22nd Nirma International Conference on Management (NICOM) – Business, Economy, & Environment: The New Normal
The 22nd Nirma International Conference on Management (NICOM), organized by the Institute of Management, Nirma University (IMNU), commenced at 10 am on 17th January, 2019. NICOM has been an annual event at IMNU providing a platform for an interactive discussion between academicians and industry veterans on a plethora of topics under a common theme. The conference will have academicians and practitioners from India and abroad, presenting their research in as many as 60 sub themes viz, Transforming Business Institution into an Integrated Development Institution, Business: Fostering Stakeholder Value Creation, Economy: Current & Future Challenges, The New Paradigm of the Knowledge Economy, etc., in four track sessions (with 4 sections in each session) spread across the three days Conference. Three plenary sessions are also arranged, during which the prominent personalities from the industry will be addressing the audience on various topics.
The third day began with track sessions on topics like “Plastic Ban in India: Why and How?”, “Choices that affect the Climate Sustainability”, “Effect of storytelling advertisement on consumer’s perception towards brand”, “Nepotism in Organizations: A Blessing or a Curse?”, “Bridging the rural urban divide – business as a driver for sustainable growth”, and many more.
The first speaker of the final day of NICOM 2019 was Prof. Shailesh Gandhi, Professor & Dean (Programmes), IIM-A, speaking on the theme “Driving Organizational Performance through Innovation, Creativity and Entrepreneurship”. The session was chaired by Prof. Nityesh Bhatt. Prof. Gandhi explained that the evaluation of a company’s performance involves the evaluation of its employees’ individual performances through Performance Management Systems. This largely depends on how the different units are organised within the company, and the overall culture that is being followed. Prof. Gandhi shared the details of designing such a system, and the different ways of implementation of the same. He focussed on some financial measures and also spoke about the triggers that lead to the need of changing the system that is being followed. According to him, the strategies that are to be implemented are largely reliant on the leaders who formulate them. The need for aligning the organisational structures and internal business processes was also highlighted.
The post lunch session began by Prof. Samik Shome presenting a conference report, and an expression of gratitude to all the delegates, speakers, faculties and the students who were a part of NICOM 2019.
The valedictory session speech of NICOM 2019 was delivered by Shri Dilip Chenoy, Secretary General, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), on the theme “Future of Jobs from Indian and Global Perspective”. He started the session by explaining a quote by Mahatma Gandhi about motivation which said that nothing is stagnant, and that an individual’s performance defines the country’s performance. According to him, Emotional Intelligence and Cognitive Flexibility are emerging skill-sets for the evolved job industry. He added to it by saying that digitization has caused a disruption in the world, and being a part of it by development is to be done in order to grow. Globally there is a lot of advancement in terms of utilization of Big Data. He explains its evolution by stating that previously one couldn’t event imagine services like OYO Rooms, Swiggy and Zomato etc. The future, he said, will deal with the interaction of humans with robots. He further shared how digitization has brought in changing demands for jobs, and that loss of jobs shouldn’t be big concern as new jobs dealing with technology are constantly being created. He ended the session with the quote, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” by Lao Tzu.
The guest of honour was Dr. Samir Shah, Associate Clinical Professor, Drexel University, USA. He talked about customer relations and engagement. He explained how customers are an important aspect of an organization. As it is the tendency of customers to trust other customers more than the company, it is important to focus on that aspect. Dr. Shah said that customers evolve as does the customer base, and companies need to evolve according to these changing needs.
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