Ranchi, Jharkhand | November | 25, 2018 :: Day 2 of Radix 5.0, the business conclave conducted by IIM Ranchi began with even greater fervour and enthusiasm. The audience was keen on getting more interesting insights from the industry experts on the current and possible future challenges of the VUCA world.
Mr Syam Madanapalli, Director, IoT, NTT DATA Services was the first speaker of the day. He gripped the attention of the audience by illustrating how VUCA has already been described in the Bhagavad Gita as it mentions that Change is the Law of the Universe. He drew an interesting parallel between the uncertainties of today’s VUCA world with the uncertainty principle in Quantum Mechanics as well as entropy. He further elaborated how management practices need to keep evolving and we need to let the chaos enter so as to bring order again. He ended by asserting that innovation is the key to keep the system orderly.
He was followed by Mr Krishna Ramachandran, Global Head, Record to Report & Robotics Process Automation, Royal Philips who highlighted that Change is the only constant and narrated his own VUCA experiences at the job. He demonstrated how we can counter VUCA with another VUCA i.e. Vision, Understanding, Clarity and Agility. He further emphasised that the key to succeeding in today’s dynamic world is to keep reinventing oneself akin to a phoenix as well as to respond to the challenges instead of reacting and to collaborate in order to tackle to VUCA. He reinstated the importance of meditation and yoga recounted by the previous speaker.
Succeeding him was Mr Anjani Prasad, Managing Director, Archroma India who engaged the audience with his insights on VUCA in the context of his professional journey at Archroma. He motivated the students to embrace and manage VUCA in their personal, business and social lives through robust goal setting by continuously challenging the status quo. He engrossed the audience with engaging videos and sharing practical tips on listening, persuasion and breaking habits.
This was followed by an enthralling panel discussion which was mediated by Akshat Gupta, an alumnus of IIM Ranchi, currently practising law as an independent advocate fighting for people’s justice in Delhi/NCR Region. The discussion further brought up riveting questions on the topic which were answered impeccably by the distinguished speakers.
The lunch was followed by an address by Rajeev Mishra, Chief Human Resources Officer GMR Energy (Hydro Business & International Coal). He described employee engagement needs and challenges in the days of VUCA. He further talked about three drivers of employee engagement i.e. self-renewal, engaged manager champions and a delightful employee experience. He also stressed that today employees must take ownership of their own engagement. Additionally, he cited various parameters to measure employee engagement.
Post this, Mr Dhirendra Kumar, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Value Research shared examples from his own life experience to illustrate that VUCA is not a recent term rather it has always existed in some form or the other. He narrated interesting anecdotes to delineate how it is not always necessary to be the ideal brand, sometimes just being ahead of others is serves the deal. He then added that he was frequently asked what all will change in the next ten years but no one ever asked what will not change bringing forth the point that while it is important to be mindful of the changes ahead it is also imperative to know what all will not change. He further invigorated the audience by stating that a person can make a difference in this world by being creative and thoughtful.
Mr. Pradipta Sahoo, Chief Human Resources Officer, Karvy Computershare then shared his own viewpoint on the topic. He described the difference between vision and motivation and the difference in the mindset between Gen X and the millennials. Besides this, he asserted that if we innovate just to reduce cost we are missing the wood for the trees. He also emphasised that same size fits all paradigm is no longer valid for the industry today. He then retailed how an HR needs to adapt to the changing environment and change his strategy to align it with the newer generations entering the professional world.
The second panel discussion was mediated by Anmol Sikka, Category Manager for the largest business line of Cleartrip.com and another alumnus of IIM Ranchi. His intriguing questions evoked captivating responses and added to the intellectually stimulating environment.
The business symposium came to an end with the audience enlightened by the views of the esteemed speakers and better equipped to take on the VUCA world with utmost fervour, agility and positivity.
