“Reinventing Management: Leadership in the new era of Technology” ­­

 The event witnessed lectures on the topic by industry leaders like –

•          Mr. Soumik Nath, Head, Technology Engineering & Application, Godrej Consumer Products Limited
•          Mr. Vinayak Muzumdar, Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Chief Confidentiality Officer (CCO), Deloitte
•          Mr. Shrikant Lonikar, CHRO and Director on Board, Pernod Ricard India
•          Mr. Satyarth Priyedarshi, Head of Product Marketing, JioChat
•          Mr. Susheel Walia, Director- Information Security, JDA Software
•          Mr. Sushil Agarwal, Head (Operation and Deployment), Indus Towers Limited.
•          Mr. Vinay Prabhakar, Partner at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India LLP
•          Mr. Joy Chakraborty, Chief Operating Officer, P D Hinduja Hospital – Hinduja Group 
•       Mr. Mayank Tandon, Head, Food Services – Future Group, India

 The event went around brushing upon the following suggestive and non-restrictive sub-themes :

  Challenges in Technology Leadership

The latest trends in leadership are always impacted by technological advancements. Understanding of technology hence is a must to be efficient in the present context. The speaker explained dilemmas in decision making pertaining to technology. He briefly explained how IOT and cloud computing were impacting and improving business. He also talked about artificial intelligence and comparison with human intelligence.

 Using technology in connecting people to get best out of business

Technology has proved highly effective in bringing people together on virtual platforms and utilizing the collaborative potential. The comparison between Sony’s Walkman and Apple iPod made it clear how a strategy of collaboration could lead to high adaptivity and quality. The talk went on to discuss major factors that influence collaboration, namely, Culture of collaboration, Focus on results, Trust, Human nature, Search and Physical barriers/distance. For efficient collaboration, it is important to clearly define and set goals and to determine and communicate the technology to be leveraged.

Unleash your leadership genes and fulfill your hidden potential

For being an effective leader, the first question that needs to be answered is why exactly you want to be a leader and what sets you apart. Leaders are important for growth of any group, society or organisation. The talk mentioned that the leadership is effective if the rest of the group aspires to be like the leader. The glamour and power attached with leadership comes with a lot of responsibility. Leaders can make or break an organisation. The motive is to be one who makes.

Stickiness in technology

Technology has evolved rapidly in past few centuries, not just in terms of the advancement, but also in terms of its sources and reasons. Till 300 years ago technology was created by individuals and if it was useful it used to travel across geographies. Stickiness was created by its usefulness. However, nowadays technology is developed by government and businesses, and it is their Intellectual Property. Stickiness in the present era is mainly to make profits and to get a large number of customers. Stickiness is important as huge amount of money is spent in technology and firms need to make profit out of it. Short term and long-term stickiness is enforced based on the technology.

Disruptive technology as a strategy to survive in an agile world

Technological disruption has undoubtedly become the buzz word in the past decade and rightly so. The rapid development of technology coupled with the humongous size of stakes involved has resulted in the transformation. For a firm to succeed, it is a must nowadays to keep on your toes and be on the lookout to observe and implement any technological advancements so as to keep up with the rapidly changing scenario. Technology as a disruption has proven instrumental in rapid growth of organisations and their scope.

Data Analytics in management leadership

Data has become the core of most business decisions taken in the business world in the present day context. Data is everywhere and in abundance. The right data needs to be filtered and spotted. This data now needs to be analysed and the analysis and projections are used to make business decisions. The scale of data has reached unbelievable levels. With higher size of data, we need better technology, better algorithms and methodologies to filter and analyse it. A great deal of effort is put into minimizing the errors in predictions.

 Role of technology in management leadership: how technology is changing the job

Technology has penetrated everywhere, and it is changing the way we work. Its not just limited to the production process, all facets of working are being revised and improved through technology. Fluidity, agility, flexibility and speed have taken the front seat for successful operation instead of the size. Remote access to facilities has hugely enhanced the convenience, quality as well as efficiency of work. In such rapid growth scenario, it is important to keep up with technology and keep adapting to new methodologies in order to keep from getting obsolete. Firms who have taken apt steps to enhance their technology have proved successful in the recent past in contrast to big firms losing their market almost completely because of ignoring the change. 

Indian food industries – emerging opportunities

India is world’s sixth producer of milk, second largest producer of fruits and vegetables, third largest fish producer and the highest priority market for the global food-service industry. Every year India produces 255 million metric tons food on an average. In spite of having such preferable conditions for the food market, the country has not been able to utilize the potential to the fullest. The lack of infrastructure, inadequate investment, agricultural development programs focused on production, lack of processing varieties, the absence of efficient supply chain management and lack of access to world technologies are the reasons of slow growth of fresh food in India. The consumer demand for safe and less processed food which is fresh and easily available, opens up the need of innovation and technology in the industry. Technology can be utilized for the benefit in food processing, packaging and transportation.