SIBM BENGALURU HOSTS CONVERGENCE 2013MUMBAI DABBAWALAS DESCEND TO BENGALURU

Bangalore, Karnataka, September 7, 2013 Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (SIBM), Bengaluru hosted Convergence 2013, the Annual Operations and IT Summit. The event was organized by the Operations Batch & the Placement Committee of the B-School which was attended by over 350 MBA students. It was sponsored by Steel Authority of India Limited(SAIL), Lord's Plaza, TEOCO, Zoom, Freecharge.in and ManagementParadise.com! The theme of the event was "India seeks Revival" and the focus was on "Challenging the Convention".

Day 1:
The first day of the event was the Operations Summit. It began with two interactive sessions followed by an exciting panel discussion. Mr. Samir Inamdar, Co founder, MD and CEO, Forum Synergies shared his experiences and beliefs with the students. He stressed on challenging convention and conventional wisdom. This was followed by a session on Warehouse Management System (WMS) given by Mr. Veda Ramachandran, Senior Director, Manhattan Associates. He highlighted the transformation of the warehouse from a conventional one to a technological one. The panel discussion was held on the topic, "Is FDI imperative for India's Supply Chain integration". Mr. Tarjinder Singh, Vice President, Robinson Cargo & Logistics Pvt. Ltd., Mr. Rajesh Kumar, Director, Planning Operations, Entercoms, Mr. Ishwar Rao, COO SIPL and Mr. Rajesh Agarwal, WW Leader, Global Supply Advanced Analytics CoE, IBM were the panelists. Mr. Arvindan Ramachandram, Faculty & Independent Consultant acted as the moderator. The afternoon session was the highlight of the event. Mr. Abhishek Ekal, VP, Dabbawala Foundation Mumbai and Mr. Sakharam Gawde, Secreatry, Dabbawala Foundation Mumbai graced the occasion. They explained the working of their system and revealed facts about how they were able to maintain 99.99% efficiency with 100% customer satisfaction. They shed light on how they achieve six sigma efficiency in their operations. They also shared the CSR initiatives taken up by the Mumbai Dabbawalas. They were a great encouragement to the MBA students. The students were highly motivated by the end of the session. A lot of corporate attended the session as well.

Meanwhile, Kurukshetra-the Battle Ground was also organized. It is the flagship operations management event. 1253 people in 417 teams from all over India participated in an online quiz out of which 8 teams were shortlisted for the next stage of the competition. Various rounds were held to test the operational skills of the participants including Project Management, Redesigning a call center process, Redesigning an entire assembly line & Worker negotiation.

Day 2:
The second day was the IT Summit and it began with an exciting panel discussion. Mr. Parag Patankar, Senior Director, Industry Strategy & Insight, Oracle, Mr. Chandramouli CM, Director, Globalization Advisory& Talent Practice, Zinnov Management Consulting, Ms. Sonali Khopkar, Associate Director, Capgemini (India), Mr. Amlan Nayak, Director Development, Teoco Software Pvt. Ltd. and Mr. Ravindra Athayle, Director, Banking & Financial Services CGI were the panelists. Mr. Sabari Thampi, Director, Arowana Consulting acted as the moderator. The discussion was on the topic "Indian IT's midlife crisis." All the panelists agreed that the Indian IT industry was simply facing a low phase but it should not be labeled as a crisis. This was followed by a speech by Mr. Thampi on the same topic. He also shared his industrial experiences with the students. Meanwhile, the finale of Kurukshetra was held. The participants were asked to propose a solution of a real business problem faced by MTR to the MTR management. The team from Welingkar, Mumbai won the competition and received a cash prize of Rs. 15,000. The team from IIM, Trichy was the runner up and they received a cash prize of Rs. 10,000.

Professor Aarti Mehta Sharma, the mentor for the event says, "I highly appreciate
the efforts of the students in making this event a success. I am glad that we were able to address the need of the hour through this event."

Mohit Bhasin, one of the organizers of Convergence says, Convergence made us

implement all the operational practices that we have studied so far. I am sure this will help each and every member of tem Convergence to succeed in the future."

Jitesh Agarwal, another organizer says, "I feel humbled. I now realize the amount of
hard work required to organize an event of such scale and the credit goes to the entire team, because in the end, it was their efforts that made it all possible."

Arushi Bafna, a volunteer from the junior batch says, " It was an exciting event for
me. As a prospective operations student, I gained a lot of knowledge about the operations industry. I am fortunate that I was able to interact live with the Mumbai Dabbawalas. It was a memorable experience."

About SIBM Bangalore: Ever since its inception in 1978, SYMBIOSIS has been synonymous with progress. The trend of progress has been continued by setting up of SIUs first campus outside Maharashtra at Bangalore in 2008. SIBM Bangalore provides a holistic approach to management. For additional information on the news that is the subject of this release, contact the below. Contact Information: Mr Anand Bhate For English / Hindi 97427 83059 Ms Krithika Dayalan For English / Kannada / Tamil 97431 51622

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