 |
| Ambassadors Deepa Gopalan Wadhwa (India) and Panyarak Poolthup (Thailand) are seen with Sunil K Alagh and Dr Mahim Mendis, at the 10th anniversary celebrations of the Qatar Indian Management Association at Holiday Villa Hotel on Wednesday. Also seen are QIMA president M A Salim and founder president Nizar Kochery |
Alagh, a former CEO of Britannia Limited (India) said this while delivering the keynote address on “managing growth in turbulent times” at the 10th anniversary celebrations of the Qatar Indian Management Association on Wednesday.
While lauding the economic strides that Qatar has made in recent years, the Indian management expert attributed this to meticulous planning, management and proper execution of programmes by the administrators of the country.
“Things are changing all over and the battle for supremacy is no longer fought between the West and the Rest as it used to be. It is rather a tough race for achievements between the North and South, with much of the laurels being cornered by the countries of the South, like Brazil, China, India, Malaysia and their likes,” he said.
Companies need to embrace complexity, and change quickly spotting further trends, utilising space, managing cash flows and on top of all through better and effective execution of their plans, he said.
While appealing to managers to come up with customer friendly programmes to be successful, the top management consultant said the word “innovation” should be uppermost in their minds. “In an organisation, managers need to breed innovators, empower value generators and command synergisers,” said Alagh, a former president of the All India Management Association. Finally, nothing can replace one’s commitment, hard work and of course luck, he added.
Speaking at a session on “entrepreneurship in a turbulent economy,” Dr Mahim Mendis from Colombo’s Open University said there is no justification for anyone to perceive turbulence negatively, as it is caused by unrest in other sectors of a society.
An entrepreneur, he said, is one who undertakes innovations, resulting in new organisations or someone who revitalises mature organisations to respond to diverse opportunities. “It is similar to rejuvenation of the mind and spirit of an individual to perform maximally,” said Dr Mendis.
“If perceived correctly an entrepreneurial mind could transform institutions to perform progressively and maximally with a clear understanding of what is good and evil, democratic and undemocratic, just or unjust etc,” he said.
Stressing that turbulence is to be understood as something that is essential for human life, Dr Mendis said only reactionaries and laggards in every society, who could not think progressively talked about turbulence as something that should not have been there. There needs to be some urgency to transform the enormous body of existing knowledge that one has inherited from his own civilisation into wisdom, said Dr Mendis.
The speaker also highlighted the necessity of leaders in business and politics to be grounded in the foundations of sustainable development, with adequate commitment to be true to what they have been already taught in seats of learning. The speaker also appealed to leaders of organisations and institutions not to kill the spirit of young people, who needed space to think freely and act freely for the betterment of all.
“The Middle Eastern uprisings provide evidence of a generation of youth that thought differently about leaders, governments and institutions that believed in personal aggrandisement at the expense of the people,” he said.
Ambassadors to Qatar, Deepa Gopalan Wadhwa (India) and Panyarak Poolthup (Thailand) were the chief guests.
QIMA president M A Salim chaired and the forum’s founder president Nizar Kochery spoke. Doha entrepreneur Sheikh Hamad bin Ghanem bin Mohamed bin Jassem al-Thani was represented by his company official Mohamed Safwan.
