The future is networking

Updated on: Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Kolkata: The students of third batch of IIM Calcutta’s PGPEX held its first-ever networking event, Lattice 2009 on December 18 in the presence of IIM C director, Professor Shekhar Chaudhuri, chairman of IIMC”s Board of Governors, Ajit Balakrishnan and chairman, PGPEX, Professor Biju Paul Abraham.

Lattice 2009 is a diversion from the business plan competitions, cultural and other events and aims to address the need for reaching out to alumni and strengthening the IIMC fraternity.

Networking is the cornerstone of all social relationships. IIM C’s belief is that, a strong synergy between the alumni and the current students would facilitate an ecosystem in which all the stakeholders can derive mutual benefits.

In Lattice 2009, IIM C will provide a forum where the current state of Indian business will be addressed. There will also be a debate on the future blueprint the country should embark on and discuss the imperative role of b-schools in grooming the next-generation leaders.

The theme for the event is “Vision India 2020” where eminent business leaders, IIMC faculty and students would discuss about the leadership needs of Indian industry and the role b-schools play in grooming the future business leaders.

Ajit Balakrishnan, CEO, Rediff, spoke on the current state of Indian business, the leadership needs for the future and the role B-schools can play in grooming the future business leaders.

”India is building competency in symbolic analytic services which focuses on problem identification and solving them. Examples are design engineering, investment analysis, journalism and management consultancy,” said Balakrishnan.

”We should not fall into the traps of superstitious learning (drawing incorrect connections), ambiguity of success (financial success equated with management processes) or competency traps (spend time improving frequently used processes),” he added.

Balakrishnan predicted that India would be ahead of major western powers by 2020.

This followed by a panel discussion on 'Managers not MBAs' which is inspired by Henry Mintzberg's path breaking book by the same name. The panel consists of business leaders and academicians. Dr Padeep Kakkar and Prof M B Sarkar were the panel members and the moderator was Prof Anup Sinha.

The future is networking

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