The Hindu Business Line : MMA convention to focus on bottom of the pyramid

Chennai, Sept. 19 The sixth edition of MMA (Madras Management Association) All India Management Students’ convention, which is scheduled to take place on September 21 and 22 will focus on ‘Strategies for the bottom of the pyramid’.

Announcing this at a conference on Wednesday, Mr S. Gopal, President, MMA and Deputy Managing Director of Chemplast Sanmar Ltd, said the theme is based on Dr C.K. Prahalad’s book — The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid.

Mr K.S. Ramesh, Convention Chairman and Strategy and Marketing Consultant, said the highlight of this year’s convention is the debate titled ‘Corporates, more than Government, should play a bigger role in developing the bottom of the pyramid.’

According to him, the objective of the debate is to enable the students to showcase their communication and logical reasoning skills.

More than 150 management students (75 teams) from all over the country are participating in various competitions and the total prize money would be Rs 1.5 lakh.

Sessions

There will be three business sessions — strategies to overcome challenges in marketing to the bottom of the pyramid; creating products and services for the bottom of the pyramid; and creating consumption potential at the bottom of the pyramid.

This will be followed by competitions for students including one on making a ‘business plan’. The business proposals by five finalist teams will be evaluated by venture capitalists.

Special sessions have also been planned on ‘Career Design and Entrepreneurship’ by Mr K. Pandia Rajan, Managing Director and CEO, Ma Foi Management Consultants; ‘Thinking About Creativity’ by Mr Shiva Subramanian of Tata Consultancy Services; and ‘Winning Competencies for Managerial Success’ by Mr Desikamani of Mentor Learning.

For registration and further details, students may log on to www.mmachennai.org or email: mma@vsnl.com