The Indian Institute of Management, Udaipur (IIM Udaipur) successfully organized its first edition of the HR Conclave “SPANDAN’13”, on 20th October at the Sheraton Udaipur bringing in the HR experts across the industry under the common platform.

In the 21st century, the greatest asset of any organization is Human Resources, so “SPANDAN” served as the ideal platform to discuss the innovations and address the major challenges in the field.

Keeping in line with the latest trends, the theme for the event was “Transforming HR for new Business Priorities” Prof. Janat Shah, Director; IIM Udaipur delivered the welcome address.

He expressed his vision for the young institution and emphasized on teaching excellence & research, entrepreneurship spirit and student initiatives seen at the institute.

He also spoke on the importance given at IIM Udaipur to the application of concepts through live projects, rural emersion and global exchange programs. He stressed on the importance of management education in being a transformation experience for the students.

The key note speaker for the day was Dr.T.V. Rao. He is regarded as “The Father of Indian HRD” and the founder of the 360 degree feedback system. He focused on the importance of recognizing the value of human capital and investing in nurturing it.

According to Dr. T.V. Rao, spotting, fostering and utilizing talent is the most critical responsibility for the Human Resource department. He emphasized on the need to focus on the intangible assets to build a reliable and quality-driven organization.

The event also witnessed experts from various industries share their expertise through three different panel discussions.

Krish Ganesan, VP- HR at TCS , Kevin Freitas, Director- C&B HR Operations at InMobi, Ashok Reddy, President, Infotech and Dr. Pallab Bandopadhyay, Director HR at Citrix systems took the stage for the first topic “Changing Business Outlook towards HR Practices”.

The panelists brought different perspectives to the discussion sharing their vast experience. The discussion focused on the need for the HR to attract and retain good leadership and talent, to be adaptive to the changing global trends and to enhance the HR practices to match the business requirements.

The post lunch session had a panel discussion on “The Role of Change Management with Increasing Globalization” in which Ganesh Ramakrishnan, Senior Director-HR at Oracle Financial Services, Medha Jain, Talent Manager-Asia Pacific at Axalta Coating Systems, Rajendra Ambekar, Vice President-HR at Business Application Services and Bomi Manekshaw, President-HR at Cadila Pharmaceuticals shared their experiences with the students of the institute.

The discussion revolved around the evolution of the organization with the advent of globalization- overcoming the resistance to change and having long term strategies to create a lasting impact.

The next discussion on the topic “Developing next generation of corporate Leaders” witnessed business experts Amrut Rath, Sr. VP-HR at Bajaj Auto, Kavita Kurup, Head- L&D at ING Vyasa, Souvik Chakraborty, Chief Talent Officer at Reliance Industries and Suma Poduval, Associate GM-HR at Vedanta.

Every organization has a key responsibility of building leaders that can face the current global challenges and meet the need of the hour. The discussion emphasized on the need for appropriate leadership programs to raise leaders who are not only adaptive to meet new challenges but also sensitive to the social responsibilities of the organization.

The panel discussions highlighting the transformations in the field of Human Resources as well as the quality interaction of the panelists created an enriching experience for the audience.