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Visiting Wisdom and CEO Quest

Students at S P Jain have benefited from the presence of some of the most respected and renowned people at the campus. Normally, one afternoon of the week is devoted to non-academic development programs, in the form of guest lectures.

These special lecture sessions are conducted by distinguished and eminent industry leaders, academicians, and eminent and distinguished personalities who give students a rare 'real world' glimpse of what the skill sets required by a manager are. In addition, these professionals discuss detailed inputs about the course specialization streams, and of course, the job market scenario in the UAE, Singapore, and other countries.

CEO Quest is another interesting and relevant initiative at S P Jain where CEOs and top executives from leading corporates and business houses are regularly invited to the campus to share their success stories, which is followed by an interactive Q and A session. This benefits the students largely because of the sharing of real life experiences and knowledge.

The Visiting Wisdom and CEO Quest initiatives play a very important contributory role towards the program’s enhancement and development and form an integral part of the students learning. Hearing these speakers at a frequency of one lecture per week substantially adds to the global learning experience. It has been S P Jain's honor and privilege to host many prominent speakers in the past, some of whom are listed below.

Guest speaker: Mr. Steffen Steensbaek [Click for detailed profile] Designation: Regional Manager, Supply Chain Management, Maersk Logistics Middle East Lecture Topic: "Supply Chain Consultancy" Date: 4th November 2008 Campus: Dubai Key Learning: Mr. Steffen gave the students exposure to Supply Chain consultancy and how it is done. Maersk Logistics offers end to end supply chain solutions to its customers by identifying the strategic priorities, benchmarking, mapping current process, conducting gap analysis, preparing future scenarios and implementing solutions. Participants were made to do a mini case on identifying ideal strategic locations for optimal distribution and procurement management. He gave a sneak preview on inventory management and practical examples of supply chain consultancy done by Maersk Logistics.

Guest speaker: Mr. Ken O'Donnell [Click for detailed profile] Designation: International Consultant in the fields of Quality Management, Strategic Planning and Organizational Development Lecture Topic: "Excelling in a Chaotic Environment". Date: 26th October 2008 Campus: Dubai Key Learning: Mr. O'Donnell talked about the "Chaos" that is yet to come. He spoke about the ability that encourages each individual to have solutions for particular and general issues and spoke of how each person must think out of the box to solve very relevant issues that he/she face or perhaps, is facing. He encouraged introspection before active action and intense self analyses of our strengths and faults which would then enable the discovery of most answers to problems that come from within. Once we have found the answers within, he said, and then active action becomes more definitive and easier. It was a very enlightening and interesting session.

Guest speaker: Mr. Morten Frimand [Click for detailed profile] Designation: Regional Manager, Human Resources Development, Maersk Logistics Middle East Lecture Topic: "Logistics & Supply Chain Environment" Date: 22nd October 2008 Campus: Dubai Key Learning: Mr.Morten Frimand explained from an HR perspective about challenges in the Middle East and how Maersk formulates its market strategies. Talent management and retention is a major challenge in the supply chain environment. He explained how Maersk conducts its recruitment and the important role of IT in managing resources and information.

Guest speaker: Mr. Ricco Poulsen [Click for detailed profile] Designation: Branch Manager, Damco, UAE Lecture Topic: "3 PL Market in UAE" Date: 19th October 2008 Campus: Dubai Key Learning: Mr.Ricco Poulsen had given a brief introduction of Maersk Logistics and the A.P Moller group some of the major players in the 3PL Market. He gave us an overview of the 3PL Market in the UAE and the challenges in the 3PL market. We got insights on major players in the 3PL market, capacity issues in the ports, Dubai as an re export hub, future international trade agreements with UAE .He informed us that the Maersk is trying to unlock the potential of petrochemical industries as production is moving mid east because of low energy costs and proximity to raw material. The overview helped us understand the UAE market better from a supply chain perspective with a perspective on the current and future trends.

Guest speaker: Mr. Ajai Kumar Dayal [Click for detailed profile] Designation: General Manager, Retail & Marketing, Easa Saleh Al Gurg Group L.L.C, Dubai. Lecture Topic: “Creation and Marketing of Retail Brands in the UAE.” Date: 17th October 2008 Campus: Dubai Key Learning: Mr. Ajay Kumar Dayal talked about the creation of a retail brand in UAE. He enlightened the group on the various nuances that exist while marketing and creating a retail brand, where a holistic shopping experience is to be the address for its target customers, and this holds the key to successful brand recognition, awareness and eventually loyalty. Students were given insights on how he developed ‘Better Life’, a leading retail chain, operating in the consumer durable appliances market. Mr Dayal explained the insights needed behind identifying different segments of customers and how they, as a product, position themselves among their target customers, in this case, mainly women. He also discussed the role of developing good customer relationship programs that are one of the key touchstones to be focused on in building a brand. He ended the whole discussion by giving students information on the various opportunities existing in the UAE market. A very interesting and interactive Q and A session followed, concluding an insightful and interesting lecture.

Guest speaker: Mr. Nigel Phang Designation: Director, Business Solutions, DDI Asia/Pacific International Ltd Lecture Topic: “Bridging the Gap between Business Leadership Development Intention and Reality” Date: 17th October 2008 Campus: Singapore Key Learning: Mr. Nigel Phang from DDI Singapore shared the latest research and findings from their Global Leadership Forecast 2008-2009, which surveyed more than 13,700 business leaders and HR professionals from 76 countries around the world. Mr. Phang informed us that to keep a finger on the pulse of leadership trends and best practices, DDI has been conducting the Global Leadership Forecast study once every 2 years over the past decade. Among the themes examined in this latest edition are: current leadership quality, leadership development practices, global leadership, leadership successions. Mr. Nigel shared the Singapore findings versus global findings during the session. He uncovered why leadership development programs often fail to deliver their intended results and how the world’s most successful organizations develop leaders differently. The session illustrated how weak execution and misguided strategies can undermine even the best-intended leadership development programs, and he spoke about identifying ways to drive for desired results.

Guest speaker: Mr. Trivikram Jayacham [Click for detailed profile] Designation: Human Resource Manager, Acer Computers, Middle East Lecture Topic: "The Competitive edge at Acer through HR & Culture" Date: 25th September 2008 Campus: Dubai Key Learning: Mr Trivikram Jayacham started the lecture by giving us a brief about Acer as a company. He then went on to explain the various HR practices that the company has inorder to keep their employees happy and motivated. Acer is a people's investor company and is known for its recognition programs like L&D opportunities, right culture, bonus sharing and employee involvement and has obtained various awards like European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM), MRM award, etc. for its best practices. He also spoke about how one can be a good HR Manager by giving specific instances for this. He spoke in detail about some of the unique HR practices that Acer follows - Acer is involved into Six Thinking Hats strategies as identified by Edward de Bono to increase the productivity of meetings. Management by Walking (MBW): HR walks the floor and envisages the culture of the organization. Open Door Policy (ODP): Anyone can communicate directly to any other person at any level in the organization, irrespective of the hierarchy. Acer has learning management systems (LMS) in place. It involves people by incentivising to form committees and deliver learning modules. HR's job is to become dispensable. Acer regularly runs Opinion Surveys to understand the voice of the employees. As a good HR manager and senior management, one should show your trust in the people, empower them to make decisions, communicate values by holding skits, showing commercials, playing games or taking employees for outings to nice places. It was a very informative and interesting session.

Guest speaker: Mr. Johnson Alexander [Click for detailed profile] Designation: Director-Human Resources and Quality, Health, Safety & Environment, Dulsco LLC, Dubai. Lecture Topic: "Trends in the UAE in HR and HR Outsourcing" Date: 23rd September 2008 Campus: Dubai Key Learning: Mr. Johnson Alexander's lecture was filled with interesting facts. He spoke about the HR outsourcing trends in UAE as well as in Dulsco. Outsourcing for "middle level management" is not preferred in U.A.E. Outsourcing at lower levels is more prevalent Blue collar workers are supplied to almost all organizations in U.A.E. by Dulsco, but white collar workers (mostly South East Asians) are supplied to mostly logistics companies like DHL, FEDEX, Unilever, Al Futtaim, etc. Later he provided us with some interesting data like - in U.A.E, in banks, 4% of employees need to be from the emirates, whereas in other private sectors, 2% of employees need to be from the emirates. Only 14000 emirates are unemployed, but these are mostly unskilled hence companies are reluctant to take them. He concluded the session by explaining how there are limitations in applying succession planning in companies because it can create serious gaps at different levels as nowadays employees hop jobs faster than promotions, so if you had decided to promote an employee and he leaves, then you are left with creating holes in the organization; therefore career planning is more feasible. If succession planning is in place for top level, then at least top 20 people should be identified instead of top 10 so that even if anyone leaves, the impact is not high else impact of diminishing of the top 10 layer will create blunder.

Guest speaker: Mr. Steve Halligan [Click for detailed profile] Designation: Managing Director of Dubai based Leadership specialists-The Core Group. Lecture Topic: "Employee Engagement" Date: 21st September 2008 Campus: Dubai Key Learning: Mr. Steve Halligan spoke about what an HR Manager should take care of during Employee Engagement. He also mentioned how one should stop being greedy because GREED leads to Low Job Satisfaction, Diminishing Quality of Work, High Attrition, Poor Commitment, Low Productivity. He mentioned that one should practice what they preach otherwise it leads to "The People Asset Paradox". He used the saying - "Managers do things right - Leaders do the right things". According to him - If you want better than average employees, then you had better provide better than average employment. He also mentioned that rent in Dubai is going crazy. It is not possible to give salary increase to everyone because even a 5% hike means a lot of cost to the company. One possible solution is to provide company apartments which are available at subsidised rates. Students found this to be a very insightful lecture.

Guest speaker: Mr. D. K Sharma Designation: Head, International Technology Operations, Global Consumer Group, Citibank NA, Singapore Lecture Topic: “IT in BFSI – Necessary / enabler / strategic differentiator” Date: 9th September 2008 Campus: Singapore Key Learning: Mr. Sharma gave us a brief overview on the operations and technology division of Citibank. He spoke about the strategic initiatives taken by Citibank like the core banking system, customer care initiatives, profitability and performance management, selective sourcing. He also spoke about the disruptive innovations like the SMRT card developed by Citi, websites like PayPal, attrition rate and how to track it using CRM. He also talked about data centres and distribution of IT costs. He quoted several examples like I-phone based banking in Hong Kong, Harris gambling chain in U.S just to describe the importance of IT in the banking domain.

Guest speaker: Mr. Gopi Krishna Madhavan [Click for detailed profile] Designation: Executive Vice President/ Head of Human Resources, First Gulf Bank (FGB), Abu Dhabi. Lecture Topic: "HR in the banking sector: Challenges & Opportunities (First Gulf Bank – a case in point)" Date: 23rd August 2008 Campus: Dubai Key Learning: Mr. Madhavan talked about the challenges (Emiratization, Staffing, Diversity Management etc.) and the opportunities existing in the banking sector currently and explained these while taking us through a conceptual model of HR at FGB. He explained in detail to the group how they were able to bring about a performance-oriented culture at First Gulf Bank while increasing employee engagement. He highlighted on how important it was for HR Professionals to acquire business knowledge and to work at aligning HR strategy with business strategy. The speaker also talked about the challenges of setting up a new business from the HR point of view and about the various initiatives the HR section has taken at FGB. Everyone attending the guest lecture found a lot of value from it and appreciated the information and presentation of Mr. Madhavan. The students raised many queries and gained many insights on the HR section of banking and the procedures in UAE.

Guest speaker: Mr. Dave Crane [Click for detailed profile] Designation: Managing Director, The Life Designers, Sharjah, UAE Lecture Topic: "Life Design - Part One (Self-Improvement & Motivation)" Date: 11th August 2008 Campus: Dubai Key Learning: Mr. Crane told us about how we need to do a SWOT analysis of our lives and determine where we need to improve viz., personal life, health, work life, happiness etc. He spoke about how our paradigms are very individual and how we should be able to readjust our paradigms by recognising other people’s paradigms and be flexible so that we may be able to change them or adjust to new ideas and positive vibes relatively easily. There were several highly interactive but individual tests like his Life Design card and Questionnaire, and the Hedgehog chart, which opened minds to very surprising results. Mr. Dave also spoke about how we should each find out what our passions are and then to work in fields related to our passions in career, life and the real world demand. –Our own personal “hedgehog”, he called it. He guided us in the thought that we should work to make our strengths stronger rather than wasting too much time on worrying about our weaknesses. Finally he took questions from the audience and answered each one of them very clearly and sparred the time to speak to some who wanted a more personal consultation with him. He was with us for three hours and no one realised the time fly by. A truly productive session with more to come.

Guest speaker: Mr. Jignesh Sanghvi [Click for detailed profile] Designation: AVP/Head of Trading, Man Financial Global, Dubai Lecture Topic: "Practicalities of Trading in the Market" Date: 9th August 2008 Campus: Dubai Key Learning: Mr. Sanghvi started the session by giving us insights of the trading environment . He also discussed at length the practicalities of Trading in the Commodities Market . He also elaborated on how life is as a trader and briefed us about its pros and cons. He shared with us his personal and professional experiences in the trading world which was of great interest to all the students. Finally Mr. Sanghvi spoke in detail about certain areas which concerned the practicalities of trading in the market, some of which are- Market Dynamics, Market Psychology, Trading Positions, Decision- Making, Economical Paradox. He then went on to explain the difference between a trader and a research analyst and how difficult it is for a trader to book his losses. He concluded the lecture by informing us about the career opportunities in finance in UAE and India.

Guest speaker: Mr. Ian MacDonald [Click for detailed profile] Designation: Executive Director, Gold and Precious Metals Division, Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) Lecture Topic: “Commodities Market in Dubai” Date: 29th July 2008 Campus: Dubai Key Learning: Mr. Macdonald started his speech by speaking about the structure of DMCC. He spoke about the role of DMCC in the Dubai corporate world and how it is in line with the vision of the Sheikh in making Dubai a financial hub. He then went on to explain how the commodities market works and the initiatives taken by the DMCC and the Govt. of Dubai. He also spoke about the new initiative – Dubai Commodities Asset Management Company. Finally he gave us an overview of what he thought of the future of the commodities market especially with respect to gold. He gave the students the opportunity for interaction, answering many questions related to the gold commodities market and its position with reference to the future. An interesting and interactive session, it opened the doors to a new market for exploration and study.

Guest speaker: Dr. Khalid M Kadfoor Al-Mehairi [Click for detailed profile] Designation: Founder, Emirates Advocates & Legal Consultants, UAE and Chairman, Institute for International Law, UAE. Lecture Topic: "UAE Legal Structure and its Operations" Date: 24th July 2008 Campus: Dubai Key Learning: The Logistics & Supply Chain Management batch of January, 2008 had a guest Lecture by Dr Khalid M.Kadfoor Al- Mehairi, an illustrious legal professional in Dubai on the UAE legal structure and its operations. Dr Khalid opened the speech by drawing attention to the fact that UAE is one of those few countries which have a constitution ever since the country got independence in 1971. Dr Khalid elucidated the hierarchy of the UAE courts and the basic functioning of the legal system in the Emirates. Once the basic concepts were explained he went on to explicate the dynamics that exist between the seven Emirates and how each of them are trying to reach a standard uniform legal arrangement especially with regards to transport related taxes.At the end of the lecture Dr Khalid opened the house for a Q& A session. In this session he answered questions posed by the students and the faculty present. He gave his honest views on how independent the judiciary was from the executive in the UAE. He also shared his student days and the difference between the US and the UAE legal system.

Guest speaker: Mr. Gunjan Bhardwaj Designation: Senior Senior Consultant , Ernst & Young AG, Germany Lecture Topic: "Innovation Management" Date: 23rd July 2008 Campus: Dubai Key Learning: Mr. Bhardwaj spoke about Innovation Management as a whole, with reference to Brand innovation and strategy innovation, and the two methods by which innovation is achieved, namely incremental and disruptive He also spoke about the Blue Ocean Strategy in business. He then spoke in detail about the various drivers of a firm. Finally he interrelated all this by giving interesting examples of people like Steve Jobs, L.N Mittal etc. who are all pioneers and touchstones in the process. He cited the words of Peter Drucker who said that ‘Innovation and Marketing are the two main functions of any organization’ and argued convincingly for it. He also gave key insights about organizations in various industries, which have achieved excellence by managing business, process or product innovation. The talk culminated with an interactive question and answer session on how E&Y helps organizations achieve the innovative edge in these ever changing consumer preferences. It was attended by all the students from the GMBA batches and proved to be an interesting and informative session.

Guest speaker: Prof. Amitabh Basu [Click for detailed profile] Designation: Director, Idendesign Strategies Pvt Ltd, Mumbai, India Lecture Topic: "Retail Branding" Date: 18th July 2008 Campus: Dubai Key Learning: The students of SPJCM Dubai had the opportunity to interact with Prof. Amitabh Basu. He shared his experiences in the field of retail while working with Shoppers Stop in India. He also talked about his company Idendesign, which designs retail campaigns for various retail brands. He talked about visual merchandising and product placement in retail outlets that help improve the sales of products. The students also got an opportunity to look at the various setups and displays created by his company for various retail organisations and got to know the thinking process that went behind it. This lecture gave us valuable insights about the field of Retail the retail industry.

Guest speaker: Mr. Martin Beattie Designation: ManagingDirector,AccessConsultingLtd.,Dubai Lecture Topic: "Overview of the UAE Real Estate Market and the Implications for Property Finance" Date: 29th June 2008 Campus: Dubai Key Learning: A very energetic session in which the speaker provided the participants with information and intelligence regarding the Real Estate Industry in the United Arab Emirates. The areas covered during the lecture were: Drivers and Constraints to the Real Estate Industry in the U.A.E, data to support the fact that the current high growth rate in the Real Estate market is fuelled by a real demand matched by the supply of quality stock, demographic breakdown of the Investors, the operating procedures of Finance Institutes such as Tamweel who are supporting the industry with appropriate mortgage mechanisms. He also spoke about Case studies on Amlak and Tamweel detailing Company profiles with an overview of products offered, their Business Models, Strategies, and Analysis of Financial figures. He also gave the students overviews of various laws and legislations related to the Real Estate Market, Project Finance Options available for Developers, Trends and Analysis of future growth in the Industry. Apart from the information shared, Mr. Martin encouraged the class to be interactive and ensured that he discussed all queries to the satisfaction of the participant raising it.

Guest speaker: Dr. Earl Naumann Designation: Professor of Marketing, American University of Sharjah. Lecture Topic: "Financial benefits of being customer centric" Date: 4th June 2008 Campus: Dubai Key Learning: Dr. Naumann went through his rich experience of having worked with Corporates like IBM, AT&T etc. and showing them the importance of focusing on the customer. Using real life company examples, he demonstrated how increasing customer satisfaction leads to increased profits. He also informed everyone on the need to continue building their knowledge base as any college based knowledge becomes outdated in a couple of years. Besides this, he also informed us on the need to continually innovate and improve customer oriented practices as in the end, it is these practices which make the difference between the no.1 & no.2 position.

Guest speaker: Mr. Harshit Jain [Click for detailed profile] Designation: Head-Liabilities and Transactional Banking division, ENBD, Dubai Lecture Topic: "Careers in Finance in Middle East" Date: 3rd June 2008 Campus: Dubai Key Learning: Mr. Jain started by giving an insight into his life and how his career progressed over the years. He spoke about the choices he had to make keeping his career interests in mind, thereby enriching students with his experiences. He then moved on to give valuable information on the various departments and career choices that are typically possible in a bank. He spoke on investment banking, consumer banking, wholesale banking, treasury management, Risk department, Transaction Services etc. For each of the divisions, he mentioned the functions and the skill-set required. He finally concluded his talk by taking questions from the students. He provided all the information that the students were looking for and answered all their queries. The talk helped the students get a better and a clearer understanding of the possible career choices in a bank and hence equipping them to make better career decisions.

Guest speaker: Mr. Andrew Sinclair Designation: Founder/CEO of Alphatraxx, Hong Kong. Lecture Topic: "Hedge funds" Date: 3rd June 2008 Campus: Dubai Key Learning: Mr. Sinclair provided insights on how hedge funds work and who are the people/institutions involved in hedge funds. He gave a captivating account of how he moved from real estate to capital markets/hedge funds in his career. He laid out the impact and role that hedge funds have played in the sub-prime crises. He also gave his views on how the world economy (and in particular the Asian economy) might be impacted by the sub-prime crises. In the end, he held a Q&A round with the students and answered their doubts. It was a very informative and interactive session.

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