Keynote Speaker(s)

Dr. Stuart Evans

Distinguished Service Professor, Director of CMU-Emirates iLab

Stuart Evans is a board member, educator, author, and expert on dynamic high-tech ventures. As a Distinguished Service Professor, he shares his expertise by teaching related coursework for our degree programs in Silicon Valley, M.S. in Software Management and M.S. Technology Ventures. Additionally, Stuart is the Director of the CMU-Emirates iLab, a partnership between III and Emirates Airlines for innovative education and research specialized for the airline industry.

Stuart's professional career spans across many areas of entrepreneurship, featuring extensive experience within the tech ecosystem of Silicon Valley. He has conducted research for SRI International and Stanford Graduate School of Business; consulted with Bain and Company; wasa partner with Sand Hill Venture Group; and served as executive management for Shugart Corporation, a Xerox subsidiary. He taught entrepreneurship at The Cambridge University's Judge Business School where he was a Senior Associate.

Abstract:

Business enterprises are trying to reinvent themselves for a new world. This is largely triggered by a plethora of new technologies driving an unparalleled digital disruption. Flexibility is a topic of strategic relevance in the current era of transformation. This brief will address the history of research on the topic, puts forward a unifying framework under the umbrella term 'super-flexibility" to integrate the different senses in the literature, and proposes a conceptual model for putting the notion of flexibility into practice. Crafting super-flexible strategies is essential in today's fluid world. Business leaders have to "maneuver" their enterprise's strategic trajectory real-time, like changing gears in a car. Based on the conjunction of today and tomorrow, offense and defense, the proposed conceptual framework consists of four types of maneuver: pre-emptive, protective, opportunistic, and corrective. Pre-emptive and protective maneuvers represent offensive and defensive moves anchored in the future. Opportunistic and corrective maneuvers represent offensive and defensive moves anchored in the present. Developing super- flexible strategies is about nurturing a portfolio of initiatives, monitoring them on a regular basis, and shifting gears as new realities unfold.

Dr. Bharat Bhasker

Director, Indian Institute of Management Raipur

Dr. Bharat Bhasker is the Director of Indian Institute of Management, Raipur. Dr Bhasker served as Professor in the area of Information Technology & Systems, and has been with IIM Lucknow since 1996. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Electronics & Communications Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, Master's and Doctorate in Computer Science from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, USA. Prior to joining IIM Lucknow, he spent 11 years working in the leading research establishments in USA. Dr. Bhasker spent seven years with Goddard Space Flight Center of NASA in leading research and research management positions. His research contributions in Heterogeneous distributed database management systems. Heterogeneous distributed information management, Information retrieval from mass repositories, and internet protocols won him a Research Productivity Award from the NASA in 1992. Dr. Bhasker was member of the High Performance Computer and Communications (HPCC) initiative of the NASA that led to the Information Superhighway project. He worked for four years with MDL Information Systems and Sybase Inc., California, USA and was the architect of the massively parallel DBMS, Sybase MPP. He also served as Visiting Professor of Information Systems, Business Management School, University of Maryland, University of California, and University of Texas, USA.

Dr. Bharat Bhasker has established the Internet Commerce Research Center (http://icrc.iiml.ac.in) to promote the Electronic Commerce research in India. The center also serves as resource center for the Indian Electronic Commerce Industry. Dr. Bhasker has taught postgraduate courses in India and abroad and has published papers in the area of Distributed Database Management Systems, Internet Applications and Information Retrieval. Dr. Bhasker has also authored a widely followed titled Electronic Commerce- Framework, Technologies and Application.

Impact of Digital Innovation on Supply Chain

The ongoing Digital innovation are affecting supply chains as never before in the history of manufacturing. The emerging autonomous systems and customized manufacturing through 3D printing are already causing large scale disruptions. This talk covers the 3 phases of disruptions in supply chains that have already been witnessed. The first phase with the emergence of Internet in 1980's led to emergence of Baxter healthcare, second phase with arrival of WWW in 1990's gave rise to elimination several layer of supply chain elements through a mechanism known as disintermediation. Amazon and iTunes caused large scale disruption in Book and Music industry. The third phase, Collaborative economy age, is causing disruptions in business that derived competitive advantage due to asset-specificity. The poster boys of this era are Airbnb, Uber, Dell and Wall Mart with on demand (zero) inventory.

Finally, the talk focuses on the oncoming fourth phase of digital disruption driven by the autonomous systems. The impact of autonomous systems (driverless Cars, trucks, robots) in transport, shipping, delivery and logistics coupled with blockchain technology will lead us toward unforeseen models where business tasks including payments, repair and replenishment will be far more optimal and efficient.

Businesses cannot be successful in the digital era with yesterday's supply chain practices and technologies. This is the time to stage a supply chain revolution that responds to an unmatched level of digital disruptions.

Dr. Shailendra Singh

Director, Indian Institute of Management Ranchi

Prof. Shailendra Singh is the Director of Indian Institute of Management Ranchi. Prior to that, he was the Dean (Research) and a Senior Professor in the area of Human Resource Management at Indian Institute of Management Lucknow. He has also served as the President (2013-14) and has been elected as a Fellow (2018) of National Academy of Psychology India. Prof. Singh earned MA in Psychology from the University of Allahabad, LL.B. from University of Delhi and Ph.D. in Organizational Behaviour from IIT Kanpur. His Ph.D. Dissertation titled "Executives under Stress: Explorations in the Structure and Dynamics" won Indian Council of Social Science Research Publication Grant Award. He has more than 30 years of post Ph.D. research & teaching experience. He also has a vast and varied experience in training, administration and consultancy. Prof. Singh has delivered various lectures, presentations and keynote addresses at premier universities, institutes and business schools around the world which include IITs, IIMs, IIITs, Banaras Hindu University, University of Cambridge (UK), Aston Business School (UK), University of Kelaniya (Sri Lanka) to name a few.

Human Resource Systems Flexibility for Organizational Effectiveness

This paper has taken a position that Human resources systems flexibility (HRSF) is associated with higher organizational effectiveness and better employee engagement and satisfaction. HRSF may include but not limited to policies related to flextime, flexible attendance arrangements telecommuting, job sharing, organic organizational arrangements, Behavioural flexibility of managers aimed at addressing employee- organization fit and work life balance issues. The central argument of the paper is that employees release their discretionary performance when they feel that their organizations care about their needs and wellbeing. When employees collectively release their discretionary performance, organizational effectiveness is likely to improve. While HRSF enhances organizational effectiveness, it also poses certain challenges for the organizations. These challenges also been outlined.

Varun Vidyarthi

Manavodaya

Varun Vidyarthi is founder of Manavodaya that is known as the pioneer of the self help movement in India that touches the lives of millions of rural women. He and his wife are IITians who abandoned their formal career to live and work in villages. The institution Manavodaya is now a centre of excellence in participatory methods where people from all over the world come for learning on self help and self awareness methods. Visit www.manavodaya.org

Systems and Consciousness Building for Rural Transformation

The self help movement that has spread across the country among the poorest sections of the population is based on building of systems managed and controlled by members of the self help groups. The effectiveness of the systems is dependent on parallel building of group consciousness through a process of social mobilisation. It is possible to facilitate the process for scaling up and connect with contemporary issues for the much needed economic and social transformation in rural areas. This is an important area for public private partnership that needs attention by corporate leaders, policy makers and development managers alike.

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