Embrace the Change, Keep the Faith
Opinions Conclave at ASBM National Management Seminar, 2008
When the entire world feels panicky at the unannounced sabotage being done by global recession, management experts feel strongly that the gloom is transitory and the light is near as India will come over the temporary trauma resting on its age old ethical survival mechanism. Participating in the National Management Seminar’08 on the theme “Corporate at Crossroad: Revamping Management Skills” the Global Head of Satyam BPO Shri Naresh Jhangiani said today that the trust is the prime most important factor to overcome the current crisis and ethics no more is alien and religious. It ultimately surrounds pure business. Deliberating on the immensely growing significance of auditing sanctity and corporate governance principles the Member, Audit Board of Govt.of India & Former AG of Orissa Shri M.Naveen Kumar said there is no substitute to robust commonsense and debacle of large corporate occur because of loss of faith in public accountability and indulgence in creative accounting practices. He said despite the laying down of auditing principles nearly seventy percent of corporate accounting in developed and developing economies are creative to the utter frustration of the common man victimized at the altar of industrial growth, he added. Both Mr. Jhangiani and Shri Kumar were deliberating upon the sub-theme “Professional Responsibility: Redefining the values” as a part of this two days conclave of industry leaders and subject experts. Harping on the emotional bonding of people with organization, VP, Corporate HR of GMR group said monetary incentives alone can not motivate the employees as they find out the level of their emotional compatibility vis-à-vis job benefits. Participating in the discussion over the sub theme “Social Accountability: Changing the dynamics” the President and Chief People Officer of Reliance Retail Shri Bijay Sahoo, VP-Strategy of Welspun Shri Sandip Grover and State Information Commissioner Jagadananda highlighted on the need of empowering people with information and providing the customers with choice should be the cardinal principles of business organization as our supreme constitution also derives its power from the ‘people’ alias common man. Earlier addressing the inaugural session of NMS’08, CMD of NALCO Shri C. R. Pradhan urged on the future management professionals to possess an incessant quest for innovative solution to pertinent societal issues instead of running behind business growth with an indifferent attitude towards societal concern. The Guest of eminence Padmashree Prof. Pritam Singh, the Former Director of IIM, Lucknow and MDI, Gurgaon highlighted on the finer nuances the action leaders must search for in augmenting organizational mandate. Citing brilliant anecdotes from age old scriptures he reiterated that the sharp managers of the coming century can not remain contended by taking a note of the roaring of mighty lions or trumpets of elephants in a corporate jungle. They must also listen and submerged with the sweet symphony of the green leaves and the passionate conversation of the sun rays that seeks nod of the leaves to touch the ground. Only a compassionate and humanitarian manager can dare to delve deep in to twenty first century business complexities, he added. Addressing the delegates of NMS’08 the MD of State Bank of Hyderabad Smt. Renu Challu emphasized that profit should be the sum total of risk bearing & uncertainty and she insisted that risk can not be out sourced. Managers aspiring to bring fresh sunshine to the organizations must pave the way for dealing with accompanying adversities with vigor and zeal. Delivering the Key-note address, the Director of India’s premier industrial management institution NITIE Prof. Subhas D. Awale inspired the prospective corporate leaders to crave for out of the box thinking than to remain gratified by the stock options offered at run of the mill B-Schools. He said finer sensibilities like leadership and team building need not be taught at B-Schools rather a congenial environment can be geared up to pragmatise with future corporate actions by learning from great leaders. At the outset introducing the theme the Seminar Director and Founder Director of ASBM, Prof. Biswajeet Pattanayak highlighted on the basic tenets of social accountability, professional responsibility and individual integrity to deal with ethical crisis of the radical business front. Quoting relevant examples from the debacle of Enron, GTB and Lehman Brothers, Prof. Pattanayak harped upon aggressive capitalism as the prime most factor procreating corporate turmoil. Affirming strong faith in the Gandhian principles of ‘trusteeship’ he said the panacea for corporate crisis lies on societal caring and sharing and not necessarily the unquenchable greed for wealth accumulation. The session on “Personal Integrity: Renewing the vision” was enriched with a substantial debate over mind and heart revolving around presentations by Mr. Kaushik Gupta, Director-HR of Convergys; Shri Sanjay Radhakrishnan, VP-HR of ICICI Prudential and Shri Kamdeba Mohanty, Chief Executive, reliance Retail. The highlight of the seminar was a panel discussion on “Quality Benchmark for Business Schools” with prominent panelists like Prof. Pritam Singh, Shri A. Thothathri Raman, Consulting Editor of Business India; Dr. Ashok Chanda, Head-Strategy of Asia Logistics major ‘GATI’ and Shri C. Srinivasan, VP-HR of Lanco Infratech that was organized as a prelude to NMS’08. To mark the occasion the first ASBM Lifetime Achievement Award was conferred at the glittering in a on noted management cult figure and champion of industry academic partnership Padmashree Prof. Pritam Singh in recognition of providing turn around solution in transforming human resource management in to building of ‘human capital.’ The Valedictory Session of NMS was addressed by Dr. Furqan Qamar, Advisor ,Planning Commission, & Mr. M. Ramakrishna, MD, ZCS Consulting Ltd.