Kanpur: Prabandhan 2009, the annual flagship management conclave of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IIT-K) concluded successfully on September 20, 2009.

The event was centered around the theme 'Phoenix - Rising from the ashes of the global economic turmoil' which indicated a focus on how prospective managers can work towards making their organizations immune to such crisis and beat it by using recessions as a unique opportunities rather than superficially reacting to a threat.

It also emphasized the need to understand the intricate mechanisms that govern the current economic and financial systems which led to the crisis so that they can be countered.

Several industrial bigwigs, academicians and government officials came over to IIT Kanpur for conducting lectures and interacting over these three eventful days that also included several inter-school events and panel discussions.

In addition to this, there were number of events where bounty of prizes in excess of 50000 was on stake.

Day 1 - September 18, 2009:
Friday, started with a session from Mr Rajan Kumar who is the Director of India Operations at Rocsearch, a UK based Research Analytics and Knowledge services firm supporting a variety of fortune 500 companies and market leaders throughout the globe.

Ranjan's session on the Global Financial & Economic Crisis gave a crystal clear understanding of the entire episode, the true mechanisms that remain hidden behind the current financial structures that led to the meltdown and the future that lies in the aftermath of the breakdown.

He argued that the financial institutions and world governments have not learnt their lessons and there is still no fundamental change in the way these organizations are run. Greed and bonus incentives still drive the reckless risk taking which is the Prima facie of modern financial institutions. His expertise suggested that the foundations for the next crisis have already been laid as governments around the world decide to temporarily stem the crisis by funding the reckless irresponsible behavior of greedy bankers whose actions have left millions of helpless people jobless around the globe. His advice to the common man was, "Conserve cash and do not indulge in reckless spending. Secondly, make sure you have savings enough to ensure your survival for another six to nine months were you to lose or give up your job".

Based on his extensive experience in consulting and knowledge services industry, he gave valuable insights on how corporate managers can work towards beating the crisis and take competitors by a surprise during such times.

According to him, recessions are the best opportunity for visionary organizations to acquire strategic resources, woo customers and develop distinct competitive advantages. He laid emphasis on the need to improve operational efficiencies, enhancing the capabilities to create future opportunities, need for innovation and the positive disruptions in organization's leadership.

The talks were concluded by his take on his learning's which he based on his research on the "first amongst equals" in the key industrial sectors of technology, retail and banking.

Day 2 - September 19, 2009:
The second day of Prabandhan'09 was marked with a gamut of events with participation of students from colleges such as IIM's, IIT's, XLRI, MDI, SIBM battling it out in a host of presentations and case studies. From formulating Marketing strategies for launching a new product to designing employee engagement programs in times of a recession, insightful discussions and arguments on all of the above were the order of the day.

In addition to this, everyday online quizzes had been organised by co-coordinators Sandeep Ahuja and Suresh Kadam (2nd Year MBA students at IIT Kanpur). The Ad making competition offered the students a challenging task of designing an Ad on the spot to market a innovative product - "Low cost affordable Housing". These everyday events became hugely popular as they received entries from all the top management colleges of India.

This was followed by an informal session with McKinsey representatives with the students, which was attended by students eager to learn more about the consulting industry and its work culture.

In addition to that, there were discussions about the placement scenario prevailing the industry and how to cope with the recessionary pressures.

Day 3 - September 20, 2009:
Then the commissioner of Kanpur City, Mr. L Venkateswaralu graced the occasion as he walked in along with IITK director Prof. Sanjay Dhande, deputy director RK Thareja and our esteemed speaker MR Ashok Bhagat - Vice President at Societe Generale, a French Corporate and investment Bank. Mr Bhagat is also an associate member of the Executive Committee-International Chamber Of Commerce, ICC India nominee for ICC Banking Commission Paris.

Prof Dhande expressed his profound thoughts on true management education which views production of goods and services as a tool to develop human welfare rather than the rush for quarterly profits and bonuses to prevent the likes of the current global economic turmoil.

The commissioner of Kanpur city emphasized the absolute requirement for a long term sustainable strategy for use in business corporations or government bodies without which things may turn haywire. He argued that Managerial capabilities are as crucial for educating people about using hygienic sanitation, as they are to attract them towards a particular brand of soap.

The Commissioner expressed his desire to interact on such forums and thus initiated a brilliant exchange of ideas between administrators of society, administrators of private corporations and academicians, the likes of which had never happened before.

Mr. Bhagat then conducted an interactive session on "Risk Management in International Business". Explaining in a lucid manner the various types of risk, namely Credit, Performance, Country, Currency, Transportation, Transaction structure, Fraud risk and educated the audience about the methods available to evade them.

He gave real life examples using several real life cases to depict how various forms of cheating and fraud have occurred in businesses and what steps could have been taken to mitigate such kind of risks. He also talked about the necessities of regulations and strong institutions to minimize such risks in an economy.

The closure of Prabandhan was announced by Prof. S C Mishra and Shashank Saini. It was the followed by cultural events in the evening where MBA showed their performances proving that good managers would have an all rounded personality and can excel in different areas.