International CEO Conclave- Avensis at XLRI Jamshedpur
XLRI ExPGDM 20th Batch of 2021-22 held its maiden event Avensis-International CEO Conclave on 10th of December 2021. It was graced by many prominent speakers such as R.Gopalakrishnan CEO, The Mindworks, Naman Shrivastava CEO, Global Governance Initiative, Pankaj Gupta Founder and Co-CEO, Gulf Islamic investments and Gaurav Biswas Founder and CEO, Trukker, Arjun Mohan CEO, Upgrad, Premal Desai Dy CEO, Evolutionizer, Guru Sankararaman Co-Founder, CFO and SVP of Operations, Tekion and Rajeeva Bandaranaike CEO, Colombus Stock Exchange.
The Session was inaugurated by Professor H.K. Pradhan where he shed the light on changing scenarios of jobs and skills, followed by Professor Jittu Singh’s welcome speech who talked about the business world has changed and its impact now. Jittu sir talked about how several Fortune 500 companies (of the 1950s) did not survive the century. Organizations (how much ever they are strong) may not survive disruption. It is the responsibility of leaders to lead the organizations through changes.
The Chief Guest of the Session R Gopalakrishnan, CEO, The Mindworks talked about the importance of AQ(Adapadibility Quotient), shedding light on qualities of leaders that leaders should develop: a) stay b) understand the opinions of people who are affected by decision c) stimulate debate and encourage discussion d) establish priorities and demand discipline in the ranks) leaders should have empathy.
It was followed by a session by Keynote Speakers Rajeeva Bandaranaike who talked about the stock exchanges and economic development – an overview of the modern-day exchange. He shed the light on OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE CAPITAL MARKET, Potential to increase the size and liquidity, Pension Reforms, Low-Interest Rates, Low Valuations, Strong Corporate Earnings growth, Greater Diversification opportunity, Market Infrastructure (DVP, CCP) leading to new products, capital raising for SMEs, greater market accessibility and convenience through digitalization and CHALLENGES FOR THE CAPITAL MARKET containing the pandemic and its impact on society and economy how to attract Foreign Investments and Managing the Exchange Rate.
Followed by a Panel discussion by Pankaj Gupta, Founder & Co-CEO, Gulf Islamic Investments & Gaurav Biswas, Founder and CEO, Trukker moderated by Professor Trilochan Tripathy. A deep discussion on how their journey started from a nascent idea to startup, what challenges and responsibilities faced, learnings from them, making opportunities out of the difficulties.
The first half of the session was concluded by our next Keynote Speaker Mr. Rajaram Sankaran, CEO, Pharma Giant, African landscape who talked about Demystify Africa. He pointed out that democratic dividend is towards Africa and the continent is going through rapid urbanization. He went ahead to describe the commercial and pharmaceutical growth of the continent country-wise and all the growth opportunities and market potential. He talked about his career journey. He also shed light on the following What is driving the growth in Africa? Two factors: Demographically suitable- growth in collective GDP, population, urban population proportion, consumer spending and massive opportunity for investors. What Drives African Pharma Market, Healthcare, Expenditure, Changing disease pattern, maturing Business Environment, shift towards generics, Partnership with govt bodies, Digital innovation, Building local manufacturing capabilities.
The latter half of the session started with keynote speaker Thomas Kuruvilla, Managing Partner, Member of the Global Board, Arthur D’Little. He shed the light on the importance of the automation and digitalization of the works. How technologies like IOT, blockchains are going to transform how we live, interact with each other. He explained it by giving the example of Dubai and changing landscape of Driverless cars.
It was followed by a session by the CEO of Radical Sportscar, Joseph Anwyll, he talked about his love for the sportscar and how it led to the creation of the Radical sportscar. He shed the light on his journey of building the Radical sportscar company and how he made it a success.
It was followed by Arjun Mohan, CEO, Upgrad, he shed the light on upgrad mission of making the learners achieve their desired outcomes,market-leading position in online higher Ed-Space, online education and future of learning, gross enrolment stuck at 20% instead of being in expected range of 60%, Whyaccess, affordability and quality problems matter, mission- Help in transition, acceleration and instil confidence. Lifelong learning for 100 million working professionals and students learning experience at scale, Acquisitions of UpGrad Jeet: Government entrance exam, knowledge hut: short term certificate courses and answered the question has Covid accelerated the e-learning.
The session further saw an enriching presentation on Revolutionizing strategy by Premal Desai CEO, Evolutionizer from Germany, shedding light on changing scape due to techs like blockchains and the importance of it in strategy making.
It was followed by a fun session by Shinjini Das, CEO, Das Media Group from Atlanta. Shinjini Das shares her journey from her industrial engineering from Georgia to starting Das studio. She is connected to a lot of people not only in America but Latin America, Africa and India. She aims to help people make their lives happy connecting to them personally and making them a “Go Getter”. She also shed light on how to make followers into dollars by making the Audience relate to your story and understand you, Connecting to the audience on a personal level, Selling at the right price and the mistakes she made as an influencer and learning from it.
It was followed by an interactive session by Naman Shrivastava, CEO, Global Governance Initiative where he answered questions like if the skills play an important role than luck, the importance of MBA now in the world, how skills and luck both are important, etc.
The session came to end with a QnA session with Guru Sankararaman, Co-Founder,CFO and SVP of Operations, Tekion. He talked about his journey in Tekion. What led to them leaving Tesla and start Tekion. Changing scape of automobile industry with new technologies like IOT, automated cars etc.
The session was closed with a Thankyou note by Placement Committee.