Bangalore,  July 28, 2019: Entrepreneurs from India have ideas that can change the world but lack the discipline that is required to implement them, change management expert Rami Goldratt said on the concluding day of IIMBue, the leadership conclave of The Alumni Association of Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMBAA) yesterday.
The final day’s discourses were centred around motivational topics and developing practical means of achieving change that is key to the transformation of startups, businesses and the managerial workforce within the country.
The fourth edition of the event, which saw participation from alumni of IIMB and other leading B schools and 25 speakers from diverse fields, set the talking points for future discourse. Rami,  CEO of Goldratt Consulting & an authority on the Theory of Constraints, cited examples of firms such as Tanishq and Mazda to explain how they managed to achieve critical turnarounds in their businesses through a narrowed-down, focussed approach. “In India what the workforce lack is discipline. Its multicultural and diverse nature can achieve wonders if it can improve on this one factor, which is the key to success,”  he said.
Arunachalam Murugunanthan (more famously known as padman), citing his own example, demonstrated that you don’t have to pass out of B schools to bring about change. A school dropout, he shared his 8-year experience as padman to encourage the audience to be innovative and start with a small problem to solve. His company has created 1,320 local brands and set up 4,500 machines across India. Arunachalam has helped 1,10,000 rural women with employment as well 45 million women switch from ‘unsanitary’ to sanitary pads.
“It is the responsibility of the youth to take on the mantle of development. There is a critical need for us to create 450 million semi skilled workforce. That is where we need support from B Schools and other social entrepreneurs,” he said.
Using his story-telling experiences as a filmmaker, actor-director Ramesh Aravind advised the audience to never follow the herd and work on individual integrity to bring about change.

Day One deliberations
Dr. Devi Shetty, Chairman, Board of Governors, IIM Bangalore and Founder, Chairman and MD, Narayana Hrudayalaya, delivering  the opening address, spoke about the inevitability of digitisation to advance growth and urged entrepreneurs to adopt technology irrespective of the industry domain. Speaking on ‘how to be the change in today’s world,’ he said, “the adoption of electronic patient records by the healthcare industry is the best example of how the medical sector has adopted digitisation and how it is impacting people’s lives.”   
Captain Raghu Raman,  Founding CEO, National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID) delivered a session on ‘leading in a vuca ( (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity) world.’  Using the example of how the jawans lead from the front irrespective of the life-threatening circumstances they face in military bases such as Siachen, he highlighted the true qualities of a leader and team spirit. 
Ravi Venkatesan, Unicef Special Representative for Young People, Chairman, Bank of Baroda and Former Chairman of Microsoft India delivered the keynote address on ‘The Future Belongs To Those Who Can Navigate Change,’ and  highlighted the importance of adaptation, especially as increase in globalisation, and digitalisation has resulted in large scale displaced employment, creating a two-tier workforce.
Bestselling Indian author Devduutt Patnayak emphasised the importance of yagna (meaning exchange) in business by adding that lack of yagna results in an increase in corruption and exploitation.

IIMBue, the annual event that has emerged as one of the most prominent conclaves in South India, witnessed an impressive line-up of speakers. The focus of this year’s theme was ‘Be the Change’ and specifically designed to delve into the nuances of change and how it is bound to impact us. “The manner in which we deal with and adapt to rapid change will determine our success in the future,” explains Saif Qureishi, President, IIMBAA.