Great Lakes & NASMEI Organize 2-Day International Marketing Conference

Great Lakes & NASMEI Organize 2-Day International Marketing Conference

Great Lakes Institute of Management, in collaboration with NASMEI (North American Society for Marketing Education in India) organized the International Marketing Conference on December 22nd & 23rd, 2008. The participants were from different parts of the world including

US, Canada, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Australia, and of course, India. The conference showcased research work on various areas in Marketing which included Consumer Behavior, Customer Relationship Management, Customer Focused Marketing, Retailing, Advertising, etc. The participants were from some of the top B-schools of the world such as Stanford, Wharton, IIMs, MDI, etc. The two-day event started with the inaugural speech from the Prof. Sriram, Executive Director, Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai. Dr. Dipak Jain, Dean, Kellogg School of Management, was also present on the occasion as an honorary guest.

Prof. Sriram, Executive Director, Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai

He started off by welcoming one and all to the International Marketing Conference. He pointed out that Great Lakes wanted to position itself as a marketing school and "customer centricity" was its theme. He talked about the Dean, Dr. Bala, who created Great Lakes, his third venture after being instrumental in starting MDI in the 90s and ISB, more recently. He said that this conference spear-headed by Dr. Seenu in conjunction with Great Lakes would establish Great Lakes as a center of marketing excellence. He also said this conference would provide the platform for academicians to network and interact with their counterparts from different parts of the world.

Dr. Bala Balachandran, Honorary Dean & Founder, Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai

He started off by welcoming one and all to the International Marketing Conference. He talked about the decision that he had to make when he started his pet project, Great Lakes. He wanted Great Lakes to be known as a center of excellence in a functional area of management. Given that he was at Kellogg, well-known for its Marketing excellence, coupled with the fact that there were no B-schools in India with a strong marketing focus, he wanted Great Lakes to be a center of Marketing excellence. In line with this, recently, four professors of marketing - Prof. Bharadwaj from IIT Chennai, Dr. Swaminathan from IFMR Chennai, Prof. Xavier and Dr. Krishna Ram - have joined Great Lakes. Great Lakes also instituted a chair professorship for marketing excellence funded by Chandrashekhar and christened as the 'Kotler Srinivasan Chair of Research in Marketing'. Recently, it was decided that the chair would be headed by Dr. Xavier.

Dr. Xavier, Professor of Marketing, Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai

He began his talk by saying that it was an honor to be made the recipient of the Kotler Srinivasan Center for Marketing Chairship. Marketing in India was not as evolved as in the US. He outlined his plans to develop a marketing portal which would allow people to interact with legends like Dr. Seenu and Dr. Phillip Kotler. He would also organize marketing competitions which would include thesis submission to foster research in Marketing not just within Great Lakes but also in India. This was one of the many ideas he had in store.

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* Contributed by -
Ranjit Shankar (Campus Associate),
Class of 2009,
Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai.

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