Lessons of Amul in Overcoming Business Management and Marketing Challenges by Mr R. S. Sodhi, M.D., GCMMF

Nov21, 2013

Corporate guest lecture series is one of the integral components of SPM pedagogy. The students were enlightened on “Lessons of Amul in Overcoming Business Management and Marketing Challenges” delivered on 20^th November, 2013 by Mr. R.S. Sodhi, Managing Director at Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF). It was an interactive session which highlighted the current  industry scenario in the milk manufacturing and distribution industry with a special focus on Amul’s business model. The statistical facts of the company in terms of its supplier base as well as customer base were also discussed. He also talked about the core philosophy of Amul which is both Value for Money and Value for Many. An insight was given about the social impact that Amul as a company have made in the Indian society like empowerment of women, generating employment and maintaining the urban-rural balance. He also talked about various challenges and repercussions that a business like Amul faces given the existing small district level competitors in the country. The session ended with intellectual questions from a highly talented pool of SPMites.

Financial Services Roundtable 2013

With much anticipation and enthusiasm, the Financial Service Roundtable 2013, yet another masterpiece from the series of Conclaves, took place at School of Petroleum Management, PanditDeendayal Petroleum University on October 18, 2013.

It was a privilege and honour to have Shri Rajesh Prasad (Head, RuPay Acceptance, National Payments Corporation of India) along with Shri D. J. Pandian (IAS, Principal Secretary, Energy & Petrochemicals Department, Government of Gujarat) and Dr. P. K. Banik (Directorate General, PDPU).

Inaugurating the session, Dr. H. C. Trivedi, (Director, School of Petroleum Management) and Dr.Akash Patel (Faculty, School Petroleum Management), warmly welcomed the dignitaries and Industry listeners to hear the Guest speakers deliberate upon Financial sector in India and its challenges. Dr.Akash Patel also provided a firm platform by presenting some of the facts of the Indian Financial sector and its challenges in brief.

Regarding the country’s present financial scenario, Shri Rajesh Prasad started off discussion by mentioning the underlying opportunity in Indian Financial Sector and the growth drivers for the same. Multiple chain of access, lower IT cost, underserved SME’s were some of the topics that were discussed under that umbrella.

Then the discussion was focussed on the prevailing payment system in India. Till 6-7 years back, as Mr. Prasad mentioned, RBI was working as both regulating and operating body for financial institutions. So there was a need for a separate body to oversee the operating activity and for that RBI initiated NPCI (National Payments Corporation of India).

Mr. Prasad also mentioned about how it is important to have a proper integration between financial services and payment infrastructure to ensure proper financial services. He mentioned how a huge amount of money and information of Indian citizens are being transferred to foreign companies viz. Maestro, VISA and AMEX when people in India uses credit or debit cards of these companies.

China prevents above stated problem by issuing cards of China Union Pay. India also has introduced RuPay for the same purpose and it is expanding gradually in the Indian market. There are some issues to make it prevalent in the market such as the lower acceptability of these cards on internet and various at various places.

He concluded the discussion by mentioning the advantages of the UID project in determining the financial behaviour of Indian traders and to provide better financial services.

The session was attended by various financial sector leaders and industry listeners. To name a few, the guest speakers for the roundtable were

Shri Anjan Ghosh (Sr Group Vice President & Head-Corporate Sector Ratings, ICRA India)

Shri AsimParashar (Associate Director, Management consulting, KPMG)

Shri Mehul Pandya (Executive Vice President & Head-SME, CARE Ratings), Shri ArakhitaKhandual (Former General Manager, IDBI Bank)

Shri Deepak Gaddhyan (Head-Financial institutions and Government Business, Ratnakar Bank)

Shri Ramchandran K (Vice President and Head-Regional office, SBI Capital Markets Limited)

Shri Jitendra Shah (Managing Director, Tipsons Financial Services)

Shri Mihir Joshi (Managing Director, Gujarat Venture Finance Limited)

Mr.Ranajit Banerjee (Director, PDPU Consulting).

The valedictory address was delivered by Shri. D.J. Pandian (IAS, Principal Secretary, Energy & Petrochemicals Department, Government of Gujarat). He depicted the importance of finance in today’s global market scenario. Even if one is not directly related to making decisions regarding financial issues, one must have some prior understanding of the same, according to Mr.Pandian.

Mr.Pandian told how ways of financing have evolved over a period of time from 1960s to today. How we have evolved from chit funds to post offices to mutual funds to insurance to the stock market. And he also mentioned how technology has changed the way of various financial activities. He also mentioned how SEBI evolved and what are the roles of it. Mr.Pandian mentioned what can be worth noticing issues in future financing, such as foreign exchange management, commodity exchange, treasury management, dry & wet lease etc.

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3rd Infrastructure Conclave

With immense fervor and enthusiasm, the 3rd Energy Infrastructure Conclave was organised at School of Petroleum Management, Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University on 4th October, 2013. It was a delight and honour to have Mr. Arun Kumar Jagatramka, Chairman and Managing Director, Gujarat NRE Coke Ltd. A Chartered Accountant with an all India 1st rank and a gold medallist. Mr. Jagatramka , a visionary of rare distinction was present to grace the occasion, giving valuable insights about  “Emerging Indian Trends and the dire Need for a Paradigm Shift .” Mr Jagatramka began with a brief introduction about the issues and the current energy scenario prevailing in India over the last decade. He emphasized on the fact that what all steps could be taken in order to meet the ever rising demands of energy and to achieve that one need to have a strong Energy Security policy in place, ensuring availability, accessibility and affordability of resources. Despite being the 3rd largest producer of coal , India is among the largest importers of the same which depicts the terrible  situation the country is facing. Exemplifying figures showcase that just within a year from Jan 2012 to Jan 2013 the imports have almost doubled from 7.4MT to 13.9 MT. He further envisaged the students about the widespread geo-political circumstances and oil diplomacy issues which act as major challenges. Another hurdle he talked about was that even after coal block allocation major players still have to pass through the strict regulations of environment clearance and make their way back ; the need of the hour is to resolve the coal mess troubling the corporate and individuals alike. With a motive to run a profitable business and contributing extensively in social responsibilities corporate today require eased government policies and viable regulations which mitigate the resistance put forward by the oil and gas sector.

While  Pankaj Sindwani started the lecture on the note of history about Tata Capital. He revealed the stake of Tata Son in Tata Capital. He even emphasized on Tata Capital being the largest equity firm in India. 

The session chair of the third session Mr. Kamal Dorabawila, principal investment officer, IFC, World Bank group, Sri Lanka delivered the lecture on “multilateral role in developing infrastructure-the IFC example”. Sir began the discussion by talking about financing in infrastructure and how various multinational companies support infrastructure in developing countries.  The World Bank group has 4 major entities with various purposes. IBRD and IDA mainly focus on providing finance to the government of different countries, while IFC and MIGA are related to financing and providing financial products to investors of developing countries.

Mr. Divyesh Desai, regional marketing manager, Shell-Total’s  Hazira LNG Ltd. spoke on “Energy logistics: regal terminals”. He started by asking everyone what does infrastructure mean? He also mentioned “think differently and act differently”. Mr. Desai added that infrastructure as a project is not simple and development of economy is dependent mainly on the development of infrastructure and also mentioned about the public private partnership.

Mr.Mohammad Athar, Manager (Capital Projects & Infrastructure, PriceWaterhouse Coopers) brought upon a different angle of infrastructure from consultancy side. The various HR initiatives taken at PWC were elaborated by the speaker. 

Mr. Manish Seth (Assistant General Manager(Finance)) set in motion the session with his in-depth knowledge on the complete value chain of the E&P sector. The speaker also explained the present natural gas share which is 11% slated to rise to 20% by 2025, its impact on the demand and supply. Functions of two major CGD companies i.e. GSPL and GAIL were elaborated. GSPL is in transmission activities only whereas GAIL is in bundled activity business. 

3rd Oil and Gas Conclave

With much anticipation and enthusiasm, the two day, 3rd Oil and Gas Conclave 2013, one of the most famed among of Conclaves that take place at School of Petroleum Management, Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University happened on 20th September, 2013. 

It was a privilege and honour to have Mr. Sashi Mukundan, India Head, BP India, as the Chief Guest to grace the occasion along with Shri D. J. Pandian (IAS, Principal Secretary, Energy & Petrochemicals Department, Government of Gujarat) and Dr. P K Banik (Directorate General, PDPU).

Inaugurating the session, Dr. H. C. Trivedi, (Director, School of Petroleum Management) and Professor Dr.Subrat Sahu, (Chairperson for the 3rd Oil and Gas Conclave 2013), warmly welcomed the dignitaries and Industry listeners to hear the Guest speakers deliberate upon The Indian Oil and Gas Sector. Giving insights of the country’s present Oil and Gas Scenario, Mr.Sashi Mukundan talked about the issues governing the sector and briefly discussed about the roots of the problem.  He envisaged that the demand for oil and gas is going to rise every year and there is a need for a strong supporting policy to attract the foreign players into the exploration business. Emphasising on the pressing need of the country in oil exploration, he quoted that out of the licenses issued in the 9 NELP rounds, only 6 discoveries have been made and 3 blocks have been producing. There is also a need for latest technology in place and very few companies have the technical expertise in deep water drilling technology, to work in such high temperature and pressure regimes and in this perspective, India needs to position itself as an extremely attractive country to invite foreign players for exploration.

Mr. Sashi Mukundan further explained about the 3 key factors that the country should ensure to deal with the problem of energy security, which include, maximizing production and enable production on all Oil and Gas blocks at a faster rate, providing fiscal stability and contractual sanctity and making the business attractive.

He further highlighted that oil and gas business is highly probabilistic and the success ratio in India is about 1:10 and there is a need for technology to enhance production.He further highlighted that much of the revenue from the business is shared for the betterment of the economy. 

Comparing the import of oil and gas with respect to domestic production, he highlighted that a huge sum of money could be saved every year and the fiscal deficit burden could be reduced if India focuses on domestic exploration to import of the fuel.

He also said that the situation is gradually changing as we have the minister and the secretary who really understands the issues and a lot of pending decisions with respect to RIL-BP exploration have been resolved. Moreover, the permit to drill the existing area has enabled BP and RIL in new discoveries. Added to this, the Rangarajan committee natural gas pricing formula also seems to be a positive trait.

The guest of honour, Shri. D.J. Pandian, IAS, discussed upon the importance of domain knowledge in making a policy with respect to oil and Gas business. Talking about the steps taken by Gujarat with respect to oil and gas exploration, he highlighted that the GSPC had participated in the NELP- II and III and had secured blocks in the D6 basin. 

Highlighting on the importance on the domestic production, he mentioned that in order to avoid huge import cost of fuel, there is a high need to attract companies into exploration business. Discussing about the challenges related to the business, he highlighted that the business is not for a feeble minds and is a very lengthy process to take the block from exploration to production phase and is highly time consuming. He further envisaged that the policies should be framed in such a way that they facilitate the procedures when two resources are explored in the same well. He further highlighted that there is a serious problem with respect to attraction of foreign players in the exploration business.

While discussing about the subsidy issues with respect to the fuel in India, he mentioned that they should be properly channelized in such a way that they support only the needful. He further mentioned that the good gas network connection in Gujarat could be leveraged to develop PNG in the state and this would in turn; save subsidy and at the same time create employment. He further advised the student managers to think seriously to improve the domestic production. He further highlighted upon the need for proper infrastructure in place to ensure improved production and distribution.

On a concluding note, he highlighted the need for all the parties to think together to provide a viable policy and the vision should be that all the 120 crore population should get clean gas at their doorstep.

After the inaugural session, there were discussions on various crucial topics such as Regulatory Framework and Impact on Economy, Petroleum Reservoir Management and role of Simulation, Business Imperatives for unconventional sources- shifting perspective from PSC to PLP, New Gas price- Bane of Boon from various stake holders’ perspective, End effect on Natural Gas customers Uncertainty and Risk assessment in project execution among others.

The session was attended by government dignitaries, energy sector leaders and industry listeners. To name a few, the guest speakers for the roundtable were Mr. S K Tripathy, Head (OALP) & DGM (Geology), DGH, Dr. D.M Kale, Independent Director, ONGC TERI Biotech Ltd., Mr. Sunil Bharati, Head Corporate Communication, Cairn India, Mr. Shridhar Tambraparni, Joint President-CGD, Adani Gas,  Mr. Gyanendra Sharma, General Manager, Mahanagar Gas Ltd., Mr.Prabhat Singh, Director Marketing, GAIL, Mr. Kumar Rudra, Project Director, Oil & Gas and Special Projects, Larsen & Toubro Ltd., Mr. V. Srinivasulu, Executive Director, APGIC, Mr. Anil Seth, AGM, Larsen & Toubro Ltd., Mr. Anil Joshi, Senior Vice President, GSPC LNG and with this, the first day of the conclave successfully came to an end.



The second day of the conclave started with the same enthusiasm and zeal with the welcome address by Director, School of Petroleum Management. The sessions that followed carried the students through an in depth knowledge on business management and marketing excellence with respect to CGD and petro retailing and talent management and HR interventions in Oil and Gas sector. The interesting topics that were discussed included Business Development and Challenges in CGD, Marketing in CGD business, Current and Future scenario of Petro retailing, Challenges in Lubricant Market, Innovative ways of Managing talent, Competency Risk Management- Challenges and Opportunities and Creating Generation Next Oil and Gas Leaders. The event came to a successful ending with the valedictory ceremony.

Power Sector Roundtable 2013

The 3rd edition of Power Sector India Roundtable 2013 was successfully organized on 30th August 2013 at School of Petroleum Management, PDPU, Gandhinagar.

The event was graced by Hon’ble Minister, Shri Saurabh Patel, Government of Gujarat. He started his address by highlighting current issues that has been grappling the sector.

He talked about the issue of coal supply, which is the primary fuel and has been powering the country for many decades. He expressed his concern that, if the coal supply issues are not sorted as early as possible then it would become the biggest impediments for a prosperous Indian power sector.

He also highlighted that there is a disaster waiting in the form of Gas Price hike in 2014 and this decision is going to turn every Gas power plant in this country unviable to function and run, thus making all of them Non Performing Assets.

Senior members of leading organizations across the Power Sector in India were present for the event as speakers and industry listeners. The event had participation from Government of Gujarat, GUVNL, GSECL, GETCO, Tata Power, SBI Caps, PwC, KPMG, Delloite, IEEMA, IL&FS, Feedback Infra, TVRLS, etc.

First session of the roundtable addressed the Impact of new developments such as, New Gas pricing mechanism, new regulatory mechanism in Distribution sector, Financial Restructuring of State DISCOMs & Imported coal pricing mechanism of India UMPPs.

Session chair Shri Raj Gopal, IAS, MD, Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited, spoke about how gas and coal are important commodities in energy generation in India. He discussed about the scenario of gas based power plant in India. He also talked about the Ministry of Power’s latest introduction of 5 point plan which would include pooling of gas, special tariff for gas generated plant, parity of power plant with fertilizer sector and a few more. He further mentioned that the gas based power plants are the immediate solutions to current energy problems as wind or solar sources of energy are quite unreliable.

The second session revolved around addressing new initiatives to revamp Indian Power Sector. This session had brought various stakeholders of Indian Power sector such as, Manufacturers, Developers, Power Traders, and Consultants, on the same platform. The speakers have suggested various new initiatives to be taken, such as, change in Standard Bidding Documents, Bidding preferences to domestic equipment manufacturers, Change of UI system in power trading to Ancillary markets,increase the use of HVDC transmission lines and use of feeder automation to reduce the electricity theft etc.

The session chair Shri S. K. Negi, MD, Gujarat Energy Transmission Corporation Limited initiated initiated the second session with the discussion on the brighter side of the present scenario of the power sector. This included restructuring in the power sector, rise in per capita consumption of electricity, increased generation capacity, information technology development in power sector, capacity addition in transmission, encouragement in renewable energy generation, power trading or power exchanges. He further talked about the issues faced by the present scenario of the power sector which include restrictive development, fuel supply shortage, modernization of load dispatch centres, etc.

Mr.Shubhranshu Patnaik, Partner, Deloitte & Touche India, elaborated on the concerns with extent bidding process which included problems regarding allocation of mines, coal reserve estimation and assumption at stage of bidding. He further suggested that the part supply needs to be taken care from other sources in order to address the fuel supply issues.

Mr. V D Apte, Principal Advisor, Energy Division, Feedback Infra Private Limited, opined that in the present scenario, the distribution utilities fail because of diverse interest of stake holders and gap between what customers perceive and what the service industries are claiming to offer. Also in the existing model, the high AT&C losses account for the financial gap which is present in the distribution utilities.

The third session of roundtable concentrated towards Human Resource Management of Indian Power Sector. Various burning challenges were discussed in this session, such as – Talent Acquisition Challenges, Developing high performance work system, improving employee productivity, and need of training & development in Indian Power Sector.

The session chair Dr. D M Pestonjee, GSPL chair professor, SPM, initiated the discussion and provided brief highlight on current challenges of Indian Power Sector. 

Mr. T V Rao, Ex. Professor IIM Ahmadabad, Chairman TVRLS spoke on the various factors that affect performance of individual employees and organizations as whole. Some of these factors like, Skill sets and motivation play the most basic and hence important role in making an organization productive and performing. 

He further explained that competencies are required to manage skill sets, to motivate people and to provide them organisational support. Though technical skills are required at the lower level in an organisation, one must have managerial skills, functional skills as well as conceptual skills as one move ahead in an organisation. 

Mr Jayant Kumar, Chief Business HR, Tata power highlighted that high performance work is very contextual, every organisation has different need and creating high performance organisation is everyday thing. He also mentioned that, now, every member of the organisation has different need and for that reason HR need to take care of it and that too at different levels. Moreover he highlighted that three things which need to be addressed are Autonomy, Mastery &Purpose.

Gracing the closing ceremony, Shri DJ Pandian, Principal Secretary, Energy and Petrochemicals Department, Government of Gujarat, spoke at length on all the issues and challenges grappling the power sector in Gujarat state and country. He also addressed what all steps the State government has taken to satisfy the needs of Domestic consumers, Famers and Industrial Consumers etc. He also stressed that India needs to do much to reignite the Exploration and Production sector along with the need of the country to invest into productive Oil, gas and Coal assets abroad. He mentioned that, Solar is the future and has a very long way to go into various other applications as well. He also stressed that the surplus capacity in the state could be used to support deficit states as well.

The event was sponsored by Gujarat Power Corporation Limited. Business India & CII-YI was the Media Partner & Knowledge partner for this event, respectively. SPM’s3rd Power Sector India Roundtable was highly appreciated by all the students, speakers, Industry listeners and media listeners and people from academia. Other knowledge initiatives taken by SPM are Oil & Gas Conclave, Infrastructure Conclave & Financial Services Roundtable which shall be organised in the month of Sepember-October’2013.