Posts tagged ‘Leadership’
HR Conclave 2011 – Great Lakes Institute of Management
Next to excellence is the appreciation of it.
~William Makepeace Thackeray
Today Great Lakes institute of Management welcomes the plethora of dynamic HR professionals, B School Students and the eminent faculty for the Great Lakes HR conclave 2011. The air is crisp with professionals running off to make the last minute mark, women making their best effort to fill the feminine sanctity with an ardent art. They say to be a minute editor one has to be a fine observer and right then you come across Dr. Bala V Balachandran and you are sure to who are we competing in marking everything picture perfect. Few flashes of lights, a surreal pause and the event begins.
Vishal and Ramya, explore the marks of inclusive experiential process and script the beginning to one of the finest events that one could come across in an MBA school. With a touch of purity by Pratibha’s eloquent prayer and the lighting of the lamp by Prof. Sriram (Executive Director, Great Lakes institute of Management) and Dr. Bala V Balachandran (Founder & Dean, Great Lakes Institute of Management) HR Conclave 2011 genesised.
Dr Bala Balachandran extended a warm welcome to all distinguished personalities, students, faculties and to the highest resource of any company, the HR. Signifying the importance of three pillars of a country and equally for a company the people, the technology and the prose’s Dr. Balachandran focused on the development of any company with the help of the outstanding galaxy of people who take the highest asset of any organization to a different pinnacle. Greeting the esteemed fraternity of HR who joined Great lakes institute of management in HR Conclave 2011, Uncle Bala commemorated the release of Great Lakes Journal on Late Dr. C. K. Prahalad, a special edition by Dr. Ashok Chandra & Mr. Benedict Parmanand (Editor Management Next media & Publications LLP) to celebrate his life and achievements. Following the announcement of the second edition of Great Lakes journal in the event of L’Attitude 1305 to accomplish the legacy of Late Dr. C.K. Prahald, Uncle Bala also informed the collaboration of the first executive MBA program with the Bauer college, Texas, USA staring on 7th of January in the coming year. Warmly extending his welcome to all present Uncle Bala opened the session for the Key note speaker Dr. Satish Pradhan, (Chief – group HR, Tata Sons Ltd).
Dr. Satish Pradhan welcomed the session with his greetings to all. Sharing his insights over Dr. C. K. Prahalad, he poured his heartfelt gratitude for the late management guru who influenced all at par with his inspirational quality and his capability to encourage all.
“You would realize that the words used by Bala are deeply felt by a very large number of people, who r invested very deeply by C.K. He is vibrant, simulated and energetic”
Over the changing aspect of the world he marked over significant issues such as changing of weights towards India and China and equally the development of Consumer confidence index in India which makes a significance competitive advantage over all other countries leveraging the economic growth to all together a different pinnacle.
Concentrating on the Indian pool of talent Dr Satish focuses on the mammoth of education hub that India has come up to be with 2.5 million graduates every year.
“There is a great strength here but it is killed if we don’t leverage it”
He further condensed his talk with a special significance to one of the largest challenge faced by organizations is the development of future leaders. He leveraged by saying that One needs to focus not on what makes sense to him but on what makes sense to the world exactly spotting on to an extremely important topic of continuously staying ahead in technology, in thinking and in the quality of business that we do.
“The most imp agenda for us is the development of leaders for the future. If we pay attention to that, we will have planted trees that would become great forests in the future.”
Dr. Satish captured the audience with his emphatic intensity of discussion which came to a conclusion with a significant expectation that one holds from the behemoth of young B school graduates and that being that each one of us must be a multiplier of what potential C.K. Prahalad and Uncle Bala holds.
The conclave further invited Dr. Ashok Chandra (Head – Strategy & Shared Services, GATI) who interestingly emphasized the effectiveness of the change in DNA’s (Differential Natural Attributes) that an HR executive would need, to find a mergence with the business, by which the potential of an HR would multiply to manifolds bridging the gap which is significantly felt in many organizations between an HR leader and a business leader.
Great Lakes HR conclave approached the conclusion of its morning session with the vote of thanks by Prof. Sriram (Executive director, Great Lakes Institute of Management) along with the inauguration of its internal magazine Gravity, Prof. Sriram thanked the dignitaries on behalf of the entire Great Lakes fraternity and concluded the first part of the event with enthusiasm and verve to look forward in this panorama of an intellectual meet.
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By
Debashree Chatterjee
Photographs: Shiva Jeevanantham & Dagar Katyal
Living life in alternate days
Pre-reads, more pre-reads and some more pre-reads. Sleep cycle went for a toss, class preparedness took a whole new meaning and grades were out even before we could have dinner on the same day. Faster than the grades could be out, students were out of classrooms and of the course. The dreaded “I have reasonable evidence to believe that you haven’t done your pre-reads” became the most dreaded catch phrase of our lives over a period of one and half months.
People doing pre-reads while watching cricket matches, in buses on the way to watch movies (even Enthiran) and while having breakfast were a common sight. Even our jokes for a month and half became centred on LIP!! A bunch of fifty odd survivors were eating, drinking and sleeping “LIP” and doing what they must do – Survive.
A course which generated so much of hype with stories doing rounds of how a senior had to catch a flight to be just in time for a class as he didn’t want to be out of the course. With almost all the batch toppers opting for the course, it was bloodbath when it came to grades. Yes, that would be me bleeding. Egos were bruised and philosophies moulded but no one gave up.
You must be wondering. Was it worth the hype, the pain and the sleepless nights and empty stomachs? You bet, it was; worth living for, worth dying for and worth going to hell for. Touted as one of the most enigmatic courses at Great Lakes and being taught by the equally enigmatic Dr. Venkat. R. Krishnan, it was also reckoned to be one of the most useful and practical. Leadership, Influence and Power (or LIP as we call it) surpassed all our expectations and left us wanting more.
Everything about it was different – loads of pre-reads consisting of two text book and numerous empirical articles, a class with 100% attendance from each student who had enrolled, a class involving everything from movies, to speeches to drama to case studies to numerous surveys, to live leadership project, to heated discussions – it was different in every conceivable way.
There were 16 classes and each was unique in its own way, right from the livid discussions to the OHP presentations (yes, you read it right – Over head projector).Each class was loaded with anticipation, partly due to the compulsory pre-reads which was tested in every class in different ways. The discussions were inflammable at times but never became ugly as the ice cool temperament of Dr. Venkat came to the fore. He will corner you with his questions so much so that only thing you can do is retort. He will most often sidestep from the centre stage and let others counter your opinion and will merely be a witness to the clash of ideologies and philosophies.
Usually every course has a definite goal. According to Dr. Venkat, the sole aim of his course was to leave us with numerous unanswered questions. I must say that he did indeed succeed.
Want to know more about the course? I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you! 
- A joint venture by Shiva Krishnan and Priyambad.
Mr. Manohar Parrikar, Hon. Leader of opposition, Goa on “Leadership, Good governance & Management”
Executive Director Prof. Sriram opened the session with his eloquent display of warm welcome to the guest. He remarked that the decision to enter politics for any individual shrinks in relevance and the individual belittles politics, for the image that the field has gathered over years is anything but pretty. He showered praise on the guest for such an audacious decision.
Mr. Parrikar’s speech began on a note of flirtatious humour, oscillated through the trenches of bureaucratic imagery and political despondence before finally resting on the firm shoulders of his talk on leadership. “I told my ministers; Finance and Education sectors would rest with me. Former everyone clamoured for, agreed after thorough examination of pros and cons but later no one cared for” reminisced the speaker of his first day in office as CM. Responding to a question from the audience, speaker asserted that “Education precedes population in the list of priorities for the progress of our nation”. Education rips past every other parameter and sits right on top, such was the firm contention of the speaker. In referring to Bureaucrats, the speaker claimed that “Bureaucracy is the water in that glass” pointing to the glass before him, he continued “water takes the colour and taste of the politicians”.
Referring to oft cited comparison between CEO and CM, he mentioned a CEO can choose his team but a Chief Minister doesn’t have similar freedom. This is when leadership is very important. Giving anecdotes of 1965 war with Pakistan and Kargil he mentioned the importance of leading from the front. He emphasised the pivotal role character plays in the development of a leader.
Through his amazing recollections of adorable short stories, he observed that a leader is one who is “literate, educated and wise”. Through the gripping tale of a herdsman and a consultant, he mimicked the ostentatious outpour of extravagance which could have been avoided. Later, he narrated few anecdotes of his, and through them demonstrated to the audience, the power of “leadership with focus”. In response to another inquisitive patriot (class of 2010), Mr. Parrikar noted that bureaucrats have to made accountable, and this act he contended, would lead to the progress of nation.
The program ended with Prof. Veeravalli’s vote of thanks.
