A Special Convocation preceded the marketing conclave where KIIT DU proudly conferred the Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa) on Mr. Hari Mohan Bangur, Chairman of Shree Cement Ltd., in recognition of his outstanding contributions to Indian industry, nation-building, and social responsibility. A visionary leader, Mr. Bangur has transformed Shree Cement into one of India’s top three cement companies, pioneering sustainable practices and industry-first innovations. His leadership has not only reshaped the cement sector but also strengthened India’s industrial growth and social development through philanthropy and welfare initiatives.

Prof. Kumar Mohanty, Director, KSOM, gave the Welcome Address and elaborated on the conclave’s theme. Mr. Hari Mohan Bangur who was also the keynote speaker of the 16^th National Marketing Conclave reflected on his journey in business and the evolution of marketing in a growing economy. He emphasized that modern marketing is about building confidence and trust, and that technology alone cannot create excellence. He shared insights from his own career, stressing the importance of books, good mentors, and the almighty in guiding personal and professional growth. He further shared lessons on hard work, values, and meaningful use of resources, while highlighting the importance of social responsibility. His address inspired the audience to focus on excellence and long-term impact rather than just immediate success.

Prof. Saranjit Singh, Vice Chancellor, KIIT DU in his address talked about the recent accolades and rankings of KIIT DU and credited the University’s success to its Hon’ble Founder, Dr. Achyuta Samanta. This was followed by vote of thanks from Prof. Jnyana Ranjan Mohanty, Registrar, KIIT DU.

The conclave featured a panel discussion on “The Advertiser of Tomorrow: How AI Is Reshaping Creativity, Media, and the Consumer Mind,” moderated by Mr. Gaurav Rajput, Chief Marketing Officer, Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd., The Times of India; with panelists Mr. Devang Bhojani, General Manager, Mixion, GMM Pfaudler; Mr. Dominic Vijay, Head of Marketing, Ajio Business, Reliance Retail; Mr. Saahit Togaru, Head of Marketing & Strategy, Iris Business Services; Mr. Sujoy Sahu, Associate Vice President, Cheil India, Samsung Group; and Mr. T.M. Ramakrishnan, Senior Vice President, JioMart Digital, Reliance Retail. The panel deliberated on how AI is transforming marketing and advertising, enhancing creativity, improving operational efficiency, and customer engagement. They emphasized that while technology provides powerful tools, its true potential is realized only when combined with human values, strategic thinking, and ethical considerations. The panel highlighted the importance of sustainability, inclusivity, and consumer-centric approaches in shaping the future of marketing, providing students and professionals with practical insights and guidance to navigate a rapidly evolving industry landscape.

Post-lunch, the conclave transitioned into interactive workshop sessions designed to foster focused engagement between industry experts and students. The session featured insights from distinguished industry leaders, including Mr. Amitosh Pal, Business Head, East Cluster I Branch Head, East, Indian Languages, Network18 Media & Investments Limited; Mr. Amit Kumar, Area Manager, Tata Motors; Mr. Rakshit Sinha, Brand Strategist, Aequitas Investments; Mr. Arya Gourav, Senior Consultant, Digital Transformation, Infosys BPM; Mr. Achinto Mahto, Country Head, Laundry Sales India, Electrolux Professional; Mr. John Gabriel, Senior Partner, Interactive Business, Tata Consultancy Services; Mr. Nandakumar K, Vehicle Sales, Isuzu Motors; Ms. Shrawanti Saha, Senior Vice President, Sales Business Development, Carnelian Asset Management and Advisors Pvt. Ltd.; Mr. Tony Sebastian, Partner, Marketing Strategy and Digital Transformation, TCS Interactive, Tata Consultancy Services; Mr. Arup Roy, Zonal Head, East, Trade and OEM, Greenply Samet; and Ms. Sunanda Chak, Chief Operating Officer, 4 Minute Mile Marketing Services Pvt. Ltd. The workshops were on topics like Data Driven & Tech Enabled:Marketing That is Smatter not Louder; Climate x Creativity:Designing Youth-Led Climate Action Campaigns; Influencers vs. Advocates: Who Should You Partner With?; Beyond Discounts: Loyalty Programs that Actually Work and Why We Pay What We Pay: Pricing Psychology Uncovered.

The Marketing Conclave successfully connected theory with industry practice. It provided a dynamic platform for students, faculty, and professionals to connect.

The post KIIT School of Management (KSOM) hosted its 16th National Marketing Conclave on September 20, 2025. appeared first on KSOM.

The inaugural keynote address was delivered by Prof. PKJ Mohapatra, Professor Emeritus, KIIT DU and Prof. Trilochan Tripathy, XLRI, Jamshedpur.  Prof. Tripathy spoke on “The impact of COVID-19: Way forward for Indian Healthcare Supply Chain.” The welcome address was offered by Dr. S. N. Mishra, Dean, KSoM.  Dr. S. K. Mahapatra, Director, KSOM; also addressed the conference. Prof. PKJ Mohapatra was the guest of honour and he deliberated on the theoretical aspects of the conference. Vote of thanks was proposed by Brajaballav Kar, conference convenor. Prof. Shikta Singh was the co-convener of the event.

The inaugural session was followed by three parallel technical sessions where 27 papers were presented. Second half of the conference started with two parallel technical sessions where 17 papers were presented. The valedictory session started with the keynote address of Prof. Tapas Mishra, Professor and Head of Banking and Finance at Southampton University, UK. His deliberation was on “Confronting the Chaos: How do financially flexible firms manage distress.” The second keynote address of the second half was delivered by Prof. Dr. Justin Paul, University of Reading, UK & University of Puerto Rico, USA. Chief Editor, International Journal of Consumer Studies. He discussed on the 7P framework for SMEs.

The valedictory session included the best paper award to 3 best papers from the conference presentation. Concluding remarks were offered by the Director, KIIT School of Management. Prof. Shikta Mishra, Co-convener proposed the vote of thanks. A cultural event based on the research theme, was organized by the students of Finance Exchequer club and the Sankriti club of KSoM. ICMR-2022 was of immense interest to faculty members, research scholars, and practitioners from around the world.

The post KSOM conducts second International Conference on Management Research (ICMR-2022) on the theme “Chaos, Complexity, and Resilience: Business and Society in Pandemic Context” appeared first on KSOM.

The Inaugural Session was chaired by Prof. Hrusikesh Mohanty VC, KIIT. First, a general Introduction on Webinar theme and objective was given by Prof. R.N. Subudhi. Then brief introduction of ORSI Bhubaneswar & its activities were given by Prof. Srikanta Patnaik. Prof. J.R. Mohanty, Registrar, KIIT, shared the successful experience of KIIT, particularly how classes and exams conducted online. Pro-Vice Chancellor, Prof. Sasmita Samanta, while welcoming all participants, on behalf of KIIT, made a very thoughtful analysis of the present situation, and suggested ways, how to handle the crisis in future.  Keynote speech was given by Prof. S.K. Mahapatra, Director, KSoM. And finally the presidential remarks by Prof. Hrushikesh Mohanty.

After the Inaugural Session, two parallel sessions were held. Main session (in VR-1) was devoted to invited talks by the experts, from leading institutes of India and abroad. Research Paper Presentation was conducted in VR 2. In VR-1, eminent speakers kept the audience spellbound and quite engaging, academically, taking up questions from the participants, in-between. Expert speakers, who addressed, with their structured presentations, are (alphabetically) as follows:

·       Prof. Arpan Kar, Prof. of Mgmt., IIT Delhi

·       Prof. Bhagirathi Panda, Prof. Eco. & Dean, NEHU, Shillong

·       Prof. Darish Khezrimtolah, Penn State Univ. Pennsylvania, USA

·       Prof. Dasarathi Sahu, Prof. & MBA Head, Utkal University, Bhubaneswar

·       Prof. Gokulanda Patel, Prof. BIMTECH Delhi

·       Prof. Manoj Dash, Prof. IIITM/ Presently Dean, Khallikote University

·       Prof. Rashmi Ranjan Parida, Prof. IIM Jammu

·       Prof. Saswat Biswas, Prof. IRMA (Anand)

·       Prof. Murali Manohar, Senior Prof. of VITBS, VIT University Vellore

·       Prof. K. Ravichandran, Prof. NYIT, UAE

·       Prof. Subrat Sarangi, Prof., MICA Ahmedabad

·       Prof. Vijaya Bandopadhyay, Prof., CIM Patna

·       Prof. Manjusha Pandey, Prof. Comp Engg, KIIT

·       Prof. Siddharth Rautray, Prof. Comp Engg, KIIT

In VR-2, 15 researchers presented the research paper. This paper presentation session was chaired by Prof. Sudhakar Patra of Berhampur University and was coordinated by Prof. Omar Faruq from Bangladesh.

After a brief lunch break, a special panel discussion session was conducted from 3-5pm, and it was chaired and moderated by Prof Anil Bajpai (former Director, KSOM).  There were over 175 participants from varied universities and organizations all across the country and overseas, who logged in to zoom sessions attended for the whole period. But, pre-webinar online registrations had over 260 interested participants.

Finally the conveners thanked KIIT Authority for providing all help, and more particularly the best possible IT infrastructure. Discussion in all the sessions was quite interesting and engaging, with great enthusiasm. As per the feedback, taken for each session, the webinar was ‘quite informative and knowledgeable’.

The post KSOM conducted International Webinar on ‘New-normal life in virtual world: Issues, Challenges & Way forward’ appeared first on KSOM.

The theme of this year’s  conclave was “Digital Marketing – From Silos to Integration“. The event was inaugurated by Prof. Abraham Koshy, IIM-A; Mr. Chakrapani Gollapali, Chief Business Officer, Holidays, Yatra.com; Mr. Maheshwar Peri, Founder and Chairman, Careers 360 in the presence of Prof. P.P. Mathur, Vice Chancellor, KIIT University; Prof. Anil Bajpai, Director, KSOM and Prof. S.N. Mishra, Dean, KSOM.

Prof. P.P. Mathur, in the welcome address highlighted the growing importance of digital marketing for companies. Setting the context, Prof. Abraham Koshy said how consumer behaviour can be divided into pre-purchase, purchase and post purchase behavior. Tracking down these behaviors can help the marketer in engaging the consumers at each stage effectively. Keynote speaker Mr. Chakrapani Gollapali, said how utilizing multiple marketing communication  channels has become important for the modern businesses to survive in today’s competitive market. The discussion became even more interesting when our second keynote speaker, Mr. Maheshwar Peri shared his inspiring journey from investment banking to print media and finally moving on to online media. He stressed that understanding the mindset of the consumer is of prime importance before a product and its delivery mechanism can be designed.

As part of the conclave there were two panel discussions. The first panel discussion was on the theme “Traditional Marketing vs Digital Marketing”. This panel comprised of Mr. Ronak Kumar Samantray, Co-founder, NowFloats, INK Fellow; Mr. Subhobroto Chakroborty, CEO, Martech Agency; Ms. Dharna Dhamija, Office of the Brand Custodian, Group Executive Council, Tata Sons; Mr. Manohar Hotchandani, Director – Business Development, Microsoft. Initiating the discussion, Ms. Dharna said that digital marketing has enabled companies in customizing  marketing communications, targeting customer’s at individual level. Mr. Manohar Hotchandani opined that companies should use due diligence in utilizing the massive online customer related data that is being generated  today. Mr. Subhobroto Chakraborty stressed that it is also important to focus on  rural markets where traditional marketing still dominates and digital marketing has a long way to go. Mr. Ronak discussed how digital media is enabling marketer to utilize technologies like big data, cloud computing etc. to understand consumer buying behaviour and delivering marketers proposition on a real time basis.

“Managing the shift of retail consumer to online” was the theme of the 2nd Panel Discussion. The panelists were Mr. Spandan Mishra, Head- Strategic Planning, Reinfusion Y&R, Screenwriter; Mr. Jyotirmoy Mukherjee, Sr. Vice President Marketing, SBI Card; Mr. Sahan Ray,  AVP – Strategy, Jabong and Mr. Raman Puri, Vice President SVAM International. Mr. Spandan Mishra highlighted how in recent times there is a increase in the Ad-spends  of E -commerce companies in comparison to brick and mortar businesses. Mr. Jyotirmoy Mukherjee said that the number of online financial transactions have increased significantly. Mr. Sahan Ray elaborated on the challenges being faced by E- commerce companies in balancing their growth and profitability.  Mr. Raman Puri said that the current online businesses are catering only to a miniscule percentage of population and the potential of growth is significant.

Ten workshops related to Marketing were also conducted as part of the conclave. This years’ conclave witnessed huge participation from management students, academia and industry practitioners making the event a grand success.

The post 7th edition of National Marketing Conclave held at KIIT School of Management appeared first on KSOM.

The conclave was inaugurated by Mr. Saugata Bhattacharya, Sr. Vice President and Chief Economist at Axis bank accompanied by keynote speakers Mr. Sundaresh Bhat, President and CFO, VVF Ltd. and Dr Sanjay Muthal, Executive director, RGF Management Search, Prof. P.P. Mathur, Vice Chancellor KIIT University and Prof. Anil Bajpai, Director, KSOM.

Prof. Bajpai introduced the theme of the conclave and set the platform for a wholesome discussion.

In his welcome address, Prof. P.P. Mathur spoke about the impact of industrial growth on the environment. He also talked about different growth drivers of Indian economy.

Mr. Bhattacharya, the chief guest of the conclave stressed on the role government can play in ensuring better infrastructure, removal of policy lethargy and increased use of technology to create an environment conducive for growth. He cited examples of multinational organizations such as a reputed global tractor manufacturer who created a clear differentiation for themselves and therefore grew significantly by leveraging technologies such as Big Data Analytics and Remote Sensing. He also mentioned that in the face of global competition, Indian companies have to understand their core strength areas and use it for sustained growth.

Highlighting the most common issues that industries face today including land acquisition, he wondered why the country can’t promote industries such as renewable energy or chip manufacturing that doesn’t require large tracts of land. He added that the 3 C’s, Code (Culture of Innovation), Crude (Energy) and Capital are the important parameters that a country must have to grow at a rapid pace.

Mr. Sundaresh Bhat, the keynote speaker for the day stressed primarily on the geopolitical aspects of the country and the impact regional and global politics has on Indian industry. In many cases, he mentioned, the country’s unfavourable policies governing business is the primary culprit robbing the industry of its global competitive edge. He cited the example of Malaysia and Indonesia who are now monopolies in the Palm Oil industry.

He also dwelled considerably on drawing comparisons between China and India and the huge lead China has over India in business, with forex reserves and foreign investments several time more than India. He ended his talk with a list of major regional business trends including Philippines catching up in the outsourcing space and China’s investment dominance in the South Asia region.

Dr. Muthal in his talk highlighted the promising sectors in the country that can witness rapid growth and propel the country into the 8% growth path. They include Financial Services, Education, Healthcare, Retail and Manufacturing. He differentiated between “Happiness” and “Joy” and said true happiness and progress would come from social wellbeing. He urged the students to contribute individually to the growth of the country by finding opportunities for social contribution.

The inaugural talk was followed by an engaging panel discussion by three panelists, with Ms. Maithili Bhusnurmath, Consulting Editor, Times of India Group, as the moderator. The panelists were Mr. Saugata Bhattacharya, Mr. Uday Jena, Director & Treasurer – India, Societe Generale and Mr. Santanu Gupta, Associate Professor, XLRI. The panel spoke on “8% Growth with Equity”.

For equitable growth, the panel came with multiple suggestions, including more private sector participation in higher education, primary education getting priority, banks proactively reaching out to the unbanked or to those served by money lenders, simplifying processes and speeding up businesses for MSMEs.

The latter half of the discussion shifted to understanding the “Make in India” call by the current government; whether it was call for domestic self-sufficiency or an invitation to the global investor community to make India a manufacturing hub. The panel took several questions from an enthusiastic audience comprised mainly of students and academicians. The questions dealt with a wide range of topics from environmental impact of growth to limitation of democracy in speeding up processes, from disparity in financial inclusion to ways and means of promoting agriculture.

The conclave that ended with several workshops for students by mid and senior management professionals from organizations such as Snapdeal, PwC, ICICI Bank and Deloitte was a significant step by KIIT School of Management to integrate industry into management education. It provided students a rare opportunity to interact with business leaders and policy makers for a holistic learning.

The post The 5th National Finance Conclave at KSOM discusses the Road to 8% GDP Growth appeared first on KSOM.

The Chief Guest, Mr. Dilip Cherian spoke on the significance of communication transparency for businesses and the continuously evolving ecosystem; where companies are co-opting with competition for enhanced value addition. He concluded by mentioning that business ecosystems are the same old ecosystems, only everything is compressed, information is instantaneous and buzz is shared.

Mr.Prabhat Pani, the Keynote Speaker, shed light on the importance of understanding the core competencies, innovating and working with the ecosystem in a way that helps brands offer superior value to customer. He gave the audience an insight into this trend citing the example of Bharti Airtel collaborating with the Nokia-Siemens Network and IBM for offering better services to the customers at the cheapest possible rate.

A panel discussion that followed had an interesting topic; “Markets are changing faster than Marketing”. It dealt with the co-creation of values and changing preferences of the customers. Mr. Ajit Chaturvedi, Mr Manas Mishra and Mr Krishnan Narayanan were the panelists in the discussion that was moderated by Prof. Kumar Mohanty, Dean, Career Augmentation & Advisory Services, KIIT University.

Later in the day, several workshops conducted for the students on the following topics:

• Collaborative Marketing – A case study of product development in Ecosystems by Mr. Rahul Dasari, Co- Founder, Agneya Carbon Ventures.
• Start Up Branding by Ms. Jigyasa Laroiya, Founder & Brand Strategist, 30th Feb.
• Managing Brand, You: Understanding Social Styles to Succeed by Mr. Jyotirmoy Mukherjee, VP, SBI GE Cards.
• Digital Marketing tools for the Managers of future by Mr. Krishna Chaitanya, Founder, Adathon.in .
• The Rise and Fall of Organisations – A Global perspective by Mr. Prasad Sadagopan, Sr. Manager, HDFC Bank.
• Unlocking growth in Under- penetrated Category by Mr. Gopal Putrevu, Brand Manager, Marico.
• RIP Advertising, Welcome New Media by Mr. Suman Sen, Founder and Chief Dreamer, Fame Per Second.

Competitions such as Marketing Quiz, New Product Development, Case Study & Simulation and Print Advertisements were conducted for under-graduates as a build up to the conclave that saw the participation of students from all over India.

The day-long conclave ended with enthusiastic response from the participants and the corporate dignitaries. The Conclave amply achieved its stated objective of being a platform to create, share and build new knowledge.

The post KSOM’s 4th National Marketing Conclave discusses Business Ecosystems and the changing paradigms in marketing appeared first on KSOM.