IMPRINTS
SIMSR Alumni Newsletter Team ALCOM Speaks
Dr. Monica Khanna Appointed As Hon. Secretary Of BMA
The summer season is back and so is the season of ‘travel’. But before you jet-set to your holiday destination, we present you the June edition of Imprints featuring an exclusive interview with Mr. Mehul Kapadia, Vice P r e si d e n t -G l o b a l M ar k e t i n g , MD -F 1 Business at Tata Communications. Also featuring- achievements by our Alums, call for Alumni representatives, latest initiatives by ALCOM and all the recent happenings in the Alumni community. Happy travelling!
We are proud to inform that our Director, Dr. Monica Khanna has been elected as the Honorary Secretary of the Bombay Management Association for a period of two years (2017-18 to 2018-19) in the Executive Committee elections recently
We heartily congratulate Ma'am on her well deserved achievement and wish her all the best for this new role
Alumnati @ Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Pune
After a great response for City Meets this year, we are now ready to take the plunge by introducing our newest initiative 'Alumnati'
Alumnati (inspired by Illuminati) will be a follow up event to City Meets and aims at strengthening SIMSR Alumni bond in respective cities
We intend to organize a knowledge sharing session by an eminent Alum followed by the buddy program in the first half of July 2017 (preferably on a Friday evening, at a conference room in one of the organisations, tentative date: 7th July 2017, Time: 7:00 - 9:00 pm)
Call For Alumni Representatives
As the institute grows, our Alum base also grows. We have our Alumni in almost every part of the globe In an effort to reach out and bring them together to form strong support groups, we invite Alumni Representatives for batches and various cities It is a request to our Alumni to volunteer to become the Batch Representative for your respective batch or the City/Country Representative for the mentioned cities/ countries and help us create a stronger Alumni bond We request you to kindly sign-up on the Link
Indian Cities
International
Ahmedabad
Australia
Bengaluru
Canada
Chandigarh
China
Chennai
Dubai/UAE
Delhi
England
Gurgaon
Germany
Hyderabad
Japan
Jaipur
Singapore
Kolkata Mumbai
South East Asia (Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, N Korea, S Korea, Indonesia)
Noida Patna Pune
US - East Coast US - West Coast
AlumSpeaks with Mehul Kapadia SIMSR Alum of Batch 1996-98 | VP- Global Marketing and MD - F1 Business at Tata Communications Mehul Kapadia has an experience of over 20 years across varied profiles in advertising, telecom, internet services and communications sector. He is currently based out of London and heads the Formula 1® business for Tata Communications.
Q. Not many people in India are aware that an Indian Company, Tata Communication (TC) is behind the technological advancement like connectivity, hosting, and content delivery network of Formula 1®, and you are the head this domain of TC, what has been your experience heading the project?
A.
A. Tata Communications is the world’s largest submarine cable networks with 25% of the world’s internet routes on Tata Communications’ network. The company gave me different opportunities, be it retail, SME etc. The combination of sales and marketing was critical to give me a thorough understanding of the industry and these experiences helped me gain the knowledge required to head the project.
Q. How do you see the future of F1 Sport evolving? What role would TC play in taking the popularity of this sport to the next level in India?
Q. What were the challenges you faced during implementation of your strategies and how did you overcome them? Tata Communications has grown significantly over the last 15 years; from starting by acquiring VSNL to now being one of the leading service providers globally. The challenges and opportunities are about finding the right customer to target with the right service at the right location. The basics of marketing remain the same! Just that with the new digital technologies, the way to do it has changed dramatically.
“Be open to
I joined Tata Communications as an Assistant Manager and grew with the organization. The kind of experience that Tata Communications provided me is unparalleled. In my tenure with Tata Communications I got different roles and I genuinely feel that working across various profiles helped me get better at business. It gave me practical knowledge to what I had been taught in SIMSR!
Rapid Fire: Favourite Movie: Lion King Favourite Book: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho Favourite Holiday Destination: San Francisco Favourite Quote: “By a public speaker, the attitude of perseverance. Even if it is a bad day, think of it as a character building day” Favourite Car: Range Rover Sports Favourite F1® Team: Mercedes AMG F1
opportunities and
Favourite F1® Racer: Ayrton Senna
challenges, be an experience collector” Q. While we see most people switching companies today, you have been constant with Tata Communications for quite some time. What made you stick to it and how did your association with TC made you grow as a person?
Role Model: Mahatma Gandhi One word/line you say the most:
“Do good, be good” If not a marketer, what would you have been: A numbers guy
A. The world is ongoing a digital transformation. The target segment of a live and full-of-energy sports like F1 is the younger generation, these millennial are always on the move. They are also engaged to a lot of activities that are associated with the internet. As a company we need to leverage this digital transformation and have to engage the younger crowd through digital
“Working across various profiles helped me get better at business, it gave me practical knowledge to what I had been taught in SIMSR!” Q. What are the significant learnings you had in your two years in the campus? A. SIMSR played a phenomenal role in my life. If I look back, every day, all the projects and all the friendships have added value to my life in some or the other way. We all want to join the Harvard’s and IIMs of the world, but the culture of openness in our institute really help shape my personality and confidence. I am very thankful to the institute and the staff for the role that it has played in my life.
Q. What would your advice be for young Alumni/students willing to seek a career of marketing in sports? A. Be open to opportunities and challenges, be an experience collector. Do a lot of projects in college, be flexible enough and try to gain as much knowledge possible in the 2 years.
“The typical combination of sales and marketing was critical to give a thorough understanding of the industry”
Alumni Achievements Marketing Initiatives By SIMSR Alum Bags Awards
UTI Mutual Funds bagged a gold for Best Loyalty Platform - UTI Summit and a silver for its pioneering investor education initiative - UTI Swatantra at the recently held Asia Pacific Customer Engagement Forum and Awards (ACEF ) 2017 held in Mumbai
These marketing initiatives have been driven by Mr. Deepak Saluja, Executive Vice President – Head Branding, Marketing, Channel Loyalty and Investor Education UTI AMC, Alum of Batch 1996-98, and his team. We congratulate them on their success and wish them all the best for the future
Last year, one of UTI Swatantra’s episode was shot at SIMSR
SIMSR Alum Leaves International Imprints
Mr. Rahul Avasthy, Lead – Digital Transformation at Abbot, Alum of Batch 2008-10 is making his mark in the social media industry by leading awardwinning digital transformation initiatives
Abbot won 2 prestigious awards back to back at the Eyeforpharma 2017
They are the first in the world to use Virtual reality in HCP and Pharmacist detailing in emerging countries and was the winner in the Most valuable HCP / Healthcare Initiative
Their innovation - Thyroid WIFI clinics also bagged an award and was termed as Highly Commendable and Most Valuable Patient Initiative - 2017
SIMSR Alum’s Start-Up Recognized In Top Ten
It is a proud moment for us as LexiConn Content Services was announced as one of the top ten marketing agencies in India to outsource content writing
The company was started in 2009 by Mr. Khamir Purohit, Alum of Batch 2006-08, out of his passion for marketing-based-writing. Since then, LexiConn has evolved into a full-service content and copywriting company that delivers customized writing, editing and proofreading services for marketing and communications mandates
LexiConn has offices in Mumbai and Kolkata
A Meet In Thailand
Mr. Prashanth Sulakhe, Alum of Batch 1998-2001, met Dr. Devendranath Jha, ACP - IT Department, SIMSR, at Bangkok, Thailand on 18th May, 2017. Dr. Jha was on an official visit to Thailand to attend a conference
Mr.Sulakhe has been residing Bangkok for the last 16 years
A couple of more Alums were supposed to join as well but unfortunately could not make it to the meet that day
and
working
in
AlCheMy-2017 Kick-Started
Job Opportunities Total No of recruiting companies
We are pleased to announce that AlCheMy-2017, the placement mentorship program took-off with an overwhelming response from the Alumni and the students
As many as 70 selected students and 66 Alumni are currently engaged in this placement mentorship program in its first phase
We thank our Alumni for being eager and enthusiastically participating in this initiative
22 Total No of Vacancies 24 Top Recruiting Companies (in May) PayPal, GE Healthcare, Marsh India, Flipkart, L&T Financial Services, Ernst & Young, PayPal, Citicorp Services, ICICI Pru Life Insurance, HSBC To share a job opportunity at your organisation write to us at simsrjobs@googlegroups.com
SIMSRites Reunite At Bengaluru
Weddings are joyous occasions, and what could be merrier than friends flying from cities across India to be part of their batch -mate's wedding celebrations
The sweltering heat did not deter the Alums of batch 2009-11, who flocked down to attend the wedding of our Alum Ashwath Bereke which resulted in a mini-reunion at Bengaluru
We wish good luck to the newly weds Ashwanath and Indushree
Team Alumni Relations Advisor, Alumni Relations Dr. Radha Iyer Chairperson, Alumni Relations Dr. Bharati VW Manager, Alumni Relations Arvind Pandi Dorai Officer, Alumni Relations Shriya Pawar
Team Imprints
Nostalgia - 2017 The most awaited event of the year – Nostalgia is back. Its that time of the year when you Relive-Rewind-Reconnect’ your college days. So save your date for the Annual Alumni Homecoming of SIMSR.
3 Months To Go!!!
Chief Editor Arvind Pandi Dorai Editor Suryani Sinha Ray ContributorsKushal Thakkar, Tulika Singh, Aditya Sankhe, Sreya Mukherjee, Divya Parekh. 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 3120/3185