The final day of the Consortium leg of the Sheth Foundation Consortium & Conference started with an excitement line-up of academic discussions. The first being a panel discussion 'The Accidental Scholar', which also happens to be the autobiography of the global scholar Prof. Jagdish Sheth, founder of The Sheth Foundation. The discussion was moderated by Prof. Atul Parvartiyar from Texas Tech University, USA and the main speakers were Prof. Jagdish Sheth, founder of The Sheth Foundation, Prof. Indira Parekh, president of Antardisha, India and Prof. Rajan Varadrajan, Texas A&M University, USA. These four eminent scholars spoke of the milestone incidents or 'accidents' that they experienced in their life that took them from their respective setting and exposed them to the life of rigorous scholarship as well as the satisfaction to work with legends in their field. Prof. Jagdish Sheth sums up his life achievements in a nutshell by saying, "whatever I have achieved is because I challenged prevailing wisdom".
The panel discussion was followed by a women panel session titled 'Woman's path to excellence: transformative leadership'. Prof. Preeti Shroff, dean of MICA, started the session by mentioning, "It is the new era where there will be an all-women panel". This enthralling session was moderated by Prof. Preeti Shroff, dean of MICA and the key panellists comprised of Prof. Indira Parekh, president of Antardisha, India, renowned researcher and academician Prof. Renana Peres from Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Indian classical dancer and activist Ms. Mallika Sarabhai and Ms. Meenakshi Menon, founder of WayBeyond Media, India. In this session, these four prolific women took us through their transformational, revolutionary journey as professionals in patriarchal societies.
The novel concept of Global cafe was incorporated in the final day of the consortium where a group of three young scholars and three faculties was selected on the basis of their research interest in the areas of consumer behaviour, strategy marketing and analytics in marketing. This unique concept was initiated to provide an opportunity for the young fellows unique to have one-on-one interaction with eminent academicians to gain a clearer and in-depth understanding of their area of work. Day 3 continued with the third round of the simulation game “Conscious Capitalism”, which challenges you to operate a conscious business in contrast to the traditional profit-maximizing business paradigm. Participants had to deal with ethical, environmental and sustainability issues, in addition to the usual management challenges of running a business.
The day concluded with a session 'Zero Friction Future' by Mr. Veejay Ram Nakra, chief of sales & marketing of Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. He emphasised on the importance of the digital platform to elevate sales saying, "Today's consumer personas' are digital dreaming and butterfly consumers". Mr. Nakra shared the marketing design used by Mahindra & Mahindra in which they created a new digital center and uplifted their physical presence to create more value to both their rural and urban consumers.
The concluding session included the announcement of the winners of AIM-The Sheth Foundation for the best proposals; each winner received a grant of a lakh for their research endeavours. The winners were Rishi Dwesar from ICFAI Business School, Hyderabad and Sridhar Samu & Vidya Mahambare from Great Lakes Institute of Management for consumer behaviour track; Aishwarya Ramasundaram from Indian Institute of Management and Irudaya Veni Mary & Navena Nesa Kumari from Loyola Institute of Business Administration for the managerial track; Aditi Mudgal & Amrendra Pandey from BIMTECH and Dr. Surabhi Singh & Dr. Parikshit Kala from IMS, Ghaziabad for marketing analytics track.
The consortium ended with the distribution of certificates and mementos and closing speech by Prof. Jagdish Sheth, Prof. Shailendra Raj Mehta, director of MICA and Prof. Jayant Shah, executive director of Academy of Indian Marketing.
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