CMA organises National Management Day Celebrations & Awards Ceremony

The Coimbatore Management Association (CMA) organised the National Management Day Celebrations & Award Ceremony at The Residency Towers.

Raghavan Srinivasan, Editor, The Hindu Business Line, Chennai was the Chief Guest while Maya Sreekumar, Asst.Vice President & Head of Academy India, Cognizant Technology Solutions was the Guest of Honor.

S.Prashanth, President, CMA welcomed the gathering. In his address, S.Prashanth said if we dont embrace technology, we could even face extinction as he pointed out that there are many companies that stick to the old method of management and manufacturing. He said the Highest Paid Person’s Opinion in an organisation would not always be the right and required decision and he wished that India especially Coimbatore gets more of the data driven decision making process.

He also cautioned that most routine works in organisations are being automated but if one aspires to be innovative he/she will be irreplaceable. He once again bid the gathering a cordial welcome.

The Chief Guest and the Guest of Honor addressed the gathering. Jayakumar Ramdass, Vice President, CMA introduced the Chief Guest.

The Chief Guest in his address said that the kind of challenges the management personnel of today face is different from the challenges he had seen and experienced in his time as an administrator of a organisation.

He said ” In those times, you have to deal with sudden changes back then. There was no google or such processing time to analyse data but today is different” He said the present generation has several superb advantages in the form of technology. “Despite all the technology, all those are little used” he stated and extended that even the governments dont often use the wealth of advantages technology accords on the progress of a nation.

On a positive note, he conveyed how one of his friends, Parameswaran Iyer a retired IAS used his vision to execute what was phenomenal and seemingly impossible.

Parameswaran Iyer was recalled by the PM Modi to head Swatchh Bharat. He was tasked with the leading the mission, especially to build more than 2000 toilets. Though it was a hard task, the man delivered outstanding results ahead of the time he was allotted.

Raghavan Srinivasan said the governments plan everything big with grand thoughts. The people who execute the plans are the ones who need to be competent or else it could turn catastrophic. Maybe that’s why there are differences in some promises made when the performances are seen.

He said having big hairy ambitious goals alone would not do if the will to execute it is absent. He highlighted how Parameswaran was able to hit the success with Swatchh Bharat. Parameswaran, for financial fundings, used what the government provided ( which was enormous) but along with the existing government machinary, he used the local bodies of the regions the toilets were tasked to be built.

He said that most of the news reports we hear about poor toilet facilities come from the urban sides and there was a whole lot to talk about the rural side. He stated that progress won’t come if we just wait for it. So Parameswaran went to the local authorities, highlighted the project’s benefits on their people, added the local authorities’ Workforce and achieved what was thought to be an impossible feat.

Raghavan Srinivasan stated that to accomplish excellent results an organisation needs people who have a common goal of pursuing excellence. He touched upon how smaller companies in Germany have been able to reach the level of excellence despite being a smaller organisation. He highlighted these companies in Germany set larger goals like claiming the top position in what they do – in other words they wanted to excel and in their pursuit towards excellence, the companies reached high standards. Although they are small and medium organisations, they are at their best level and have stayed in that ace position.

Raghavan said the pursuit of excellence is key to become a leader in the industry and these companies in Germany and others like them in fast growing countries have embraced technology and invested more in research & development which helps them in consistently creating intellectual properties. He mentioned that one needs the vision and drive to excel to be successful.

He stated that some 40 to 50 years back, the Indians had a grand vision and goals which upon completing, became a transforming agent of the society. For instance, he referred to the fact that Indian wanted to send a man to space and after that the entire telecommunications , space research and innovations have changed. He said he is admired of the startups the youngsters of today’s India conceive.The youth have confidence but we need a good ecosystem to do that and currently our policies have not given them that, he registered.

He wanted the small and local business to collaborate; and the districts and neighboring cities to form an alliance. He said the potential of the youth should not be wasted and wanted the young minds not to wait for the day to come and instead step in to make one.

Post his address, M.Seetharaman introduced Maya Sreekumar ,the Guest of Honor.

In her address, she stated that she has been in Cognizant for 20+ years and shared the perspectives of Customer, Manager and Students/Graduates she gained from her experience . She said the customers of today have evolved very well and are very precise of what they want. The customer for their problems, don’t need too much of personnel with theories but just one or two men with the right solution to their problems.

On the management side, she said that most management employees have little idea on how to improve their skills. She said when asked the questions “what did you learn in 2018, new skill did you obtain and how did you use it?” most answers are the same. The employees say stereo-typically that they learned something about technology but most remain as blank faces.

Coming to the graduates side, she said the answers they give are the same as the ones in 20 years. She said she didn’t hear the students say they want to be technical architect, or take up my own business and something with a vision. Only the customers are becoming clearer about their needs and the rest of the 2 people in discussion have yet to get on with a level of the customer.

She stressed that we all need to unlearn and relearn. What a person acquired as a skill/knowledge 3 years ago is not going to propel him in to the future. This is common for any enterprise. To market one’s self as a better person, one needs to equip unique skills and acquire depth in it and in multiple areas.

She wanted the management to be on touch with their teams and make them relevant for the future. Being relevant for the present, she said should be the only focus but making them relevant for the future. She cautioned that the future jobs in the market will be so different from what we think it will be. “The earlier you get into specializing A.I and Machine Learning, the better it is for our nation, because some one else will take it over.” she quoted Sundar Pichai’s words.

She said the younger generation needs to think big and make a bigger change. She said that skilled Coimbatore youngsters like others have the attitude to leave the country than be here and serve it, make a larger change in their own city as it could bring a lot of difference.

This was followed by the presentation of CMA Management Awards for 2019:

V.Senthil Kumar, MD, Propel Industries P.Ltd was awarded with the CMA-Roots Best Entrepreneur Award.

K.Jagannathan, MD Silver Crown Group of Companies was awarded the CMA-Mahendra Best SME Entrepreneur Award.