Press Releases
SIBM Pune wins Cognizant's Board Room: Smart Business Plan Contest 2007
The team of Amit Nanchahal, Meydhavi Gupta and Soumyadeep Sur from Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (SIBM), Pune won the finals of Cognizant's first business plan contest for B-Schools across the Asia Pacific region. The runners up were Vinit Kumar Sharma, Vishal Gandhi and Ruchir Mishra from the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), Delhi. The cash prize for the winning team was Rs. 200,000 and the runners-up, Rs 100,000. The top seven short-listed teams were from the following institutes: Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad; Institute of Management Technology (IMT), Ghaziabad; Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), Delhi, Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS), Mumbai; Goa Institute of Management (GIM), Goa, and Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (SIBM), Pune. Aimed at promoting a spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation among spirit among the management students across B-schools in the Asia Pacific region, Cognizant, for the first time, launched the Board Room: Smart Business Plan Contest, 2007. The finals ware held on Friday, November 30, 2007, in the company's Thoraipakkam premises.
The contest, in four phases, spanning two months, provided opportunity to budding management students across B-schools to get creative, propose new business avenues for Cognizant, and draw up a business plan on what they think should be Cognizant's next move for growth, differentiation and leadership. In the preliminary rounds, Cognizant received about 400 entries from students from B-Schools across the Asia Pacific region. Of these, 114 entries were found eligible and 20 were short listed. Of the 20 entries short listed, those from the National University of Singapore and S.P.Jain Center of Management, also made it to the semifinals. Cognizant's senior management members and domain experts with substantial experience "mentored" the short-listed teams for about two weeks on various aspects of their business plan, global business issues and introduced to the dynamics of the corporate world—a unique feature in B-Plan contests. "The B-Plan contest provided a platform for the students to learn what it takes to successfully grow a business reckoning all aspects of business across strategy, competitive dynamics, financials, marketing and operations" said IIM B alumnus and President and Managing Director of Cognizant R Chandrasekaran. "Cognizant has always fostered a spirit of entrepreneurship within the organization and this has been the key to its success. This contest not only provided a unique opportunity to budding management students across B-schools to get creative and propose new business avenues for Cognizant, but also gave us an outside-in perspective from an important stake-holder—the management student community. It also helped us to expand our network of stakeholders, the key to knowledge management and collaboration in the Web 2.0 era," he added.
SIBM ranked 4th Best B-School in India
SIBM ranked 4th best B-School in India according to a BT-Nielsen study published in Business Today, 23rd September 2007. SIBM has maintained its ranking for the third consecutive year. SIBM was also ranked fourth by MBA aspirants while current MBA students placed the Institute at rank five. Even recruiters ranked SIBM fourth, above IIM-I, IIM-L and SPJIMR, Mumbai.
The ranking model involved polling from all stakeholders such as recruiters, MBA aspirants, current MBAs as well as functional heads. Parameters include reputation, teaching methodology, infrastructure, placement, admission eligibility, faculty, specialist units and quality of placements to name a few.
SIBM is ranked behind only the three top IIMs. Although the list of Top 20 Business Schools definitely saw a lot of changes from last year, the top 5 remained the same. This speaks volumes about SIBM and its constant endeavor to keep pushing up the bars of performance to stay ahead of the pack. SIBM has yet again left three IIMS viz. IIM-L, IIM-I and IIM-K in its wake while holding on tenaciously to its fourth rank.
Endeavour 2007
The two important things I did learn were that you are as powerful and strong as you allow yourself to be, and that the most difficult part of any endeavour is taking the first step, making the first decision.” Robyn Davidson
Endeavour is a venture of Symbiosis Institute of Business Management & the Corporate Interface Team towards celebrating & showcasing the spirit of Entrepreneurship. This is the first attempt of its kind in a business school, which aims at presenting India’s best intra & entrepreneurs together as an inspiration to the students & corporate.
As a mark of their support for Endeavour, we had good wishes coming in from many big names in the industry, like Dr. Vijay Mallya – Chairman United Breweries Ltd., Mr. R. Subramanian - Founder Subhiksha, Mr. Rana Kapoor – Founder YES Bank & Ms Rashmi Bansal – Editor & Publisher JAM Magazine.
As a fitting tribute to entrepreneurship, we organized The Endeavour Week, which was a weeklong series of lectures, quizzes & competitions that began 10 Aug. We take you through the week that gave a fitting backdrop for the tribute to Entrepreneurship, on 18 Aug 2007.
Lokesh and Pragati do SIBM proud at Telecom Grandmasters 2007
Lokesh Gurunathan and Pragati Katyal from SIBM were declared the first runners-up in Telecom GrandMasters Quiz 2007, jointly organized by Symbiosis Institute of Telecom Management (SITM), Pune and TATA Teleservices Limited last Friday.
Vinod Ganesh and Anil Kumar from Irevna, Chennai were declared winners with Subhodeep Jash and Subhajit Chakraborty from SSLC second runners-up.
The event, now in its sixth year, was held at Symbiosis Vishwabhavan and saw the participation of 500 teams from 35 cities across the country. The event is aimed at providing a competitive platform to corporate and student teams. TTSL chief HR officer Aditya Jain was chief guest, while SOTL director and chairman Pravin Agarwal and former Indian Idol Abhijit Sawant graced the event.
Summit SIBM ’07 a grand success
Summit SIBM, the annual Management Conclave scaled new heights this year. Held on the 31st of August and the 1st & 2nd of September, it witnessed a highly distinguished array of speakers from India Inc.
31st of August was the IT/ITes day. Eminent personalities like Shri Praful Patel-Union Minister for Civil Aviation, Mr.K.Dinesh- Co-founder, Infosys, Mr.Shashi Ruia-Chairman, Essar Group, Dr.J.J. Irani-Director, Tata Sons, and others shared their precious insights with the audience.
The BFSI day which was on the 1st of September had in its list of speakers, famous personalities like Mr.Rakesh Jhunjhunwala-Investor and Partner, Rare Enterprises, Mr.Rajnikant Patel-MD & CEO, Bombay Stock Exchange, Mr.Anirudh Prabhakaran-COO, South East Asia, 3i Infotech, and others.
The concluding day was dedicated to the Emerging Sectors, and for a panel discussion. Mr.Santosh Desai-MD & CEO, Future Brands, Mr. M.K.Venu-Senior Editor, Economic Times and others spoke about their fields of expertise. This was followed by a panel discussion on the Energy Sector. The panelists were Mr.Dilip Walse Patel-Energy Minister, Maharashtra State, Mr.Pradeep Bhargava-Vice Chairman, CII, Maharashtra State, Mr.Joseph Chaly-Director Marketing, Vestas India Ltd., Mr.Shantanu Dixit-Prayaas, Energy Conservation NGO and Mr.Amulya Charan-MD Tata Power Trading.
All the 3 days of the conclave were attended in large numbers by students, not just from SIBM, but from many other colleges in Pune, and also by the Corporate community. The occasion was graced by Dr.S.B.Mujumdar-Chancellor, Symbiosis International University (SIU), Dr.M.S.Raste-Vice Chancellor, SIU, Dr.Vidya Yeravdekar-Joint Director, Symbiosis Society, Dr.Arun Mudbidri-Director, SIBM and Mr.Shrirang Altekar-Chairperson, Summit SIBM.
Summit SIBM 2007 was the biggest management conclave ever at SIBM, and it was a result of months of tireless effort put in by the Extra Curriculars team of SIBM, under the able leadership of its Co-ordinator Mr.Chirayu Desai.
SIBM inks MOU with ICSI-CCRT
Symbiosis International University (SIU) & ICSI-CCRT (Institute of Company Secretaries of India –Centre for Corporate Research & Training) have signed a MoU to bring together management and legal skills to make the business executives proficient in legal knowledge and secretarial practitioners business savvy.
ICSI – CCRT, has been established by the Institute of Company Secretaries of India, a statutory body incorporated under the Company Secretaries Act, 1980, which offers CS course.
This MoU was signed on 16th August 2007 revealed Dr. S.B Mujumdar - Chancellor, SIU. Dr M .S. Raste -Vice Chancellor - SIU, Dr Vidya Yeravdekar - Joint Director, Symbiosis Society were also present at the time of signing this MoU.
As per this MoU , Symbiosis Institute Of Business Management (SIBM) a constituent of SIU will ensure that SIBM modules will get integrated into SMTP (Secretarial Modular Training Program) curriculum of ICSI-CCRT at national level , observed Dr. Arun Mudbidri, - Director, SIBM .
SIBM will design the module for the foundation program on business orientation and communications skills, Dr Mudbidri added.
The IT Team of SIBM has also reviewed the website of ICSI and gave consultancy on it to make it more accessible from the business perspective. This also includes a whole gamut of services like Search Engine Optimization, industry best practices, content review and other services.
ICSI-CCRT will be offering Semester III finance specialization students batch a weeklong residential program on legal environment, M & A, Corporate restructuring and IPO. The students of SIBM will also visit the stock exchange and depository to experience live trading.
ICSI-CCRT has also designed a course on “contemporary legal /regulatory environment” and also provided faculty for the same, Dr.Mudbidri went on to add.
SIBM inks MoU with Hexaware
Hexaware Technologies is extending its plans for Hexa Varsity. It has signed an MoU with Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (SIBM) for training their students on enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions. It has already tied up with Madras University and is looking at more such tie ups, as part of its larger vision for 'Hexa Varsity', according to Mr Brij. The company has designed the course and it will be available as an elective for students of the third semester. Hexaware will also provide faculty along with other support to the institute. "We are looking at a lot of academic tie ups which will help a larger interaction with colleges. Apart from creating a pool for possible recruitment, it will help us build large training facilities at our various development centres," said Mr Brij.
SIBM conquers Tata Crucible Finals
Rohit and Nikhil from had a sensational victory at the National Finals of 'Tata Crucible - The Campus Quiz 2006' held at Hotel Taj President, Mumbai on March 5, 2007.
The 8 finalists, one from each of the regional rounds who competed at the grand finale were Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata; Institute of Management and Technology (IMT), Ghaziabad, New Delhi; Nirma Institute of Management, Ahmedabad; Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India (ICFAI), Hyderabad; College of Engineering Guindy (COE), Chennai; Centre for Management Studies, Bangalore; Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (SIBM), Pune; KJ Somaiya Institute of Management, Mumbai.
The quiz featured 6 rounds namely Global Minds, Branded Minds, Racing Minds, Tata World, Lateral Minds and Decoding Minds.
SIBM conquers Tata Crucible (Pune)
The team consisting of Rohit Jain and Nikhil Narayanan won the Pune round of Tata Crucible Quiz conducted on 16th February 2007. After 3 rounds of intense quizzing the four teams that made it to the round of 4 were SIMS, SIBM, Vamnicom, SSLC. It was in the final moments of the quiz that SIBM team took a few risks and won by a whisker. They will meet other regional champions at the national finals soon to be held in Mumbai.
If a quiz-appreciating audience, thought provoking questions, an engaging quizmaster and a nail biting finish is the ideal recipe for a great quiz, that is precisely what Pune got to witness at the campus edition of Tata Crucible
Alok Malshet and Tanmay Kumar on a winning spree
Alok Malshet Tanmay Kumar of 1 st Year MBA Marketing have been on a quiz winning spree winning 3 business quizzes in a row in quick succession. They conquered the quizzing events at the college fests of SIOM-Nashik (Drishti 2007) ,IIPM-Pune (Amaze 2006),IMR-Pune ( Zeal-2007).
Mohammed Irfan Siddiqui rated highest Indian scrabble player in the world.
Mohammed Irfan Siddiqui (MBA II Marketing) was ranked 1 of the Indian contingent to the Mini World Cup - Causeway Tournament held at Malaysia from Dec 8,2006 to Dec 10,2006. He finished 14th and does SIBM proud by being the highest rated Indian scrabble player in the world.