During the inaugural address, Prof. (Dr) Neelu Rohmetra Director IIM Sirmaur expressed her enthusiasm and congratulated the team for organizing this conclave. She also thanked all the industry experts who accepted the invitation to unfold the mutual learning during the day-long conclave. Sharing her experience, she talked about the theme "India Beyond 2020" and how it is significant for the contemporary world. She inculcated the message that the biggest lesson this world can get from the global pandemic is to start preparing dealing with crisis at the managerial level. She suggested that it's now a critical time to nurture future managers who can contribute in building an ecosystem to deal with such a crisis without any breakdown. With her words, she invoked the importance of preparedness and how industry experts can give crucial insight helping the students in learning to deal with crisis management.

Earlier, the event began with a warm welcome and greetings to all the attendees. Prof. Vikas Kumar of IIM Sirmaur addressed the audience by helping them understand various meanings of Marketing, "Simple yet Significant" he said while describing the various strategies that the marketing industry has had to adapt in order to survive in a world beyond 2020. He emphasized the importance of Innovation in the industry and how they are going to be vital in reviving the world after a pandemic.

Prof. Pachayappan shared his views on the operations aspect of the Pandemic. He spoke about the disruptions that COVID-19 caused in the supply chain and how the industries had to change and adapt in order to survive. He talked about the importance of knowledge sharing in this day and age, and how the pandemic has allowed us to share in and get enlightened about real-time changes in the industry.

Taking forward the momentum of the event, Mr. Ashish Chandra began the discussion for panel-1 on the topic Marketer's path in remapping landscape during and beyond COVID. Mr. Chandra steered the panel discussion and gave the background on how covid changed people's lives and the industry. Mr. Sudhir Puthran, Vice President, Sales and Marketing Excellence at Schneider Electric spoke on what it means to be a marketer. According to him, sometimes one has to be an astrologer to be a successful marketer. He highlighted that for companies to thrive in the coming future, being agile and quick in their responsiveness is going to be vital.

Ms. Dola Halder, Brand Head for Doritos, Pepsico India spoke about the FMCG aspect of the market. Being from a perishable market industry, she explained the challenges of operating with limited capacity and a restricted work-force. She talked about the importance of customer satisfaction during the pandemic that gave companies a moment to step back and take a look at and talk to their consumers. The panel further added that no company can fight alone with the crisis and the entire ecosystem needs to be prepared to handle such situations.

Ms. Ajita Saxena, Director-Marketing at GetCancerCare.com addressed the students by highlighting the key consumer behavioral shifts due to this pandemic. She pointed out the current increasing trends towards digital migration and how the COVID-19 impacted the online health care space. She also spoke about the home buddy economy and the future prospects where people are becoming more value-conscious and seeking convenience. Also, she emphasized the importance of having a definite purpose as a brand and consistently adapting to the new marketing strategies as per the changing disruptions.

The Panel-2 of the conclave focused on the topic, Rethinking to enable consumers shift to a digital world while ensuring tactile experiences. The session was chaired by Prof. Omkumar Krishnan of IIM Kozhikode. Dr. Karthik Anantharaman, Director e-Pharmacy & Private Label Business at Medlife.com gave a new and unique perspective of what a customer means to the healthcare industry. He highlighted that the healthcare industry has always been lagging in terms of digital transformation. Mr. Vipul Oberai, CMO, India Infoline Group talked about the advent, rise, and challenges of technical advancements. After him, Ms. Nidhi Yadav, Associate Director, Deloitte India, carried forward the session and simplified the shift of businesses towards digitalization. With the help of two examples, she helped in understanding how significantly the businesses have shifted to digitalization.

The panel 3 discussion focused on the "Decade of Disruption - Opportunities with the Changing face of new-age Supply Chain and Operations." Mr. Saurabh Kumar, CEO at GMR Group Hyderabad Air Cargo began the discussion by explaining the disruptions brought by this pandemic in various sectors. Mr. Amol Nagar, Director-Manufacturing Operations, Global Sourcing & Supply Chain, GE Aviation, spoke of the complexities and disruptions in GE's supply chain affected by the pandemic. He urged the audience to ask themselves, from a supply chain mindset, how can we be more efficient as a company? And how can you as a person be more resilient? Mr. Priyaranjan Kumar, Chief Operating Officer, Iconic Fashion India spoke about the supply chain's consumer perspective and the major challenges that are there in this domain. He shared some experience from his portfolio to show the audience all the aspects and dimensions of a supply chain. He discussed the supply chain in the Fashion Industry and the various complexities involved in getting a piece of garment in India.

Further, Mr. Shailesh Vilankar, Sr. Vice President: Field Operations, Schindler Group, gave insights on how the economy is recovering and is slowly coming back to normal and shared some of his real-life experiences. Mr. Ankur Chaturvedi, Head of International Supply Chain and Projects, Emami Ltd, shared his contribution with a brief introduction about himself and took the reference of Emami to unfold the topic's significance

Towards the end of the discussion, Mr. Saurabh Kumar shared insights on how students can tackle various management problems. He concluded by stating that at the end of the day, we have to focus on individuals with trust and transparency, and the students are future managers need to run businesses with a lot of common sense, remember to take sensible risks whenever necessary, be adaptive in the face of crisis and be collaborative with one another.

Prof. Bhavin Shah of IIM Sirmaur gave the vote of thanks and congratulated all the organizers and panelists for participating and giving an insightful discussion. He extended the wholehearted gratitude to all the panelists for enriching the students' knowledge by sharing their insightful perspectives and making the conclave a grand success.

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