September 2017 Edition SIMSR Alumni Newsletter

With a day to go for Nostalgia - 2017, we are delighted to present to you the Imprints -

September Edition. We cannot be more excited to host our

Alums on campus and hence we present the

detailed event timeline for Nostalgia. Also featuring an exclusive interview with

Mr. Aslam Karmali, CEO, Eureka Forbes Ltd,

Alum of batch 1989-91. We also add

strength to our team as we welcome our new

Alumni Co-ordinator and the newer members to ALCOM .

With great delight, we welcome Mrs. Hemanchi Hublikar, our new Alumni

Relations Co-ordinator for SIMSR. She is a

double post graduate with a degree in

management as well. Along with being a

UPSC candidate, she has worked with June Marketing and Communications in the

past . She likes interacting with people from all walks of life for a wider and

diversified exposure. We are sure she will

help us in strengthening the Alumni relations bond further

The New York SIMSR Alumni Meet will be

held on Saturday, 14th October, 2017 at

New York. This meet will be a ‘Dutch’ treat. Request your assistance for venue

suggestions. More details will be

communicated soon. Register Now

Nostalgia, SIMSR’s Annual Alumni Meet, is just a day away and we cannot be more excited to host our Alums back to their Alma-Mater.

The theme for this year's Nostalgia is 'Masquerade'. The event will be held at SIMSR from 4 pm. Please find below the timeline for what

promises to be a memorable day for our Alumni:

Alumni General Body Meeting - This meeting will showcase the progress of the Alumni Association so far and will also map the

way ahead

Performance by Mauj - A soulful performance from the official

band of SIMSR, capturing the essence of Nostalgia by pulling a

few old strings

Batch Felicitation - The Alums of the 1987 batch will be

felicitated in recognition of being part of the SIMSR Alumni

family for the last 30 years

SIMSR Superstars - The Alumni Awards: The awards, which

celebrates the exemplary work done by our Alums in their fields,

will makes its debut in Nostalgia

Performance by Grooves - An electric piece of entertainment, performed by the dance group of SIMSR is sure to blow your mind

away

Parichay - The networking event, which aims to create a stronger bond amongst the participants, will then be held in the

amphitheater

Dance Floor - Bring your moves to the dance floor along with your

old friends as the DJ drops the beat

Dinner will then be served in the Chanakya lobby

Q. Eureka Forbes was inducted as an HBR case study 8 years

ago. These days Harvard professors are mining India for

management lessons. What do you think the world has to learn

from India?

A. The first thing that India offers is - a country where infrastructure is

still not at the global level, secondly, it offers a huge middle class - of

about 77 million urban households, thirdly, it offers a very VUCA

environment which is highly vulnerable, volatile & ambiguous. These

kind of complexities and challenges make it difficult for management

professional to succeed in such a dynamic environment. The

professionals who succeeded make great case studies, are great learnings

to mine and if you will look around you see some of the best global

leaders today like Indira Nooyi and a host of others like Satya Nadella,

all of them from India. It shows the kind of wealth of management

talent that India brings to the world today.

Q. Adding to that question, in today’s world, is it possible to

keep personal and professional life separate, because work has

become such that you are working 24*7?

A. There is a very famous phrase which says “work-life balance”. In

today’s professional world it’s a challenge though. Thus, work-life

integration is the answer. You integrate work and life together. So,

you run them parallelly, enjoying both.

Q. What are the significant learning you had in two years at

SIMSR?

A. The first learning I had was that of multitasking -a very critical thing

I learnt here, as in the corporate world you need to multitask all the

time. The second thing I learnt in SIMSR, was a very deep learning -

that if you really want to achieve something in life and if you win in your

mind, you will get it. SIMSR is where I germinated the seed of winning

in my mind, in this very building. If you want something badly,

believe me, it is achievable. The whole mind, body and soul will

work towards reaching there.

Q. Your batch comprises of industry stalwarts like

Madhusudhan Kela, Ajay Kapur, Jacqueline Mundkar and many

others. Are you still in touch with them and any fond memories

that you remember?

A. I am very happy to share that we have a WhatsApp group of SIMSR

batch of 91. We party together, celebrate birthdays, go for holidays

together and its one of the most active Whatsapp groups I have on my

phone . The memories back here are not about competing as class

mates, but about deep bonding and that’s what gives us the

mileage today - 25 years later.

One word that describes you the best

Friend

Mr. Aslam Karmali is the CEO and Sr. Vice President of the Retail and Consumer

Division at Eureka Forbes Ltd. He started his career with the Dutch multinational

electronics corporation - Philips. He is a dynamic professional who has a rich

experience of over 26 years in his field.

Q. You switched to Eureka Forbes which is an Indian Company

after a long association with Philips originally a Dutch company.

How easy or difficult was it to adapt to the new organizational

culture?

A. I used to work for Philips, a multinational company for 12 years. The

company was extremely process driven, with limited flexibility. On the

other hand, Eureka Forbes is more ‘intrapreneurial’. Another

challenge was joining not just an Indian company but a company which

was predominantly into direct B2B sales, not too familiar with the retail

business. So, it was a challenge to convince people around that retail is a

little different and requires a different treatment. But I am happy to say

we have done well. In the last 10 years, we have grown the business by

about 13 times.

Q. As the CEO of Eureka Forbes (Retail & Consumer Division),

what are the most important decisions you make as a leader of

your organization? Also, what is the biggest challenge the

industry leaders are facing currently?

A. The most important decision is while recruiting people in the

organization and this is perceived as the biggest challenge in the current

industrial scenario. I don’t believe in recruiting people with specific

experience in a particular geography, I believe in looking and

recruiting people only for attitude and training them for skill.

That has been my mantra and it will continue to be the same. To me, the

most important decision is whom to recruit and then invest in building

them as strong leaders for the company

Favourite Movie

Hidden Figures

Favourite Holiday Destination

Phuket, Thailand

One Word/ Line you say the most

Fear God

Favourite Quote

Winning is in the mind

Role Model

Mr. H Chinoy - my uncle and also my informal coach

Favourite Book

Whale Done! - by Ken Blanchard If you want something badly, believe me, it is

achievable. The whole mind, body and soul

will work towards reaching there.

AlumSpeaks with Mr. Aslam Karmali SIMSR Alum Batch 1989-91 | CEO, Eureka Forbes Ltd.

Q. What is your take on dealing with stress and how do you

rewind after work?

A. I believe the best way is to live it separately. I never mix the person

who is as a professional and the person who is a human being.

They should always run parallelly to each other. So, when the two are

living separately, there is no stress. Problems come when you

merge the two, when your professional and personal life are

constantly battling each other.

Dubai had its first official Alumni meet on 4th August, 2017

The event saw a turnout of 44 Alumni from different batches

Dr. Monica Khanna, Prof. Isaac Jacob. Dr. Radha Iyer and Dr Bharati W flew from Mumbai to attend the meet

The Alums felt nostalgic and were overwhelmed to meet their college-mates across different batches

Anveshan, the meet between the first year students and our Alums of the recent graduating batch (2015-17), was held on 10th August, 2017

The students got a good look at the recent industry trends and cleared all

their doubts regarding life in the industry

The event saw a turn out of fourteen Alums addressing more than a

hundred juniors, giving them insightful advice on what career choices to

make during the next two years

The inaugural ceremony of the new MCA batch of 2017-20 was held on 8th August,

2017

Ms. Unnati Mistri Agarwal, Presales Consultant at Vistaar technologies and MCSA

Alum of batch 2001-03, was the guest of honour and motivated the incoming batch

with her inspirational talk.

The finals of Spriha 2017 - the summer internship competition organized by the Public Relations Committee, was held on 19th August, 2017. Inter-Finals of SPRIHA 2017 Winner Dhaval Patel of PG Core had interned at

Performics.Convonix Ms. Hemal Shah, Alum of batch 1994-96 and Ms. Medha Shitut, Alum of batch 1996-98 were

amongst the panel of judges. The intra - semi finals of the same was held on 5th August, 2017 and the panel included

our prestigious Alums:

Mr. Neeraj Vakil, Batch of 2004-06

Ms. Neha Gupta, Batch of 2005-07 Dr. Anantkumar Bhide, Batch of 2005-07

Ms. Pragya Gaur, Batch of 2006-08

Mr. Yezad Mistry, Batch of 2007-09 Mr. Manoj Bhatia, Batch of 2008-10

Mr. Jiten Muni, Batch of 2008-10

Mr. Samia Ansari, Batch of 2008-10

Ms. Shweta Goyal, Batch of 2008-10

Mr. Jinesh Vasa, Batch of 2008-10

Prof. Isaac Jacob recently published 4 Indian cases for the 15th edition of Kotler and Keller's

book on marketing management.

The cases are based on Zicom, Mirchi and

Mime, Wonder Cement and Oreo

We wish him all the best for his tremendous

feat.

Job Opportunities

Total no. of recruiting companies

10

Total no. of Vacancies

21

Top Recruiting Companies

(in August)

HSBC

Clix Capital

PayU Payments Private Ltd

Invesco

Accenture

Kantar

Harvard Business Publishing

Galderma India Private Ltd

To share a job opportunity at your

organisation write to us at

simsrjobs@googlegroups.com

Connect with our Alum family by

signing up here-

Alumni Portal Sign-Up

Team Alumni Relations

Advisor

Dr. Radha Iyer

Chairperson

Dr. Bharati VW

Manager

Arvind Pandi Dorai

Co-ordinator

Hemanchi Hublikar

Team Imprints

Chief Editor -

Arvind Pandi Dorai

Editor -

Suryani Sinha Ray

Contributors :

Kushal Thakkar

Tulika Singh

Sreya Mukherjee

Divya Parekh

Ishita Gulati

Devayu Panda

Yesha Kulshreshtha

Arvind Rungta

(Convener, Alumni Committee)

Kushal Thakkar

(Co-Convener, Alumni Committee)

Surabhi Singh

(Co-Convener, Alumni Committee)

Contact Us Write to us / Contact us

alcom.simsr@somaiya.edu

022-6728 3120

We welcome these very talented juniors as a part of the ALCOM 2017-19.

These budding youngsters are talented, dynamic, enthusiastic and

brimming with energy. We are very excited to work with you all and wish

you all the best for the next 2 years!

Welcome to the Alumni Committee!