! 2! - sksasc.somaiya.edu · PGDM, MMS and MCA convocation ceremonies. It is our sincere hope and...

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IMPRINTS(|(MAR+APR(2013(

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Editor’s Note

Dear Alumnus,

Greetings of the season!

This edition of Imprints brings to you a glimpse of the vast plethora of activities that have shaped the culmination of the academic year 2012-2013.

We bade a warm adieu to the batch of 2013 with a memorable convocation ceremony that had a large number of our esteemed guests, faculty and parents in attendance. In the run up to convocation day, students and faculty alike left no stone unturned to ensure that the final weeks of the outgoing batch were interspersed with a number of events and activities designed to help the future managers succeed in their new roles.

The previous months also witnessed a lot of vivacity on the extra curricular activities front. Yudh- the annual sports fest at SIMSR saw teams from several B-schools battle it out for greater glory on the campus field. The Alumniscence team laid out the red carpet to welcome Mr. Mehernosh Pithawala who conducted an informative and interactive session with young marketers on campus. More such alluring developments dot the pages of this edition.

Many alumni were also able to walk down memory lane and meet up with their former classmates through a series of Chapters meets in different cities organized during the preceding month. These meets are essentially meant to encourage greater collaboration and communication between the institute, alumni and their classmates. We hope that more of you will join us in more of these meets in the times to come.

As always, your suggestions and opinions are welcome.

Happy Reading.

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Dear Alumnus, We are delighted to bring to you the Imprints for March-April 2013. We hope you find it appealing and worth your time. We welcome you to share your feedback on the articles and even contribute your thoughts and impressions for the forthcoming issue of Imprints. Being the final months of the academic calendar at SIMSR, March- April was both memorable and eventful. It was that time of the year when we bid goodbye to the senior batch with the PGDM, MMS and MCA convocation ceremonies. It is our sincere hope and belief that these young managers shall go out into the corporate world and carve a niche for themselves and make their alma mater and their companies proud. Our interaction with the alumni was also visibly strengthened as a number of Alumni Chapter meets were organized during these months in several cities across the country. These meets are a wonderful forum to share ideas, meet and greet long lost friends and reconnect with the SIMSR family. The enthusiastic participation of our alumni in cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata have further strengthened our resolve to continue to support and bolster such initiatives. We hope to meet more of you with every such event in the coming months and help our alumni reconnect with each other and the institute. We are also glad to share with you that we just received autonomy for our PH. D., MMS, MCA, MMM, MFM, MIM & MHRDM programs for a period of 6 years. Please do visit your Alma Mater more often; the Alumni Committee will be delighted to welcome you. Regards, Prof. C.P.Joshi Chairman Alumni Committee SIMSR Mumbai

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The Alumni Committee along with the Placement Committee had organized an interactive and enlightening session with our alumnus, who is one of the Marketing gurus, alumnus Mr. Mehernosh Pithawalla, Asst- Vice President and Head-Marketing- Godrej Security Solutions.

Mr. Pithawalla, heads the Physical security and Retail (B2C) Business apart from managing the Integrated Marketing Communications for Godrej Security Solutions. He has over 14 years of experience in marketing “Safes” and International Business function. He is also on the advisory board of CMO Council of India. While driving the Marketing and Brand Strategy he has led several innovative marketing initiatives which have not only helped in building the brand but has also resulted in category adoption and development. He has also been honoured with Most Dynamic Marketing & Communication Professional of the Year Award by Power Brands in 2011.

This session was organized to familiarize students with “Category Development”. Mr. Pithawala started the talk by introducing students to the history of Godrej & Boyce, their values, vision and mission and their category by guiding the students through various examples like those of Eureka Forbes water purifiers and taking the students through the brand journey of home security solutions.

He explained how it was difficult to make the customer understand the need for safes especially when they were provided by the banks as well and the customer already had their own way to secure their valuables at home. A lot of research was done into understanding the customer. They came up with advertisement campaign of “Musibat kabhi bata ke nahi aati”, which took 8 months to get implemented. It was launched during IPL, which was during the times when brighter living concept was moving in. Various IMC tools were used to engage customer. An innovative direct marketing concept they used was, envelopes which had private and confidential written on them but seemed as if they had been opened by someone, were delivered in mails. These had letter which gave complete product information. Tonality was maintained with various ads and other communication media. Mr. Pithawalla was the main person behind all these.

However the issue was that the Indian consumer accepted the new product, purchase intent was high but that did not convert into actual buying. For that 360 degree campaigns were introduced with print ads and retail branding coming into the play. Along with

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that lot of PR activities were conducted to understand the gap. To tackle that visibility was increased in stores, safes were bundled with furnishings. Also, it was understood that consumer mind set can change anytime so one must be ready to tackle that.

So with that, the campaign took a change, earlier it was Godrej Security Services keeps your house safe, now it changed to that the customer is in control of this safety. The ad campaign “Ab Musibat se kya darna?” was launched in all spheres.

With all the knowledge sharing, our alumnus cleared the doubts and queries which the students had. Some of them were, about digital marketing. To which he replied that, they have tie ups with bharatmatrimony.com since most of the jewellery is purchased during marriages. There are also many online competitions and games available. Another was about the distribution network and also where their ads failed. He sighted good examples for them.

Thus concluding the evening he summarized the details and insights on category development which the students will value

forever. Prof. C. P.JOSHI-Chairman Alumni Committee proposed Vote of Thanks. We express our gratitude and thank Mr. Mehernosh Pithawalla for coming back to his alma mater to enrich students with the knowledge.

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Certificate Distribution Ceremony for Mumbai University programmes of MMS and MCA was convened on 27th April 2013 at SIMSR campus. Two batches of MMS (Year 2010-12 batch) and one batch of MCA (Year 2009-12 batch) received their post graduate degrees granted by University of Mumbai. Prof Y. K. Bhushan, an eminent academician recognized for his efforts for building various academic institutions such as Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, ICFAI University, to name a few, graciously agreed to come as a chief guest for the occasion.

The programme started with the campus prayer and lighting of the lamp by dignitaries. Dr. Prema Basargekar welcomed everybody and introduced the chief guest and other dignitaries. While giving director’s address, Dr. Satish Ailawadi focussed on building core social and moral values in the young graduates which play a very vital role in career development in the long run. In the chief guest’s address, Prof. Y. K. Bhushan congratulated graduating students and also made them aware of the changing business environment and changing roles and responsibilities of managers along with that.

He congratulated SIMSR for providing state of art infrastructure along with cultural legacy of Somaiya trust and emphasised on building leadership qualities among young generations to cope up with new challenges. After Chief guest’s address got over, the rank holders from both the programmes were felicitated. MMS rank holder Mr. Shymsundar and MCA rank holder Ms Sandipa Veldandi also spoke on the occasion.

After felicitation of rank holders the programme coordinators of MMS and MCA, Dr. Sivakumar and Dr. D. G. Jha respectively spoke about their programmes and the progress made so far and facilitated the distribution of certificates. Dr Kiran Sharma gave a vote of thanks. The programme ended with high tea. !

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Chapter meet is an initiative started by Alumni Committee to create a platform for our Alumnus from a particular city to come together and interact with each other and in the process strengthen their relationship with SIMSR. This time we had arranged chapter meets during our admission window when our faculties visit different cities for the admission interviews so that our alumnus can also interact with the faculties of their alma mater. The Kolkata Chapter meet was organized on 21st April 2013. The venue was Heera Holiday Inn

near Park Street. Around 16 alumni had participated in the meet and our honorable faculties also joined the same. It was a nice evening spent with our beloved alumnus and faculties who engaged in a spirited conversation that ended with dinner. Alumni also felt nostalgic after meeting with the faculties after a long time. We got some suggestions from our alumni to make the chapter meets better in the future. The meet ended with a spirit of more such events to come in near future.

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The Mumbai Chapters Meet, 2013 held on 21st April was a very interactive and fun-filled session for SIMSRites and the Alumni. 35 Alumni participated in the meet.

Prof. C. P.Joshi, Faculty Chairman- SIMSR Alumni Committee in his Welcome Address, highlighted SIMSR's following achievements during the past 12 months –

! Equivalence of our PGDM, PGDM(IB) & PGDM(RM) programs to Masters degree programs w.e.f. 2012-14 batch, from AIU.

! Introduction of a new program PGDM (COMMUNICATIONS) from 1st July, 2012 as a 2 years full time program approved by AICTE, Government of India, New Delhi.

! SAQS accreditation for 5 years for our Institute from AMDISA. ! Accreditation by NBA for 3 years for MMS, PGDM, PGDM(IB) & PGDM(RM)

programs. NBA Accreditation is awaited for the MCA program. ! Outcome awaited for autonomy status for our MMS, MCA & part time programs. ! Introduction of common electives in the 2nd year of our

PGDM/PGDM(IB)/PGDM(RM) programs for the first time during AY 2012-13.

While the Alumni appreciated these initiatives, they expressed 2 major concerns –

1. Academic rigour at SIMSR needs be improved substantially in line with current & emerging Industry needs & also gave examples of initiatives of other B Schools.

2. SIMSR's visibility & Image in the Industry & companies which we would like to be our recruiters needs to improve substantially as well.

Ms Kanchi Daiya & Shri Mahaveer, both Somaiya Vidyavihar officials had a meaningful interaction with the Alumni on their wish list of features for the proposed Alumni portal, which is being

developed in-house by Somaiya Vidyavihar IT experts.

After Lunch, the Alumni were treated to a truly outstanding musical performance by Mauj-SIMSR Band for about an hour. Happily, a former Mauj talent now alumnus-Ms Sneha Ghadiali PGDM B(2010-12)also sang with the mauj team drawing a huge applause from all the Alumni & the Mauj performers.Interaction of Alumni with SIMSR students (15 across various programs) went off very well, with our students getting in depth & meaningful career guidance from our Alumni in various industry sectors & spearheading different functional areas.

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Shri Anuj Bhargava (MMS-1985), President SIMSR Alumni Association & Member SIMSR Academic Council addressed the Alumni & students & proposed the Vote of Thanks, after which the Meet concluded.

The SIMSR Band Mauj deserves Kudos as well for their outstanding performance. We @ Alcom would like to thank them for their fantastic performance & generous support on the occasion of Mumbai Chapters Meet.

The songs played were heartfelt and the Alumni went back thoroughly entertained by the scintillating performance by the band. We also hope to nourish & continue this special relationship among us, in our future endeavours.!

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The!Bangalore Chapters Meet was held on the 21st of April, 2013. The venue was Woody’s Restaurant, central Bangalore. This Chapters meet was a little different from the previous ones as the faculty of SIMSR was also present to interact with the alumni. It was indeed a great show as around 25 alumni attended and participated in the interactions. Even the closed doors were not enough to let the happy chats stay within the four walls. The presence of the faculty made it all the more interesting as most of the alumni were found discussing what they did in the faculty’s class.

All in all, a lot of suggestions to improve the alumni interactions were put forth and this meet proved to be a very entertaining and informative one. This Sunday dinner with old friends and new ones really brightened up many faces.!

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The Delhi Chapters meet was held on 14th april 2013and saw participation from around 25-30 alumni. Prof. Monica Khanna and Prof. Jha were a part of the event and moderated and contributed to the proceedings. The meet began with much enthusiasm and witnessed a number of discussions about the college, current curriculum, the annual alumni homecoming event -Nostalgia and batch specific events. The chapter meet also provided alumni a unique opportunity to get in touch with fellow alumni in the city and exchange notes on their work and possibilities for collaboration. Our Alumni at Delhi had a nice dinner meeting with our Faculty including our director Prof. Dr. S. C. Ailawadi. The Delhi meet has helped the institute and the Alumni Committee reinforce its commitment to strengthening ties with existing alumni as well as generating greater participation in Committee events. We hope to see more of you at more of these events in the time to come.

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