Introduction to Algorithmics & Financial Risk Management Tools and Methodologies

Mr. Valery Ollivier graced our campus with his esteemed presence to throw light upon the tools used at Algorithmics and how clients use them for risk mitigation. He is the current regional manager of Algorithmics in the Middle East region, has many years of experience in risk management and risk management solutions, having previously worked for Bloomberg, Murex, Reuters, National Bank of Canada and Bancomer. This experience puts him in a unique position to discuss how risk management tools are applied within the world’s foremost financial solutions.

Algorithmics is the world leader in enterprise risk solu­tions, dedicated to helping financial institutions under­stand and manage risk. The lecture broadened our horizons on the type of risks involved in the financial world. He started the lecture with enterprise risk management and spoke about the three types of risks involved namely operational, market and credit.

He spoke about how his 28 year old company which has 800 employees is working to develop and sell softwares to calculate risk. This software helped the Middle Eastern banks like Riyadh and Emirates NBD to realise what went wrong during the 2008 crisis and how they could have averted it. Algorithmics was recently acquired by its biggest competitor IBM.

This session was a real treat especially for those students who wish to specialise in finance and risk management. It proved to be really helpful in giving an in depth understanding of what risks exist in an investment and then handling those risks in a way best suited to your investment objectives.

What Makes a Winner? Exploring the Power of the Subconscious.

“Life’s too short to be able to understand oneself, yet we often end up trying to understand others lifelong”

With this very theme of introspection and understanding the power of subconscious mind, an informative workshop was organized and conducted. Ms. Neeru Singh, our guest speaker, enlightened the student gathering, with a wonderful showcase of experience, highlighting the importance of the subconscious self. She articulated the idea and emphasized the need for people to believe in their abilities, filtering out the conflicting judgmental opinions of others. Involving the audience, a pre-requisite for any successful workshop, was properly taken care by our guest speaker. For instance, a five-minute meditation session was carried out, aimed at helping the audience to identify and visualize their respective fears,
taking control of them and eventually making an attempt to get rid of them.

The guest speaker gave a number of situational as well as experience based examples that constantly kept the audience pondering. She urged the students to know and identify their talents and to trust themselves to excel in them. She reiterated the importance of realizing that although past experiences have a bearing on our fears, our course of action and our level of self-belief. She also stressed about how making the present moment count, is what determined how close or how far we end up from our various objectives.

Ms. Neeru refrained from in-depth discussions on spiritual aspects, but didn’t undermine the role of “soul-level” spirituality. She beautifully summarized the
importance of self-consciousness, in a sentence and I quote “There are a lot of
things you don’t have, because you once believed you can’t have them”. When an
informative speaker meets an inquisitive audience, knowledge tends to flow.
This indeed is the purpose of organizing such workshops, seminars and guest
lectures.

Marketing in HR and attributes of a great salesperson today

Mr. Sanjay Sen, Chief Human Resource Officer of the Dubai Group was invited to speak on the topic ‘marketing in HR and the attributes of a great salesperson today’.

Mr. Sen comes with over 25 years of rich and varied experience in all aspects of the Human Resource function across different industries and geographies. Prior to joining Dubai Group, he was with Citigroup where during his tenure of 12 years, he worked as the HR Head and in Regional Global Talent Development roles across Asia, Europe and USA. He has also worked in Gillette and the Oberoi Hotel Group during his early years. He holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Masters in Human Resources from The Xavier Institute, India.
In his lecture, he mentioned how the Kotler concepts are applied in HR and stating that the organisation needs to prioritize the well being of their internal customers (employees) as they are the gears that keep the machine moving and hence there comes the importance of marketing in HR. From his experience he also shared what he saw were necessary attributes of a successful marketer and how one can learn to develop them. In the end many new ideas sprung from questions put up by students which made the whole lecture an interactive one.

Gender Intelligence – Implications in the Workplace

Mrs. Saundarya Rajesh, the founder – President of AVTAR Career Creators was invited to enlighten us on the topic of Gender Intelligence and its implications in the workplace. Mrs. Saundarya has completed her Masters in Management from the Central University, Pondicherry. A chevening Scholar 2005 from the University of Bradford, she has over 20 years of work experience which began with her tenure at Citibank. She founded AVTAR Career Creators in 2000 and AVTAR I-WIN in 2005.

She started with an introduction of Stereotyping in the workplace. Coming to the main point of discussion i.e. Gender Intelligence, she said it is important to take into view the full picture and not stereotype. She pointed out the fact that there is a difference between gender and sex – While sex is male and female, Gender refers to masculine and feminine.

She engaged the students in a small activity wherein they were to say whether the statements were facts or fiction. The nature of statements made the activity really interesting resulting into a healthy conflict between the girls and boys. Following the activity she discussed Lenses of Conditioning viz. Parental, Societal and Institutional. She also highlighted the effects of Gender Stereotyping on the work environment.

The lecture was concluded with career tips for both men and women on how to manage the opposite gender. The lecture helped all in learning about the importance of Gender Intelligence and the benefits of being “Gender Intelligent”. We were honoured to have Mrs. Saundarya Rajesh amongst us to share her views with us.

ERP applications and qualifications in the market place

Three Guests were invited to speak about ERP applications and the technologies associated with it. The hall was filled with students of all the three types of courses
i.e. MBA, MBA (DCP) and Evening Batch.

The First speaker Mr. Gopal Salim working for Wisdom IT, UAE spoke about ERP essentials. He is a MA Econometrics, MBA in Operations and Marketing, M Phil (Economics) and a Post Graduate Diploma in Supply Chain Management. He carries 30 years of industrial experience in banking, finance and technology industry, 12 years of experience at corporate level in a leading group of company as COO. He also has 31 years of teaching experience in various subjects in management & economics. Further, 10 years of experience in handling corporate training programs for managers and senior executives in the UAE, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain.

Next Mr. Nitin Nayak from Enterprise Business Technologies (EBT), India and UAE gave us an overview of Microsoft ERP (Dynamics NAV). Nitin is a
Chartered Accountant with 14+ years of ERP and Accounting System experience. He has been part of many implementation teams to successfully deliver ERP
Solutions to diverse clients across various Industry segments and geographies.
He has been part of the Microsoft Dynamics world for the last 7 years and brings with him a specialization in the finance.

Manikandan SP who is an IT Project Manager in Emarat, UAE told us about the benefits of ERP. A certified Project Management Professional, holding a Masters degree in Computing and Information systems. He has an overall experience of 14 years in IT, Retail and Training, of which over 10 years have been in ERP projects and project management positions. He has been extensively involved in projects of various sizes and magnitude over these years and is currently working as an IT project manager for a UAE based Petroleum Company.

The important points discussed by the three speakers included ERP(Enterprise
Resource Planning) as a concept, Working of Microsoft Dynamics, Navision, from which Dynamics came into being -originated in Denmark, Implementation with minimal disruption, Modules in dynamics NAV, Benefits of ERP. The speakers shared their own experiences in this field and also made use of great examples to help us relate with the topic. The workshop gave all of us practical details on how a management graduate can further his/her career with ERP solutions.

Prof. Ali Zalzala concluded the lecture by informing us about how to obtain a
Microsoft Certified Professional qualification which would provide added value
to us. All the students found the lecture an enriching experience.

Launch of Accredited One Year MBA Program

IMT Dubai launches the Accredited One Year Program which will be commencing in the Academic Session, September 2012.

Offered over a twelve month period, this full time program is dedicated to providing students with the conceptual and analytical tools to further their career ambitions. This program combines an in-depth international curriculum with a rigorous coursework and a practical approach in order to meet the requirements of executives in today's competitive job market.

The program will provide the students with a platform to hone their managerial and leadership skills. It will also facilitate development of critical reasoning and highlight the importance of strategic decision making which plays a pivotal role in the functioning of any business in a global economy.

International Practicum Program for Villanova University, USA

International Practicum Program for Villanova University, USA

29^th December to 14^th January

Two weeks “UAE Familiarization Program” is being organized by IMT-Dubai for a group of approximately 30 American MBA students visiting Dubai, in partnership with the Villanova University, USA.

Villanova University is located in Philadelphia, USA and is ranked amongst the top 25 business schools in the USA. This “UAE Familiarization Program” is an yearly event and unique in the series of such initiatives between the University of Villanova and various economic & social organizations in Dubai.

The objective is to acquaint these foreign students with the economic, social and cultural development of the UAE and particularly Dubai. Within this framework, the students will be having a number of academic seminars and will be visiting various key organizations of the region such as Dubai Chamber of Commerce, Dubai Economic Department, JAFZA, and DIFC wherein they will have the opportunity to interact with the concerned officials on various relevant issues.