E-commerce operations have undergone significant changes in recent years, driven by intense competition, changing consumer behavior, and technological advancements. Our 1st episode of Insider's Talk of Season-2 is "Dynamics in E-commerce Operations and Impact of Industry 4.0" with renowned industry leader Ms. Reena Evans, currently leading Swiggy as the Director of Operations. She is an operations and supply chain management expert with over 17 years of experience leading global organizations in the e-commerce sector. She has previously held leadership positions and steered growth for organizations like Alibaba Group, Flipkart, HSBC, and many more. In this podcast, she initially elaborates on her professional journey and experiences. She discusses the differentiating factors organizations should have to succeed in this highly competitive market. She also talks about some of the most crucial aspects of e-commerce operations, like stakeholder management, fraudulent activities, cash burning, acquisitions, and many more. Further, she shares her views on the impact of technological advancement on e-commerce operations.
An MBA degree is one of the most life-changing experiences in an individual's life. Our 29th milestone episode is "How to make the most from an MBA program" with the well-established industry leader Mr. Satyarth Priyedarshi. He is an award-winning Digital Business Leader who has previously held leadership positions and steered growth for organizations like Google, Flipkart, TATA AIA Life Insurance, etc. He is currently leading Redington Ltd as a Chief Ecommerce Officer. In this podcast episode, he discusses the unpredictable nature of events in an individual's life and how students should prioritize their best alternatives. He also talks about the importance of mentorship and the much-required balance between IQ and EQ. He further elaborates and shares his experience on the most significant aspects, like networking and work-life balance.
Glass Cliff Effect? Moonlighting? Do you want to know more about these terms and other organizational management skills in creating inclusive and diversified corporate workspaces? We got you covered in V-Pod, Episode – 28. Listen to this interaction with Ms. Kamalika Deka, a woman with several feathers to her, such as an HR Leader, People Function Expert, and TEDx Speaker! In this episode, we discuss with Ms. Deka the various trends in gender empowerment, inclusivity, diversity, employee management, and work-life balance. She elaborates on the competency of women in leadership positions, wage gaps and ways to reduce them, and workplace productivity. This all-rounded conversation helps to understand the various aspects of an inclusive organization through the eyes of a seasoned HR expert with over 15 years in the corporate atmosphere.
In the episode, Ms. Prachi Thakur talks about the unified identity of our nation in the eyes of tourists. She explains how in the Tourism industry, only the main things famous across the nation are highlighted time and again. Although there is a great deal of diversity within our geographical boundary, we are not capitalizing on it to the full extent. The tourists don’t actually get to experience most of the regional attractions and cultural practices. Ms. Thakur also throws light on the fact that the roles in the industry are gender-driven. She illustrates it by stating that females undertake more of the caring role, whereas males usually handle decision-making roles like that of a manager. And how during the pandemic, females working in these care roles were the first ones to lose their source of livelihood.
In the episode, Mr. Chaturvedi throws light on the fact that how the successful entrepreneurial stories and instances around the world are motivating more people to explore their entrepreneurial idea. In addition to this, he also draws a difference between confidence and overconfidence and how an entrepreneur should be able to accept the failure and take learnings from it to pursue a new idea from scratch. Mrs. Bhaduri explains how herd mentality limits the capabilities of youngsters because they don’t go in the desired direction. Instead, they pursue something in which they don’t have any interest. Parents, teachers, and elders have a crucial role to play in molding youngsters so that they can pick the career of their choice and align it with their passion for ultimately achieving success, which is subjective and varies from person to person.
In the episode, Mr. Amitabh Chaturvedi talks about the digitization and adoption of technology in the manufacturing industry. He states that technological adoption is the function of two things, i.e., ease of adoption and necessity of adoption. These two factors can be further distributed into subparts that highlight the adoption's feasibility and viability. Return on investment can be a crucial component while taking the decision of technological advancements. Mr. Chaturvedi also talks about how the various industries have taken steps in the past to keep pace with digitization, especially during and post-pandemic. And how some industries which were already using the existing tech were able to sail comparatively smoothly through the pandemic. He highlights those advancements require upskilling the employees, which eventually builds resilience across the workforce and operations of the company.
In the episode, Mr. Mussarat Hussain talks about the earlier times when HR was considered a secondary function. With the trend of outsourcing jobs in the entire corporate world, many companies planned to outsource the recruitment and HR processes. However, a phase came with the advancement in the IT industry where people or employees became a key differentiator. And that was the time when people management and employees became a crucial resource for the organizations. Mr. Hussain also highlights how Maruti has evolved from being a public sector enterprise to a Joint Venture with the government and ultimately has become a Japanese Multinational. Throughout these stages, the HR division has steered the organization in the appropriate direction by staying alongside the top management and advising them on aspects of people management. The significant contribution included: Developing the organization's vision. Creating the inclusiveness and culture for growth. Mindset for being agile. Inculcating the DNA that runs through each employee of the organization. And how these collaborative approaches also came in handy while dealing with the work-from-home scenario.
In the episode, Ms. Mona Yang defines host children in the tourism industry. She also throws more light on the fact that these children don’t come under the purview of child labour even though they undergo the same physical, mental, and social risks while working in the industry. She further provides details on how her research in Cambodia highlights this issue and how friendly nature from tourists can induce positivity in the lives of these host children. Ms. Mona also talks about how the government of developing countries may not have the required resources to alleviate the suffering of host children. She suggests that all the stakeholders should take care of them. Tourism children perceive benefit from children as it instills the cultural pride of their community and provides them with learning opportunities.
In the episode, Ms. Shweta Mani elaborates how storytelling is very different from routine communications and business communications. There are four various components of narrating a story that sets it apart from other forms of communication. One of them is the simplicity that storytelling provides and hence successfully garners more audience compared to other communication types. Ms. Shweta also talks about how individuals and businesses can use different narratives to their benefit. A strategic narrative allows the businesses to study the consumer journey from a different perspective and then use it to create a connection with potential consumers.
In the episode, Mr. Vishwesh J. Nair explains each and every detail of lactose intolerance and how the human body slowly loses its capacity to digest lactose, a protein found in milk and related dairy products. The indigestion of the protein may have different results, but the most common of all is acidity. A similar phenomenon is true for animals, and he busts the myth that cats should be fed milk. Mr. Nair also highlights how he always had an entrepreneurial approach to dealing with problems even when he was holding a job. However, the idea of MilkinOats gave him a push towards fulfilling his dream of starting his venture.
In the Milestone, i.e., 20th episode of V-POD, the Business Cluster of IIM Visakhapatnam brings you the opportunity to listen to Mr Satyakki Bhattacharjee, Managing Partner at Growthsqapes, wherein he handles Strategic Practice Division which offers capability solutions to organizations. In his experience of nearly three decades, he has been associated with organizations like IBM and ABP News Network Private Ltd. In the episode, Mr Satyakki Bhattacharjee throws light on ‘The Great Resignation’ and explains that pandemic is not the only factor driving this phenomenon. Further adding to it, he says that the career philosophy of working professionals have changed, and they don’t want to stick to their organization for a long period. It is because their priority has changed from earning to learning. Mr Bhattacharjee also highlights how managing people and people processes is not only the HR manager's job, but every manager or executive should be adept at people management.
In the episode, Mr Sridhar Ramanathan explains how one needs to have an open mind, be willing to accept changes in an optimistic fashion, and understand the process of influencing people to change with dynamic situations. He also talks about how diagnosing can help overcome mental blocks that hinder the ability to think. Mr Ramanathan highlights how crucial it is to distinguish ideas, creativity, and innovation clearly. Most people don't know the precise definition of these three and hence cannot think of the right solution.
R Balaji is currently acting as the Associate Director of Talent Partnerships at Pollen. They have been in the Digital Marketing and Influencer marketing industry for eight years. They have promoted gender fluidity on various public forums like The logical Indian, The Times of India, The Quint, Business Insider, Humans of Bombay, Humans of Hyderabad, etc. Apart from this, R Balaji has been invited as a keynote speaker at various institutes like BITS Pilani, Narsee Monjee, etc.
In the episode, Mr Manish Shah explains why he entered the teaching domain even after doing great in his previous role. The thought process behind this decision was to do something that would add value to society while also allowing him to use his existing set of skills in aptitude and reasoning. Further, he talks about the growing trend and needs for online education. However, while emphasizing competitive exams, he highlights how offline experience develops an ecosystem starting from the ambience of a competitive environment to the regular mentorship.
In the episode, Mr. Rakesh Godhwani talks about the uncertainty of our decisions in the future. He highlights that one should be daring enough to take up the arduous road as these experiences never go in vain. He elaborates on how decisions can lead to regrets only when compared with any other person. We need to learn from our mistakes rather than feel bad about them as one success story comprises of ‘n’ number of failures.
In the episode, Taanya talks about how her journey of becoming an entrepreneur started. She highlights how starting as an entrepreneur allowed her to work with freedom and take up things virtually, which was impossible in a formal corporate setup. She talks about the problem-solving approach which an entrepreneur must possess. According to her, the success of any business lies in the fact that it should focus on sustainability.
In the 14th episode of V-POD, the Business Cluster of IIM Visakhapatnam brings you the opportunity to listen to Mr Anuj Suneja, who is currently working in the Investment Team with ICICI Prudential. He was associated with EY as a consultant and has proved his acumen as an entrepreneur in the past. He is also a part-time visiting faculty at IMS Learning. Talking about his book “Casual Finance,” he says that there was not an event but a journey from blogs to answering people’s questions on investment that made him write the book to manage their finances better. He also explains how cryptocurrencies have stood the test of time and will continue doing it in the future.
In the 13th episode of V-POD, the Business Cluster of IIM Visakhapatnam brings you the opportunity to listen to Dr Angshuman Ghosh, who is currently the Head of Data Science at Sony Research India and is also an Official Member and Contributor at Forbes Technology Council. In the episode, Dr. Angshuman Ghosh introduced the POC framework for choosing the right career option for any individual. It can provide an appropriate roadmap for any individual who is facing any difficulty in opting for the right career choice to pursue. He addresses the importance of storytelling and how it plays a significant role in the pragmatic implementation of data science in the business environment.
In the 12th episode of V-POD, the Business Cluster of IIM Visakhapatnam brings you the chance to develop your entrepreneurial skills based on the real-life experience of Mr Dhruvam Thaker. From driving his taxi in Ahmedabad to becoming a successful entrepreneur, he has proved that sheer dedication and determination can provide fruitful results. Talking about the limited resources in the initial start-up years, Mr Thaker says that entrepreneurship is like an ocean. You are in a small boat with several holes and a tiny bucket to remove the water from the ship. He believes in personalized experience and hence believes that business is not driven just by technology but by people and resources. He also talks about how he converted the pandemic crisis into an opportunity by making the first-mover advantage by aiding the customers in getting government approval for outstation travels. Along with other steps, this helped him expand his operations in over two times the number of cities they were earlier serving.
In this week’s episode of the ‘V-POD’- IIMV Podcast series, we are glad to welcome Mr Puneet Jain. Currently serving as the Vice President of Clarivate, Mr Jain has a massive experience of over two decades in setting up and scaling Global Development Centres (GDC) for various fortune 500 companies. Throughout his career, he has taken projects in India and countries like Russia, Italy, Poland, and the USA. He has prospered in the roles of Country Head at IHS Markit and as Associate Director at Applied Materials India. He has worked closely with the US Consulate and US Department of Commerce while fulfilling the role of Chairman of the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce, promoting several bilateral trades and initiatives. Mr Jain aided MSME in adopting IT services while being Confederation of Indian Industry’s (CII) State Council Member and IT panel member.