The Bangalore-based Sri Bhagawan Mahaveer Jain College’s Center for Management Studies (CMS) staged a first-of-its-kind academic coup by organising a seminar featuring Jack Trout, widely acknowledged as the world’s foremost authority on marketing strategy. The workshop/ strategy summit was held in Bangalore on September 30. According to a CMS spokesperson, this is the first time that an Indian academic institution or B-school has persuaded Trout who introduced the concept of product/ service positioning in 1980, and is the widely acclaimed co-author of seven globally best-selling books – The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing; Marketing Warfare; The New Positioning; The Power of Simplicity; Big Brands Big Trouble; Learning the Hard Way; A Genie’s Wisdom; and the latest Trout on Strategy to participate in an academia-sponsored seminar.

“The main motive behind the strategy summit is to expose corporates to the concepts and procedures employed by the world’s best minds in various fields of management. Strategy is vital in any form of business practice, negotiation and in one’s own life. That is why we thought it apt to rope in the world’s foremost authority on the subject,” says R. Chenraj Jain, director of CMS and chairman of the Jain group of institutions comprising 20 education institutions with 18,000 students on their muster rolls.

An estimated 400 corporate executives and B-school students registered for this path-breaking workshop.

First premier schools exhibition tour

A first-of-its-kind India & International Premier Schools Exhibition (IIPSE) is scheduled to be held in metropolitan India between October 27-November 6. The exhibitions to be staged in New Delhi (October 27-28); Mumbai (October 30-31); Bangalore (November 2-3) and Kolkata (November 5-6) will showcase premier residential schools in India and abroad.

“The objective of IIPSE is to provide a venue for parents to interact directly with the faculty of premier schools in India and abroad. The fair will provide vast information to parents about available school options and will help them in choosing the most suitable education environment for their children. Simultaneously it will offer school managements an opportunity to project their facilities and academic and sports achievements to the public. The exhibition will also provide information about several examination boards which is crucial for students with an eye on education abroad,” says Sanjeev Bolia chief executive, Afairs, a Kolkata-based firm which has promoted this pioneer pan-India exhibition.

Third Nike Junior Tour held in Bangalore

The 3rd Nike Junior Tour 2004 (NJT) Tennis Tournament was held in Bangalore from September 29-October 2 at the state-of-the-art Nike–Bhupathi Tennis Village. The winners and runners up from NJT 2004 will participate in the 2004 Nike Junior Tour International Masters incorporating the NJT/ World Team Tennis Cup to be played at Club Med Pompadour in France from October 30-November 6. Young players from 25 countries will vie for top honours in France.

The NJT, the brainchild of Nike Inc. USA, is the most prestigious event in tennis for children of U-12 and U-14 years. NJT has been staged in over 25 countries for the past six years, featuring the best talent in these age groups. “The idea is to motivate and expose all participants to the wonderful ambience they can experience if they work hard apart from giving them an opportunity to compete with the best players in the country in their own age groups,” says Krishna Bhupathi promoter-director of the Nike Bhupathi Tennis Village (NBTV).

NBTV, Bangalore is a globally benchmarked academy to develop the tennis champions of the future. The academy has ten tennis courts, a state-of-the-art fitness studio and residential facilities providing health food diets, gymnasium facilities and round-the-clock coaching by trained professionals working under the supervision of Bhupathi, a former India Davis Cup player.

Nike Inc, based in Beaverton, Oregon is the world’s leading designer, marketer and distributor of authentic athletic footwear, apparel, equipment and accessories for a wide variety of sports and fitness activities. Nike’s India operations are based in Bangalore.

National Public School team win Volvo award

Following presentations made by teams from 15 countries at the 2004 Volvo Adventure in Goteborg, Sweden, an international jury has adjudged a team of the National Public School, (Indiranagar) Bangalore the winner of the 2003 Volvo Adventure Young Environmentalists Award.

Making the presentation of the $10,000 (Rs.450,000) award in early July Hans-Olov Olsson, president and chief executive officer of the Volvo Car Corporation said, “Their Turning Over a New Leaf” From Environment to Empowerment project addresses the role of women, poverty and environment in a most positive fashion and complements the work of the 2003 Volvo Environment Prize winners Dr. Madhav Gadgil and Prof. Mohammed Yunus.”

The NPS team which travelled to Sweden to receive the award, comprised Akhil Chainwala, Varun Ponnura, Anirudh Raghavan, Priya Raghavan and Neha Rao who devised and developed a simple yet effective solution turning dried leaves into a nutrient-rich organic fertiliser which they have christened WorManure.

Welingkar inaugurates Bangalore centre

The Mumbai-based Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research (WIM) inaugurated its Bangalore centre in the suburb of Koramangala on September 14. In the current academic year starting this month (October), the new centre offers WIM’s autonomous two-year full time postgrad eBiz programme and the six-month professional programme in retailing (PPR). Moreover, WIM’s management development programme (MDP) cell will also be offering short-term executive development programmes and support to corporates.

Speaking on the occasion of the inauguration of the Bangalore centre Dr Uday Salunkhe, director of WIM commented: “At Welingkar, our aim has always been to offer world-class management training and facilities. The recognition we have received through various awards and rankings recently is a clear indication of the various milestones we have achieved. I am happy to announce the launch of our new centre in Bangalore and extend our global management training facilities to the garden city.”

Recently rated the best B-school in Mumbai by the Bombay Management Association, WIM was awarded ISO-9002 certification by Bureau Veritas Quality International in 2000 which was upgraded to ISO-9001 in 2002. WIM was established in 1977 by the S.P.Mandali, a charitable trust that manages 43 educational institutes in Maharashtra. Located in the heart of Mumbai, the sprawling Welingkar Institute was ranked 24th among B-schools in India by the COSMODE-Businessworld survey, 2004.