REPORT OF ONLINE INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH CONFERENCE ON CHANGING BUSINESS DYAMICS & SUSTAINABILITY IN A VUCA WORLD

MODE OF CONDUCT OF CONFERENCE:   ONLINE

PLATFORM USED                                       :   ZOOM

CONFERENCE DATE                                   :   20^TH JUNE 2020

TOTAL PARTICIPATING DELEGATES      :   246 NOS.

HOST OF THE CONFERENCE                     :  LALA LAJPATRAI COLLEGE OF COMM.

                                                                              & ECONOMICS

COLLABORATION PARTNER                     :  DHURAKIJ PUNDIT UNIVERSITY,

                                                                               THAILAND

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In times when all of mankind is under attack by the deadly Covid 19 pandemic and as a result of which all countries around the world have imposed lockdowns in different manners, Mumbai has been no exception to this pandemic and in fact Mumbai has seen a rising number of cases as a result of which the government has announced closure of all schools & colleges for the past few months. However the teaching fraternity has been making the utmost utilization of this lockdown period by constantly upgrading their knowledge by holding a good number of webinars, conferences & faculty development programs.

Lala Lajpatrai College of Commerce & Economics has been one of the pillars of education in the city of Mumbai since its establishment in 1972 & under the able guidance and management of Dr. Kamal Gupta - Chairman & Dr. Sunil Gupta – Trustee of Lala Lajpatrai Memorial Trust the college has been consistently serving the student population of not only Mumbai but from all over India and even abroad, and helping them to become responsible citizens and successful members of society in their chosen fields. The college has a number of reputed alumni members who are today shining stars in various horizons.

The college has always sought to continuously push the envelope to the farthest in its quest for excellence and as part of this endeavor, the college has a firmly established research calendar whereby the college has been consistently and continuously organizing research conferences & seminars to give opportunity and a platform for new thought and knowledge of budding researchers, academicians and scholars and to enable this fresh outlook to reach the society for betterment of all.

In this context, the college has partnered with Dhurakij Pundit University (DPU), Thailand, one of Thailand’s leading universities since 1968 which has a growing reputation among international academic communities, to synergize the efforts in the field of education and to provide students with a wider array of choices and all round holistic development by way of international exposure with student exchange programs planned between the partners.

Not to be defeated by the lockdown and to continue its strive for excellence in research and education, Lala Lajpatrai College of Commerce & Economics in collaboration with Dhurakij Pundit University (Thailand) organized the first ever Online International Conference on 20^th June 2020 titled “CHANGING BUSINESS DYNAMICS & SUSTAINABILITY IN THE VUCA WORLD”.

The conference hosted discussions on various sub-themes in the field of Finance, Human Resources, Marketing, Law, General Management & Information Technology.

The main objective of the conference was to focus on the VUCA (Volatily, Uncertainty, Complexity & Ambiguity) environment which countries and businesses across the globe are facing today due to the COVID 19 pandemic resulting in a domino effect on businesses and economies alike. The intention of the focus was to bring out new ideas and solutions as to how this uncertain environment can be tackled in the coming times and how economies around the world, especially India, can kick-start their economic u-turn, back to the days of growth and development.

The Conference was graced by several high profile education luminaries & industry stalwarts from Thailand, United States of America & Switzerland, keeping in tune with the International flavor of the conference. The Chief Guest of the conference was Dr. Pattanant Petchchedchoo, Vice President for Academic Affairs, DPU & the keynote address was delivered by Dr. Siridach Kumsuprom, Dean College of Innovative Business & Accountancy, DPU.

The Technical address was delivered by Ms. Tanuja Vedapudi, Business Architect - Product Owner, Customer Data Operations, Ford Motor Company – Detroit, USA while the Valedictory address was delivered by Mr. Manu Vedapudi, Director – Digital Transformation, Strategy & Implementation, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, USA.

There was also an address by Member of the Conference Advisory Committee Mr. Ankit Jamwal, Vice President Platforms & Application, ABB Company, Zurich, Switzerland.

The conference began by the Conference Convener Dr. Rajesh Mankani briefing the participants about the main theme of the conference and the thought behind choosing the theme and the objectives of the conference. This was followed by a welcome note delivered by the Conference Chairperson, Principal of Lala Lajpatrai College, Dr. Neelam Arora. The inaugural session then proceeded to having an address by the Chief Guest, followed by the delivery of the keynote address. Several interesting points were put across by the Chief Guest and the keynote speaker which made the participants look at VUCA from a different point of view. In fact Dr. Siridach Kumsuprom gave an entirely new definition of VUCA, which should be followed by businesses in the future.

The inaugural session was followed by the technical session where the technical speaker Mrs. Tanuja Vedapudi shared her experiences in the automobile industry and also about the present situation in USA and the economic outlook. Several interesting and diverse areas were covered by the technical speaker enthralling the participants throughout her address.

This was followed by the technical research paper presentation session whereby the participants were divided into four different break-out rooms and wherein each room, the various research scholars presented their research papers and was judged by the chairpersons of each room on several predefined criteria. One research paper from each theme based track was adjudged the Best Research Paper winner by the respective chairpersons. This was a motivating factor for researchers to come forward with their best in future conferences as well.

The technical paper presentation session was followed by the Valedictory session where the valedictory address was delivered by Mr. Manu Vedapudi, and who took the participants through a journey of industry, development, economic outlooks and forecasting. Mr. Vedapudi shared his rich professional experience and mesmerized the audience with his first hand ideas. This was not all, the audience was also treated to another interesting speech by conference advisory committee member Mr. Ankit Jamwal, who also shared his own knowledge and professional and industrial knowledge and smoothly drew a parallel to the present situation and similar situations earlier and how humans react and should react in such trying times.

Conference Chairperson Principal Dr. Neelam Arora shared her concluding thoughts on the conference with the delegates and finally the conference was declared closed by Conference Convener Dr. Arun Poojari with a thoughtful vote of thanks all across the board.

The conference saw participation of more than 246 delegates from all across India as well as various countries and also saw around 65 research papers being received out of which almost 40 papers were presented on the day of the conference live. The conference was hosted on Zoom Platform & also live-streamed on YouTube with the help of Digital Marketing Partners IIDE – Indian Institute of Digital Education.

The conference was a triumph over the obstacle of lockdown through the use of technology whereby the organizing partners were able to host a truly memorable, information disseminating and thought provoking event over the internet.