Indian Institute of Management Udaipur hosted the first day of its maiden management festival, Solaris, on 7^th November, 2015 at the college premises.

The two-day long extravaganza, entirely conceptualized and managed by students of the institute, is designed so as to keep some of India’s most brilliant minds engaged and the first day was certainly a testament to that fact.

The first day saw a plethora of events including two summits, The Leadership Summit and Samvaah – The Marketing Conclave, and various competitions including a short film competition. The summits were attended by leaders of industry and eminent personalities along-with students of reputed institutions throughout the country. The competitions too ranged far and wide including Juxtapose, an ad-making competition and Auteur’s labyrinth, the short film making event.A staggering amount of prize money is on offer through the course of 23 events scattered across 2 days. The competitions boast of total prize money of upwards of Rs 4 lakhs which is a staggering amount for competitions primarily testing the students’ proficiency in their managerial studies.

The event began with a Welcome Address by Prof. Janat Shah – Director, IIM Udaipur. Prof. Shah’s address laid emphasis on the advantages of a young institution and outlined the importance of the role of a fest like Solaris in the larger vision of the college.He emphasized on three objectives of IIM Udaipur’s existence i.e. Research focus, transformation of students and making difference to the Udaipur community.

  Keynote Address- Dr. Subir Gokarn The event presented an enthralling keynote address from distinguished luminaries like Dr.SubirGokarn- the current Director-Research, Brookings India and also the youngest ever former Deputy Governor of RBI. His speech was regarding the macroeconomic situation of India and delved into the intricacies of various parameters that affect the economic situation. He also compared India globally and stated the challenges, positives and the reasons why India has the capacity to become the global leader. Regarding India’s economic outlook, he commented that “Domestic tail winds are strong but there are global head winds”, which certainly summarized various aspects of his speech and it was a privilege to have him here at IIM Udaipur.

Leadership Summit

The Leadership Summit is a student-driven initiative which is organized by the Media and Industry Cell (MiiC) of IIMU. It was the fourth edition of the summit and as with previous years, this year too saw industry stalwarts gracing the stage.

The umbrella theme for the Leadership Summit 2015 was “Evolve- Innovate. Reflect. Reinvent “. The theme was decided keeping in mind the evolving nature of businesses and economy at large. The stage was graced by business dignitaries such as Mr. M.S. Unnikrishnan (MD & CEO, Thermax Limited), Mr. SandeepBudhiraja (Country Head, MMR Research Worldwide), Mr. Ajay Gupta (Director – Chief Operations Officer at Decimal Point Analytics) and Mr. Manish Rastogi (Head – Strategy at Metro Cash & Carry India Private Limited).

The first keynote address was followed by an address from another behemoth of the business world, Mr. M.S. Unnikrishnan. A recipient of the ‘Asia Innovator Award’ and a passionate advocate of a sustaining ecosystem of innovation and technology for national resurgence, he is also involved in making initiatives in improving the system of technical education. Quoting Mr. Unnikrishnan, “Opportunities are aplenty, be inclusive in your thinking” was the central theme of his speech where he focused on channelizing India’s diversity to reap the gains which India deserves. He also stated that- “Learn from the precedent set by other countries but never ape them”. Through this he emphasized on how we should learn from others but also chart a course of our own.

Mr. Sandeep Budhiraja having past experiences in companies like AC Nielsen, Lowe, Millward Brown among others gave a very intriguing speech regarding advertising and the changing scenarios in the current marketing era. He related his experiences from the past in various sectors and stated that “You can do whatever you want to do if you have the right path” and also highlighted the importance of a leader making others do things which they think they cannot do. He gave examples of many innovative marketing strategies and concluded by saying “Leaders are rare as they dream big and do not fear from failure.”

Mr. Manish Rastogi is the Head of Strategy at Metro Cash and Carry. His speech encompassed the theme in its entirety. He emphasized on innovation as a key driver of growth and quoted-“Innovation has to be driven top down and a wholesome process” i.e. Innovation needs to occur in all departments.

Mr. Ajay Gupta is the COO of Decimal Point Analytics and gave a bird’s eye operational view of data analytics. He quoted- “Technology is a key enabler in current times” and thus laid importance on the importance of evolving technology in processing and predicting data

The speeches helped create curiosity among students. This was followed by Prof Shah presenting a token of thanks to the dignitaries and thus bringing about the culmination of another successful edition of the Summit.

Samvaah-

The Leadership Summit was followed by the marketing conclave -Samvaah organized completely by the marketing club- Marclan. The club which tries to instill a zeal for marketing in the college as well as beyond believes that the world of marketing is changing from the tried and tested concepts of the old. Marclan put in an untiring effort and diligence into finding the perfect industry experts to interact with the students on the topic of “The future of marketing”.

Mr. Ram Moorthi (Managing Partner at Oglivy & Mather) who talked about the human side of marketing and how the need of the hour was to leverage technology to build strong human relationships and therefore strong brand. He further stressed on the powers of observation that prove to be very effective in building the aforementioned relations.

Mr. Atindriya Bose (Country Head of Sony entertainment) delineated about brand planning and how the communications of a company along with the information flow process need to be dynamic to adapt to the changing trends. Ms. GayatriOjha (Brand Communications & Insights Head – M-Pesa at Vodafone India) brought out the critical aspects of brand value like its creation and how the consumer insight results now hint towards a value-sensitive customer opposed to a cost-sensitive one. Mr. Abhishek Joshi(Director – Digital Marketing & Customer Acquisition at Redbus.in), and Mr. N R Srinivasan(Director – Business Development, Stone Age e-Ventures Pvt Ltd) also graced the events with their profound talks.

Competitions on Day 1 Of Solaris-

There were various competitions throughout the day which saw participation from students of prestigious B-schools around the country including IIM Ahmedabad, SIBM etc. The competitions from domains of marketing, entrepreneurship and finance tested the students to the core and the frenzy, tension and excitement showcased the students’ eagerness and zeal to win.

Juxtapose was the brand evolution challenge held by the marketing club where the students had to create an ad regarding Microsoft and leverage the ad to venture into new industry domains.The judges were industry leaders Mr. Abhishek Joshi and Ms. GayatriOjha who provided valuable insights to the students.

Vitt- Sangram was the case study competition with the students working on a case provided by Finomina, the Finance Club. The competition saw the analytical, data mining skills of the students and tested the students’ knowledge of various Financial aspects.

Auteur’s Labyrinth was the keenly anticipated short film competition which was judged by eminent director Mr. VibhuPuri. The competition saw a number of entries from many students across the country.

Evolution d Entrepreneur was a business simulation game organized by Saksham, the E-Cell of IIM Udaipur in collaboration with TopSim. Teams from IIM A, MICA , IIM Udaipur etc. participated and had to act as entrepreneurs and build their companies.

The first day was thus an enthralling day of events with the summits and competitions providing the perfect balance of learning and competitiveness which made Solaris Day 1 live up to its expectation. The Day 2 of Solaris on 8^th November ( Sunday) would begin at 9:00 AM in IIM Udaipur  campus and would host two more summits, The ArthSamvaad( The Finance Summit), and Technovate( summit to be organize by the joint effort of the entrepreneurship club and the IT club) as well as a number of competitions for the best minds in the country.