Grey Matters

What do Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, former president of India, Mr. J J Irani, Director, Tata Sons, Prof. Harrick Vin, Vice President and Chief Scientist, TCS, Mr. Murali Sivaraman, CEO Philips India, Karumuttu Kannan, MD, Thiagarajar Mills and Member – TamilNadu State Planning Commission, Mr. Chirag Doshi, Managing Director, Walchandnagar Industries Ltd, Mr. Chender Baljee, CMD, Royal Orchid Hotels, Mr. Shambhu Das, CEO, Torrence Capital, Mr. Sandip Tarkas, President, Customer Strategy, Future Group, Mr. Ravi Krishnan, Managing Director and Sr Vice President, IMG South Asia, Mr. Rajgopal Nogja, President, Lavasa Corporation Limited and HCC Real Estate have in common? They were all present at the IIMA PGPX event called CONNEXION last weekend sharing their insightful ideas and experiences with a group of students, professors and alumni. The event that was started only last year by PGPX students has already grown to be probably the most intellectual gathering at IIMA in the most condensed form.

The event was aptly kick started by the first ever 5 km run on campus - again organised by PGPX community. The run saw a host of students, professors and exchange students participating with unprecedented enthusiasm. The run was probably a preparation of the body to take on the rigors that the mind was to be exposed to in the next three days.

The next day started with the formal inauguration by Dr. Kalam in a hall packed with an eager audience. This was followed by an informal interaction with the former president and Mr. Murali. Various interesting subjects such as the role of government in industry, integrity for sustainable growth etc. were discussed at great length. This followed by an invigorating session on marketing by the CEO of Philips, India, Mr. Murali. For many, Mr. Murali's contagious enthusiasm was the take of the day probably. This followed by dinner where a sizable number of PGPX alumni interacted with the current batch sharing valuable insights from their experiences after PGPX.

The second day started with a seminar on renewable energy where a diverse panel shared their view of the role of corporates in the sustenance of environment. The very relevant diversity of the panel composed of the head of Royal Orchids hotel, representation of Wipro's eco-energy department, president of Lavasa, CEO of torrence capital and an ex-Mckinsey consultant. The intense discussion was followed by presentation by PGPX students. The afternoon session started with a formal inauguration of the alumni interaction session by Dr. Ferzaan Engineer, CEO of Quintiles India, a leading pharmaceutical company. After a fruitful interaction with alumni, a cultural event followed - probably preparing us for another intense day.

The next day's topic was marketing innovation where marketing wizards like the MD of IMG sports, head of idea cellular, strategy head of future capital and head of innovation lab of TCS shared the dias. They shared their diverse takes on marketing and ways to tap customer potential. This followed by the director's speech where he highlighted the vision of IIMA to project PGPX as the flagship program of IIMA in the near future.

Overall, the last three days were probably the greatest learning for most of PGPX students both in terms of organizing a large event as well as listening to top notch professionals in the business world. Once the benchmark has been set, the next big vision for CONNEXION can only be to grow into one of India's most influential business event in the field of business education.