Taking over the mantle

Every year Symbiosis Institute of International Business(SIIB) organizes the “Leadership Series” as a platform for interaction between its students and industry leaders. It is a one day event, which is a confluence of the great minds from the various industrial sectors, all of which serve as a rendezvous for the corporate and the academia. This helps the students gain the much needed industry insights, adding to their learning process.

Following the success of the first SIIB Leadership Series in 2003, which was graced by prominent personalities of India Inc such as Mr. Homi Khusrokhan (MD,Tata Tea), Mr. U. V. Bose (CEO, Air Sahara), Mr. Rajnish Narula (CEO, Alliance Capital Asset Management) to name a few - SIIB Leadership has served as an exciting platform for the future young managers of SIIB and delegates from other top B-schools to interact and the get the real feel of what it takes to make it to the pinnacle on a career ladder.

Over the SIIB Leadership Series in following years, the annual flagship event of the Symbiosis Institute of International Business (Pune) has witnessed the confluence of the diasporic experiences and rejuvenate thoughts, from the leaders of all genre of Corporate India.

Mr. Adi Godrej (Chairman, Godrej group), Mr. Habil Khorakiwala (Chairman, Wockhardt Ltd), Mr. Jagdish Capoor (Chairman, HDFC Bank), Mr. M. N. Singh (Chairman, Invent ARC Pvt. Ltd), Mr. Bala Swaminathan (MD, Standard Chartered Bank) are few of the many distinguished personalities who have graced the occasions in succeeding Leadership Symposium.

The Leadership Series 2009 saw the extension to a yet new dimension of inviting eminent speakers from diverse professions apart from the corporate leaders to advertisers. With the theme "Entrepreneurship", the 2009 series was marked by the presence of

• Mr. Ravi Pandit Chairman & Group CEO, KPIT Cummins Infosystem
• Mr. P.P. Chhabaria Chairman, Finolex Cables Limited.
• Mr. Navin Suri, CEO, ING Investments, India
• Mr. David Wittenberg, The Innovation Workgroup
• Mr. Ravi Deshpande, Chairman & Chief Creative Officer , Contract Advertising
• Mr. Abhijeet Rande, Associate Director, Pricewaterhouse Coopers

It is a very well known fact that family-run businesses are the bedrock of almost all of the world’s economies. Less well known is that, according to numerous research studies, family firms perform better than non-family businesses. These outstanding achievements are often attributed to the unique competitive advantages that these firms have gained over time. Particularly, family involvement encourages long-term orientation and patience, attributes that help family firms stand above the rest.

A typical business system emphasizes concepts like “rationality,” “competence,” “contract,” “future” and “money,” whereas a typical family system values “emotion,” “relationship,” “memories” and “love.” With the same spirits this year we present to you, Leadership Series 2010 to be held on 4th September 2010 at Symbiosis Infotech Campus, Hinjewadi, Pune with the theme “Taking Over the Mantle”.