Experts dwell on disruptions caused by coronavirus

Tribune News Service
Amritsar, January 13

The Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Amritsar, conducted its fourth annual Operations and Strategy Conclave, Sankshetra’21 in virtual mode.

Sankshetra’21 - the operations and strategy conclave, witnessed the participation of some well-known experts from diverse industries across the country.

The panelists stressed on the need to move from the brick and mortar to IT-enabled organisations to ensure the global scalability of supply chains.

The first-panel discussion theme corresponding to the operations domain was the ‘Reinventing Supply Chains for the post-pandemic world.

With countries facing lockdown, travel restrictions, workforce shortages, halted production, etc, the worldwide outbreak of Covid-19 has exposed the vulnerability of the global supply chains. The reinvention of supply chains is necessary to absorb this large-scale disruption caused by the pandemic. The theme focussed on encapsulating this new normal in supply chain design, discussing the strategies to minimise the effects of disruptions and bounce back at the earliest.

The second panel discussion theme corresponding to the strategy domain was ‘Evolving Strategy and Consulting Amidst Changing Socioeconomic Outlook,’ which delved into the disruptions caused by the pandemic across industries and how consulting strategies are evolving to accommodate changing business models amidst a Socio-Economic outlook.

The Covid-19 outbreak has proven to be a significant blow to the strategy and consulting domain as a whole. However, like any other crisis, it could also present an opportunity to formulate new strategies and improvise the existing ones.

The conclave commenced with Prof Chetan Chitre, Students’ affairs chair, welcoming the panelists. Prof Chitre said even though 2020 disrupted the economy, it also created a lot of new opportunities and brought innovation to the surface.

Prof Chitre emphasised that no business education was complete without industry interaction, and thus, it lies at the crux of bridging the gap between academia and practices.

Concluding his address, he said he expected all students to make the most of this opportunity and learn from the industry stalwarts’ first-hand experiences.