A panel discussion, Business Excellence, was organized for II MBA students in February, 2020. The panelists focused on the idea of business excellence and ways to plan, deploy and sustain excellence in Business. Discussions centered on the use of Excellence frameworks, particularly the Malcolm Baldrige and EFQM frameworks.
Business Excellence
These framework assist organizations in becoming more more competitive by aligning their plans, processes, decisions, people, actions, and results. The latest modifications to these globally adopted frameworks and the key challenges in carrying out an assessment of a business organization were discussed. The sessions ended with a fruitful question and answer session.
The panelists included:
Govindarajan Jagannathan, Chief Executive Officer at Transconn International, LLC, Krishnan Parayil, Principal Counsellor, Business Excellence at Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), and Commander Sreenivasan, a veteran Navy officer with a distinguished record of service to the nation across various fields.
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Times Litfest
What happens when you bring together brilliant authors, thinkers, writers, journalists, leaders, students, nerds, aunties and enthusiasts together for a couple of days?
You get the Times Litfest, Bengaluru, an event that the postgraduate students, research scholars and the faculty members of the Dept. of English, SSSIHL, attended in Bangalore.
The theme of the 6th Times Litfest (8-9 Feb 2020) was ‘Atheetha’, which translates to ‘beyond’. With over 70 speakers (authors, poets, filmmakers, musicians and the like), a host of book launches, children’s competitions, literary sessions and more; students, scholars and faculty had the opportunity to soak in plenty of ideas, thoughts and opinions.
Eclectic discussions and talks ranged from the growing importance of keeping politics away from scholarship (by Jairam Ramesh) to mythology (for example Kavitha Kane’s narration on the unsung heroes of Ramayana and Mahabharata). The two-day fest truly broadened the literary perspectives of the participants engaging them in thought-provoking new ideologies and concepts in greater magnitudes.
A student aptly summed up her experience: “The Times litfest was a marketplace of ideas. It helped to nurture the seed sown of new perspectives and ideas on many topics and assisted budding writers with several tangents of outlooks, which is the ultimate success of the event.”
“Reading is to the mind, what exercise is to the body,” as Joseph Addison, an English essayist, poet, playwright and politician, once said.
#SSSIHL #SSSIHLEnglishLanguageLiterature #timeslitfest
The Competition Act
First year MBA students of the Dept. of Management & Commerce learnt the ins and outs of the Competition Act (legislated in 2002 to prevent activities that have an adverse effect on competition in India) by a series of guest lectures, delivered by Mrs. R Kiran Nath, a retired legal expert, whose career spans four decades.
She outlined how it replaced the archaic Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act of 1969, and what changes it brought about – from healthy competition in the market to restrictive trading practices, different types of agreements, the concept of cartels, etc. She elucidated all these topics with relevant practical examples and case studies they promote. She also lectured on the Competition Commission of India (CCI), its various objectives and notable examples and case studies. In all, students gained a thorough insight on the subject.
#SSSIHL #SSSIHLManagementCommerce
Virtual Lab
The Dept. of Physics, SSSIHL organized a workshop, Virtual Labs, in collaboration with the Virtual Labs Outreach Team, led by Ms. D V N Mrudhvika, the Outreach Coordinator and Project engineer, IIIT Hyderabad, on 6 February 2020.
The workshop explored possibilities of how SSSIHL faculty can become content generators for virtual lab experiments. Nineteen faculty members from SSSIHL Science departments across campuses participated.
Virtual Labs is an initiative of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), under the National Mission on Education through Information and Communications Technology (ICT) which aims to provide remote-access to labs in various disciplines of Science and Engineering. These virtual labs will cater to students at the undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral research level. The technology will eliminate constraints on time and geographical distances and bring shared access (to students across the country) to otherwise expensive Learning Management Systems.
Getting Ready for Professional Life in Organisations
Getting Ready for Professional Life in Organisations
In late January 2020, Anahat Organisation Development Consultancy Pvt. Ltd. conducted a workshop for the students of the final year M.B.A. programme (separate sessions for women and men students) to help them recognize the options they have in their work lives and then guide them make the right choice.
The expert trainers, Sri C S Mahesh and Ms. Janaki Venkat, Founders of Anahat, and Ms. Sivakami Suryanarayan, Principal Secretary of Anahat, made all students take the internationally recognized Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), a psychometric test that helps identify types of personalities and find ways to use personality differences constructively to improve personal effectiveness, team performance and manage work relationships better.
Students learnt a lot about their own personalities and strengths, and how to confidently use that knowledge to develop a career profile that matches their personality and interest.
The trainers concluded by making the students realize the importance of developing abilities in their non-preferred areas while maintaining their own preferred state. This helps in respecting the contribution of team members and considering their opinions with an understanding that each personality is valuable.
#SSSIHLManagementCommerce #SSSIHL
Re-wired Metabolism Drives Breast Cancer
Prof. Arun Sreekumar, Charles C Bell Jr. Endowed Professor, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas and Visiting Faculty, Dept. of Biosciences, SSSIHL, an expert on Cancer Biology delivered a keynote lecture on Re-wired Metabolism Drives Breast Cancer at SSSIHL on 22 Jan 2020.
The talk focused on how breast cancer modifies its metabolism to escape host immune response and become aggressive (metastatic). The mechanism underpinnings that drive this immune escape was determined. The potential translation of these findings to develop treatment strategies for patients was discussed.
#SSSIHL #SSSIHLResearch #SSSIHLChemistry #cancerbiology#breastcancerresearch.
Corporate Social Responsibility
Mrs. G Madhavi, Partner, CAS & Associates, and alumnus, SSSIHL gave a series of lectures on the importance of Corporate Social Responsibility at the individual level to M.B.A. students in January. She stressed on the sense of accountability that each professional must employ, and how the maxim, Develop oneself to develop the economy, is a good moral compass to have.
Organizations use many strategies for this too. For example, a Vigil (Whistle Blower) Mechanism that provides a channel to the employees and Directors to report to the management concerns about unethical behavior, actual or suspected fraud, or violation of the Codes of conduct or policy.
She also lectured on topics such as Cross Border Mergers and Insider Trading. She used industry-oriented examples to increase the visibility of its applications. The concepts taught were linked with spirituality, thereby highlighting its importance in work and life.
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Mental Models
Redefine your model of the world!
Students of the M.B.A. programme participated in a self-analytical workshop, Mental Models, conducted by Ms. Shradha S Jaitly, GM (Finance), International Trade & Risk Management, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL).
They participated in two activities, left and right-hand column activity, as well as a debate between union and management, that enabled them to analyze their model of the world — thoughts, feelings, actions and results. The activities helped them identify their preconceived notions and deeply held beliefs and assumptions that come in the way of clarity, effective decision making and actions.
As a result, students gained a deeper understanding of their thoughts and feelings and learned techniques on how to release them. They were empowered to meet personal and professional challenges that come their way by adjusting the view of the problem at hand.
After all, not every dilemma is presented to us in the same way, nor can it be decided from the same vantage point. As a wise man once rightly said, two heads are better than one, and four heads are better than two.
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Dr. S Panchanathan to be the Director of the National Science Foundation
Dr. S “Panch” Panchanathan
Dr. S Panchanathan, a devotee of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba and Adjunct Faculty, Dept. of Mathematics & Computer Science, SSSIHL has been nominated as the next President of The National Science Foundation (NSF), USA by President Trump.
Dr. S Panchanathan (or “Panch”) currently serves as the Executive Vice President and the Chief Research and Innovation Officer at Arizona State University (ASU).
The NSF is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1950 “to promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; to secure the national defence…” It has a directive to fund (with a budget of approximately US$ 8 Billion) almost a quarter of all federally supported basic research conducted by the United States’ colleges and universities in fields such as Mathematics, Computer Science, Economics, and the Social Sciences.
“For five years, Panchanathan has been a bold, energizing presence on the National Science Board and he was a leader in every sense of the word in the research community prior to that,” said NSF Director France Córdova in a statement. “Panch has the character and knowledge that make him an ideal fit for the job.”
“He is the best kind of disruptor, one who understands that the best way to predict the future is to invent it,” said Diane Souvaine, chair of the National Science Board in Alexandria, Virginia, in a statement.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/…/president-donald-j-trump-anno…/
M.B.A. Students – Industrial Visits (Men) – 2019
A unique aspect of the SSSIHL MBA programme is to determine how the management concepts learnt in the classroom can be applied to help alleviate some of the problems that the villagers of India face in their daily lives.
On 18 December 2019, the I MBA students (Prasanthi Nilayam Campus) visited villages in the Anekal Taluk of Karnataka adopted by Srinivasan Services Trust (SST), the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) arm of the TVS Group.
The TVS Group has partnered with the Bosch India Foundation to enable the transformation of 5000 rural communities and urban slums by empowering people to achieve sustainable development. To this end, it has committed (at least) 2% of its yearly net profits.
Students were privy to several programmes during their visit. Some of these included the Dress Craft and embroidery design programme (which helps village folks sell their products with decent margins in the marketplace), the Self-Employment Training Programme (a three-month course for women aimed to give them financial independence by becoming entrepreneurs) and the ‘Balwadi’ programme, designed for the upkeep, education and engagement of children.
They experienced firsthand how these villages are growing in stature, the standard of living and confidence. It made them realize how we can make such a big difference in the lives of so many when we believe and take it upon ourselves to serve and give back to society.
Students also visited GE Healthcare, Times of India and TVS Motors in Bangalore, Karnataka & Hosur, Tamil Nadu, 17-18 Sep 2019.