Ahvan, the annual management summit of IIM Indore, which will be held from 19th to 21st November, started today at the IIM Indore campus. With people pouring in from campuses across the country, the campus was bustling with activity throughout the day. Shashank Jha, the coordinator of Ahvan welcomed the guests and briefly outlined the concept and itinerary of the event. The event was inaugurated by Prof. N Ravichandran and Mr. V. Shankar, CEO and MD of Rallis India. While addressing the students, Prof. Ravichandran expressed his happiness about the commencement of the 3 day long festival. He said that Ahvan will give the students an opportunity for an overall personality development as it teaches them the art of management. He reinforced his dream to see one of his students inaugurating this event some years down the line.
This was followed by the first lecture of Envision series of lectures, “Wealth Creation- the Rallis experience” by Mr. V. Shankar where he talked about the rebuilding of the brand Rallis after the company registered historic losses. He told that Rallis was able to recuperate from the downfall by identifying the core reasons for the losses and answering each of those in a focused manner. He stressed upon the need of product portfolio enhancement, strengthening customer relationships and investment in brand building for building up the market position of a company. He also talked about the journey from turnaround of the company to its consolidation by embarking on the growth agenda. The need for efficient technology, proper market research and communication were highlighted through various examples in the talk such as the project Goal which emphasizes on achievement of individual goals to build up the company’s vision.
Day one of Ahvan continued with the same fervor it started off with. The inauguration ceremony was followed by the kicking off of Gordian’s Knot, Kalpavriksha, Ashwamedha. The event started with the usual round of photos and an ice-breaking session. In the latter, many hailed Ashwamedha as a though-leadership initiative, which is a need in today’s B-schools. Others defined it as a “podium to identify future leaders”, with one participant going to the extent of saying that “Ashwa is akin to alchemy”. Dr. Vijay Menon, Organisational Design Consultant at IAS Mussoorie, one of the judges for the event, beautifully captured the essence of a true manager, defining it as a person who has the “simplicity of conception coupled with originality of expression”.
The first round of the event was a quiz, but with a difference. The concept of the quiz was: “The wrong answer is the right answer” – the group was divided into five teams, and questions were posed to them, to which they had to give the wrong answer. The quiz was more of a test of team skills than intelligence, as the quizmaster, Dr. Vijay Menon, mesmerized everyone present with his depth of knowledge on topics as diverse as World Wars and Bhagwat Gita. In the words of one of the contestants, Karthik R, one had to just “trust his instincts” more than anything else to conquer the quiz. The quiz turned out to be a close affair as the margin of victory was very slim.
The second round was a rapid chess round, where the participants became the warriors, with each member having to satisfy a personal agenda, as well as a team goal. The game was a test of intellect as well as team-building skills, as each and every move was debated among the participants.
The third round divided the group into teams yet again, and gave them a commodity to prepare a marketing plan around. The concept was: “It’s easy to create a marketing plan around gizmos, how about creating a plan around objects as simple as a broom!”. Teams were given objects like shoe-lace, broom and rope. The round involved giving a presentation to a panel of judges consisting of Prof. Ashish Sadh and Prof. Sabita Mahapatra, of IIM Indore, who keenly analyzed each presentation. The presentation also involved a commercial, which brought out the creative talent inside the participants.
Simultaneously, a workshop on online marketing by Google Adworks was a huge crowd puller. The workshop started with an address by Mr. Siddhartha Tiwari, a Product Specialist from Google talked about the changes that have happened in the world of marketing, how consumer demands have changed and how the companies have reacted to this change.
Mr. Arjun Narayan from Product Specialist team told about the consumer trends, the emergence and evolution of social networking and how the companies are leveraging these trends. Ms. Seva, from the sales and marketing team involved the audience in a very interesting session where she called upon a student to help her in demonstrating the working of Google Adwords, from the process of registering to finally putting up a company’s advertisements on the internet. This, undoubtedly was an enriching learning experience for all the participants who attended the workshop.
At the same time, the first round of Chain Reaction, the supply chain game, kicked off with very tough participation from all the teams. The first round being concluded, IMT Ghaziabad was leading the boards but everything could change tomorrow when the final round finishes.
Several events are still lined up throughout the night which will keep the hosts and guests at IIM Indore busy and enthralled through the night. The big event of the night being the Grand Finale of Gordian’s Knot whence the “Best Team” would walk away with the crown. A lot of exciting events are planned for day two of Ahvan 2009 with the highlight event, “Spotlight” of Ashwamedha.
Media and Promotions Team,
Ahvan-2009
This was followed by the first lecture of Envision series of lectures, “Wealth Creation- the Rallis experience” by Mr. V. Shankar where he talked about the rebuilding of the brand Rallis after the company registered historic losses. He told that Rallis was able to recuperate from the downfall by identifying the core reasons for the losses and answering each of those in a focused manner. He stressed upon the need of product portfolio enhancement, strengthening customer relationships and investment in brand building for building up the market position of a company. He also talked about the journey from turnaround of the company to its consolidation by embarking on the growth agenda. The need for efficient technology, proper market research and communication were highlighted through various examples in the talk such as the project Goal which emphasizes on achievement of individual goals to build up the company’s vision.
Day one of Ahvan continued with the same fervor it started off with. The inauguration ceremony was followed by the kicking off of Gordian’s Knot, Kalpavriksha, Ashwamedha. The event started with the usual round of photos and an ice-breaking session. In the latter, many hailed Ashwamedha as a though-leadership initiative, which is a need in today’s B-schools. Others defined it as a “podium to identify future leaders”, with one participant going to the extent of saying that “Ashwa is akin to alchemy”. Dr. Vijay Menon, Organisational Design Consultant at IAS Mussoorie, one of the judges for the event, beautifully captured the essence of a true manager, defining it as a person who has the “simplicity of conception coupled with originality of expression”.
The first round of the event was a quiz, but with a difference. The concept of the quiz was: “The wrong answer is the right answer” – the group was divided into five teams, and questions were posed to them, to which they had to give the wrong answer. The quiz was more of a test of team skills than intelligence, as the quizmaster, Dr. Vijay Menon, mesmerized everyone present with his depth of knowledge on topics as diverse as World Wars and Bhagwat Gita. In the words of one of the contestants, Karthik R, one had to just “trust his instincts” more than anything else to conquer the quiz. The quiz turned out to be a close affair as the margin of victory was very slim.
The second round was a rapid chess round, where the participants became the warriors, with each member having to satisfy a personal agenda, as well as a team goal. The game was a test of intellect as well as team-building skills, as each and every move was debated among the participants.
The third round divided the group into teams yet again, and gave them a commodity to prepare a marketing plan around. The concept was: “It’s easy to create a marketing plan around gizmos, how about creating a plan around objects as simple as a broom!”. Teams were given objects like shoe-lace, broom and rope. The round involved giving a presentation to a panel of judges consisting of Prof. Ashish Sadh and Prof. Sabita Mahapatra, of IIM Indore, who keenly analyzed each presentation. The presentation also involved a commercial, which brought out the creative talent inside the participants.
Simultaneously, a workshop on online marketing by Google Adworks was a huge crowd puller. The workshop started with an address by Mr. Siddhartha Tiwari, a Product Specialist from Google talked about the changes that have happened in the world of marketing, how consumer demands have changed and how the companies have reacted to this change.
Mr. Arjun Narayan from Product Specialist team told about the consumer trends, the emergence and evolution of social networking and how the companies are leveraging these trends. Ms. Seva, from the sales and marketing team involved the audience in a very interesting session where she called upon a student to help her in demonstrating the working of Google Adwords, from the process of registering to finally putting up a company’s advertisements on the internet. This, undoubtedly was an enriching learning experience for all the participants who attended the workshop.
At the same time, the first round of Chain Reaction, the supply chain game, kicked off with very tough participation from all the teams. The first round being concluded, IMT Ghaziabad was leading the boards but everything could change tomorrow when the final round finishes.
Several events are still lined up throughout the night which will keep the hosts and guests at IIM Indore busy and enthralled through the night. The big event of the night being the Grand Finale of Gordian’s Knot whence the “Best Team” would walk away with the crown. A lot of exciting events are planned for day two of Ahvan 2009 with the highlight event, “Spotlight” of Ashwamedha.
Media and Promotions Team,
Ahvan-2009