XLRI Launches Consulting Club – C3

From MBAUniverse.com

It has launched C3 - Crescent Consulting Club with an aim to develop and increase the understanding of consulting profession. The inauguration of the club will be held on July 9 with a session by Mr. Joe Simon, CIO Viacom International (New York) on "Life as a Consultant". XLRI alumnus Simon will share his experiences as a consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton.

As part of this initiative, the club will be holding weekly meetings on important issues related to consulting industry and will also organize quizzes, case competitions, 2 x 2 matrix championships, and other events for its members. Major activities will include the Speaker Series and Company Breakouts which will mainly focus on increased collaboration with consulting firms and experience sharing by consultants from various firms. The club will also maintain a central repository of the latest research in Strategy area and will carry out regular case interview practice sessions to help students prepare for their placements. Every fortnightly, industry breakouts will be held to track the latest developments across different industries and build industry competence among the members. The club is also planning to launch its own Journal comprising of latest research articles written by academia and industry and provide opportunities to the students to work on live consulting assignments.

Mr. Joe Simon, a 1983 batch alumnus of XLRI, is the Chief Information Officer for Viacom International. Prior to joining Viacom, he spent nine years as a Principal at Booz, Allen and Hamilton, focusing on the media sector. He also worked at Reader’s Digest, a savings bank in New Zealand, and for various business conglomerates in India.

In the past, CRESCENT, under the guidance of Prof. Munish Thakur, has been involved in conducting various B-plan competitions and Strategy games, organizing Live Consulting projects and guest lecture series, and publishing a monthly magazine CREST containing the latest happenings in Consulting, Research, Strategy and Entrepreneurship. In association with Social Initiative Group for Managerial Assistance (SIGMA), CRESCENT also launched the Initiative for Social and Entrepreneurial Leadership (ISEL) last year. ISEL aims at promoting and nurturing student interest in entrepreneurship and the social sector.

Jesuit B-schools preach social entrepreneurship

From DNA

Mumbai: "We want to build managers who are able to start ventures that can alleviate poverty and deal with environment issues," said Father Abraham, director, Xavier's Labour Relations Institute (XLRI), Jamshedpur. He was speaking at the 15th World Forum of the International Association of Jesuit Business Schools (IAJBS). XLRI Jamshedpur hosted the forum which saw deans, directors and senior professors from B-schools in USA, Europe, Asia Pacific stressing on developing a network to support social entrepreneurship.

Post the forum the IAJBS has become a signatory of the UN principles for Responsible Management and will ask all member institutes to adhere to them. A sustainability development committee will be formed to ensure that Jesuit B-schools globally adhere to the principles.

"The committee will ensure that schools include sustainable development in the curriculum, and offer it as an academic programme," said Abraham. In keeping with UN's principles, schools will review programme syllabi and course structure. The focus on enhancing and managing financial wealth will be balanced with equal number of courses on enhancing social and environmental capital. "There are very few academic social science inputs in the course-work which is why students fail to understand that socio-environmental issues impact businesses," said Abraham.

In India, around 17 top ranking Jesuit B-schools will alter their admissions process along with curriculums. "Socio-environmental concerns and ethical fibre of a student, beyond just landing a lucrative job from an MBA will form a non-negotiable part of admissions," informed Abraham. Even the way these B-schools function will undergo a change. The use of solar power, rainwater harvesting, recycling paper will teach sustainability.

Schools will also look atintroducing compulsory internships with social/development sector organisations. By October, a task force formed for sustainability development will take into account all members' comments and present a final draft before the IAJBS board which will include the best sustainability projects from across the globe. "We have also proposed that every member school should set up a Chair Professorship in Sustainable Development, so that this movement can be carried forward by every B school," said Abraham.

In fact, XLRI has been the first Indian B-school committed to these principles since the last two years. "We have already started offering electives and core courses in the MBA programme for students in environmental strategy, social laws, business ethics," informed Abraham. The institute recently held the first National Social Entrepreneurship Conference which covered critical issues in education, energy, credit, healthcare, livelihood opportunities, and natural resources which could be resolved by enterprising management graduates.

Encouraged by these, students at the institute started social ventures. In the last year, three ventures took off. The first Parichay links tribal artisans and rural craftsmen with the mainstream market and increases their profit margins. The second is Swalamban which provides electricity to villages through ox-driven generators. While, the third is called Dream4Others.com, which donates money to registered charitable organisations; for every market research survey filled by visitors.

Surya Nair (IR 06) is now a columnist for Mobile Industry Review

Surya Nair (IR 06) is now a regular columnist for Mobile Industry Review.

She is introduced to the 300,000+ readership of the site as:
the first of the new MIR 3.0 columnists, Surya Nair.

Surya is in her mid-twenties and always has a particularly interesting take on the mobile industry.

If you’re not following her on Twitter, I recommend you do (username: @suryasnair).

Surya was born in South India’s Kerala region and got her first handset (a Nokia 6110) when she completed her degree in Engineering. Yup, no ‘politics’ or ‘media studies’ here. *Engineering*.

Surya is a veritable java, mainframe, SQL and mobile handset genius. In her time she’s enjoyed the Nokia 9300i (me too), the E90 (nice), the N82 (lovely camera) and currently, she’s sporting the Nokia N97. So whilst you might paint her as a mobile geek-head, hold there a moment.

For some reason, she stopped everything and took an MBA in Human Resources — before joining a large European mobile player. That means she not only avoids the ‘marriage question’ (foremost on the minds of most mothers, even worse, I gather, with Indian mothers) but she is also assured of a ready supply of new gizmos to play with.

In terms of applications she’s a regular user of the N97 integrated Facebook app, the Sports Tracker app, SP Brain Evaluation, and, “Of course, Gravity for Twitter”.

This all makes for a rather interesting columnist. Time then for part 1 of Surya’s contributions here at Mobile Industry Review.

Her first article is “No mom, you can’t have a free phone.” The perils of working for a mobile manufacturer.

Suman Bose (BMD95) to head Siemens PLM's India ops

From Business Standard

Siemens PLM Software, provider of product lifecycle management (PLM) software and services, today said it has appointed Suman Bose as vice-president and managing director for its Indian operations.

As VP and MD, Bose will be responsible for increasing the company's market share and extending its leading position in India's PLM field, a company statement said.

"India is a strategically important market for Siemens PLM Software in terms of our extensive market presence and growth opportunities," Siemens PLM Software Senior Vice-President (Asia Pacific) Hans Kurt Lubberstedt said.

Bose has earlier served as the Country Director (India) at Dassault Systems and has been associated with MatrixOne (acquired by Dassault Systemes in 2006) and HP.

Rabo India Finance Ltd announces appointment of Mr. Surojit Shome (BMD86) as MD & CEO

From India PR Wire

Effective today, Surojit Shome joins Rabo India Finance Limited, the wholly owned Indian subsidiary of Rabobank International, as Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer.

A seasoned banker, Surojit comes with over two decades of experience in Banking encompassing Corporate Banking, Capital Markets and Investment Banking. Surojit has worked with Citibank, Lehman Brothers and Nomura prior to joining Rabo India.

In his 19 year stint with Citigroup, he held various business management, origination and risk management roles with assignments in India and overseas. Before he moved to Lehman Brothers, in late 2006, he was Managing Director and Head of Corporate Banking for the Indian sub-continent, overseeing corporate and financial institution coverage teams for India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal.

In his role as Managing Director & Head of the Investment Banking Division at Lehman Brothers in India, he was responsible for building the investment banking platform for Lehman Brothers with capabilities across capital markets, M&A advisory and private equity origination. Post the acquisition of Lehman Brothers’ Asian & European businesses by Nomura Holdings in October 2008, he spent the last few months helping in the integration of the legacy Lehman Brothers’ Investment Banking business into the existing Nomura India businesses.

Surojit will report to Rob van Zadelhoff, Head of Asia for Rabobank International. “I am very pleased to have Surojit join our team in India. I am confident that he will be successful in building and growing Rabobank’s business in India given his leadership and management skills,” said Rob van Zadelhoff.