IMI Kolkata conducted the ‘CXO Symposium 3.0’ on the the topic “Entrepreneurship and Business Growth: Thriving in Turbulent Times.” The conclave panellists include: Santanu Chattopadhyay, Chief Operating Officer, Roche; Samir Sabnis, Managing Director, ACOEM India; Satish Lakkaraju, Chief Commercial Officer, Agility Logistics Pvt Ltd; Hitesh Varma, Chief Operating Officer, Morpho Hotels and Resorts India Pvt Ltd; Aanchal Saini, Chief Executive Officer, Flyrobe; and Avinash Ratta, CEO and Managing Director, Grainvelocity. Dr Sachin Modgil, Chairperson, Alumni Relations, and Assistant Professor, IMI Kolkata, moderated the discussion.
“Entrepreneurship is a business which creates value for the customer but there is huge risk-taking involved on the entrepreneur’s side. Entrepreneurship is the antecedent of growth.” With this introduction, Dr Sachin Modgil opened the floor for discussion to the panellists. Santanu Chattopadhyay from Roche, addressed the students on the need for a combination of physical and virtual based services for the healthcare and hospital sector, in the post-Covid-19 era.
Healthcare and hospitality
Modern day healthcare entrepreneurs are changing the landscape of how the medical community takes care of our healthcare system. “The journey for entrepreneurship is exciting with risks but also very personally rewarding”, said Avinash Ratta from Grainvelocity, who advised that it is determination and consistent hard work that shall turn the core strengths of students into varied sources of revenue in our lives.
Hitesh Verma from Morpho Hotels showered students with optimism as he reminded the audience that even though every aspect of hospitality too has moved to a contactless mode, there is still space for customer interaction, staycations, and so on. The technology front over the past year and a half is going absolutely virtual has played an important role in the hospitality industry.
Supply chain management
Samir Sabnis, Managing Director, ACOEM India said explained how entrepreneurship does not mean everything must be made/innovated from scratch but instead it can also mean modifying/tweaking the current technology to be able to cater to the new market as per their expectations. “Buy basic, rent icons,” is the motto Aanchal Saini, Chief Executive Officer, Flyrobe swears by. She spoke on the role of technology in fashion. She stated an important fact that, though Flyrobe may seem as a women's brand, but 55 percent of their revenues are from men’s categories. Sustainability and being environmentally conscious are the two main drivers of their business model.
Satish Lakkaraju of Agility Logistics shared anecdotes from his life on how he came into the supply chain and last mile delivery operations despite being a corporate lawyer by profession. Having lost both his parents due to the lack of a proper storage system for injections, he understood the value of medical equipment and injections being stored at certain temperatures. Therefore, he came up with the innovation of temperature-controlled medical boxes which would not only keep the medicines safe but would also provide detailed information on the damaged ones, in case there is some delay in transporting them.
The summit was concluded with a vote of thanks offered to all panellists by Dr Sachin Modgil.