The ITM Institute conducted a student exchange program in collaboration with Jaipuria Institute of  Management Lucknow. On 22nd Feb 2023 the inaugural of this program started and it began with the  Guest session conducted by Mr Raghunath D. Medge (President of Mumbai Dabbawalas) to provide  insights into their exceptional supply chain management practices. The seminar was aimed at  providing the students with an understanding of the Dabbawalas' unique delivery system and the  lessons that could be learned from it.

The Mumbai Dabbawalas are a remarkable organization that has been serving the people of Mumbai  for over a century. They deliver over 200,000 lunches every day from the homes of workers to their  workplaces with a remarkable accuracy rate of 99.99%. They have been able to achieve this level of  efficiency due to their unique supply chain management practices, which have become a subject of  study for management experts worldwide.

So it all started with the felicitation of the guest by Dir. Lakshmi Mohan (Director of ITM Institute)  and then the guest session initiated with a brief introduction of the Mumbai Dabbawalas with their  achievements, Awards & Recognition etc. Then the stage was set for the guest to deliver the experience  into the exceptional supply chain management practices of the Mumbai Dabbawalas.

ABOUT MUMBAI DABBAWALA’S

Around 127 years ago, a Parsi banker requested to enjoy a home-cooked lunch in his office, which is  how Bombay Dabbawala's story began. He offered the first Dabbawala with this opportunity, which  led to the creation of an exceptional home-cooked lunch delivery service in India's financial capital.  The majority of the Dabbwalas are sprung from Chatrapathi Shivaji Maharaj's troops. Tukaram V.  Gadade came up with the idea for this system, which started in Girgaon at the pitiful cost of 2 aanas.  Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Trust was the name of a charitable trust that was registered in  1956. Bombay Tiffin Box Supplier's Association was registered as the trust's business arm in 1968.  There are presently more than 5000 Dabbawalas catering 200,000 people.

The Mumbai Dabbawala are known widely over the world for their frugal innovation, dedication,  reliability, rigorous adherence to processes & standards and mastery in logistics. It is served as an  outstanding example of a six sigma certified organization. The semiliterate workforce has achieved  this performance in an eco-friendly way and without any use of technology.

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM GUEST SESSION

The guest session was enlightening, and the students gained valuable insights into the exceptional  supply chain management practices of the Mumbai Dabbawalas. The following are the key takeaways  from the session:

1. Importance of simplicity in operations

2. Maintaining a culture of punctuality and teamwork

3. Understanding the importance of customer satisfaction

4. Efficient tracking systems and quality control measures

5. The importance of employee training and development

Understanding each take away:

[1] Importance of simplicity in operations: They had simple operations based on the principles of  punctuality, teamwork, and simplicity. Despite the challenges of Mumbai's traffic and weather, they  have been able to maintain a high level of efficiency and customer satisfaction. Basically Zero % fuel  – No Pollution, Zero % investment, Zero % modern tech., Zero % Disputes, 99.99% performance &  100 % Customers Care & Satisfaction.

“Customer is God” ,“Work is Worship” & “Anna Daan is Maha Daan”(Donating food is the best  charity) is what makes dabbawalas going may it be in Hot Summers, Heavy Monsoon & Chilled  Winters.

Lastly, Dabbawalas invented a very logical and easy to understand coding and distribution system. A  Distribution System Serving 2 lakh customers daily with only 1 error in every 16 million deliveries,  of course should be backed by strong supply chain principles. Dabbawalas have a very unique system  of tiffin box tracking and delivery which is backed by the topography and public transport of Mumbai.

[2] Maintaining a culture of punctuality and teamwork: The Dabbawalas are known for their  punctuality and accuracy in delivering the lunchboxes. They understand the importance of delivering  the lunchboxes on time, as the workers rely on them for their meals. Also some strict rules are set for  the employees like no alcohol drinking during business hours, wearing white cap during business  hours, carry identity cards, no leave without prior notice etc. Similarly talking about their teamwork  its exceptional working in a team that consist of around 20-25 members. Each team is responsible for  delivering the lunchboxes in a particular area of Mumbai. The members of the team work together to  ensure that the lunchboxes are collected, sorted, and delivered accurately and on time. They share the  workload and help each other whenever needed. The Dabbawalas believe that teamwork is the key to  their success, and they make sure that all members of the team work in harmony.

[3] Understanding the importance of customer satisfaction: Believing in the philosophy of Work  is Worship & most of the Dabbawalas are from Varakari Community which are majorly (85%)  illiterate but have strong sense of devotion towards their work make it a believe that customer is god  & we have to serve them. So here are some basic factors that they use to achieve customer satisfaction:  On-time delivery, personalized service by knowing their customers preferences such as their dietary  restrictions or favourite dishes, prioritize customer service and are responsive to their customer’s  needs, pay attention to even the smallest details, involvement in various community service projects  and initiatives, which helps build a positive image of their service in the community.

[4] Efficient tracking systems and quality control measures: Mumbai dabbawalas have a simple  yet timed mode of transportation based on it tracking & ensuring quality makes a difficult part but  then to using following measures they ensures that efficient delivery with right quality is been  delivered.

• Colour Coding System: Use of a colour code system to identify and sort lunchboxes. Each  lunchbox is marked with a unique colour code that indicates the destination and the recipient.
• Sorting and Grouping: The lunchboxes are sorted and grouped according to their colour codes  at various intermediate stations throughout the delivery process. This ensures that the lunchboxes  are organized and delivered efficiently.
• Group Leaders (Mukadams): The Mumbai Dabbawalas have a system of group leaders known  as Mukadams who oversee the delivery process and ensure that each lunchbox is delivered to the  correct recipient.
• Regular Quality Checks: Conducting regular quality checks helps to ensure that the lunchboxes  are delivered on time and to the correct recipients. They also inspect the lunchboxes for any  damages or defects to maintain the quality of the service. Customer Feedback: The Mumbai Dabbawalas collect customer feedback to identify areas for  improvement and to ensure that their customers are satisfied with the service. This feedback is  used to improve the delivery process and maintain the high standards of quality and efficiency.

[5] Importance of Employee Training & Development: Mumbai dabbawalas have around 5000  employee strength with avg. literacy rate of 8th grade pass out but then to achieving 99.99% of accuracy  makes it impossible to believe these is because of training based on the circumstances or the  availability of resources to deliver the lunchboxes. Getting known to the routes, proper training of  colour coding and distribution cycle which are jotted in a laymen’s language make it possible to gain  that accuracy & also hard work and punctuality matters the most in this work. With these skills earning  up to 10,000 – 15,000 /- per. Month is satisfactory and providing one month’s extra payment from  customers during Diwali make employees motivated in their work.

So these were the key takeaways that we experience during the guest session which were delivered by  Mr. Raghunath Medge. He also mentioned some important awards and achievements that stunned the  students they are:

• In 1998, Forbes Global Magazine conducted a quality assurance study on their operations and gave  them a six sigma efficiency rating of 99.99999. This put them in the list of Six Sigma Certified  Companies like Motorala, GE, etc. They made 1 error in 16 million deliveries.
• In 2005, Prince Charles had visited Dabbawalas during his visit to India. He had to fit in their  schedule to meet them so that their deliveries do not get affected.
• In 2007, The New York Times reported that the services of Mumbai Dabbawalas grow at the rate  of 10% per year.
• ISO 9001:2000 certified by Joint Accreditation System of Australia and New Zealand for accuracy
• Richard Branson travelled with them and actually delivered a tiffin to his own employees at  Virgin, Mumbai with them

CONCLUSION

After conducting a guest session with the Mumbai Dabbawalas, it can be concluded that their unique  business model is based on a strong system of organization, teamwork, and dedication. The  dabbawalas' commitment to timely and efficient delivery of lunches to their customers is remarkable  and serves as an excellent case study for businesses looking to improve their own organizational and  operational strategies. Overall, the guest session was informative and provided valuable insights into  the workings of a successful and sustainable business model.

A brief introduction to branding and advertising set the tone for the discussion. Ms. Dipti discussed her opinions on advertising and touched on several key facets of its methods, processes, and workflow.

She discussed the essentials for succeeding in the media and advertising sector, including the need to connect with the public in order to strategically plan brand promotion.

Since "change is the only constant," as we are all aware, advertising methods significantly changed as per the marketing trends For instance, a brand's colors, logo, packaging, etc.

Media Perspective – Celebrity Endorsement and Influencer Marketing are escalating day by day.

Ms. Deepti Said - Feed Your Brain and Churn Out the Ideas. So here are some tips to rise and shine in Brand and Advertising Industry are as follow:

• Read Articles
• Watch TVCs, Movies, OTT platforms
• Stream Celebrity Interviews

1. Practicality of DATA in Business
2. Interaction with speaker about Data Analyst and Data Science
3. Sort of job roles in a Company
4. What all data analytics toos are used
5. How different is a Workplace and college
6. How to decide which machine algorithm should be applied

Points Discussed

• Job roles offered by a company after BA specialization.
• Importance of Academic marks.
• Does Gradution stream mtters or not.
• Difference between BA and DA.
• What should be the approach in field of analytics.
• What kind of tools are important in BA field.
• What are the questions asked in an job interview.
• Evaluating business processes, anticipating requirements, uncovering areas for improvement, and developing and implementing solutions. Leading ongoing reviews of business processes and developing optimization strategies.
• Different companies have different criteria according some are open to all some have certain percentage requirnment.
• Graduation stream does not matter your knowledge of BA is tested in an interview

• Mr. Mohd is an experienced business analyst having 8 to 9 years of experience in different sectors, skilled in various tools and models.
• Having a strong business development professional with Diploma in Big Data Analytics mainly focused on Machine Learning, Deep Learning and Artificial Intelligence.
• Eventually, he started his career as a Trainee in Banking Sector, from there onwards he worked in various sectors and is currently working in Citius Tech as a Senior Data Analyst.
• Initially, he started interacting with students of Business Analytics. The subject matter of his interaction was ‘Career Path in Business Analytics’.

Topics covered during the session:

• Introduction of Business Analytics
• Hierarchy of Job Roles in Business Analytics
• Understanding Data
• Analysis of Data(through algorithms)
• Platforms available to store and analyze the data
• Basic Overview of different analytical models
• Visualizations

Analytics is a constantly evolving field where we deal with large sets of unstructured data. The process requires transferring, analyzing, manipulating, and visualizing the data.

Key Takeaways:

• Easy understanding of core responsibilities and duties of Business Analyst
• Importance of  Business Analyst
• Growth of Information
• Forecasting business needs by analyzing data
• Different approaches toward one specific problem statement
• Reducing the time required to analyze data
• Differences between Business Analysts and other Analysts (HR, Finance and Marketing)  profiles
• Innovative and immersive models which help in effective visualizations and analysis

An interactive question and answer session also had a positive impact on our understanding. We the students of Business Analytics were highly motivated by the knowledge, fruitful insights and skills required shared by Mr. Irfan Mohd which will always remain in our hearts making us more focused by keeping a calm mind and being disciplined towards our responsibilities.

“DATA IS LIKE GARBAGE. YOU'D BETTER KNOW WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO DO WITH IT BEFORE YOU COLLECT IT."

Dr. Indumathi Balachandar is an academician and a Cost and Management Accountant. She has been in the field of education for more than three decades, teaching Finance to students with different backgrounds. She believes nurturing human values is true education.

This guest lecture aimed to educate students about responsibility accounting and the different measures of financial performance. The session was interactive and very insightful if anyone wants to pursue their career in this field.

The session started with a brief introduction of responsibility accounting which tries to pinpoint an individual’s responsibility to an extent that the individual will be accountable for the cost incurred in his activity. The speaker explained the concept with the help of examples and by giving situations.

She talked about how the very first step in any organization is to set objectives and they should be clearly defined which help in providing direction to the employees. She further explained that how swot analysis helps in attaining the goals of the organization and the objectives at an individual level and organizational level are more feasible.

The speaker also discussed the different costs and the importance of identifying the controllable cost and uncontrollable cost. She further added about the MBO and how responsibility accounting is related to the controllable and uncontrollable costs followed by a delegation which is passing on the responsibility from one person to another.

Dr. Indumathi shared some examples related to delegation and decentralization such as college fest, etc. She further discussed the cost center.

It was a great initiative taken by the faculties of the Finance Forum for conducting this wonderful session of knowledge sharing and gaining to students who did not had much knowledge about this field and who are thinking of this as a career option. This wonderful session ended with the guidance of our teachers and our guest.

Students from OM&SCM 2020-22 and 2021-23 batch  attended the session and got to learn from Mr. Piyush about how the procurement process is an important part of any organization be it manufacturing, or IT based.

He described his internship experience and also gave us tips on how we should learn and improve. He described about various roles of a procurement person and how the work is carried out. He explained the difference between the procurement and purchasing process, evolution of procurement.

He then explained how we should prepare ourselves for the future so that we have an edge over our competitors, how additional learning and certifications will help us in having that edge.

The session showed how procurement is an essential part of any organization.

Overall, it was a great learning and a very interactive session. We thank Mr. Piyush Saini for taking up this session so we can gain insights on the Procurement process on any organization.

Enterprise resource planning is the integrated management of main business processes, often in real time and mediated by software and technology. At its core, ERP is an application that automates business processes and provides insights and internal controls, drawing on a central database.

Need for ERP:

An ERP system enables you to know exactly what stock you need for each job and when you need it. ERP software also allows you to automate many of your processes so efficiencies can be created across the entire production process. This means less duplication, better scheduling of resources and reduced downtime.

Other significant reasons for incorporating ERP in a business are:

• Investment Optimization
• Increase the Productivity
• Customer Satisfaction
• Intelligent Reports Management
• Boost up your Business Performance

Definition of ERP:

Material Requirement Planning:

Material planning is entirely dependent on inputs it receives from other system departments. If input information is not correct than output for material planning will also be incorrect. Other reasons for MRP becoming obsolete are:

• Heavy reliance on input data accuracy.
• Expensive to implement.
• Lack of flexibility in the production schedule.
• Tendency to hold more inventory than needed.
• Less capable than an overall ERP system.

Benefits of ERP:

• Enhanced Business Reporting: Better reporting tools with real-time information.
• Better customer service: Better access to customer information.
• Improved Inventory Costs
• Boosted Cash Flow
• Cost Savings
• Better Data & Cloud Security
• Business Process Improvements
• Supply Chain Management

OLAP:

OLAP (for online analytical processing) is software for performing multidimensional analysis at high speeds on large volumes of data from a data warehouse, data mart, or some other unified, centralized data store.

DW:

A data warehouse is a central repository of information that can be analyzed to make more informed decisions. Data flows into a data warehouse from transactional systems, relational databases, and other sources, typically on a regular cadence.

DM:

A data mart is a simple form of data warehouse focused on a single subject or line of business. With a data mart, teams can access data and gain insights faster, because they don't have to spend time searching within a more complex data warehouse or manually aggregating data from different sources.

Applications of ERP:

Enterprise Resource Planning software can be used to automate and simplify individual activities across a business or organization, such as accounting and procurement, project management, customer relationship management, risk management, compliance, and supply chain operations.

Our guest speaker today has a Ph.D. in Textiles and Clothing from S.N.D.T.University in Mumbai. She has completed entrepreneurship training and holds a diploma from NMIMS in Business Management for Voluntary Service Organizations.

It was an overwhelming experience meeting Dr. Manjula and learning about her experience in the retail fashion industry. We learned about how the retail fashion industry works, from a single piece of fabric to a finished designer garment, how to evaluate the retail market, and top retail businesses such as Provogue, Westside, Pantaloons, ITC, and Reliance being on top in R&D, How they can use human buying behavior to help them run their business.

Discussion Points

Impact of Location

Retail businesses sell items or services to customers for their consumption, use, or pleasure. Location decisions have a major impact on a retail outlet's success, as the location is an important factor in consumers' store choice. ... Establishing a retail store can, for example, influence shopping patterns, traffic and pedestrian flows, or the retail structure of a town.

Fast Fashion and Slow Fashion

In fast fashion human resources are exploited ,since they are not compensated for their work. On April 24, 2013, a building in Dhaka, Bangladesh, including five textile firms, collapsed, killing at least 1,132 people and wounding over 2,500 others. Despite the magnitude of the losses suffered by victims and survivors of the Tazreen and Rana Plaza tragedies, no compensation was given. A small number of global purchasers and local players gave voluntary contributions to sufferers in the months following the events.

Slow Fashion is an approach to producing clothing that takes into consideration all aspects of the supply chain. It is holistic and considers the whole product lifecycle. Slow fashion is sustainable and doesn't view products as disposable. Slow fashion is ethical and looks at the connections between things—raw materials, the environment, human labor, etc.

Difference between Responsible consumer and Alert consumer

Responsible consumerism or ethical consumerism is when customers make intentional purchases of products, opting for those that have minimal to no negative impact on humans, animals, and the environment where as  Alert Consumers is one that knows the  correct price of the garment.

1. Analytics for Data people by Data people
2. Interaction with speaker about Data Analyst and Data Science
3. Sort of job roles in a Company
4. What all data analytics toos are used
5. Modeling
6. Visualization

Points Discussed

• Analytics has multiple stream in a company. Data Engineer, AL, ML Engineer, Data Scientist
• Evaluating business processes, anticipating requirements, uncovering areas for improvement, and developing and implementing solutions. Leading ongoing reviews of business processes and developing optimization strategies these are job roles of a BA
• Data Engineer has to understand data organize the unstructred data into structrued format.
• AI and ML engineer comes under Data Engineering thy have to build models on a Large scale for which intensive knowledge of algorythm is needed
• There is also Freed infra structure where Product analyst and supply chail analyst
• Visualization
• Which chart should one plot. Decision making is an important thing
• Keep Exploring Datasets start with 2-3 tables, get handon practice, fetching and cleaning the data, choosing which algorithm to apply
• Hamini’s Manager once said “Garbage in Garbage Out” Keep playing with the data for practice
• 60% of time goes in cleaning the data
• Milestones
• This session was an interactive session conducted on instagram live which helped students to gather knowledge about what actually a BA do in a company as  told by the speaker be Patiance, accept mistake, always keep learning, keep updated yourself and keep practicing

Anish is enthusiastic about helping organizations leverage the power of data and analytics to drive business success. With over 8 years of experience in the field, he has a strong record of designing and implementing analytics programs and providing actionable insights to senior leadership.

He is expertise in spans a range of industries, including Financial Services, Telco, CPG, Travel, and Technology, and I have a proven ability to help organizations optimize their talent management strategies. His top 5 Gallup Strengths as per Clifton StrengthsFinder are Context, Strategic, Empathy, Intellection, and Input.

He is also an active member of the people analytics community, regularly sharing his knowledge and insights at industry events and through my writing. He has also been mentioned in leadersHum as "Top 45 People Analytics Experts You Must Follow In 2022". His journey in the field of Analytics has been well captured by my alma mater upGrad in their #RealStoriesRealImpact campaign.

AGENDA FOR THE GUEST TALK:

• Present scenario in the industry?
• What is people analytics?
• Data collection and analysis techniques?
• Challenges and solutions?
• Takeaways.

Present scenario in the industry?

• Open AI: It is an AI research and deployment company. The mission is to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity.
• Open Ai makes tasks easy at the same time eliminating the requirement of deep knowledge and understanding in coding(Python, R, etc)
• Can’t rely just on technical knowledge but need to have specialized knowledge in your domain.
• Enhance domain knowledge and learn more about practical applications of data science and machine learning algorithms.
• Recession is on the verge so need to have specialized knowledge of the domain.
• Talent scenario:  Salaries aren’t matching up to inflation.

What is People Analytics?

• Data + Tech + Analytics = People

Analytics

• Also called HR Analytics, Talent Analytics
• Solves people-related issues in the organization.
• Techno Functional expertise required at all.
• Great demand across IT and non-IT sectors

Data Collection & Analysis Techniques

• There are two types of data sources that are referred Internal Employee Data &External Trends
• Data Visualisation tools like Power Bl or Tableau are key skills.
• Recently work has been put into predicting workforce attrition prediction.
• and Salary forecasting
• Attrition prediction remains the number one challenge in the domain.

Challenges and solutions?

• Data Foundation, Integration, Privacy, and Quality- Finding out data  is the difficult cause of privacy and integration hampering in quality of the data.
• Support from Business
• Right set of Talent- Difficult to find the right talent who has deep knowledge of the domain.
• GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation): is a legal framework that sets guidelines for the collection and processing of personal information from individuals.

Takeaways

• Present times call for specialization.
• People Analytics is HR + Analytics.
• People Analytics makes the HR function of the Organization more efficient.
• Very new domain and hence still plagued with challenges.

The term technological evolution captures explanations of technological change that draw on  mechanisms from evolutionary biology. Evolutionary biology has one of its roots in the book “On  the origin of species” by Charles Darwin. In the style of this catchphrase, technological evolution  might describe the origin of new technologies. Technology runs our lives these days. Smartphones,  tablets and computers – we really can’t seem to function without them. In a very short amount of  time, technology has exploded in the market and now, many people cannot imagine a life without it.

It is important to understand how technology evolves and why it matters to understand how we left  the dark ages (which really wasn’t all that long ago) to where we are today. All technologies are born out of purpose. For example, search engines were created to sort through  the massive amounts of data online. With each new upgrade technology compounds existing  technologies to create something better than what was previously used before. And on and on it  goes.

With the lightning speed of technological evolution, it is no wonder many people have struggled to keep up. To be fair, the scope of technology’s expanse is so great, wrapping everything up into a  single blog post is practically impossible.

Here is just a brief glimpse into how rapidly the Internet and technology as a whole have evolved  in recent years.

B.Product Life Cycle: -

A Product has a life of its own and goes through cycles. Although different products have  different types of life cycles, the traditional product life cycle for most products

If you are considering entering an industry and making a product, knowing where the product  is in its life cycle can provide valuable information of how to position your product in the  market in terms of price, promotion, and distribution.

Products typically go through four stages during their lifetime. Each stage is different and requires marketing strategies unique to the stage.

The product life cycle involves the stages through which a product goes from the time it is introduced in the market till it leaves the market. A product life cycle consists of four stages:  introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. A lot of products continue to remain in a  prolonged maturity state.

However, eventually, in every product life cycle, the product eventually phases out from the  market. This may be due to several factors such as saturation, competition, a decrease in  demand, and even a reduction in sales. A product life cycle analysis can help companies in  creating strategies that enable them to sustain the longevity of a product and even adapt to  market conditions.

C.Introduction Stage: -

The introduction stage is the first stage in the product life cycle. The highlighting factor of this  stage is that the product is new in the market, sales are slow and to push it higher the company has to incur heavy expenditure on the advertisement to make it appealing to customers.

The introduction stage is the first stage in the product life cycle where a company tries to build  awareness about the product or service in a market where there is less or no competition.  Once the company makes adequate publicity about the product either by promotion or  through branding, it can look at other aspects such as pricing, as well as distribution. Pricing  a product in the introduction stage is very important to gain market share. A popular pricing  strategy followed by most companies is the skimming price strategy. In this pricing strategy,  a company usually charges a very high price to customers, who are willing to purchase a  product.

Price skimming is common especially when mobile phones are launched with new and  improved features. Companies with established brand names make sure that the new product  has some features which stand unique and the owner takes a pride in owning that mobile  phone. A few examples of unique features are mobile charging, a fingerprint scanner to unlock  a phone, etc. Even flash sales that companies adopt for launching a product have high prices.  For example, when Google launched its Nexus series 6, it launched this mobile through an  e-shopping platform with a price tag of Rs 44,000. The phone had state-of-the-art specs which  supported the high price tag.

D. Growth Stage: -

In this stage, sales grow rapidly. Buyers have become acquainted with the product and are willing to buy it. New buyers enter the market and previous buyers come back as repeat buyers. Production may need  to be ramped up quickly and may require a large infusion of capital and expertise into the  business. Cost reductions occur as the business moves down the experience curve and  economies of size are realized. Profit margins are often large. Competitors may enter the  market but little rivalry exists because the market is growing rapidly. Promotion and pricing  strategies are revised to take advantage of the growing industry.

The usual characteristic of a successful new product is a gradual rise in its sales curve during  the market development stage. At some point in this rise, a marked increase in consumer  demand occurs and sales take off. The boom is on. This is the beginning of Stage 2—the  market growth stage. At this point potential competitors who have been watching  developments during Stage, I jump into the fray. The first ones to get in are generally those  with an exceptionally effective “used apple policy.” Some enter the market with carbon  copies of the originator’s product. Others make functional and design improvements. And at  this point product and brand differentiation begin to develop.

The ensuing fight for the consumer’s patronage poses to the originating producer an entirely  new set of problems. Instead of seeking ways of getting consumers to try the product, the  originator now faces the more compelling problem of getting them to prefer his brand. This  generally requires important changes in marketing strategies and methods. But the policies  and tactics now adopted will be neither freely the sole choice of the originating producer, nor  as experimental as they might have been during Stage I. The presence of competitors both  dictates and limits what can easily be tried—such as, for example, testing what is the best  price level or the best channel of distribution.

As the rate of consumer acceptance accelerates, it generally becomes increasingly easy to open new distribution channels and retail outlets. The consequent filling of distribution  pipelines generally causes the entire industry’s factory sales to rise more rapidly than store  sales. This creates an exaggerated impression of profit opportunity which, in turn, attracts  more competitors. Some of these will begin to charge lower prices because of later advances  in technology, production shortcuts, the need to take lower margins in order to get  distribution, and the like. All this in time inescapably moves the industry to the threshold of  a new stage of competition.

E.Maturity Stage: -

In this stage, the market becomes saturated. Production has caught up with demand and  demand growth slows precipitously. There are few first-time buyers. Most buyers are repeat  buyers. Competition becomes intense, leading to aggressive promotional and pricing  programs to capture market share  from competitors or just to maintain market share. Although experience curves and size  economies are achieved, intense pricing programs often lead to smaller profit margins.  Although companies try to differentiate their products, the products actually become more  standardized.

The first sign of its advent is evidence of market saturation. This means that most consumer  companies or households that are sales prospects will be owning or using the product. Sales  now grow about on a par with population. No more distribution pipelines need be filled. Price  competition now becomes intense. Competitive attempts to achieve and hold brand  preference now involve making finer and finer differentiations in the product, in customer  services, and in the promotional practices and claims made for the product.

Typically, the market maturity stage forces the producer to concentrate on holding his  distribution outlets, retaining his shelf space, and, in the end, trying to secure even more  intensive distribution. Whereas during the market development stage the originator  depended heavily on the positive efforts of his retailers and distributors to help sell his  product, retailers and distributors will now frequently have been reduced largely to being  merchandise-displayers and order-takers. In the case of branded products in particular, the  originator must now, more than ever, communicate directly with the consumer.

The market maturity stage typically calls for a new kind of emphasis on competing more  effectively. The originator is increasingly forced to appeal to the consumer on the basis of  price, marginal product differences, or both. Depending on the product, services and deals  offered in connection with it are often the clearest and most effective forms of differentiation.  Beyond these, there will be attempts to create and promote fine product distinctions through  packaging and advertising, and to appeal to special market segments. The market maturity  stage can be passed through rapidly, as in the case of most women’s fashion fads, or it can  persist for generations with per capita consumption neither rising nor falling, as in the case  of such staples as men’s shoes and industrial fasteners.

F.Decline Stage: -

When market maturity tapers off and consequently comes to an end, the product enters  Stage 4—market decline. In all cases of maturity and decline, the industry is transformed.  Few companies are able to weather the competitive storm. As demand declines, the  overcapacity that was already apparent during the period of maturity now becomes endemic.  Some producers see the handwriting implacably on the wall but feel that with proper  management and cunning they will be one of the survivors after the industry-wide deluge  they so clearly foresee.

To hasten their competitors’ eclipse directly, or to frighten them into early voluntary  withdrawal from the industry, they initiate a variety of aggressively depressive tactics,  propose mergers or buy-outs, and generally engage in activities that make life thanklessly  burdensome for all firms and make death the inevitable consequence for most of them. A  few companies do indeed weather the storm, sustaining life through the constant descent  that now clearly characterizes the industry. Production gets concentrated into fewer hands.  Prices and margins get depressed. Consumers get bored. The only cases where there is  any relief from this boredom and gradual euthanasia are where styling and fashion play  some constantly revivifying role.

G.Examples of Product Life Cycle:-

Many products or brands have gone into decline as consumer needs change or new  innovations are introduced. Some industries operate in several stages of the product life  cycle simultaneously, such as with televisual entertainment, where flat screen TVs are at  the mature phase, on-demand programming is in the growth stage, DVDs are in decline and  video cassettes are now largely redundant. Many of the most successful products in the  world stay at the mature stage for as long as possible, with small updates and redesigns  along with renewed marketing to keep them in the thoughts of consumers, such as with the  Apple iPhone.

Here are a few well-known examples of products that have passed or are passing through  the product life cycle:

1. Typewriters

The typewriter was hugely popular following its introduction in the late 19th century due to  the way it made writing easier and more efficient. Quickly moving through market growth to  maturity, the typewriter began to go into decline with the advent of the electronic word  processor and then computers, laptops, and smartphones. While there are still typewriters  available, the product is now at the end of its decline phase with few sales and little demand.  Meanwhile, desktop computers, laptops, smartphones, and tablets are all experiencing the  growth or maturity phases of the product lifecycle.

2. Video Cassette Recorders (VCRs)

Having first appeared as a relatively expensive product, VCRs experienced large-scale  product growth as prices reduced leading to market maturation when they could be found in  many homes. However, with the creation of DVDs and then more recently streaming  services, VCRs are now effectively obsolete. Once a ground-breaking product VCRs are  now deep in a decline stage from which it seems unlikely, they will ever recover.

3. Electric Vehicles

Electric vehicles are experiencing a growth stage in their product life cycle as companies  work to push them into the marketplace with continued design improvements. Although  electric vehicles are not new, the consistent innovation in the market and the improving sales  potential mean that they are still growing and not yet in the mature phase.

4. AI Products

Like electric vehicles, artificial intelligence (AI) has been in development and use for years,  but due to the continued developments in AI, there are many products that are still in the  market introduction stage of the product life cycle. These include innovations that are still  being developed, such as autonomous vehicles, which are yet to be adopted by consumers.

H.S Curve of Technology:

• This figure shows two ‘S-curves’ on graphical axes. The vertical axis is labeled  ‘Performance/Adoption’ and the horizontal axis is labeled ‘Time/Improvement’.  Each S-curve is a line on the graph in the approximate shape of the letter ‘S’ –  the line moves horizontally before moving upwards, and then it flattens and  tails off.
• The first line starts in the bottom left corner of the graph and is labeled ‘Old  technology, process or paradigm’. Although the lines do not touch, an area of  overlap between the two is shown. This area is labeled ‘Paradigm paralysis?’.  The second line is labeled ‘Step change in technology, process or paradigm’.
• In radical innovation, the ‘gap’ or discontinuity shown in the Figure given  above conveys the sense of a break from one technology to the other, newer,  radical technology. Thus, a radical technology fulfills the same need but is  based on a different knowledge and practice base. An example might be a  photographic film being largely replaced by digital storage media in digital  cameras. Paradigm paralysis is when an organization resists the shift to a new  idea, process, or product.

Our guest speaker today has a Ph.D. in Textiles and Clothing from S.N.D.T.University in Mumbai. She has completed entrepreneurship training and holds a diploma from NMIMS in Business Management for Voluntary Service Organizations.

It was an overwhelming experience meeting Dr. Manjula and learning about her experience in the retail fashion industry. We learned about how the retail fashion industry works, from a single piece of fabric to a finished designer garment, how to evaluate the retail market, and top retail businesses such as Provogue, Westside, Pantaloons, ITC, and Reliance being on top in R&D, How they can use human buying behavior to help them run their business.

Discussion Points

1. Impact of Location

Retail businesses sell items or services to customers for their consumption, use, or pleasure. Location decisions have a major impact on a retail outlet's success, as the location is an important factor in consumers' store choice. ... Establishing a retail store can, for example, influence shopping patterns, traffic and pedestrian flows, or the retail structure of a town.

2. Fast Fashion and Slow Fashion

In fast fashion human resources are exploited ,since they are not compensated for their work. On April 24, 2013, a building in Dhaka, Bangladesh, including five textile firms, collapsed, killing at least 1,132 people and wounding over 2,500 others. Despite the magnitude of the losses suffered by victims and survivors of the Tazreen and Rana Plaza tragedies, no compensation was given. A small number of global purchasers and local players gave voluntary contributions to sufferers in the months following the events.

Slow Fashion is an approach to producing clothing that takes into consideration all aspects of the supply chain. It is holistic and considers the whole product lifecycle. Slow fashion is sustainable and doesn't view products as disposable. Slow fashion is ethical and looks at the connections between things—raw materials, the environment, human labor, etc.

3. Difference between Responsible consumer and Alert consumer

Responsible consumerism or ethical consumerism is when customers make intentional purchases of products, opting for those that have minimal to no negative impact on humans, animals, and the environment where as  Alert Consumers is one that knows the  correct price of the garment.

Mr. Vishal Vyas has been in supply chain industry from after more than 10 years. He is graduate in B.E.– Electronics & Communications from Gujarat University and PGDM – International Business from ITM, Navi Mumbai. With experience in multiple fields like business analysis, branch operations and business development, he manages client and vendor side effectively. He has worked in Snowman Logistics, WOTU (Now Zomato Hyper pure) and Rivigo before heading Warehousing for Winter Logistics.

Mr. Vishal is pursuing Executive Programme at Indian School of Business, Hyderabad – company sponsored and undergoing Global Leadership Programme in DP World through Erasmus University Rotterdam. With DP World, he is focused on selling end-to-end supply chain solutions to customers. With current profile he manages 10 different warehousing locations across India. He has wide experience in managing multiple warehouses, developing new clients, vendor management, business plan, 3PL management, quality management, negotiation, and market research. He has done multiple feasibility studies to understand market potential, cold chain storage analysis and competition overview.

Supply Chain Overview:-

Supply chain management is the management of the flow of goods and services and includes all processes that transform raw materials into final products. It involves the active streamlining of a business's supply-side activities to maximize customer value and gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

1. Fragmented Activities 1960s

• Demand Forecasting - the process in which historical sales data is used to develop an estimate of an expected forecast of customer demand.
• Inbound/Outbound - Inbound logistics is the way materials and other goods are brought into a company. This process includes the steps to order, receive, store, transport and manage incoming supplies.
• Warehousing - the process of storing physical inventory for sale or distribution. Warehouses are used by all different types of businesses which need to temporarily store products in bulk before either shipping them to other locations or individually to end consumers.
• Inventory - the accounting of items, component parts and raw materials a company uses in production or sells. As a business leader, you practice inventory management to ensure that you have enough stock on-hand and to identify when there's a shortage.
• Packaging - art and technology of enclosing or protecting products for distribution, storage, sale, and use.
• Transportation - the movement of goods and persons from place to place and the various means by which such movement is accomplished.

2. Consolidation 1980s

• Material Management - Materials management is a core function of supply chain management, involving the planning and execution of supply chains to meet the material requirements of a company or organization.
• Material Handling - Material handling is the movement, protection, storage and control of materials and products throughout manufacturing, warehousing, distribution, consumption, and disposal.
• Physical Distribution - the set of activities concerned with efficient movement of finished goods from the end of the production operation to the consumer.

3. Functional Integration 1990s

• Logistics - The overall process of managing how resources is acquired, stored, and transported to their destination.
• Information Technology - The use of any computers, storage, networking and other physical devices, infrastructure, and processes to create, process, store, secure and exchange all forms of electronic data.
• Strategic planning - Process in which organizational leaders determine their vision for the future as well as identify their goals and objectives for the organization.

4. Value Capture 2000s

• Supply Chain Management - The management of the flow of goods and services and includes all processes that transform raw materials into final products.

5. Automation 2010s

• Digitalization - The use of digital technologies to change a business model and provide new revenue and value-producing opportunities; it is the process of moving to a digital business.
• Robotics - An interdisciplinary field that integrates computer science and engineering.

Introduction To Gold Chain:-

A cold chain is a low temperature-controlled supply chain. An unbroken cold chain is an uninterrupted series of refrigerated production, storage, and distribution activities, along with associated equipment and logistics, which maintain quality via a desired low-temperature range. It is used to preserve and to extend and ensure the shelf life of products, such as fresh agricultural produce, seafood, frozen food, photographic film, chemicals, and pharmaceutical products. Such products, during transport and when in transient storage, are sometimes called

cool cargo. Unlike other goods or merchandise, cold chain goods are perishable and always end route towards end use or destination, even when held temporarily in cold stores and hence commonly referred to as "cargo" during its entire logistics cycle. Adequate cold storage can be crucial to prevent quantitative and qualitative food losses.

• Supply procurement - Procurement and supply management involves buying the goods and services that enable an organization to operate in a profitable and ethical manner. In cold chain, the goods must be stored in a cool place. So as a pre-process of it is precooled on collection from farms or say from manufacturers.
• Temperature controlled transport - The storage, preservation and transportation of cargo that is sensitive to atmospheric conditions and needs to maintain a certain temperature. Reefer trucks are generally used for transportation purposes. For longer distances reefer railway mode of transportation is used. Reefer trucks are trucks with refrigeration feature.
• Temperature controlled storage - Itis a type of storage unit that is specially designed to maintain steady temperatures and humidity levels. The temperature-controlled storage is basically cold storage with blast freezing and temperature control features in it.
• End customer - The stored products are transported to retailers, markets, ports, and airport by temperatures-controlled transportation.

Warehouses are the real reason why optimized distribution takes place and customers getting their requirements delivered on time. It helps in improving the overall productivity of the involved labors and increases the customer satisfaction. Basically, it is a process of organizing and keeping the hold of all the things within the warehouse.

Warehousing:-

What does Warehouse Management include?

1. The warehouse management basically helps in arranging the warehouse and all the inventories associated with it.

2. It takes care of equipment’s whether they are well maintained or not.

3. It helps in managing the new stocks that comes in the facility.

4. It looks, whether orders are being picked, packed and shipped or not this helps in tracking and improving overall warehouse performance.

5. High retailers who are well settled in market goes after automation tools for better efficiency and effectiveness of warehouses.

Importance of Controlling temperature:

1. Whenever it comes to maintaining the warehouses, temperature plays a very vital role because storing the product at temperature plays a key role.

2. For instance, if we are required to store ice-creams at temperature but the temperature maintained in warehouses is not appropriate then it will attract in wastage of the product.

3. As cold chain logistics needs maintaining temperature well within the range as well as controlling process involved calls for extreme level of integration and coordination.

Maintaining temperature in warehouse:

To maintain the temperature in warehouses there are certain factors which we are supposed to consider, let’s look at them one by one: -

1.Humidity vs Temperature

• Humidity levels in warehouses should be maintained within the range 40-50% RH, where RH stands for relative humidity.
• As we know that, RH is directly proportional to temperature of the air. Hence, increase or decrease in the heat will impact RH accordingly.

2. Size and Layout

• Most of the issues associated with temperature and cooling is the size of the warehouses.
• Keeping in mind which part of the warehouse will be crowded in terms of the workers accordingly temperature should be maintained in that area.

3. Divide and Conquer

• Multiple products will require multiple temperature zones. Hence, organization should focus on investing in and should have clear cut understandings regarding the positionings of products.

4. Monitor &Maintenance

• To maintain the temperature inside the warehouse the temperature mapping devices should be readily monitored, and one must take care of them by generating the reports of the same on daily or weekly basis.

Warehousing facilities at DP World:

1. They have customized solutions with multi chamber facilities at major cities.

2. They offer bundle services – For Manufacturers, Exporters,Importers,Traders, Distributors & Retailers (with value added services)

3. They provide warehousing solutions for all types of temperature-controlled cargo with ERP equipped inventory management solutions.

4. Multi docking facility to handle higher turnaround type cargos.

Most product manufacturers are headquartered outside, the most prevalent in-country distribution method is for products to move from central medical shops to districts and/or regions, and then to service delivery sites. Distribution, like warehousing, is an important part of the health logistics system. The process of transporting products down the pipeline from the national central warehouse to the final clients is known as distribution.

Dustribution:-

Distribution Services at DP World:

1. GPS devices are installed into the vehicles along with the dataloggers onto the vehicles which helps them to track and trace the same at any given point of time.

2. Dataloggers are being continuously monitored and very well maintained as any malfunction in temperature will help dataloggers to give an alarm and the same will be acknowledged by the team of engineers.

3. They prefer controlling vehicles through ERP of manual.

4. They also prefer fueling through cash or fuel cards.

5. Long haul vehicles are into demand-supply basis wherein west region is highest load generator.

Vehicle Requirements:

1. They always prefer to have various vehicles as per the requirements of loads like 32ft that can carry up to 22MT product.

2. This implies that have, they have dedicated vehicles as per the services they are providing be it is airport moment or any other trips.

Cold Chain Market:-

• India's cold chain sector is expected to grow at a CAGR of more than 20% by 2025 as it transitions from traditional cold storage to modernized storage space. The forecasts are based on the sector's performance in recent months, in which, despite post-Covid economic impediments, the organized cold chain segment has witnessed strong rise in country-wide footprint.
• The transportation and warehousing of temperature-sensitive items from point of origin to point of consumption, which enhances shelf life and reduces rotting, is referred to as the cold chain. Approximately 60% of cold storage capacity is concentrated in the states of West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar, with potato storage accounting for 85-90% of the capacity. Cold storage in India accounts for 43.7 percent of overall revenue from the cold chain business, with only 36% having a capacity of less than 1,000 MT.
• Pharmaceutical items are likewise extremely sensitive to temperature and timing limits, making cold chain a critical requirement in this market. The cold chain is in high demand in the current context when safe delivery of vaccines for mass immunization against COVID-19 is a critical need.

Indian Cold Chain Market Drivers:

1. Growth in Organized Food Retail

Organized retail is likely to be one of the most important drivers of the Indian cold chain market with the growth of organized food retail, expect that consumers will have access to a wide range of fresh fruits and vegetables, dairy goods, meat and poultry products, and a few other temperature sensitive commodities that require cold chain storage and transportation. Most organized retail players have acknowledged that establishing a strong cold chain infrastructure is a critical step in properly managing their supply chains.

2. Growth in the Processed Food Sector

Consumer demand for processed foods has increased significantly. The Indian government has also declared plans to build additional huge food parks. This bodes well for the country's cold chain industry's expansion.

3. Shift Towards Fruits and Vegetables

Farmers are shifting away from grain crops due to increased risks and investments. Instead, they are focusing on growing fruits and vegetables. Because most of these crops require refrigeration, they are projected to boost the development of cold storage facilities.

4. Increasing Demand from the Healthcare Sector

Heat sensitive healthcare items such as vaccines, biopharmaceuticals, and clinical trial materials must be stored at temperatures ranging from 2°C to 8°C.

End to End Logistic of DP World:-

End-to-end logistics covers the complete logistics cycle, starting with procurement and distribution, transport, delivery to the customer and ending with return logistics.End to end (E2E) supply chain involves an integrated entire process, Below Diagram explains the process of E2E Logistics:

Benefits of an end-to-end supply chain:

With an integrated E2E supply chain design and visibility across the supply chain, businesses can better serve customers and the benefits are:

1. Seamless flow of activities across the supply chain

2. Reducing delays with the ability to detect any issues across the supply chain

3. Better relationships with suppliers and customers

4. Complete visibility can reduce risks, operating costs, and predict and plan to meet the needs of market changes

5. Transparency and the ability to view “blind spots”

6. Reduced labour and material costs, by removing waste in the process

DP World Overview:-

DP World is the leading provider of smart logistics solutions, enabling the smooth flow of trade across the globe. They are more than 53,000 people seeking to make global trade smarter. They establish physical infrastructure where it’s most needed and harness the infinite opportunities offered by digital technology to make the supply chain even better. They are proud to be in a business where they can make a positive difference to the world and create a better future for all. This means for their customers, people, and shareholders, but also for their communities and environments in 61 countries across six continents.

DP World Logistics:-

1. Through logistics business DP World look to enable the most efficient production and movement of cargo globally, connecting the dots between their own global network of ports and terminals with ground-breaking technology.

2. These connections provide access to global production and consumption centres, where they offer logistics services that ensure the smooth movement of cargo ship-to-shore and beyond. Their network helps customers to grow their businesses, improve efficiency in their supply chains, and explore new opportunities, especially in developing markets. Around the world, their world-leading infrastructure provides businesses with a reliable, secure and flexible base from which to expand.

3. DP World want to make trade smarter, which means working to establish physical infrastructure where it’s most needed and to harness the massive opportunities offered by digital technology to make the whole supply chain work better.

Multimodal Solutions:

1. Their smart production and distribution centres have been created in strategic locations around the globe close to sea, air, road and rail connections. This multi-modal supply chain approach has boosted cargo volumes for their customers, and reduced transit times for their products.

2. By developing projects in diverse locations they are also able to have a positive economic impact on the communities in which they work. Each production or distribution centre they open brings more opportunities, ranging from job creation for local people, to foreign direct investment and increased exporting capabilities for local businesses as a direct result of better connections to international markets. They also own, operate and invest in logistics services that move cargo and help keep trade flowing.

3. Through partnerships and advisory services we are able to support customers with our infrastructure, opening up new opportunities for trade and bringing them closer to their customers.

DP World Transportation Services:

1. Large network of business partners which provides all category of vehicles and transportation (prinmary, secondary and tertiary)

2. Reliable services on timely delivery, reporting & temperature maintenance

3. Vehicles available for varied product segments like Fruits, Seafood,Poultry, Meat, Dairy, Confectionary & Pharma ( Blood Plasma, Enzymes, etc.)

4. One Platform to Facilitate vendors and customers

Report By:-

Above report is written by Mr. Sameer Chandrasen the first-year student of Operations & SupplyChain Management department of ITM Business School, Kharghar, Navi Mumbai

Portals provided by SEBI:

https://investor.sebi.gov.in/

https://www.sebi.gov.in/

E Cell Head Dr. Arpita Pandey presented Annual Report sharing the achievements  Entrepreneurship Cell and highlights of the same  Dr  Lakshmi Mohan addressed the students by sharing insights on how an entrepreneur should be and various stages of entrepreneur's struggles, success and key qualities needed for an entrepreneur. She Shared an amazing story of how we are tied by attachments and bondages which are stopping us from succeeding in our lives.

Followed by ITM Dean Prof. Saritprava Das spoke on how she had observed various batches of entrepreneurs in her experience and threw light on key achievements.

Mr. Manish Mishra addressed and felt happy that many of ITM students are trying to become entrepreneurs. He gave advice to students and shared his opinion on becoming a part of the retail sector which is booming back again in virtual form and need for passion to succeed.

Ms. Leena Khurana spoke about her journey on how she became an operations head of Urban Mart. Though she had no relation to her career with the retail sector but her passion connected her and made her to learn many things from scratch in this sector.

Mr Kaushal Mody ITM batch 2021-23 student shared his start-up journey of starting Mental health organization and how they implemented it in the real time. They named the company as “SEY HEY” which helps many to address mental health issues. They are now in a seed funding process and also cleared level - 1 of “shark tank”.

Finally the session ended with vote of thanks and announcing the exciting journey of Entrepreneurship Cell at ITM Business School