Date: 3rd Nov 2011 Seminar on-“Impact Investment in India: Today’s Challenges = Tomorrow’s Opportunity.”  
 
Location: PHD Chamber, Hauz Khas
Speaker: Mr. Eoghan Mackie(Founder & Chief Executive-Challenges Worldwide), Mr. Salil Bhandari(President PHD Chamber), Mr. Shyam Bang (Chairman, Industry Affairs Committee), Mr. Gursharan Singh (co-Chairman of the Industry Affairs Committee, PHD Chamber).
The main speaker of the day was Mr. Eoghan Mackie who is the Founder & Chief Executive of the organization- Challenges Worldwide. The main topic of the day was how changes in investment policy & pattern are having a greater impact on the nation’s economy & society at large.
The session was inaugurated by Mr. Salil Bhandari who is President PHD Chamber, as he introduced to us the key topics for the day’s discussion & the reason for convening on the day. Then Mr. Shyam Bang who is Chairman, Industry Affairs Committee, PHD Chamber followed up by speaking about the various investment opportunities that have sprung up in recent years. He also introduced Mr. Mackie to the audience & spoke about his various achievements in industry.
Mr. Eoghan Mackie who is a British citizen, spoke mainly about the concept of sustainability both environmental as well as in industry. He spoke at length about the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) & how that is different from philanthropy. He feels that CSRs usually are just a way of providing a positive image of the organization to the outside world. Quite often the real situation does not reflect what is shown in the CSR report. The speaker also feels that the deluge in the Micro Finance industry is a reflection of the social sector not living up to its moral high ground. He spoke for a while & then he left the floor open to discussion for all the participants. The interaction then took place where questions were put forth by the delegates & Mr. Mackie very patiently tried to answer these queries.
Finally the session was brought to a close by Mr. Gursharan Singh who is the co-Chairman of the Industry Affairs Committee, PHD Chamber. He proposed a vote of thanks specially for Mr. Eoghan Mackie & also acknowledging the other speakers & the audience. The vote of thanks was concluded by a round of High Tea for all the speakers & delegates.
          
Compiled by- Aritro Das

Date: 3rd Nov 2011 Seminar on – “Channel Management”

Location: Skyline Business School- Gurgaon Campus
Speaker: Mr. Akarshan Chopra
The speaker for the seminar Mr.Akarshan Chopra is an engineering graduate from Nagpur University and has done his Master in Business Administration in the field of marketing from IMT Ghaziabad. He holds an experience of 10 years, where he first worked with Crompton Greaves under the industrial marketing department for 2 years, then ABB Company where he worked for 6 years under back end and strategies department, and he is currently working with Delta Electronics as OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) head.
The seminar was highly interesting and Mr.Akarshan made us aware of the opportunities in the field of channel management. He shared his experiences to make the seminar interactive. He explained about the Types of distribution channel, channel selection, channel conflicts and channel evaluation. He also explained about the role of a channel, which is to match and demand.
The seminar gave us an insight on the functions of the distribution channels and the types of it, which is necessary to know in the field of marketing.
LEVEL1: manufacturer—————-consumer
LEVEL2: manufacturer —————-wholesaler——–retailer——consumer
LEVEL3: manufacturer——————-wholesaler———jobber——–retailer———-consumer
All in all, the seminar was edifying and helped us know the concepts and jargons used in channel management. The speaker also spoke about his experiences over several years. Students from Skyline College were also given an opportunity to share their views and clear their doubts. Overall it was a very good learning experience on part of the students. The speaker was kind enough to clarify all our doubts.

Compiled by- Nandini Prasad
                          MBA L1 S1.
 
 
 
 

Date: 19th Oct 2011 Industry visit on “BATA Factory in Faridabad”
Location: Faridabad, India.
The MBA students of Skyline Business School were taken for industry visit to the BATA factory in Faridabad on 19th October, 2011. A very edifying trip, which gave a close insight to the application of management principles in the real industrial scenario. It was a day visit arranged by the faculty to give the students an outlook to the industrial practices. BATA shoes  is a large, family owned shoe company based in Bermuda but currently headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland, operating 3 business units worldwide – Bata Metro Markets, Bata Emerging Markets and Bata Branded Business. It has a retail presence in over 50 countries and production facilities in 26 countries. In its history the company has sold more than 14 billion pairs of shoes.
BATA was founded by Thomas Bata. The company was founded in 1894 , whose family had been cobblers for generations. A large order from the army, military shoes and rising demand for them, during World War I started rapid growth and small manufacture turned into modern industrial concern, one of the first mass producers of shoes.
BATA has a huge share of market in India. Incorporated as Bata Shoe Company Private Limited in 1931, the company was set up initially as a small operation in Konnagar (near Calcutta) in 1932. In January 1934, the foundation stone for the first building of Bata’s operation – now called the Bata. In the years that followed, the overall site was doubled in area. This township is popularly known as Batanagar. It was also the first manufacturing facility in the Indian shoe industry to receive the ISO: 9001 certification.
The factory at Faridabad is engaged in manufacture of canvas shoes. We saw the method with which different parts of the shoes are made and assembled. It is then packed and distributed to the retail chains of BATA.
The visit was highly educating and interesting .It was a nice experience all together.
Compiled by:  Nandini Prasad L1S1

Date: 20th Oct 2011 DIWALI EXUBERANCE
Location-Skyline Business School-Gurgaon Campus

Diwali, Festival of Colours & lights had a great impact on Skyline Business School.  A festival that is celebrated for the victory of Ram over Ravana and his homecoming gives a lot of joy and hope of bringing lights and sparkles in everybody’s life.
In the daily hustle bustle of assignments and projects, the students of Skyline planned to celebrate Diwali together. It was a joint effort by all the students where everyone had something or the other to contribute. The initial planning involved a lot of brainstorming where, new ideas were appreciated and taken into consideration. Finally few events & contests were announced to celebrate the occasion.
On the “D” day, the excitement & anxiety was on the horizon and the students took charge of lighting, decoration, pandal & snacks.The events started at 4:00 p.m with Rangoli competition where 3 teams were competing & eventually the first semester student won it. The event got over by 5:30 p.m .By that time all the decoration was done in the campus and skyline looked beautiful. The campus are drenched in the festivity with colorful lights, diyas & Rangoli made by the students. Then events like musical chair, passing the parcel, treasure hunt that took place where the students enjoyed a lot.
After the competitions got over, it was time for same leg shake. Students happy & satisfied with the success of the event danced their heart out, which was then joined by our respected faculty members as well. Diwali is incomplete without crackers & mithai. We for sure did not miss on that. All of us had sparklers in our hand & enjoyed the mithai.
Eventually Diwali party ended on an ecstatic note. It did bring transient joy and lights in our life.

Date: 20th Oct 2011 Seminar on “Importance of Value Investment”

Location: Skyline Business School, Gurgaon campus

Speaker: Mr. Vishal Mittal, Managing Director- Altais Advisors Pvt. Ltd.

Mr. Mittal has 12 Years of rich experience in Corporate Finance & Strategy and is an MBA graduate in the field of finance. The seminar gave an interesting insight on value investment, where he explained about growth and deep value investing. He also updated us on the special situation investing where special situation refers to event those results in an investment opportunity.

Mr. Mittal emphasized on the common thread between investment and business, which involves the following factors.
• Circle of competence
• Business like approach
• Margin of safety

He then mentioned about the opportunities in the field of financial statement analysis where the key areas were Growth, Profitability, Risk & Capital Allocation.

The seminar gave us a distinct vision & understanding of investment & its opportunities. On the whole the seminar was very engrossing & interesting. All in all it was a very edifying and enlightening seminar which gave a brief outlook on International business. The session was quite interactive. The speaker shared his viewpoints over the emerging issues on the subject. Students from Skyline College were also given an opportunity to share their views and clear their doubts. Overall it was a very good learning experience on part of the students.

Compiled by- Nandini Prasad-Student -MBA 1st Year.

Date: 18th Oct 2011 2nd CII National HR Conclave 2011

Location: The Grand, New Delhi

Speaker: Mr. Anil Sachdev,Chairman,CII National Committee on Leadership & HR and Founder and CEO of SOIL,Dr. Aswani Kumar-Minister of State of Planning, Science & Technology and Earth Sciences,Mr S Y Siddiqui-Managing Executive Officer-Maruti Suzuki India Ltd,Mr Amandeep Gupta-Executive Director-Dalmia Bharat Group,Mr Krish Shankar-Head-HR Bharti Airtel,Swami Chidrupananda-Chinmaya Mission,Mr Aquil Busrai-Chief Executive Officer-Aquil Busrai Consulting,Ms Dipti Sanzgiri-Executive Director-HR –BPCL.               

The day started with the opening speak by Mr. Anil Sachdev-Chairman, CII National Committee on Leadership & HR and Founder & CEO School of Inspired Leadership. The key issues that were discussed were:
How to address the leadership crisis?
How to look at a holistic way of developing leadership?
Do we need to pay attention to a new way of education?
How to enable inculcation of value based leadership?
How to build the leaders for tomorrow?

Next two hours, the key speakers discussed—“Leadership DNA for Future”:
What should be the leadership agenda of organizations for the future?
What sort of leadership archetypes do organizations want to develop?
What skills are needed to manage global businesses?
Can we adapt leadership lesions from the East?

Later the discussion moved towards-“Building the Leadership Pipeline””
How do you take these Hi Pos and truly accelerate their growth to leadership?
How do you provide “stretch” but not “snap” to this pool of next generation leadership?
What is the best mix of developmental mechanism?

Moreover topics like “Innovative processes to accelerate Leadership Development” were discussed. The session was quite interactive. The speaker shared his viewpoints over the emerging issues on the subject. Audiences were also given an opportunity to share their views and clear their doubts. Overall it was a very good learning experience. The speaker was kind enough to clarify all our doubts.

Compiled by- Bushra Khan-Faculty

Date: 15th Oct 2011 Seminar on “Marketing Initiatives by Indian Banks”
Location: Skyline Business School- Hauz Khas Campus
Speaker: Mr. Rakesh Mohan Diwan, General Manager- Punjab National Bank (PNB),

Mr. Rakesh Mohan Diwan started his discussion with a basic introduction to what a bank does besides the usual activities. He also explained the entire process of banking & what all it encompasses. The students got engrossed in the discussion & so Mr. Diwan moved it on to more technical areas of expertise & touched topics like Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) & Statutory Liquid Ration (SLR). Students also wanted to know about the practical aspects as to how banks market themselves. He demonstrated the various services provided by the bank & how each of those activities are marketed.
Mr. Diwan then moved on to speaking about some relatively new concepts on which a lot of work is taking place these days like- e-commerce & e-banking. He then introduced the students to the concept of virtual money. In this the students got a chance to know about the working mechanisms of Debit & Credit cards. They now grasped the importance of this concept. Finally Mr. Diwan spoke about the operations of a bank & how a bank makes profits. Profits ultimately keep the bank functioning & so the speaker stressed on key operations which generate revenues for banks. 
                                                                 Compiled by- Neha Ahuja, BBA L3 S1.