Deloitted

Just went and attended on behalf of IIM Indore, an event called the Deans' Summit organised very well by Deloitte. It was a multi-media sensory experience (can't help it, I teach/taught Services Marketing, so bear with me).

A dancing (OK, waving) robot on screen with a voice (over) would introduce each session's speaker, and see her/him off, and in one session, we actually met a robot who walked on to the stage and even spoke contextually.

The sessions addressed issues like Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, Cyber-everything including cyber-security, and many more current buzzwords like Big Data, Predictive Analytics and other kinds of it. Interspersed with examples from their consulting practice, it was a good mix of jargon and real application. One of the great attractions was speakers from social spheres-and sports. The founder of Teach for India, for example, was a passionate communicator, who spoke about transforming lives through education, and opportunity. Every kid deserves one! True that.

And of course, there was a fun evening too, with activities like cooking and karaoke-music and food go together, right?

Well done, from conception to execution. You are not a run-of-the-mill consultant, that's for sure!

GBSN Conference at Delhi

IMT Ghaziabad is the co-host of the Global Business School Network ( a non-profit orgn) conference, held in India for the first time. Today was pretty good,  starting with some introductory remarks by the guests, Analjit Singh of the Max group and Mr. Kamal Nath. Followed by some good sessions about challenges facing B schools. Africa has less than 100 Business schools, was a major discovery, against 4000 or so in India.

We had an interesting session for Deans/Directors where we enumerated challenges facing B Schools, and how they might contribute to economic development. Met some academics from South and North Carolina where I spent around 5 years.

There was a very interesting dinner meet with a presentation by Aparajita from Bill and Melida Gates Foundation on the subject of an intervention on AIDS control among Indian sex workers and other target groups. The role of management, and of the Indian govt. were both lauded by the presenter. We had a nice chat. Also met a Dartmouth MBA student who might be taught by Kusum Ailawadi, a batchmate who is a faculty member there. The Dartmouth team did a social project about building a 300 dollar house in Haiti, and won a prize from GBSN for it.

Tomorrow is the last day of the formal sessions, and I am looking forward to it.