Alchemy-2015 | Annual Management Conclave | #MilesToGo


SIBM Bengaluru successfully held its Annual Management Conclave, Alchemy – a two-day event that provides a quality platform for eminent speakers to share industry insights with students. This year’s theme for Alchemy was Miles To Go. With aspirations soaring high and uncertainties weighing us down; we stand today at a juncture where we still have miles to go.

In all there were seven key note speakers and three panel discussions, ‘Making India’, ‘Fuelling Intrapreneurship’ and ‘Balancing the Scales’.

The key note speakers and panelists were:

Day 1

Mr.K.K. Sinha, CEO & Director, Essar Ports
Mr.Sai Ivaturi, Director, HP Global Analytics
Mr.Ravi Shankar L, Co-Founder & Angel Investor, Nearbuy (formerly Groupon)
Mr.Rajeev Banduni, Co-Founder, CEO & Head of India Operations, GrowthEnabler Global
Ms.Vasanthi Ramesh, Associate Vice President (IT & Services), Snapdeal

Panel: Making India

Ms.Sangeeta Banerjee, CEO & Co-Founder, ApartmentAdda.com
Mr.Nirav Momaya, CEO, Amore Gelato
Mr.Puneet Manuja, Co-Founder, YourDOST.com
Tom Jose, Co-Founder & CMO, Talview
Neeraj Gupta, CEO, Excubator



Day 2

Mr.Harkesh Mittal, Head, National Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board, Government of India
Ms.Anita Sanghi, Executive Director, & Global CFO (Infrastructure & Cloud Computing), Dell 

Panel: Fuelling Entrepreneurship

Pavithran Nambiar, General Manager, JW Marriott, Mumbai
Padmanabhan Babu, MD, Logilink India
Satish M, Founder, Blue Ribbon
Dharmendra V, Vice-President, Corporate Finance, JP Morgan

Panel: Balancing the Scales

Subhadra Kunduri, Principal & Director, Total Supply Chain & Food Solutions Pvt. Ltd
Sonali Madbhavi, VP-Corporate Communications, Quikr India Pvt. Ltd.
Manisha Grover, MD-Business Excellence, Jones Lang LaSalle
Ganga Ganapati, VP, Ogilvy & Mather
Bindu Chopra, Director-Education Division, The Chopras

Bengaluru, September 11&12, 2015

Day 1

It was an enriching and learning experience for the students for Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (SIBM), Bengaluru, as the speakers of Alchemy shared their diverse experiences and insights.

Mr.K.K.Sinha, C.E.O. & Director, Essar Ports, stressed on the importance of infrastructure development and the role it will play in making India an economic superpower in the years to come.

He spoke about the key factors for growth in India and the various issues faced by India currently. According to him, Essar’s policy of “Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go” is the success mantra of the new age.

Mr. Sai Ivuturi, Director, HP Global Analytics, spoke about the relevance and future of big data analytics in this current era of technology boom. He also mentioned how SMAC (Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud) is taking over the IT sector.

Mr. Ravi Shankar, Co-founder, Nearbuy (formerly Groupon) motivated students to hone the key skills needed in the competitive environment as well as strive towards differentiation. The future is always uncertain, therefore one should not mull over it much, instead contribute to being someone’s hero in their own possible way, he said.

Mr. Rajiv Banduni, Co-founder of GrowthEnabler Global (India Operations), caught the pulse of the audience very fast and had them engaged with topics like the importance of striking a balance between business and family. He emphasized on uniqueness and thereby bringing out that no job is small or big.

The panelists for Making India were Sangeeta Banerjee, CFO and Co-founder of ApartmentAdda.com; Nirav Momaya, CEO of  Amore Gelato; Puneet Manuja; Co-founder of Your D.O.S.T.; Tom Jose, Co-founder at CMO of Talview and Neeraj Gupta, CEO of Excubator. The discussion revolved around the ease of setting up business, social stigma in starting a business and the possibility of success.

Ms.Vasanthi Ramesh, Associate Vice President (IT & Services), Snapdeal, relating to examples including that of Walt Disney, said the journey, irrespective of the roadblocks faced, will in the end be fruitful. 

Day 2

While it essential to absorb industry insights, students got also were exposed to how bureaucracy too functions while promoting entrepreneurship during the address by Mr.Harkesh Mittal, Head, National Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board, and Government of India.

Mr.Mittal highlighted, with examples, how the government is doing its bit to promote entrepreneurship by launching more and more incubators.  

This was followed by the panel discussions: Fuelling Intrapreneurship and Balancing Scales.

While the former, filled with corporates from diverse fields, collectively voiced for promoting innovation internally, the latter dealt with the importance of having promoting women in the corporate field.


The last speaker of the day Ms.Anita Sanghi, Executive Director, & Global CFO (Infrastructure & Cloud Computing), spoke about the importance of men facilitating women empowerment and the role men are playing in achieving the same.


Satkala 2015- Cervca Trova

SIBM Bengaluru also hosted Satkala – Unique Corporate Art Exhibition. Based on the theme, CERVCA TROVA, Satkala 2015 is a humble tribute to life reflected in all forms of art. The event showcased paintings, sculpture, photography and origami. Satkala experienced a lot of entries and was well received by the guests.

Prof. Atish R. Dasgupta, Faculty Mentor for Conference and Events Committee says “The theme for Alchemy and panel topics were well appreciated by the speakers who attached a lot of current relevance to it. The insights offered by the esteemed dignitaries will definitely widen the thought process of the students which, clubbed with the academic rigor, will help them be better leaders in the corporate world.”

Mr. Anil Panigrahi, Coordinator of Conference and Events Committee says “Alchemy 2015 featured over 15 speakers from the various industry verticals. Collaborating an event of such huge magnitude was a tricky job but I am glad that we pulled it off. I had great fun in organizing the event”