“Bringing light into the darkness”, is how we kicked-off our China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) India global module bringing the light of knowledge into the classroom with a “winning in India” lecture by Shainesh G. It followed an immersion into the role of the bizhouses (Indian conglomerates) by Rejie George and the humancapital success story of the GCCs (basically in-house tech outposts for MNCs) by Dr. Anilesh Seth, an expert and consultant on the subject.
We had the chance to visit Infosys (incl. the mini Louvre Pyramid and the “washing machine” building at the campus), a company founded by the father of UK PM Sunak's wife. Likewise, to better understand the reality in the country, we went to The Akshaya Patra Foundation, doing tremendous work to feed children who otherwise could not even go to school (a stark comparison as to how fortunate we are undertaking a mastersdegree).
We got to hear from amazing executives, including a sharing by Manipal Group’s CEO Dilip Jose about the challenges (and I’d venture shining opportunities) of healthcare, a panel talk on navigating growth challenges by the co-founders of Cloudnine Group of Hospitals Rohit M A, Capillary Technologies Aneesh Reddy and Livspace Ramakant Sharma, as well as a dive into earlystage funding India, by partners at VCs like Axilor Ventures Ganapathy Venugopal, Arali Ventures Sujata Krishnan and Accel Prayank Swaroop.
All of this set in the pleasantly green JurassicPark-like campus of the prestigious Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIM Bangalore), where we had the chance to have a better understanding of innovation in India by director Rishikesha Krishnan. A big thanks to Sabarinathan G for hosting us, module organiser (and utterly engaged throughout) Prof. Rama Velamuri (方睿哲), former CEIBS GEMBA director and dean at Mahindra University - School of Management, and our dear GEMBA office Line Heidenheim Juul for the utmost smooth unfolding of the trip.
Off-class, arranged by our dear classmate Edmond Hui, founder of Acacia Venture Capital Partners, we got the chance to hear from the ambition of two kolkata entrepreneurs and what could have been done better at Gobillion, by Roshan Farhan and Kulapradip Bharali with the clear message: learn and nevergiveup.
Finally, a shout out to GreenPark Hotels and Resorts Limited in Bangalore for our pleasant stay, the delicious food tour of Kashmir at Sarposh by its founder and cultural entrepreneur Azmat Ali Mir (retrieved by our classmate Mohit Saxena) and the numerous breweries around and for which the city is known for.
Thank you all for taking the time to take us on this exciting journey, with the word of the day being "jugaad" (ie. frugal innovation) !
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