Naresh Goyal, Chairman, Jet Airways, inaugurated the seminar, and told the students how his organisation has become the leading airline in the country by focusing on people and redefining their flying experiences.(CEO Speak)

In the panel discussion on IT and Telecom Services, Govindan Sridhran, Country Executive, IBM Global Services and Hemant Sachdev, Director (Marketing & Corporate Communications), Bharti Enterprises shared their respective organisational strategies.

The last session of the seminar dealt with Financial Services, in which Aman Mehta, CEO of HSBC talked about the financial services sector in Asia and the emerging macro economic trends and their impact on service delivery.

Mind, Body, and Soul

The Mind, Body, and Soul (MBS) course helps students to understand their temperament and potential at a deeper level so that they can lead their mind, intellect, and body in ways that enable them to realise their full potential. It combines innovative methods such as large-scale interactive processes, open-space technologies, and experiential learning. Dialogue, plays, story telling, meditation, and group activity are also used to provide insights.

The second MBS programme was conducted on January 3, 2002, at the beginning of the new year; a year that is very important for the students of the ISB's founding class. The course had modules on Creativity, Learning to Learn, and Stress Management, that discussed the essence of integration of the mind, the body, and the intellect to develop a holistic personality. Each student chose one module for the workshop.

Each module stressed on different aspects of the human personality. For instance, in one of the sessions a professor from Bangalore talked about the thirst for knowledge in the Buddha and the conflicting feelings he experienced while attaining enlightenment. He further discussed the different stages of life; the protector, the interrogator, the seeker, and the teacher. He explained that all human beings are at different stages of this cycle.

Later, the students were taken through various exercises in which they shared with one another the things close to their hearts. The workshop concluded with a fifteen-minute meditation.

Internal Business Plan Competition

As part of its activities, the Wadhwani Centre for Entrepreneurial Development (WCED) has launched the first Business Plan Competition along with the Entrepreneurship Club, creating a platform for aspiring student entrepreneurs at the ISB to showcase their ideas that could lead to innovation and wealth creation.

Registration for the competition closed on November 30, 2001 and a total of 27 eligible entries were received. With team sizes ranging from one to five, the total number of students participating in the competition is 56, a whopping 44 percent of the class. A panel of experts, with considerable enterprise building experience and extensive domain knowledge on projects selected by students, will judge the competition.

Winners will be mentored by the WCED mentoring team to convert their ideas into viable enterprises with funding from venture capitalists. The ISB community may very soon witness the first results of the spirit of entrepreneurship it has fostered.

Expert Module

Professor Mohanbir Sawhney from the Kellogg School of Management taught a one-week expert module on 'Creating Value through Technology'. The course was spread over a period of 5 days from December 11 to 15, 2001.

The course primarily discussed the concept of marketing based on an understanding of the customers and developing products to serve these customers. There was a discussion on the futuristic vision of companies like Wingcast, TiVo, Assera and how these companies plan to leverage the value provided to their customers for a tangible benefit in terms of revenues. The course also traced the development of technology and explained how changing technology affects business paradigms.