<p>Symbiosis Institute of Business Management recently hosted ‘Convergence 2012’, an annual event which included an operations and IT summit.<br /><br /></p>.<p>More than 80 teams from across the country — which represented business schools like IIMs and FMS — came to participate in the fest. <br /><br />One of the highlights of the fest was ‘Kurukshetra — The Battle Ground’, in which students had to display their business acumen. <br /><br />The competition had four rounds, in which the scenario of a tender-opening process was simulated.In fact, in the third round, the participants had to physically bind books, as is done in a printing press. <br /><br />In the last round, they had to find a solution to a live problem faced by an automobile component manufacturer. Ultimately, Christ College; Great Lakes, Chennai;TAPMI, Manipal; Welingkar, Mumbai and SIIB, Pune emerged as the finalists of this competition, with Christ College winning the first prize. The second day was devoted to a debate, which centred around the question of whether manufacturing or services would drive the Indian economy. <br /><br />Shankar Ramanathan, general manager of 3M, addressed this topic first, after which a panel discussion was held. This included industry stalwarts like Rajkumar, the COO of Sequel Logistics; Vasu Ramanujam, the director-operations of Entercomes; Sachin, the director of Tyco and Sonali Khopkar, the associate director of Capgemini.<br /> <br />It was moderated by Swarnendu Ghosh, the vice president of operations at Welspun.<br />A few important points came up during this discussion, which the students found rather insightful. <br /><br />Sonali Khopkar perhaps summed up popular sentiment best when she said, “When it comes to manufacturing and services, I think there can’t be an either or situation. Both sectors complement and supplement each other.”<br /><br />Aditya Narayanan, one of the students who helped put together the occasion, described the entire process as a learning experience. <br /><br />“Events such as these not only give us a chance to learn how to organise something of this stature, but also give us an opportunity to gain knowledge from the first-hand experiences of the speakers,” he points out.<br /></p>
<p>Symbiosis Institute of Business Management recently hosted ‘Convergence 2012’, an annual event which included an operations and IT summit.<br /><br /></p>.<p>More than 80 teams from across the country — which represented business schools like IIMs and FMS — came to participate in the fest. <br /><br />One of the highlights of the fest was ‘Kurukshetra — The Battle Ground’, in which students had to display their business acumen. <br /><br />The competition had four rounds, in which the scenario of a tender-opening process was simulated.In fact, in the third round, the participants had to physically bind books, as is done in a printing press. <br /><br />In the last round, they had to find a solution to a live problem faced by an automobile component manufacturer. Ultimately, Christ College; Great Lakes, Chennai;TAPMI, Manipal; Welingkar, Mumbai and SIIB, Pune emerged as the finalists of this competition, with Christ College winning the first prize. The second day was devoted to a debate, which centred around the question of whether manufacturing or services would drive the Indian economy. <br /><br />Shankar Ramanathan, general manager of 3M, addressed this topic first, after which a panel discussion was held. This included industry stalwarts like Rajkumar, the COO of Sequel Logistics; Vasu Ramanujam, the director-operations of Entercomes; Sachin, the director of Tyco and Sonali Khopkar, the associate director of Capgemini.<br /> <br />It was moderated by Swarnendu Ghosh, the vice president of operations at Welspun.<br />A few important points came up during this discussion, which the students found rather insightful. <br /><br />Sonali Khopkar perhaps summed up popular sentiment best when she said, “When it comes to manufacturing and services, I think there can’t be an either or situation. Both sectors complement and supplement each other.”<br /><br />Aditya Narayanan, one of the students who helped put together the occasion, described the entire process as a learning experience. <br /><br />“Events such as these not only give us a chance to learn how to organise something of this stature, but also give us an opportunity to gain knowledge from the first-hand experiences of the speakers,” he points out.<br /></p>
