On July 6, 2018, Prin. L. N. Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research, Bengaluru conducted a Faculty Development Programme for all faculty and staff in its Bengaluru Campus. The programme was aimed at increasing the group cohesiveness and also increase interpersonal interaction and interpersonal networking, informal learning, and informal mentoring. The programme was coordinated by Mr. Charuhas Joshi, a seasoned trainer associated with Welingkar Mumbai. The programme started off with a short introductory session by the Group Director and all 58 participants sorted into groups.

Each team chose a leader and the leaders were explained the rules and also given the list of tasks each team had to complete. The leader, in turn, had to explain the rules and process to the entire team. Each team had to complete a given number of Tasks to qualify and each task was assigned points and few also had set time limits. On the whole, the tasks were designed to understand the teams’ time management skills, Planning, decision-making skills, the best use of available resources to complete given tasks and team dynamics. Each team was free to choose the tasks they wanted to complete first and a trainer was assigned to each team. A total time limit was set for 4 hours and the minimum completed tasks for each team to qualify was set as 4, with no maximum limit (total available games 8), including time for lunch. The team was required to be together throughout the 4 hours and no task was to be done in absence of anyone. After the specified 4 hours the participants reported back to the auditorium for debriefing. The session came to an end with each team sharing their experiences, challenges, learnings and also a SWOT analysis of their teams and also how the learnings or observations can be put to use in their daily lives, both personally and professionally.

WeSchool, Bangalore organized the 30th AIMS Annual Management Education Convention at the Infosys Convention Centre, Bangalore. The theme of the convention was ‘Management Education – Connecting the dots’. The convention covered topics such as ‘Co-creating the Future’, ‘Innovation in Management Education: Sharing of Best Practices’, ‘Research Initiatives and Quality benchmarks in Management Education’ and ‘How are we going to survive Tsunami of Tech Disruption?’ which were discussed by eminent speakers.

Mr. Deepak Padaki - Executive Vice President - Group Head Corporate Strategy and Chief Risk Officer, Infosys Ltd, Adv. S K Jain - Chairman, S P Mandali Trust, Pune Dr. Uday Salunkhe - Group Director, WeSchool, India & Convention Chief Patron, Dr. Anil Rao Paila - President AIMS, Senior Dean & Director-weSchool Bangalore @ the inaugural ceremony of AIMS convention at Infosys.

Every year WeSchool organizes 'Summer Internship Contest' for our Post Graduate Management Students (from all specializations) to develop excellence and competitive spirit among the students. The event witnessed the participation of 11 finalists who were judged by a competent panel of 3 judges from different industry verticals and domain specializations. The event was a success as judged from the immense learning and participation of students, active involvement of We School faculty and raving reviews of the panel of judges.

Panelist: Rajiv Singh - CEO – Nortel Networks Ankit Baheti - Head of Analytics – United Breweries Ltd Ms. Jayita Bhattacharyya - HR - Future Group

‘SAMYAK – Journey to Perfection’ was the theme for ‘Neev 2018’- the Foundation Fortnight at Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research {We School}, Bengaluru Campus. SAMYAK stands for getting polished and the We School fraternity looks forward to helping students chisel their knowledge and skills in various dimensions. The Foundation Fortnight or NEEV is held for 2 weeks and during this time, the students are encouraged to develop a holistic viewpoint by being engaged in events termed as “WeVartha” or ‘news analysis’, followed by “WeDwath” or ‘CEO talk series’, then “WeGyan” or Foundation courses which are taken by experts in various subjects. This is then followed by “WeShleshan” or ‘Panel Discussions’ where the students participate in different workshops which are facilitated by experts to enable them to gain an understanding of wide range of subjects relevant to different domains of management. The day typically ended with “WeParichay” or ‘Know Your Department’ where different departments in Welingkar Institute made presentations to the students to let them know about the functioning and team members.

Neev 2018 started with zeal and enthusiasm on 20 June 2018, with lighting of the lamp ceremony in the esteemed presence of the Chief Guest, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri Dr. B. N. Suresh, Chancellor, Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram, and President of Indian National Academy of Engineering Delhi, Advocate Shri S. K. Jain, Chairman, Managing Council, S. P. Mandali Trust and Local Managing Committee, We School, Shrimati Madhuritai Misal, Member, Managing Council, S. P. Mandali Trust, and member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, Shri Mihir Prabhu Desai, Member, Managing Council, S. P. Mandali Trust, along with Prof. Dr. Uday Salunkhe, Group Director, We School and Prof. Dr. Madhavi Lokhande, Dean We School, Bengaluru campus.

Lighting of the lamp ceremony in the esteemed presence of the Chief Guest, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri Dr. B. N. Suresh, Chancellor, Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram, and President of Indian National Academy of Engineering Delhi, Advocate Shri S. K. Jain, Chairman, Managing Council, S. P. Mandali Trust and Local Managing Committee, We School, Shrimati Madhuritai Misal, Member, Managing Council, S. P. Mandali Trust, and member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, Shri Mihir Prabhu Desai, Member, Managing Council, S. P. Mandali Trust, along with Prof. Dr. Uday Salunkhe, Group Director, We School and Prof. Dr. Madhavi Lokhande, Dean We School, Bengaluru campus.

The consortium was followed by the International Research Conference on the theme - “Marketing in the Next Decade” on 8th of January, 2018. The conference was attended by 56 participants, 8 corporate speakers, and 30 industry guests and academicians. It was started with a vigour with a keynote address by Mr. Sharad Sharma, Founder, iSpirit, followed by a CMO roundtable on the conference theme. Then the academicians shred their views on “Marketing Research in Digital Age”. In the afternoon session, 56 participants presented their research paper/ case studies/ practicing papers in 6 tracks. The valedictory session had Ms. Bina Patil, VP-Human Resources - Indegene Lifesystems Pvt. Ltd. as the Chief Guest. The best presenters were awarded Rs. 30,000 prize money by WeSchool Group Director Dr. Uday Salunkhe. Mr. Alexander Witmaier from University of Munich- Germany received the best paper award while Dr. A. Satya Nandini, from BMS College of Engineering, India received best presenter award for case studies.

S.P. Mandali’s Prin. L. N. Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research (WeSchool) Bengaluru Campus hosted the 6th AIM - AMA Sheth Foundation Doctoral Consortium on the theme “Marketing in a Digital Age” from 5th to 7th of January, 2018. The three-day Doctoral Consortium commenced on 5th of January with a welcome note by Dr. V. Kumar, the Co-Founder of Academy of Indian Marketing and also the Executive Director of the Center for Excellence in Brand & Customer Management at the J. Mack Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University, US. This was followed by Dr. Jagdish N. Sheth, a Senior Professor at Emory University and a cult figure in the field of Marketing Management, sharing the history of Consortium to the audience. WeSchool Group Director Dr. Uday Salunkhe then set the tone for the coming three days in his welcome address. The field of marketing has well past the brick-and-mortar system now and vying for customers’ mindshare through the virtual world. In such a volatile business environment, what could be the right marketing strategy for the firms in the future? The Chief Guest for the event Dr. Anil Menon, President of CISCO, enlightened the audience by sharing his valuable insights. The first session of the day was on “Conceptual and Methodological Issues in Empirical Research by Dr. Amalesh Sharma of Texas A&M University, followed by a teaching simulation by Dr. Ernest Cadotte of the University of Tennessee. Post lunch, there was a plenary session on “The Tradecraft of Publishing” where the eminent National and International faculties shared their advice and experience on the essentials of publishing an article/ research paper with renowned publishing houses. This was followed by sessions on “Role of University Research Centers in Generating Scholarly Research” and “Bridging Research Perspectives”. The evening was fun-filled with the local troop performing Yakshagana and fireside chat with Mrs. Rohini Nilekani, an Indian entrepreneur, and politician.
Day -2, 6th of January started with reflections of the inaugural day and continued with the topic of “Bridging Research Perspectives”. Post lunch there was “Speed Dating”- a mentor-mentee interactive session where the research scholars discussed their research topics and received feedback from the distinguished faculties. In the evening, all the participants enjoyed a cultural event at The Lemon Tree hotel.
On day 3- 7th of January, there was a plenary session on “Linking Academic Research to Business Practice” followed by an insight on “Research and Teaching Development”. The consortium concluded with closing remarks from the co-chairs Dr. Jagdish N. Sheth, Dr. V. Kumar, and Dr. Uday Salunkhe. The Doctoral Consortium was attended by 36 faculty mentors (21 International, 15 national) and 48 participants (17 International and 31 national) from renowned universities across the globe such as Yale University – US, University of Munich- Germany, Florida Atlantic University- US, University of Leeds-UK, Curtin Business School-Australia etc. (list of faculty and scholars are given in Appendix I). Some of the research scholars such as Hulya Karaman, Ayan Ghosh Dastidar, Rumela Sengupta, Kaushik Jayaram were sponsored, candidates.