies”. Finally we have presentations by the winners of the BTC Business Competition, followed by the closing high-tea informal interaction.

The BTC has done a great job of leveraging its industry contacts and the conference is already generating a lot of excitement in the student community. Some of the of industry stalwarts with whom we’ll have a chance to interact are –

Telecom Panel:

• Mohan Moghe, Executive Director, Verizon Communications USA
• Vinay Goel, India Head, Product Management, Google
• Manoj Kanagalu, Senior Director, Wireless and VOIP solutions, Nortel
• Faisal Siddique, Motorola – Head (India and South-West Asia) Mobile Devices
• Deepak Gulati, President, TataDoCoMo India.
• Global Strategy head, Nokia-Siemens
• Anshoo Gaur, GM and India Head, Amdocs India

IT/ITES Panel:

• Ganesh Natarajan, CEO, Zensar Technologies Ltd.
• Amit Sircar, General Manager, Microsoft Global Services India
• N V Tyagarajan “Tiger”, COO, Genpact Ltd.
• Haragopal M, Global Head – Finacle, Infosys Technologies Limited
• Srini Komanduri, Director, Deloitte India
• CEO, Logica India

The registration is free. So, if you can take time out, please register and drop by to enrich your knowledge and network! You can get further information on the conclave webpage at http://www.isb.edu/btc_conclave/

-Sankar G Vyakaranam

All participants have come back with enriching experiences. The students who visited Deloitte, Hyderabad had this to say.

1. Very informative and open project discussions during all three presentations, which revolved around a new medical device for Sleep Apnea (Balaji), supply chain projects of Fonterra (Mohan) and Program Management. The students were able to ask questions related to ELPs (connected to these projects obviously) and get direct answers from the consultants.
2. A good amount of time was invested by everyone. The session started with the address from Santosh, who is heading the India Strategy Practice. Most of the alums were around, despite their busy schedules, and were answering all our questions, be it about CGPA, courses, work-life balance, or nature of assignments.
3. I personally had a great day. The informal lunch at the end was great, and it truly gave us a “flavor” of what life in Deloitte is for a typical consultant. The best thing about this was how open these guys were about almost everything, their opinions were honest and made for a truly fruitful interaction. Overall, it was a great event, the three presentations were very practical, and the reception, nice and warm.The  hosts were very receptive, and shared lot of good insights with us on consulting and networking.
4. It was a great session and the forthright attitude stood out. Santosh was phenomenal in setting up the ground by explaining the Deloitte organization structure and how Indian practice is integrated with its US counterpart. Later, we had a great discussion with ISB alums of Class of 2009. The best take away for me was that I could identify what kind of culture Deloitte has and would I like to work in this organization. I was very impressed by the team culture, and how much stress they put on development of an individual.

We will post the experiences of students who visited McKinsey and ZS Associates soon.

ISB Alums from McKinsey

Mr Rajiv Lochan is a McKinsey Partner based in Chennai. He has extensive consulting experience both in US and India. He has been involved with ISB since the very beginning. It was a delight to listen to him.

Rajiv Lochan on the Art of Consulting.

He described consulting as the art and science of pattern recognition and application of these patterns to solve practical problems. The workday of a consultant revolves around the following four activities -

1. Interacting with senior executives on client site.
2. Engaging in problem solving/brainstorming sessions with internal teams or clients.
3. Trying to secure buy in on a project from the client.
4. Leveraging on internal expertise through knowledge sharing to the bring the best of the services to the client.

He then touched upon what makes a good consultant. That is, what McKinsey looks for in ISB graduates. The criterion stands on the pillars of leadership, problem solving abilities, interpersonal skills and drive. A spike on any of them with good quantities of others will be able to get you through.

Sudipto then took the stage to discuss about his induction into consulting and his first project.  He discussed McKinsey’s Urbanization Project for India. He emphasized that the projects can be very broadly scoped and challenging. It doesn’t matter if you have limited experience in the related area., the team is always very knowledgeable and diverse. That allows you to traverse the learning curve quickly. Sudipto described this project as a thoroughly enjoyable assignment, which took him to several  cities in India and abroad to explore their growth and development.

Students loved Rajiv Lochan's presentation.

Mr Rajiv Lochan then came back to stage and gave use a brief overview of his continuous involvement with ISB. He is part of the team that conceived and executed the the project that led to ISB. He ended by promising many more McKinsey events in future.

This was followed by tea and informal discussions with Alums.

Great student turnout at the BCG ELP event.

Amit started the session with some gyaan about the process of consulting. One of the most important things is getting the framework correct. A suitable framework allows you to ask correct questions and stress test the methodology. For example, one can check if the information gathered covers the different focus areas of the framework adequately.

He also stressed on consulting being all about team work. The team is not just the consultants, but also the clients. The mantra is to work with the client to define the problem, gathering data, and ultimately solving the problem.

Mr Suresh Subudhi explains the softer aspects of consulting

Suresh covered another important part of consulting profession, the client relationship management. He emphasized on the need to align your success with the client’s and to create a trustworthy relationship between the two parties. He went on to describe some of the interesting techniques to gain the respect of the clients, while maintaining that the best way to do it was to be prepared.

This session on the softer aspects of consulting was an eye opener for most of the students. The session was followed by lots of interaction with the BCG team.

Thanks to the photography club for having put this together so well in such a short span of time.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The ISB Media Club is a group of people that have had past experience in diverse spheres of the media, or are in some way linked to the same through their previous line of work before joining the class of 2010. Among the various people part of the club, we have a former senior journalist from Business Standard, someone who wrote for India Today, someone who created shows for CNBC TV18 and so on.

The Media Club has previously hosted eminent personalities such as Rajdeep Sardesai at ISB and we have a stellar line-up this year as well for the conclave.

The conclave spans half a day and starts in the afternoon with a panel discussion on “Riding the New Wave: Opportunities and Challenges in a Digital World”, featuring Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Ambareesh Murty and Alok Kejriwal followed by a discussion on Indian Media: Ready For Take-Off Again, with AP Parigi, Ravi Kiran, Bhaskar Das, Rajesh Sawhney, Shravan Shroff and Puneet Kinra.

We’ll leave you with one out of many teaser image that adorn the notice boards on campus:

Prof Rama Velamuri

The Emerging Markets Club launched its activities for the year with a talk titled ‘Demystifying the Dragon’ by Prof. Rama Velamuri, Associate Professor for Entrepreneurship at CEIBS. Having spent 20 years in India, 20 years in Europe, and four years in the US, he moved to China two years ago, completing a global journey, and provided us with his own unique perspective. He started off by giving a personal account of his time in Shanghai, where he lives with his family. The city offers the best of both the developed world (e.g., infrastructure) and the developing world (household help for instance).

Though he agreed that there is some merit in questioning the quality of economic data from China, he also highlighted that the micro data is consistent with the macro data. CEOs of multi-national companies say that their sales are much higher in China due to the country’s higher per capita GDP.

On practically all macro fronts, China’s numbers are significantly higher than India’s. In China, technology diffusion is faster, its labour migration to industry higher, and its healthcare and literacy infrastructure better. On gender equality at workplace (in this context determined by the ratio of working women), China led most European countries.

However, he pointed out that India’s advantages lie in its democracy, free press, younger population, the economy being dependent on private investment, less dependence on foreign trade, and strength in knowledge industries such as IT and pharmaceuticals.

He also said that India lags because of lower literacy, higher manufacturing costs, poorer fiscal position, and weak infrastructure. On manufacturing Prof Rama said that the gap had narrowed on costs due to China’s increased labour costs, the currency appreciation compared to other emerging markets, and stricter labour and environmental regulations in the country.

During the following Q&A session, Prof Rama recommended The China Price by Alexandra Harney and Smoke and Mirrors by Pallavi Aiyar to all interested in learning more.

-  Sohel Bohra, Class of 2010

“One day, during my last semester of MTech in Bangalore, I came across a notice in college which read: Telco Pune wants young, bright, hard working engineers. Lady students need not apply.

Yes, I will leave to live with my husband when I get married but unlike a boy who might leave them if he gets an additional 100 rupees at a rival company, I will not quit Telco even if I am offered huge sums of money. I assured them my loyalty.”    - Excerpts from Sudha Murthy’s interview to SAVVY, August 2000.

Though it would not be accurate to typecast based on gender, men and women typically have different motivations and different expectations.

• Why is it important for managers, strategists, and policy makers to understand and appreciate these differences?
• Would an understanding of these differences help managers motivate their teams better?
• Would a corporate policy that addresses these differences help in retaining talent within the organization and avoid ‘Diversity hiring’?
• How serious an issue is gender discrimination in organizations and what are its impacts?
• Why does the percentage of women decrease as we move up the corporate ladder?

Looking for answers? So are we……

- Malini Krishna SS (class of 2010)

Women in Business Club

This session was attended by Ashish Iyer (Partner and Director BCG),  Navneet Vasishth (Principal) along with three ISB alums, Akshit Shah (batch of 2007), Ankush Wadhera (batch of 2008) and Kanu Julka (batch of 2009). After a brief introduction of BCG and its values by Navneet, Ashish took charge of the session.

Ashish went on to discuss the causes and effect of the current economic crisis. He delved into the details of sub-prime lending and Credit Default Swaps (CDS). This led to a very interesting discussion with the audience on the underlying reasons for the crisis and how long the recovery will take. Ashish concluded the session with a discussion of the expected effects of this crisis on Indian economy.

This was followed by a separate session between the alums and the ICON (Internal Consulting Project) teams.  The ICON teams utilized this opportunity to clarify their doubts and to get some good ideas on how to approach their respective projects.

- Ravi Krishna (class of 2010)