Guest Lecture by Mr.Anand Pillai, Chief Learning Officer, Sr. Executive VP, RIL

Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode (IIMK) recently hosted Mr. Anand Pillai who shared his insights on the topic of "Personal Branding" with the students. The guest lecture was held on the 19^th of August, 2012. The Industry Interaction Cell of IIM Kozhikode frequently invites eminent leaders of the industry for guest lectures to give practical insights to the students.

With more than 29 years of experience in corporate world, Mr. Anand has handled challenging assignments in general management and as Head of Operations in companies like Tata Group, Hughes Network Systems, Bay Networks and HCL. He has been appointed as a "Member of World Economic Forum, Global Agenda Council on New Models of leadership - 2011" given his thought leadership in the field of Leadership and Innovation.

Mr. Pillai an interesting and energetic speaker engaged the students throughout his talk.  His pragmatic approach as opposed to a theoretical or philosophical viewpoint to business, struck a cord with the young listeners. The main emphasis of his talk was on PLB (Personal Leadership Brands). He laid out the five basic steps towards developing ones own PLB:

• Recognize your Yearning
• Rapid Learning
• Natural Flow
• Glimpses of Excellence
• Element of Satisfaction

Mr. Pillai suggested that the basic philosophy was simple, things that one will do without expecting any renumeration or compensation is the thing that defines a person, and exhibit their personality. Once a person adapts the same as their career, he or she is bound to excel, because this creates a unique personal brand which is customized for that individual and cannot have an external replica, said Mr.Pillai. He also shared his mantra that cleared some clichés of personal marketing; mistaking affirmation for accomplishment, security for significance and immediate victory for long-term sustainability. Mr. Pillai ended his talk with a heartwarming note that, ‘It is not the effort that you put in that counts, but the value that you bring along with it. It is not your achievements that you are remembered for, but the way that you impact people’s lives’.

Guest Lecture by Mr.Sandeep Dhar, CEO at Tesco Hindustan Service Centre

Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode (IIMK) had the privilege of being audience to Mr. Sandeep Dhar who shared his insights on the topic of "Retail Innovations, including IT, CRM and SCM in Retail" with the students. The Industry Interaction Cell of IIM Kozhikode frequently invites eminent leaders of the industry for guest lectures, keeping the students constantly in touch with the practical aspects of running a business.

The students of IIM Kozhikode, found Mr. Dhar, the CEO at Tesco Hindustan Service Centre, Bangalore, immensely inspiring. Tesco is the world’s third largest retailer with a turnover of over 115 billion USD and employs over 500,000 people across 14 countries. Mr. Dhar brought with him 20 years of experience in retail banking and IT consulting from his time holding prominent positions in various organizations. Alumni of IMT Ghaziabad and the Wharton Business School, Mr. Dhar had a very thought provoking interaction with the students. Mr. Dhar had a very lively interaction with the students. He discussed the importance of identifying the customer and the challenge it offers in business to customer relationship management. He pointed out the specific issues that plague the retail industry where a ‘customer friendly’ stance will not suffice. He urged managers to turn ‘customer centric’ which involves playing an active and appropriate role in the entire life cycle of the customer.

He recalled his experiences in TESCO and earlier stint at Cititbank to emphasis on the age old business mantra ‘Customer is King’. He discussed the role played by high end IT in collecting consumer data and infact using thermal sensing in reducing their inconvienence while shopping. Mr. Dhar also predicted that the future of retail shopping lay in the multiple channel strategies use where customers mixed both e-commerce and physical retailing. He mentioned TESCO’s step in the same direction called ‘Click and Collect’ where customers ordered online and collected from the retail outlet.

Mr. Dhar gave the students a heads up on the challenges faced by the Retail Industry, which is unique and highly competitive. He also patiently answered the many queries posed by the enthusiastic audience. The event closed with students expressing their deepfelt gratitude to Mr. Dhar.

Guest Lecture by Mr.Rajesh Nair, Head – Markets and Pursuits, Ernst & Young

The Industry Interaction Cell of IIM Kozhikode in collaboration with Hriday, the human resource interest group of IIM Kozhikode organized a talk on “Branding Oneself” by Mr.Rajesh Nair, Head – Markets and Pursuits, Ernst & Young on 7th August, 2012 as part of the ongoing leadership series. Mr. Nair’s professional experience covered various roles and responsibilities in his current organization as well as in previous organizations namely Accenture, Tata Motors, ECS Ltd and now Ernst & Young in the field of organizational strategy, organizational change management and post merger integration.

The talk on branding oneself was to give the students of IIM Kozhikode a perspective of how to portray their personality in front of others such as prospective recruiters, colleagues and other audience. He spoke about how branding oneself and differentiating oneself was very important in a competitive world. He mentioned that every person needed to be explicit about his achievements in life.

Mr.Nair used his experience to share how famous personalities also use this method to improve their portrayal of themselves. Adding further, he emphasized the importance of adapting oneself to any situation that he is faced with. According to him, every individual had different aspects attached to his personality that he portrayed when he was with his family, friends or colleagues.  He used HR concepts like the Johari window to drive home the point that self actualization is very important in life.

Mr.Nair used this platform to insist that each and every student reflect upon their strengths and weakness as an exercise and write down how they looked at themselves as it would be beneficial for them in the long run. Overall, the students appreciated his method and believed they would do their best to implement it as soon as possible.