At the 24th Nirma International Conference on Management (NICOM), organised by the Institute of Management, Nirma University (IMNU), industry leaders underlined the aspects of customer-centricity, ensuring safe and secure work environment besides using advanced tech tools to be efficient under the next era of industrial revolution — Industry 4.0.
The three-day virtual event saw participation from academia and industry leaders who deliberated upon variety of topics relating to the theme of the event — “Industry 4.0: Reinventing Human Resource Management for Organisational Effectiveness.”
Impact of Covid
At the concluding session, Chief Guest Vijay Raj, Group General Manager (HR), ER, Cauvery Asset, ONGC, underlined the importance of effective HR management in the backdrop of the pandemic. “Effective HR management is now about a safe and secure work environment, ensuring emotional stability in employees,” he said, reiterating the importance of the evolving nature of HRM for organisational effectiveness, with the special emphasis on the impact of Covid-19.
The event hosted five plenary sessions during the three days with insights on diverse topics from prominent speakers all over the world.
Customer-centric approach
The conference also received an overwhelming response with 87 abstracts and 54 full papers from academicians and practitioners from the United States, UAE, South Africa, France, and India, which were presented on three concurrent tracks during the three-day event.
Chief Guest of the First daty First day of NICOM-2021, Yogi Sriram, Advisor to CEO & MD, Group Human Resources, Larsen & Toubro Ltd informed that Industry 4.0 has stronger customer-centricity.
“It means not just predicting what the customer wants but actually surpassing it. The three key factors of Industry 4.0 are agility, innovation, and efficiency. Efficiency is the name of the game,” he said in a video address. He also talked about the six design principles of Industry 4.0 and the nine pillars of technological advancements.
Prominent speakers
Dr Anup K. Singh, Director General, Nirma University talked about the role Human Resources play in achieving a balance within the organisation. “Good organisations should be able to manage contradictions,” he added.
Among other prominent industry leaders who made presentations included Ranjit Khompi, Head L&D, Reliance Retail; Feras Al Majed, VP-HR GBM Group, Bahrain; Saugat Dutta, Head IT and Digital Solutions Leader, DP World; M R Das, Chief General Manager, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd; Dr Andrea Cardillo, Managing Partner, Italian Office TPC Leadership, Italy; Sanjay Kumar Verma, VP-HR, Johnson Controls and Hitachi Air- Conditioning Ltd; Dr Julie Albright, Digital Sociologist, USC; Board Member, Infrastructure Masons, USA; Dr Sanjay Kumar, Director (Personnel), Western Coalfields Ltd. among others.