Uncovering the Next Wave of Sustainable Growth
Published on : Saturday 09-11-2019
Frost & Sullivan’s GIL 2019: India aimed to uncover the next wave of sustainable top-line revenue growth, customer value, and future of the connected world.
Frost & Sullivan hosted the 11th edition of Growth, Innovation and Leadership
Summit 2019 India (GIL 2019: India) on 16th October in Mumbai. The Summit witnessed a phenomenal line up of illustrious industry experts, thought leaders and exchange of stimulating insights.
The Summit kicked-off with a welcome address by Aroop Zutshi, Global President & Managing Partner, Frost & Sullivan highlighting the magnitude of transformational technologies, business model innovation and customer dynamics that play a critical role in the growth of an enterprise. Talking about technology being an enabler and a disrupter he also touched upon convergence of industries for companies to thrive and survive in today’s ecosystem.
The following keynote panel discussed the “Future of Business in India to 2030”. In his address Sarwant Singh, Managing Partner, Frost & Sullivan, said, “We live in a heterogeneous society where connectivity and convergence is the way forward. We are in the advent of a cognitive era where data monetisation, deep learning and optimisation are going to play a significant role in the autonomous world.”
The summit honoured distinguished philanthropist and global entrepreneur Mr Azim Premji, Founder Chairman of Wipro Limited with the 2019 ‘GIL Visionary Leadership Award’. Inducted into the GIL Hall of Fame at the event, Mr Premji becomes part of an elite roster of leaders such as Ratan Tata, Kumar Mangalam Birla, Ms Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Richard Branson, Jack Andraka, Desmond Tutu, and other visionaries.
K Ganesh, Serial Entrepreneur and Partner, GrowthStory.in spoke about building new businesses through strong digital infrastructure, internet penetration, and creating a full stack platform in India. He also highlighted how businesses need to create asset and capital light models along with personalized products and services for their customers to form a multitude of brands. In order to survive and create businesses in the digital economy, automatisation of firms and re-skilling of individuals also plays a significant role. Sharing the stage, Sameer
Garde, President, Cisco India and SAARC emphasised on technology and digital being the only imperatives.
Ashish Iyer, MD, Mistry Ventures elaborated on start- ups, corporate venturing and the struggle to innovate leading to emerging concepts like Buy vs. Built. He further added how every online business model needs to have an offline component as well. Radhika Rao, Senior Vice President Economics & Strategy Research, DBS Bank, Singapore shared her perspective on the macro implication of businesses being disinflationary.
The panel discussion on CEO’s perspective on New Business Models, Opportunities for Growth and Strategies featured key dignitaries – CJ Iyer, Executive Director, Head of Mumbai Refinery, Bharat Petroleum; Ganesh Iyer, CEO, Symphony Ventures India; Raghuram Velega, VP & Chief Architect – Analytics CoE (Big Data), Jio and Arun
Karna, MD & CEO, AT&T Global Network Services India Pvt Ltd. The session deliberated on embedding services as a part of the product to enhance customer experience and emphasised on personalisation, data analytics and mobile integration to create an ecosystem of partners to thrive in the business.
In the battle toward eliminating single-use plastics, the conclave featured an interesting session by Sudhir Mishra, Founder & Managing Partner – Trust Legal. He urged establishments to re-imagine the usage of plastics and prepare pro-environmental strategies to save the earth. He also shared examples of various corporate establishments that are already taking the plunge and implementing regulations to work toward this global cause.
The summit also featured a concurrent session on the future of the food industry, food ingredients market, online food delivery and technology enabling food companies in India, which deliberated on exciting trends, challenges faced across the value chain, changing customer preferences and growth opportunities.
The panel in this session had leaders across the value chain that together deliberated on innovative technologies, consumer trends, regulatory frameworks, and critical challenges along with emerging opportunities. Industry luminaries who participated in the session included Umang Golechha, Founder, Argos Greens LLP, Ankur Bhamu, Head Business Development Nutritional Solutions, Tata Chemicals Ltd, Dr Sheetal Gupta, Deputy Director,
FSSAI, and Satvik Jaitly, Consultant, Visionary Science Practice, Frost & Sullivan, with a view to create a roadmap for thoughtful action to strengthen the food ecosystem. The session aimed to facilitate companies to leverage the potential of the ever-growing food market in India.
Talking about the future of the food industry in India, Mukund Devnani, Director, Visionary Science Practice, Frost & Sullivan said, “Food production is changing around the globe – from how it is designed, where it’s grown, to how it is consumed and who is consuming it. Innovation for tomorrow in the foods segment needs to have a co-creation element, it cannot be limited to manufacturers and regulators, but should involve consumers as well. Food safety and traceability can further unlock aggressive growth for foods in India. Super, freedom foods and urban farming coupled with technology will provide exciting growth opportunities.”
The Summit was followed by Frost & Sullivan’s 2019 India Best Practices Awards Banquet, which recognised 49 companies and establishments in India showcasing leading business models and operational excellence across industries.
The event was supported by Media Partners – Automation Connect, AutomotiveTechonology.com, AutoTech Review, CIO Insider, Commercial Vehicle, DigiAnalysys, Industrial Automation and MTLEXS.
