Events
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.
The ENDEAVOUR Begins 10 Aug 2007
As an auspicious start to this glorious endeavour, we had with us Mr. Harsh Mariwala, Chairman, Marico Industries to inaugurate the Endeavour 2007 week. He spoke about entrepreneurship and journey of Marico.
THE 6 Sigma pioneers –The Dabbawalas 13 Aug 2007
6 Sigma is a sought after aim for any company today, & it is nearly impossible for a 115 year organization to boast of this consistent record. But the Dabbawalas from Mumbai addressed us & proved that it is indeed possible, with employee strength of 5000, & a unique organization structure in which everyone is a shareholder. Mr. Raghunath Medge, President, Mumbai Dabbawalla Association enthralled the audience with his speech. He told the students how they manage to deliver excellent performance with minimal resources, year after year.
GLIMPSES of great men – impressions
When we think of the great men that have led the business world, we are inspired to learn, to follow & make our own mark. This indeed was the aim behind sending the students the stories of the icons that have created new industries where none existed.
We emailed every day, over the entire Endeavour week, stories of personalities like Richard Branson – CEO Virgin Atlantic; Rupert Murdoch – CEO NewsCorp; Carlos Slim – The richest man in the world; & Walt Disney – late CEO of Disney Corp; among others.
We also extend our heartfelt thanks & gratitude to Ms. Gita Piramal, a renowned author for providing us with the content.
Celluloid 16 aug 2007
To capture the spirit of entrepreneurship on the silver screen CIT organized the screening of the well known movie “Aviator” in Vishwabhawan on 16th of August. The movie definitely matched with the theme of the week, and it left students much more enthusiastic about following their dreams even in the face of opposition. The students enjoyed the experience of the movie on a big screen and it obviously left them craving for more, as they relaxed after a hectic day of college, watching a man realize his mission. The exercise reinforced the belief that the visual media is a very effective means of communicating thoughts and in the case of Celluloid, it was definitely used well.
Synapse 17 aug 2007
This event was a part of the two interactive events organized on the penultimate day of Endeavour 2007. It was truly an event that mixed fun of quizzing with the passion of entrepreneurship. It was a common ground wherein participants had to exercise their neurons just a bit more! From questions such as what is common to Sify, Infosys and Rediff.com to solving crosswords, the basic theme of the game was entrepreneurs and it definitely made them think on their feet. It was thoroughly enjoyed by the participants and received an enthusiastic response with over 20 teams participating in the quiz. Alok Malshet and Tanmaya Kumar of MBA II were the winners of the quiz.
Eureka 17 aug 2007
This was the second of the two interactive events as mentioned above which were organized. The basic idea was to encourage innovative thinking and creativity in students. There have been times in life that we thought we had an out-of the-box idea that could be turned into a practical business venture. The event was aimed at discussing such ideas; Eureka thus provided a platform to students to discuss their ideas with peers and esteemed judges. It was an opportunity to also check the feasibility of their ideas as they shared them with the experienced judges and a bright audience. The presentation of the idea was followed by in-depth discussion on the feasibility wherein participants were judged on their ability to defend their projects. The focus was more on creativity and feasibility than on a rigorous analysis of the idea. The event received an enthusiastic response; Amit Khandelwal of MBA II won the first prize.
Graffiti
An entrepreneur knows no limits, he knows but his dream. We had the students expressing their views on entrepreneurship in a most unique way - graffiti! As we put the canvas up, we had students writing about “Being the creator of one’s own destiny” to a more succinct “No bosses”.
The Entrepreneur’s Conclave 18 aug 2007
A week full of exciting events & challenging competitions were the fitting build up to the grand day of 18 Aug 2007 – Endeavour 2007. The excitement was palpable, as the sheer number & stature of our guest speakers was overwhelming. These were the men who strove to follow their dreams & take on what life had for them, & walked through success & failure to achieve their goals.
We had a good turnout from the student delegates, who came from all over Pune’s different colleges. The corporate delegates also showed good participation, by enrolling through both our Endeavour 2007 Website, & through our registration process.
We began the day by a presentation on what Endeavour means to us at SIBM, & what we hope to achieve through it.
Mr. Ajit Balakrishnan, CEO Rediff.com was our Keynote Speaker, who told us about how an entrepreneur needs to be ever alert & nimble to the opportunities around him. He showed us through examples of how leaders need to ride the wave at the right time, by observing the changes occurring in the business environment around him.
Our Guest of Honour, Mr. V.Vaidyanathan, Executive Director, Retail Banking, ICICI spoke to us. He told us about how Innovation is not Invention, & how we should not look towards making new things always. Sometimes the resources & the ideas are all available; they only need to be applied. We have to connect the various dots, & make it into a viable business venture. He also told us about how ICICI used those ideas, into making it the retail banking leader in India.
Mr. Sunil Gulati, the Chief Knowledge Officer at YES Bank spoke to us later. He was personally appointed by Mr. Rana Kapoor, the Founder, YES Bank. Mr. Gulati told us how the liberalization wave in India makes it the best place to be for future intra & entrepreneurs. He told us about the Customer centric approach of YES Bank, which has made it achieve phenomenal growth in just 3 years.
Mr. Mahesh Murthy, the dynamic venture capitalist, Founder - Passion Fund, was our next speaker. He literally had the audience gasping in awe when he challenged the beliefs that all take for granted. He also gave various insights on entrepreneurship, how the vision should be clear. He encouraged the students to not be employees, but do what they wanted. The audience didn’t want him to leave the stage at all!
After those insightful discussions, we also had a conclave of entrepreneurs enter into a panel discussion & debate on the current issues & ideas on business today.
The members were-
Mr. Sarath Babu - The Founder of Food King Catering Services;
Mr. Allwin Agnel – Founder Pagalguy.com;
Mr. Anand Lunia -Executive director & CFO SeedFund;
Mr. Shashi Kanth - Manpower President Subhiksha.
Our moderator was Mr. Ravi Mehendaley, an alumnus of the 4th batch of SIBM.
They answered numerous questions from the audience & even helped in answering practical problems that a budding entrepreneur would have. We had the panelists sharing their initial struggle, reliving the joy of freedom, & debating on how the right attitude is the key thing. They also shared with us what they believe are the key qualities required in an entrepreneur.
Video Bytes – the Icons spoke
We also had an exclusive coverage that was never done before at SIBM; a video interview of some great entrepreneurs & their words of encouragement for the students here.
Ms. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Founder Biocon Ltd. spoke to us from Bangalore & told us how thrilling & exciting it is to be an entrepreneur. How we have many more resources at hand now, which we can use to move ahead with new ideas. She also said that the most important quality that an entrepreneur needs is persistence, through good & bad.
Dr. Devi Shetty, the renowned cardiologist, Narayana Hrudayalaya spoke to us from his hospital, & told us the importance of social responsibility in the midst of all the competition. Also were shared, his experiences with curing children & adults free of cost, & the satisfaction gained therein. He said that the biggest payment that he receives from the patients is in the smiles that he sees on their faces.
With that, we ended our endeavour, to enlighten, to inspire & to lead by example. Endeavour 2007 is the embodiment of what we believe in at SIBM, that we are the Business Leaders of tomorrow.