KIIT School of Management (KSOM) organized its 8th National Management Convention  on 30th January, 2015. The theme of this year’s convention was “The endless pursuit of winning in the Volatility Uncertainty Complexity Ambiguity (VUCA) Environment”.

The convention was inaugurated by the chief guest Air Marshall(Retd.) R.C. Bajpai, PVSM, along with keynote speakers Mr. K.K. Mohanty, MD, Gammon India; Prof. Arbind Mishra, Dean, TERI University; Prof. Anil Bajpai, Director, KSOM and Prof. Ashok K. Sar, Dean, KSOM.

Prof. Bajpai in his welcome address spoke about the relevance of VUCA in the present scenario. It was followed by the release of book of abstracts by the dignitaries.

Prof. A. K. Sar introduced the theme of the convention setting the platform for a wholesome discussion. Consistent and continuous learning and its application can help us be competitive in a VUCA world. To be successful Volatility should lead to Vision; Uncertainty to Understanding; Complexity to Clarity and Ambiguity to Agility.

In his address Air Marshall(Retd.) R.C. Bajpai,  chief guest of the convention said that even though VUCA originated from the US military organization, it affects us in the present day context. For the development of a nation it must overcome VUCA both internally and externally. A clarity of objectives and goals is necessary for strategically formulating polices and executing them. He cited examples of hostility and  aggression created by the neighbouring countries and how the proxy war is a fit case of VUCA. The adversities can be overcome by strong leadership, professionalism, honesty, integrity and dedication.

Mr. Arbind Mishra, keynote speaker stressed primarily on the climate change, risk assessment and mitigating the risk strategically . He also talked about the geopolitical surprise brought by terrorism, Fukushima nuclear disaster and natural calamities like the Jammu & Kashmir floods and Kedarnath tragedy resulted in VUCA. He said that in-fact a concept like VUCA affects everyone of us. To successfully address a VUCA situation either in the political, social or business environment a robust leadership has to emerge which takes ownership and is conscientious. For example the US Military was successfully able to mitigate a VUCA situation created after the 9/11 terrorist attacks by rapidly adapting their strategies and policies related to internal security.

In his address Mr. K.K. Mohanty highlighted that even in a volatile scenario Indian managers can produce better results. According to him the acronym VUCA is an abstraction which is our own making. With the new government in existence the corruption has come down. In future our investigating authorities should move from corruption check to performance check. Indian managers today are priceless because they stand out  in successfully meeting VUCA challenges and are patient in addressing the dilemmas and eliminating the uncertainties.

The convention which was attended by industry practitioners, academicians, faculty members and management students from various B schools, held several technical sessions with research papers presented on the different aspects of management.

Brief about the Technical sessions held during the 8^th National Management Convention

Track-1- Winning Strategies for Human Resource Management

The track covered the different aspects of human resource management in the present VUCA world .The session had about 10 presenters from institutions like IIT Kharagpur, Bhartiya Vidya Bhava, KIIT School Of Management, Brahma Kumaris and NIST (Berampur).

 Track-2- Winning Strategies for Operations & Finance

The track covered the different aspects of operations and finance used in day-to-day operations of a business and how to make it better in this turbulent scenario. Eight presenters had presented the paper on the theme of the track. We had presenters from N.I.S.E.R, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Utkal University and KIIT school Of Management.

Track-3- Winning Strategies for Manufacturing sector

The track covered about how manufacturing sectors is affected by VUCA at present and what ways should be followed to face the same. In total we had ten presentations for the track from institutions like: Institute of Hotel Management, IIT Kharagpur , Berhampur University, Sai International college of Commerce & Economics, and Biju Patnaik College of Science and Education.

Track-4- Winning Strategies for Social & Services sector

How digitalisation in the present scenario has changed the way we are working today and how we are graduating from manpower resources to technology was discussed during the session. We had four presenters for the session from institutions like Sri Sri University, KIIT School of Engineering and KIIT School Of Management.