The fourth edition IIM Raipur’s leadership summit was themed ‘new age, new realities.’ The summit consisted of four panel discussions and a valedictory session.
Digital economy
The first panel discussed the topic ‘execution in digital economy.’ The discussion revolved around what makes up the digital economy and the panellists provided their incisive inputs on digital transformation for organisations.
Dhritiman Chakraborty, Director – Operations, Ingram Micro, explained that in the current scenario, digital transformation was not limited to a single aspect of a business. Instead, it encompasses every aspect of it. He further added that the people aspect is the most important part of digital transformation.
Sachin Khurana, Chief People Officer, Vice President – People Practice, Happiest Minds Technologies, highlighted that digital transformation was a shift that we had witnessed from a pre-determined space, and it has improved the availability of the resources to solve real-world problems.
Sanjay Murdeshwar, Managing Director, Novartis India, reiterated that digital is a tool that has aided the businesses and customers. An agile work culture would facilitate an organisation to undergo digital transformation.
Kavita Kurup, Global Head Talent and Organisation Transformation, UST Global, shared her views on how digital transformation differs from company to company and how the culture of the organisation plays an important role in the acceptance of digital transformation.
Digital capabilities
The second panel discussion was on the topic of ‘Developing your business and its digital capabilities.’ The panellists discussed different ways to enhance digital capabilities of organisations.
Amit Kapur, Senior Director – Technology, Lowes, emphasised that employees and customers have to be ready for the digital change so that there is autonomy in the decision-making process. Himangshu Baruah, Director, Marketing APAC, Softline, expressed that digital capabilities translate to ensuring improved user experience and building inner capabilities.
Mitul D Thakkar, Co-Founder, and Chief Executive Officer, GreyAtom, believes that the biggest challenge in digital transformation is the presence of several layers in an organisation. He advised students to have an understanding of technologies across multiple layers within an organisation.
Ramakrishna Rama, Director, Software Engineering, and Site Lead, Dell, pointed out the fact that digital capabilities will improve the organisation’s scalability by enhancing customer engagement and employee productivity. Sunil Gopinath, Chief Executive Officer, Rakuten India, reiterated that digitisation helps organisations to deeply assess the roots of their customer base. He further shared that business growth can be enhanced through digitisation.
Emerging business strategies
The subsequent two panels had an insightful discussion on the topic ‘Emerging people strategy and what it means for the HR.’
Heather Saville Gupta, Global Head HR, MullenLowe Lintas Group, mentioned that the workplace needs to be flexible, especially for women. She further added that Covid has enabled people to embrace work from home culture better .
Seetharam L, Director, Talent Acquisition, Virtusa, mentioned that disruptions have become part of the business, leading to the emergence of new and innovative ideas within the organisations.
Importance of upskilling
Rajiv Sikka, Chief Executive Officer, Indian-Oil, Adani Gas Ltd, highlighted that organisations need to change with the changing times and employees need to constantly upskill from time to time. Sudipto Mandal, Chief Human Resource Officer, Star Cement, explained the process of change happening in the organisations and various characteristics of the same.
Vijay Sivaram, Chief Executive Officer, Quess Corp Ltd, shared that there is an increased need for resilience and outlined the philosophy of 5Rs to combat today’s changing scenario.