SMIA Hits The Nail On The Head!

The marketing discipline has always been more art than science; corporations have spent untold billions on marketing without any exact way to determine how much the resulting 'Brand Equity' or 'Consumer Awareness' contributes to their bottom line. With this in mind, SPJIMR organized the Marketing Effectiveness Conclave to showcase real life instances where marketing initiatives have helped enhance marketing effectiveness.

The event also hosted the SP Jain Marketing Impact Awards, a competition in which companies presented their best marketing initiatives – which were judged for the return on marketing investment. The finalists for this year were Ginger Hotels, Motorola, Marico and the first international entry of Pentland. At the ringing of the final bell Marico was declared the winner for its advanced IT based Sales Information System with Motorola as the runner up for the impact of their marketing initiatives.

The keynote address was given by Mr. S. Sivakumar, Chief Executive of ITC agro-business. The brain behind the award winning e-Choupal model talked about the evolution of marketing thinking with special regards to the social marketing network in rural India and how firms can make a fortune at the bottom of the pyramid.

The event included a panel discussion of industry experts, discussing how to make marketing accountable to the business. The discussion ranged from the limitations of quantitative metrics in marketing to Brand Equity and how to effectively leverage its benefits for business. Prof. Atish Chattopadhay commented, “A data driven basis for making broad, strategic marketing trade-offs are yet to be established. This event aims to create awareness about the fact that the trade-offs were made on the basis of projected financial impact and long-term sustainability of the organizations."

SPRINT '08 Makes A Successful Debut

The Sports Committee at SPJIMR recently hosted the institute’s first ever inter-collegiate sports meet – ‘SPRINT ‘08’. Top B-schools from across the nation including IIM-I, SCMHRD, NITIE, JBIMS, NMIMS and KJSOM participated in the event to make it a grand success. With over 200 representatives from the participating teams descending on the campus, the institute was able to experience firsthand, the electrifying atmosphere of an Inter B-school sports fest.

The festivities kicked off with a gala opening ceremony that included hoisting of the games flag, lighting of the ceremonial torch and an oath taking ceremony by all the team captains in true Olympic style. The games were then declared open by Dr. Sesha Iyer, Director of SPJIMR. Sports ranging from cricket and football to badminton and throw-ball were conducted during the event.

After two days of excitement and festivities, SPJIMR walked away with the tag of overall SPRINT ’08 champions with an excellent all-round performance. On the whole, all the matches were played in the true spirit of the game and gave an insight into the athletic prowess of B-school participants. Special commendations go out to the Sports Committee for their excellent handling and execution of the event. We, at SPJIMR hope that SPRINT becomes a permanent fixture of the annual calendar and enhances its scope and size year after year.

Vinimay 2008 - SPJIMR's first Consulting Symposium

The second of February, 2008 was a historic day in the history of SPJIMR. The first ever consulting symposium, ‘Vinimay ‘08’ was organized by the Consulting Committee of the institute. Bringing together stalwarts from the field of consulting, retail and academia, the symposium proved to be a huge success.

Vinimay 2008 was broken into two events. The first was a case analysis competition for consultants from the industry called ‘Crack-a-Case’. Consultants with a maximum of 3 years of work experience were invited to submit their report analysis on the case. Three teams were selected to make the final presentations on D day. The eventual winners were Amrit Singh and Shalini Upadhyay from ECS.

The second event was a panel discussion on ‘India Entry Strategy – Retail Sector.’ The panelists were Sadeesh Raghavan (MD, India Domestic Business, Accenture), Saurine Doshi (Partner, A T Kearney), Rakesh Biyani (CEO, Pantaloon Retail India Ltd.), Abheek Singhi (Partner, BCG) and Prof. Prem Chandrani of SPJIMR. The panel was moderated by Vivek Law (Editor, Consumer Affairs, CNBC TV18). The discussion proved to be extremely insightful and diverse viewpoints from the eclectic panel added to the educative experience.

Overall, Vinimay 2008 was a ground breaking event and has ended up setting an enviable precedent that needs to be replicated in the future.

'Men Without Shadows'- A Magnum Opus by GASP

On the 20th of January 2008, the GASP (Guild of Actors at SP) ‘08 presented an adaptation of Jean Paul Sartre’s ‘Men without Shadows’ at the Institute’s auditorium.

GASP has been built over a tradition of stepping beyond regular academia under severe time constraints. It has helped participants don their creative hats to conceptualize, visualize and recreate the magic of intense, thematic and social plays. The uniqueness of GASP stems from the fact that it is a production completely handled by students, right from brainstorming for the idea, to the script selection, to the cast auditions, to direction, lights, music, backstage, et al.

The play was a stupendous success and played before a packed auditorium of over 300 viewers. The team is now set to explore other avenues for showcasing their well orchestrated efforts and recreate their magic on stage.

Lock Stock Trade 2008: The biggest IPO this side of Dalal Street!

SPJIMR in close association with the National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN) organized Lock Stock Trade (LST) on 19th January, 2008. LST aims to provide students with guidance from entrepreneurs and venture capitalists on how to anticipate business risks and work within limited resources. LST is a unique event due to a trinity of factors - The Mock IPO simulation concept, the real life investable businesses and the Business Analysts from the MBA program.

LST 2008 attracted global participation from reputed international Business Schools like Thammasat University, Thailand and S.P. Jain Centre of Management, Dubai. The keynote speaker was Captain G.R. Gopinath, Executive Chairman, Deccan Aviation. The business ideas presented at LST have always carried a social touch to them. The relevance of this sensitivity was seconded by Capt. Gopinath himself. “Businesses in India today have to obviously be profitable and scalable. But additionally they must also be inclusive – both demographically and geographically. This is why I did not build just a “Bombay-Delhi” airline. India lives in its small towns and villages.”

The event is a step forward in building responsible leaders and visionaries to change the development landscape of India through entrepreneurial ventures.

Khoj 2008 - Taking the bull by the horn!

Khoj 2008, the premier Inter B-school Equity Research Paper Competition was hosted on 12th January, 2008 by SPJIMR. Organized annually by the SBU-Finance committee of our institute, Khoj provides a platform for interaction between industry professionals, academicians and students in the area of Equity Research.

The sixth edition of Khoj ’08 witnessed over 300 registrations from around 70 B-schools including the IIMs, ISB, MDI, XLRI and FMS. Five teams were eventually shortlisted for the final round of presentations held on D-day. The panel of judges comprised of eminent professionals from the field of financial research, the mutual fund industry and brokering houses. At the end, the teams from IIMK and IIMC walked away with the top two prizes.

Sponsored by the leading Indian brokerage house, ‘K R Choksey’, Khoj ’08 proved to be a tremendous success and a huge hit with audiences across all fields. It has also firmly established itself as pre-eminent equity research competition for B-school students in the country.