Consulting Bytes #2 (Banking & Finance)

Happy Reading!

Please go through the report on the link to read the rest of the report : http://www.ibef.org/industry/banking-india.aspx

Consulting Bytes #1

Since Consulting is a field not limited to any silo and spreads across Marketing, Finance, Operations and HR, we would be sharing industry reports, articles, current happenings, trends, news clippings, frameworks, etc periodically from the domains and spread across the domains, to keep you up to date with various industries.

Read the report to find out factors that would fuel growth!

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bzbz5Jb67NCtSTNjakFKdDV3RUk

AAKASH 10.0 - Raipur Entrepreneurs' Meet

The 10^th edition of Aakash Entrepreneurs Meet was organized by IIM Raipur on 16^th September 2017. The event was organized with the purpose of bringing together the entrepreneurs and students to network, exchange ideas, discuss problems and deliberate on pertinent issues related to entrepreneurship.

Aakash 10.0 saw the presence of five successful entrepreneurs from Chhattisgarh. The dignitaries included Mr. Rajeev Roy – CEO 36 Inc. which is the first business Incubator cum Accelerator supported by Government of Chhattisgarh., Mr. Vikram Aditya – Founder of Mediklik, Mr. Manish Raj Singhania – Founder of Ralas Mahindra Dealers who is also the president of Raipur Automobile Leaders Association, Mr. Gaurav Agarwal – Owner of GM TMT and Director at Real Ispat and Power Ltd. and Mr. Kappil Jaswani – Founder of NextIdeas and Co-founder of SteelMint Group. The speakers discussed several tangents of the common theme - "Myths and Realities" associated with being an entrepreneur.

The event kicked-off with the address from Mr. Rajeev Roy who shared from his experiences the growing technological advancements across the world and the need for us to be at par with those changes. He also expressed his concern about the limited number of quality ideas emerging from Indian startups in an ecosystem with abundant angel investors .This was followed by the address from Mr. Manish Singhania who talked about the changing business landscape in Raipur and further opportunities opening up in a rising service sector in the state of Chhattisgarh. The discussion was further taken forward by Mr. Vikram Aditya who talked about the need of being persistent and committed to one’s idea and having a firm belief in the change you want to bring about .He substantiated this with his own personal experiences and his self-belief that helped him move forward with his ideas. He also emphasized on the significance of the timing of one’s idea and how that can make a huge difference in the long run.

Mr. Gaurav Agarwal then took the proceedings forward by using an analogy, comparing good business opportunities with buses that are always running by thus emphasizing the need of identifying good business opportunities in a rapidly changing environment. Mr. Kappil Jaswani concluded the discussion and talked about the importance of having dedicated people working towards a goal than the goal itself. He also talked about the need of taking risks and embracing the outcomes while still working towards the vision.

The panel discussions were followed by a networking session where the entrepreneurs interacted with each other and conducted a Question and Answer session with the students. The attendees asked several questions regarding the nuances of entrepreneurship and businesses in general. A major take away from the discussion was the need to embrace the change which is the only way to move ahead in a fast moving business world. 

Aakash 9.0 || Raipur Entrepreneurs' Meet

Aakash 9.0, the 9^th entrepreneurs meet was organized on 15^th October 2016 by the Consulting and Entrepreneurship Club of IIM Raipur with an aim to project to the aspiring entrepreneurs of how an entrepreneur has to take a risk and second to enjoy the success, which would ultimately result in a spirit which serves as a wake-up call for many an ailing industry and economy.

Aakash was started by the Consulting and Entrepreneurship club, IIM Raipur in 2013 with the vision to help start-ups, entrepreneurs and budding entrepreneurs to address the challenges in start-up businesses such as funding, resource allocation, hiring and planning as well as exploring business opportunities and building an entrepreneurial Eco-system in Raipur. It brings entrepreneurs, aspiring entrepreneurs, students and experts under one roof to talk, debate, demo and learn.

The event saw participation from zealous entrepreneurs driven towards their start-up dreams. The keynote speaker for the event was Mr. Anshul Dave, Co-founder Oceans Bridge. Mr. Dave an angel investor himself having funded numerous startups and being on the advisory board of 6 startups with vast experience of mentoring more than 10,000 students gave a deep insight about startup culture in India and abroad. He also discussed about the Tax planning and structure’s importance from startup’s perspective, helping companies setup their organizations abroad. The major takeaways from his profound insights were the importance of setting up the right goals, IPR protection, building relations, PR skills and chasing the correct geography for operations. It was followed by sharing of experiences and insights from founders of various well- established startups. Mr. Malay Jain, founder of Encore Projects Pvt Ltd, an alumnus of IIM Raipur itself shared the prerequisites of being an entrepreneur. Mr. Jain having a land bank network of more than 5000 acres gave an insight about the Agro based business. The session also witnessed yet another personality -  Mr. Kaustubh Dharmadhikary who shared his unique experience about the hurdles faced by an entrepreneur. He said Entrepreneurship comes with a host of challenges. Rewarding challenges, but harsh challenges nonetheless. Experienced entrepreneurs have to deal with this no matter how long they’ve been in business -- trying to establish a brand, adjust to match or exceed the competition and keep your business profitable no matter how many years you’ve been in business.

The session further boosted up when students of IIM Raipur with various budding startups shared their ideas. D Santosh, a PGP 2^nd year student, presented his Business model, REVSMART - a technology start-up, building customized wearable for vehicles, to help college students, employees, and enthusiasts to connect to their vehicle and enhance their driving experience.

In all the meet saw a healthy discussion between the entrepreneurs and the students from the institute, and revolved around the four key challenges faced by a start-up – that of integrating, funding, answering the going concern and tackling attrition. The discussion ended on a high for both the students and the entrepreneurs with the students learning the inner mechanisms, hurdles and subsequently bottlenecks for start-up. Also it provided a platform where the speakers themselves gained newer perspectives from the other visiting entrepreneurs and students.

Lastly the meet ended with an informal yet fruitful interaction between the entrepreneurs and the students with the former sharing their unique business vision and their business models with the budding entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs were evangelists for their cause and were more than happy to share their hard-won lessons of success, failure, and everything in between. The underlying message: setting out on one's own requires more than courage – it requires a great idea, and lots of work was the take key take away from Aakash 9.0.

SAMAADHAN 2016

“Intent matters. Integrity matters. Courage matters. If you have the three, nothing else matters”

Social entrepreneurship is all about incorporating all three to create business plans that are both feasible and beneficial to the society. To foster this spirit in the minds of young and budding entrepreneurs, the Consulting and Entrepreneurship Club, IIM Raipur organised Samaadhan, a social B-Plan competition which saw people solving real world problems using inquisitive and innovative tools.

In the first round of the event, executive summaries for social B-Plans were invited from all over the country. Out of the numerous entries that were received, including ones from premier institutes like IIM Ahmedabad, ISB Hydrabad, ISB Mohali, IIT Kharagpur, 11 were shortlisted. The second round was held on 10th September in which these teams had to present their b-plan to a panel of esteemed judges which included Mr Rupesh Gupta, an alumnus of IIM Kozhikode and founder of Pro C Education and Mr Sanjay Agarwal, alumnus of IIM Raipur and founder of Raipur Rasayan Udyog.

The business plans that were discussed ranged from providing affordable sanitary napkins to the rural poor to using bio-gas for commercial purposes and reduce pollution in the process. All the teams were very well prepared that made the competition all the more exciting. The judges minutely analysed every aspect of the business plans and asked questions, helping the teams refine their business model along the way. After a gruelling competition and a close fight, it was "Team Gals" from XIMB and "Team Raipur Rangers" from IIM Raipur who emerged victorious.

Consulting Conclave 1.0

As a part of its relentless pursuit to foster the enterprising culture, Consulting and Entrepreneurship Club of IIM Raipur organized Consulting Conclave 1.0 on Saturday, 27^th August, 2016.

In the words of Jay Abraham, “You are surrounded by simple, obvious solutions that can dramatically increase your income, power, influence and success. The problem is, you just don’t see them.” Consultants are the people who are entrusted to solve the above problem.

The objective of the Consulting Conclave was two-fold. Firstly, to bring together corporate leaders and consultants from varied sectors of the industry to discuss relevant themes of consulting along with academicians. Secondly, to conduct workshops to develop key skills needed for a consulting role.

The conclave began with a lecture by Mr V. Niju, Director of Frost & Sullivan, on the topic ‘Consulting in the Indian Perspective’. His words were illustrative of his 12 years of experience in Strategy Consulting and Market Research. He also shared the lessons he learnt while working with clients in India, Middle East, North Africa and Europe.

After that, a thought provoking panel discussion on ‘Consulting to gain Competitive Advantage’ followed. The panel consisted of Mr Rohit Nasa, Pricipal of BMGI India, Mr Ajay Muttreja, Advisor to Chairman, Tecnova India, and Ms Pragya Singh, Vice President of Technopark Advisors. The discussion was moderated by Dr Sanjeev Parashar, Professor, Indian Institute of Management, Raipur.

Mr. Rohit holds an M.B.A. from one of the top European business school, ESADE. He has an experience of 13 years in managing strategy, marketing and operations assignments for Retail, CPG, E-Commerce and Financial sectors with on-ground experience in Asia, Europe and the USA. Ms. Pragya, also, is a management consulting professional with over 12 years of experience in Strategy consulting, commercial due diligence, Business development and Market research in India and Middle East. She holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) from IIM Ahmedabad and a bachelor’s degree in Chemical engineering from IIT, Delhi.

The event concluded with an engaging lecture by Mr Ajay Muttreja, where he shared his experiences as a consultant. He has 35 years of management experience in India-entry strategy consulting, cross-border public and private sector partnership development, business transformation and complex technology transfers. He has enabled more than 1,000 multi-national companies to achieve transformational growth and long-term success in India.

The guests also took part in an interactive session with the budding entrepreneurs who came to attend the event from all over the country. The young entrepreneurs gained useful insight about how to use consulting as a tool in order to gain competitive advantage in the ferociously competitive start-up landscape. The conclave also presented them a chance to build a wider network.

With the Management Consulting market set to be valued at $350 billion globally, the consulting industry has seen a steep up-shoot in the past few years. The firms globally are using innovative Go-to-Market strategies, surveying and understanding the target market and using out-of-the box brand communication strategies. In this era of growing consulting roles, the students can benefit from analysing the trends of the consulting world, understanding the mind-set of a consultant and developing key skills needed to excel at the role.

Consulting and Entrepreneurship Club of IIM Raipur is committed towards its aim to create entrepreneurial opportunities for students with innovative ideas. CEC Club can be reached at cec@iimrapur.ac.in. Those interested can also get in touch with the club on its Facebook page.

The Consulting Workshop by Backspace Consulting

On the 6 th and 7 th of August 2016, 1 st year students of IIM Raipur had their first tryst with the management consulting industry. The workshop was organised by Backspace Consulting, a renowned consulting firm based out of Kolkata and conducted by its Founder and CEO, Mr. Partha Pratim. 
Mr. Partha, an IIM Ahmedabad pass out, had the experience of working in several major consulting firms before starting his own venture, Backspace Consulting. Backspace, which started off as an education consulting firm has expanded into the communication and strategy consulting space. 
The session was spanned across two days where on the first day, students were introduced to various techniques and frameworks like Guesstimation, BCG matrix, Ansoff matrix, SWOT analysis and Porter 5 force model, among others. These frameworks are prerequisites for an aspiring consultant. Mr. Partha made sure that the students became well versed with these techniques by taking up basic real life case lets. 
On the second day, some more practical case lets were taken up before shifting focus to mock interviews. Students were given glimpse of how a consulting interview is conducted and how they would be tested on their creativity, analytical skills and ability to think on their feet. He gave tips on how to direct your thinking process in interview situations, by applying the techniques taught on the first day. He closed the session by giving insights into the life of a management consultant and the challenges that come along and answered any questions students had about consulting as a career option. 
On the whole, it was a great learning experience for the students and gave them a taste of rigours and requirements of the consulting world.