KIIT School of Management (KSOM) organized its 4th National Marketing Conclave on “Business EcoSystems: Driving New Paradigms in Marketing” on 21st December 2013. The conclave Chief Guest was Mr. Dilip Cherian, Founder, Perfect Relations, Asia’s largest PR firm. Mr. Cherian is widely regarded as the “Image Guru” of India. Also present in the inaugural session were the Guest of Honour Mr. Prabhat Pani, Executive Director, TajSATS Air Catering Limited, Mr.Ajit Chaturvedi, Mobility Business Unit Head, Tata Teleservices Ltd, Mr. Manas Mishra, Executive Vice President & National Strategy Director, Vizeum, Mr. Krishnan Narayanan, GM, Sales & Marketing, Raymond Zambaiti, Prof. P.P. Mathur, Vice Chancellor, KIIT University and Prof Ashok K Sar, Dean, 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.