Third International Conference on ” Innovative Business Practices for Creating Value in Global Era” on 28 December 2013.

Everywhere innovation has been the buzzword in business-world. The mantra for survival and sustainability in business is ‘innovate or perish’. When people perceive ‘value’, they accept it and incorporate it in their way of managing business. Therefore, when value creation gets blended with innovation, it becomes the perfect ingredient for long-term prosperity of the business. There are numerous examples cited where businesses have been excelling by adding value through innovations. However, more innovative business practices are needed. Looking upon such need to explore further avenues of innovative practices in business with creation of value, Acropolis Faculty of Management & Research has organized Third International Conference on theme“Innovative business practices for creating value in global era” on 28 December 2013. The first and second conferences were highly successful towards meeting the objectives of creating platform for the academicians and industry people.

The third conference was inaugurated by Chief Guest Dr. D. D. Bediya, [Director, Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Business Management, Ujjain] and Special Guests Mr. Manoj Mishra [Vice President, Avtec India Limited] and Mr. Subhash Mathur [Unit Head, Rosy Blue India Limited] by lamp lighting ceremony. In his welcome speech, director of Acropolis Faculty of Management & Research Dr. Sumer Singh threw light on the theme and explained the framework of innovation with reference to Innovation Council of India. He cited the examples of Tata Swatch, Indian Postage Department and emphasized the need of invitations in the entire system. He also said that due to lack of innovation, big brands have come to the decline. His major emphasis was on inclusion, collaboration and action plan.

Special Guest Mr. Manoj Mishra said that deployment of resources is the critical area where India has to work upon. There should be focus on innovation implementation. He explained three types of innovations: incremental, breakthrough and disruptive. Where incremental innovation is nominal, breakthrough innovation increases the process 10 times; whereas radical innovation or disruptive innovation brings 100 times better results. With examples from Apple and Tata Nano, he reinstated the approach of C. K. Prahalad on innovations.

Mr. Subhash Mathur said that innovation is on creating value. His major emphasis was on value creation. He said that innovative ideas can increase productivity in the long run and create new, more and better value. Innovation is the means, value creation is the end. Dr. D. D. Bedia congratulated the institute for organizing conference on this burning theme. Innovative practices and processes were highlighted by him. He also highlighted upon the systematic thinking mechanisms by citing examples from Apple and BMW. Vice Chairman of the institution Prof. M. K. Dube has highlighted the need of industry-institution linkage and stressed upon the advantage of such linkage to the society at large. He said that with interface between industry and academia society would be benefited.

The third volume of Acropolis management journal “Shodh-Ganga” and “Conference edited volume” with ISBN No. were released during the conference. This is another achievement for Acropolis B School that it has been consistently releasing Conference Edited Volume and journal “Shodh-Ganga” on the day of conference for the third year in a row.

The entire day had technical sessions on Marketing, Finance, HR and general management along with Doctoral Thesis contest. Papers were presented across various functional areas including- Brand equity, Brand loyalty, Celebrity endorsement, Online buying behavior, Customer relationship management, Rural marketing, Stress management, Work-life balance, Quality of work life, Employee empowerment, Stock exchange, Long term debt, Equity market, Financial inclusion, Microfinance, Value based management, Entrepreneurship, Working women, Supply chain management, Green sustainable development, Corporate governance, Gender gap etc.

There were 65 papers received from places like Pune, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Udaipur, Coimbatore, Vadodara, Lucknow, Ghaziabad, Raipur, Bhopal, Dewas, Ujjain and Indore, which were presented on various functional areas. In Doctoral thesis contest, various research scholars presented their thesis and received prize.

For the Journal “Shodh-Ganga” papers were received from Nigeria, Poland, Mumbai, Pune and Indore. Shodh-Ganga journal reviewers are from reputed institutions like Indian Institute of Management, Tata Institute of Social Sciences Mumbai, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, National University of Singapore and Amity Business School Noida etc. Quality of research papers has been highly emphasized consistently in journal and ISBN book.

The event was conducted by Dr. Anshu Jaisinghani and Dr. Priyanka Mokshmar and vote of thanks was given by Dr. Anant Gwal Conference Secretary and Dr. Jitendra K. Sharma.