IIM-Bangalore’s three-day international business summit ‘VISTA’ concluded with the future leaders battling through several challenges across business, entrepreneurship, social and political domain.
On the final day, an interactive session with acclaimed Bollywood director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra witnessing a packed auditorium, during which Mehra walked the audience through a montage of trailers and excerpts from 4 of his films. He shared his insights on the evolution of the cinema industry over the years, terming it as one that has been heavily influenced by our society. He said, , “We are now at a place, from where we can build something new both in terms of cinema and in terms of our society”.
Young Leaders’ Summit
An expert panel discussion held by FICCI was the highlight of the third day of the Young Leaders’ Summit at Vista 2015 and had young minds discuss the Make in India initiative. The speakers spoke about the fact that ‘Make in India’ was not just a media campaign but was also deeply rooted in logic and promoting economic development by providing employment in the product and service sectors. They concluded that it was better to have an optimistic approach towards the government’s initiatives, rather than being cynical about them. The afternoon session saw Sameer Nair, Group CEO of Balaji Telefilms share his experiences - from formulating strategy for Balaji Telefilms, to volunteering for AAP and then making advertisements for MRF tyres. He stressed on hard work and networking as important skills for a fruitful career. He left the young leaders with the thought: “You might not make your presence felt, but be sure to make your absence felt.”
The Public Policy club of IIM Bangalore organized the Model United Nations (MUN), a two day event which saw delegates from all over the country attend. This was the first time IIMB had organized a MUN during Vista and had a total of 220 delegates representing over 70 countries in 6 committees. They debated topics related to international affairs such as “Ensuring economic stability and development in post conflict nations”, “Children in armed conflict” and “The impact of economic sanctions corresponding geopolitical conflicts in context of Russia and the European Union”, .
Pre-placement Interviews
The final round of Retailer, a retail simulation game by MARS - the retailing society of IIM Bangalore and @WalmartLabs, a unit of US retailer Walmart, saw five teams qualify after a gruelling first round. Teams were challenged to build the most profitable retailer in an environment simulated based on their decisions. It was a test of wit, presence of mind. Prizes worth ₹60000 and pre-placement interviews with Walmart Labs were up for grabs for the winning team.
Street Smart, organised in association with Yes Bank, engaged contestants to employ their valuation techniques and street skills to solve the given case. The event saw participation from 330+ teams, with the top 8 teams competing for a grand prize of up to ₹1.25 Lakhs. Valuing an Indian food processing company, team “Usual Suspects” from NMIMS emerged as winners and Team “Finaylists” from IIM Indore clinched the 2nd place. Anjani Vivek from Venture Bean consulting & Professor Padmini Srinivasan from IIM-B were the judges for the event.