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Symbi Talks : The Curtain-Raiser

As the morning dawns over the sprawling 40-acre campus of Symbiosis Institute Of Business Management Hyderabad on 12th of October, 2015, it won’t be just another day in college. This day is going to be packed with fervour as the premiere B-school will be organizing a discourse “SymbiTalks” where four distinguished speakers from the industry will interact with students and share their experiences from the corporate world. An initiative of Corporate Interaction Cell, the event will not be a conventional guest lecture with strict protocols. Rather, the event is going to be an informal one with speakers not being rigidly restricted to a particular topic. The sessions, two of which will be held before lunch and two post-lunch will witness each of thefour guests interacting with the student managers for one hour each.

Now if you are wondering who the speakers are going to be, then hold onto your heart-beats. Each of the four speakers is a distinguished name in the corporate industry from whom the students will partake not just knowledge but wisdom as well. For knowledge lies in reading but wisdom lies in living. Time for a quick and brief peek into the profiles of the guests :

Mr. Ravindra Vikram : A chartered accountant by qualification, he is an expert in auditing and has carried out auditing of many national banks including the RBI. His corporate stint has seen him as the Director of various prestigious organizations like Facebook India, T.I.M.E, Chettinad Cements, etc.

Mr.Anand Pillai : With more than 34 years of work experience, he is currently the Managing Director of Leadership Matters Inc. His work profile includes organizations like TATA group, HCL technologies, Reliance Industries, etc. In addition, he is the guest faculty at Harvard Business School, London Business School, IIM-A, IIM-L and IIM-K.

After this serious business came the most awaited part of the evening the merry making time.
Mr. Kumar Anshu : An alumni of IIT Bombay and IIM, he is currently the founder and ‘Chief Entertaining Officer’ at Productive Humour, an organization which aims at instilling learning encapsulated within humour.

Mr.Ashwani Acharya : A qualified and certified aeronautical engineer by profession, he is currently the Business Head of CSTPL. He has held prominent positions in his career which include Vice-President of ESSAR and Associate VicePresident Operations at Indigo Airlines. With such a star-studded panel, the event promises to be an absolute ripper !

1.Mr. Anand Pillai

He is the managing director of Leadership Matters Inc., a company focusing on building an intrapreneural culture in organizations. With more than 34 years of rich experience in the corporate world, Anand has handled challenging assignments in general management and as head of operations ( from GM to CEO to CLO) in companies such as TATA Group (10 yrs.), Hughes Network Systems 4 years, Bay Networks 2 years, HCL Technologies Ltd (14yrs) and Reliance Industries Ltd (3.5Yrs). Anand has been a much sought after speaker in many national and international forums. He has been the distinguished speaker at the Fortune Innovation Forum in NY, USA (the only non-American speaker to be invited), at the Fortune Global Forum, NASSCOM, ISTD, CIO Summit -London, Great Places To Work conference -Singapore, World’s Most democratic work places summit- Las Vegas, World HRD Congress, CII, TEDx,etc. He is also guest lecturer at leading business schools like: Harvard Business School, MITSloan, London Business School, IIM-A, IIM-L, IIM-K, SPJIMR, and IMT etc. His leadership and strong vision has succeeded in bring many accolades and recognition, internationally to him and the companies he has worked for. Anand has been featured in the book leading with Wisdom along with30 other leaders (Steven Covey, Abdul Kalam to name a few) in the world.

His leadership and strong vision has succeeded in bring many accolades and recognition, internationally to him and the companies he has worked for. Anand has been featured in the book leading with Wisdom along with 30 other leaders (Steven Covey, Abdul Kalam to name a few) in the world. He is also featured in a new book published by Penguin Publications. Open Source Leader

He is certified to conduct Leadership & Sales management courses from various international bodies (Including the Situational Leadership® II by Ken Blanchard) and is also a certified Behavioral Analyst. Anand has specialized in advanced applications of Psychometric instruments in areas of, Leadership, Communication, Sales, Customer relationship, negotiating for Value and Team building. He has done extensive research on cross cultural relationships, Intrapreneurship & Innovation (Blue Ocean Strategy) and is widely consulted on these three subjects across the globe

2.Mr. Kumar Anshu

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IIT Bombay B.Tech & IIM Alum, certified PMP, 6 sigma black belt, behavioral trainer & instructional designer, QMS auditor, nearly decade of corporate stint at various management roles, FINALLY an Entertainer.

Kumar has a prolific and rare experience of nearly 10 years in project management, operations, presales, patent research/paralegal, analytics, quality and training. He has designed and delivered multiple behavioral, IP and Process trainings to in house IP professionals as well as external clients globally. He has an extensive experience in supporting solutions selling by mapping various products and solutions to the specific client problem or need. As a certified QMS Lead Auditor he is proficient in executing end to end quality audits (ISO 9001:2008) and love to design/facilitate fun-filled behavioral as well as technical workshops

Before founding Productive Humor, Kumar was heading a team of more than 100 paralegals and analysts for Intellectual Property Management & Operations along with leading tactically important pre-sales analytics and sales intelligence team. He was also managing portfolio optimization and coordinating monetization activities for large, small as well as micro corporate clients and universities. In his previous roles, Kumar was responsible for identifying opportunities and facilitating organizational excellence and continual improvement projects at team and organizational levels along with developing & managing various types of training sessions for enhancing the technical and IP expertise of in-house IP professionals, business managers and external global clients.

3.Mr. Ashwani Acharya

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Business Head of CSTPL. Comprehensive experience in Airline and Aviation management. Specialize in aviation startup projects. Thoroughly process and procedure oriented positive approach with excellent execution and man and machine management skills. Qualified and certified Aeronautical engineer with type ratings on aircraft ranging from Cessna 152 to Boeing 777 and Airbus A 319/320/321.Holding EASA and Indian license with education as Graduate in Aeronautics followed by Management qualification. Technical management and administration with recently added exposure in financial and economic business administration and successful P and L accountability and responsibility added a dimension as Business leader and as Executive leadership.

Specialties: Executive leadership. Management and administration with recently added exposure in financial and economic business administration and successful P and L accountability and responsibility added a dimension as Business leader. Concept Envisioning, Planning, implementation and execution of a plan and project as a Business head. Aviation knowledge in both International and domestic domain.s

Current Position:
Business Head
CAE Simulation Training Pvt Ltd
August 2014 – Present (1 year 2 months) Greater Noida, India Responsible for establishing and managing the business. Managing the overall P and L, revenue and profitability of the company. Business development, capability enhancing and growth, Strategic planning including business plan & sales strategy development. Establishing the facility as a world class training services provider and as the leader in the aviation industry. Developing new revenue streams.

Past Positions Held:
Vice President of ESSAR
Associate Vice President-Operations
InterGlobe General Aviation ( “INDIGO AIRLINES”) March 2009 – September 2010 (1 year 7 months)
Responsible for entire Business unit including P and L. Sales,commercial,Engineering,floor management, high end projects, cost and revenue management. Customer relations.Quality Management. Project management and implementation. Contract administration.Aircraft maintenance and Aircraft management for all customers. Manage and supervise all service center related activities. Reporting to CEO. Was instrument in launching & setting up INDIGO AIRLINES.

4.M Ravindra Vikram

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Partner, M.Anandam & Co. since 1981
Chartered Accountants, Secunderabad

ACADEMIC
BSc, LLB, FCA

PROFESSIONAL
Stood 1st in the Osmania University in Mathematics in B.Sc, Obtained 20th Rank in Intermediate Exam and 4th Rank in the Final Exam ICAI .Senior Partner leading a 100 member team of Chartered Accountants, Management Consultants and Trainees Leading a high quality Audit and Assurance Practice and one of the few firms in India with ISO 9000-2008 certification for quality practices. Expertise in Auditing Banks, having led the audit in five large nationalized banks and also RBI. Earlier, Chartered Accountant Director of three banks viz., Indian Bank, Indian Overseas Bank and nominee of the RBI in the Bank of Rajasthan. Led teams to conduct Investigation of banks and corporates on misappropriation, of funds, regulatory violations, wrong reporting and diversion of funds. Director of T.I.M.E, ASM Technologies Ltd, Facebook India, Chettinad Cements etc., and Advisor to leading corporates in India on current best practices in Corporate Governance and raising debt and Equity funds in the Capital market.

PERSONAL Secretary-Trustee of M.V.Foundation leading a team of 1000 members. MVF is a pioneering NGO in the field of eradication of child labor. MVF has enrolled more than a million children to schools in two decades of work. The work is internationally acclaimed for developing a sustainable model and has been replicated in more than 10 countries. Trustee of Manthan, a Discussion Group on issues of public interest in Hyderabad for more than 10 years and has become an important destination for intellectuals round the world visiting Hyderabad to debate with an eclectic group. Manthan has more than 5000 registered members Regular Speaker and paper writer on issues of Fiscal Trends, Corporate Governance, Fraud and Money laundering.

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