COMFEST 2010 - HIGHLIGHTS

DAY 1 (View Photo Gallery)

Session 1: 'Can Change in Communication Education Produce Effective Communication Leaders?'

The session was chaired by Mr.Sanjay Choudhry, Chief Corporate Affairs & Communications, Tata Steel. His brief opening remarks included ideas on how to teach youngsters joining the communication industry and incorporating change management and leadership skills in them.

Dr.Matthew Hibbard, Director, Dept of Film, Media and Journalism, University of Sterling, Scotland, UK offered an interesting and thought provoking presentation on definitions of leadership and the role of education in creating leaders with great communication skills.

Some of his points he spoke about:

• Definitions of leadership, is it innate or can be taught?
• Dimensions of leadership
• Hillary Clinton as an example of a managerial leader
• Barrack Obama as a transformational leader.
• How effective leadership requires good communication.
• Teaching of communications in MBA programs
• Glocal Leadership for the 21st century.
• Lack of leadership in climate change.
• Summary of how education can produce better leaders.

Dr.Uday Salunkhe, Director, Wellingkar Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai spoke at length about methodologies of teaching communications and leadership competencies required from communication graduates.

Some of his points he touched on:

• Backdrop of today's business communication segment
• Question on whether today's education is stimulating students and whether today's education is allowing people to communicate and influence the world.
• Are case studies the right tool? Is scenario planning better?
• Impact of technology on the workforce and change in hierarchy to partnerships.
• Leadership competencies
  • Power of vision
  • Passion/ Conviction/ Self Belief
  • Visit Oriented Method
  • Breakthrough thinking and execution
  • Disruptive Innovation and getting into a discomfort zone.
  • People Skills
  • Ability to work through opposable minds
  • The concept of 'T'
  • Risk Taking Ability
  • Leader as a teacher.
• Business schools should take communication as a subject more seriously.

This was followed by a question and answer session where both speakers answered the gathered guest's queries. The session concluded with a vote of thanks for the panelists and presenting them with event momentos.

Session 2: Financial Communications: Are we ready for India as a Global Economic Superpower?

Dr.Narendra Jadhav, Member, Planning Commission, GOI. Member National Advisory Council, GOI gave a stirring and heartfelt talk on India's past and future as a world power especially in terms of financial strengths, economic and social development and the challenges facing India in the future. Mr.Yogesh Joshi, President, ABCI, introduced him as a 'Great Orator' and he did not disappoint the gathered guests. His talk was eloquent, passionate and very informative.

Some of the points he elaborated on were

• India's economic past especially 1991 as a turning point of India's and the world's economy.
• The emergence of India and China as emerging economic super powers.
• India's LPG - Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization strategy
• Balance sheet of India's economic performance past and future.
  • Positives
    • Growth rate has accelerated to all time highs of 8-9%
    • Incidence of poverty has come down dramatically from 46% to 27%
    • Foreign Exchange Reserves have gone up to 275 billion dollars. India is the 6th largest holder of foreign exchange in the world.
  • o Negatives
    • Rate of job creation remains poor.
    • Social development also remains very poor.
    • Inflation has become a huge problem.
• Overall picture for India remains incredibly positive.
• Our nation today is the most confident than it has ever been and international confidence in India is also at an all time high.
• India however needs to concentrate on improving health and education dramatically to take advantage of our 'demographic dividend' in the coming years.

This was followed by a question and answer session where both speakers answered the gathered guest's queries. The session concluded with a vote of thanks for the speaker and presenting him with event momento.

Session 3: Business Journalism - Can it change and reshape the economy? Future trends in Business Journalism

Panel: Mr.Jitender Bhargava, Mr.Manzer Hussain and Mr.Kumar Ketkar.

The session was chaired by Mr.Jitender Bhargava, Former Director Communications, Air India. Opening remarks by Mr.Bhargava presented a background of Business Media through the years and the ability of today's journalists to report Business news.

Mr.Manzer Hussain, Group Director Communications, Tata Steel Group then talked about the evolution of business journalism and the multitude of platforms presenting a challenge to the media and businesses. He explained the change in business journalism from reporting the news to also analyzing the news and events. He encouraged all journalists to be open and transparent.

Other topics discussed in this energetic interaction between the panelists and the guests included:

• How Tata Steel now deals with the multitude of news channels and reporters as compared to past decades.
• Dealing with journalists who have written articles against your company
• Dealing with the International press and the differences between local and international press standards.
• The role of press junkets and real learning between journalists and businesses.
• Improving the standard of business journalism in India and upgrading the knowledge levels of business journalists in regard to specific industries.
• The near future of Business journalism being limited to the English press. Language publications falling behind in business journalism
• Specialization of a business journalist towards a single industry and being the domain expert in that industry.
• The role of advertorials and paid news items in business media and their impact.

The session concluded with a vote of thanks for the panelists and presenting them with event momentos.

Session 4: Manyfold Dimensions of Business Communications & Presentation on the creation of the Rupee Symbol.

Mr.Roger Pereira kicked of the session with his opening comments and the introduction of Prof.Udaya Kumar, Design School, IIT Guwahati, the person responsible for the creation of the new Indian Rupee Symbol.

Prof.Udaya Kumar gave the same presentation which he had given to the RBI during the selection process of the new rupee symbol. He was warmly greeted and congratulated by the guests present for his achievement which is a source of national pride.

His presentation included:

• Merger of Devnagri script and English alphabet to create the symbol
• The research done towards creating the symbol. It was not an overnight effort as some believe.
• The link of the symbol to the national flag.
• Harmony with other world currency symbols.
• Ease of writing and reproduction of the new symbol.
• Comments about the overall experience of creating and selection of the symbol.

Mr.Sachin Talwar, Director, Turning Point, then gave a very interesting and visual presentation on 'Strategic v/s Tactical Communications'.

His presentation covered:

• The difference between strategy and tactics in communications
• Changing peoples viewpoints.
• Co-dependence of tactics and strategy.
• Four points critical points communications must have for success
  • Motivate behavior
  • Contains emotional and rational reasons
  • Be relevant
  • Be driven by integrity
• A video of US President Obama's speech in Mumbai. Its heartfelt message and the thought behind it.
• A video of the Army Commander talking about the Adarsh scam and the impact it will have on the Army. His integrity and directness were pointed out.

Mr.Madhukar Sabnavis, O&M, standing in for Mr.Piyush Pandey, gave a video presentation on 'Creating Buzz' through advertising.

He played a series of commercials to illustrate ads which broke the rules and created serious buzz. These included:

• A Cadbury commercial
• An ad for Fevicol Adhesives
• Kelvinator Fridge Ad
• Centre Shock Sweets ad
• Hutch/ Vodafone 'Beautiful World' ad with the pug.
• SBI Life Insurance ad
• A new ad from the Indian Railways.
• Vodafone ad with the popular Zoo Zoos

He further spoke on the changing scenario in advertising and the transition of advertising from Information to Entertainment to Interaction. He concluded by showing an innovative approach to advertising by Yellow Pages, New Zealand involving a tree house restaurant created entirely by suppliers listed in the Yellow pages. He emphasized the need for advertising to be more interactive.

DAY 2 (View photo Gallery)

Session 1: "How Can Brand India Be Positioned As A Global Brand"

Panel: Dr.Dinesh Keskar, Mr.Jitender Bhargava

The session was chaired by Mr.Jitender Bhargava, Former Director Communications, Air India. Mr.Bhargava commented on how earlier India was seen poorly by the world but in the last 15 years that has changed dramatically. He concluded with how India matters as a global brand.

Dr.Dinesh Keskar, President of Boeing India and senior VP Sales, Boeing International spoke at length on how brand India can be positioned globally.

Some of the points he made were:

• The world economy has globalized. The internet has changed things.
• India was relatively unaffected by the economic crisis due to conservatism.
• Although the world market for high value products such as ships and planes is drying up the demand in India is growing.
• In 2003 forecast for planes was worth $25 billion (379 planes) but today it has grown to $127 billion (over 1000 planes).
• For the first time 50 million people are going to fly in India this year
• Aviation is growing at 15% per year in India
• India has unlimited potential and has barely scratched the surface.
• The hunt for talent in the future will be at a global scale and India will have an advantage.
• People from all over the world are flocking to break into the Indian market.
• Lots of global companies are owned by Indians.

During the Q&A sessions further points were discussed which included:

• Indian government can facilitate investment and support Indian businesses globally more actively.
• Clearances still remain a big issue in India.
• It's very difficult for foreign companies to do 100% ventures in India.
• Other countries such as Singapore and Thailand promote their brand much more aggressively.
• The India Shining campaign has really helped.
• Indian embassies around the world need to promote India more.
• Indians are not good at marketing ourselves aggressively.
• India lacks cheap accommodations suited to different budgets.

The session concluded with a vote of thanks for the panelists and presenting them with event momentos.

Session 2: Communications Fundamentals for Turnaround

Panelists:Mr.Roger Periera, Mr.Gerson DaCunha and Mr.P.M.Sinha

Mr.P.M.Sinha, Chairman, Bata India Ltd opened the session with his views on communications.

• Communications for change in policy to the government is important. Chambers of commerce must take a lead in this.
• In his 40 years in the communications field he has learnt from many gurus.
• Hindustan Lever's case to retain 51% foreign ownership.
• The crisis in the tea gardens of Dumduma with ULFA and how communications was used to mitigate the crisis.
• Every company must have a crisis management policy.
• Pepsi's 'Nothing Official About It' and 'Dil Mange More' campaigns emotionally connecting with the consumers.
• Work done on Indian Oil's Extramile, Extrapremium and Servo brands.
• Business leaders must travel to have more face to face meetings as far as possible.
• Create passion in the team through warmth of personal interaction
• How employee communication contributed to Bata's change from a loss making company into a profitable one.
• The challenge is to make each employee a communicator of the brand.

Mr. Gerson DaCunha, renowned advertising professional and communicator then spoke about his views on managing the brand during a consumer crisis.

His comments highlighted the following

• Quotes extensively from the book 'Brands Under Fire'.
• The UTI debacle with US64 and how it was handled by Mr.Damodaran by brining experience, charisma and exuberance. He controlled the situation through good communication.
• Mr.Damodaran toured major cities and spoke to people. Appointed FCB Ulka as the advertising agency and made sure no one left UTI.
• The Pepsi & Coke pesticide issue which created a big uproar in the media and much public indignation.
• The Cadbury worms in chocolate packs controversy and how it was handled and how it could have been handled better.
• Management must be visible during crisis and must communicate actively.
• Speed of response is critical during crisis
• Marketing communications has to move from 'Best Practices' to 'Next Practices'.
• A brand is always vulnerable and companies must always be prepared. Crisis communications will not repair damage done.

Session 3: Creating & Leveraging Communications Infrastructure For Global Leadership

Mr.Sam Pitroda, advisor to the Prime Minister of India on Public Information Infrastructure & Innovations spoke at length about the developments in India's communication infrastructure and how it can be leveraged for better communications.

Some of the points he made included:

• He started work on communications infrastructure in the early eighties as he was convinced it would impact the country.
• Earlier there were 2 million phones for 750 million people but now we are a nation of a billion connected people.
• The first phase of the telecom revolution is about to end and the second phase about to begin.
• India has a large network of fibre optic with only 10% utilization.
• Plans are on to connect all universities, libraries and research lab using the existing fibre optic network. This will change the concept of education.
• Role of the teacher will change to mentor.
• Plans are on to connect 250,000 panchayats across the country using the existing fibre optic network.
• Platforms such as UID, Mapping and National GIS are being developed.
• Government schemes such as NREGA will be better tracked through technology.
• A national payment platform is also planned.
• Urge communicators to create open platforms for youngsters to emerge.
• All current processes are obsolete such as school admissions which are legacies of the British Raj.
• All government filing should be electronic across all offices across the country. The concept of an e-file.
• One of the greatest communicator was Mahatma Gandhi.
• Don't build the country on the US model of consumption. Media is only interested in selling products, rich people and Bollywood.
• Problems of the poor don't get any attention.
• Communicators need to convey vision, new lifestyles and accomplishments. Communicate larger messages to the masses.
• 21st century model has to be based on cooperation and collaboration and should be scalable, sustainable and desirable.
• We should question all the old ways of doing things and come up with newer innovative ways of doing things.
• Provide low cost solutions and improved access.
• There is a window of opportunity now we should take advantage and communicators must contribute in their respective domains.

The conference was concluded with a vote of thanks from Mr.Jairam Menon.