GIM Students #BridgetheGap with Industry Leaders Through its Live Webinar Series

PANAJI:
The Corporate Relations & Placement Cell of Goa Institute of Management (GIM) has been organising a series of live webinars aptly named #BridgeTheGap in an effort to connect industry leaders with students of the B-school.

“Social distancing doesn’t have to stop one from learning, interacting and moving ahead. With that we mind we decided to initiate this live webinar series. So far there have been 25 webinars held till date with industry leaders from across the globe some of who are alumni of the institute”, explains Prof. Venkatesh Naga from the Corporate Relations & Placement Cell of the B-school.

A student driven initiative, #BridgeTheGap has created an e-platform for both industry and academia to discuss the current pandemic and how it has impacted businesses both large and small. Industry leaders from HSBC, Mars, Sodexo, Berkadia, Meero, Dunnhumby, Edelweiss Financial Services and Bristlecone among others has interacted with students through the webinar series.

“How will you prove to be indispensable in the near future?” asked Management Consultant, Mahesh Sohoni from Accenture Strategy and Consulting on one of the webinars. An alumnus of GIM, Sohoni, spoke about how individuals need to take the time to invest in themselves and build a plan to market themselves. drawing from his personal experience, Sohoni advised on the importance of structured storytelling, building milestones, basic skill development and the understanding of analytics. He also shared his own experiences of working from home while offering tips on drawing boundaries between work and personal time.

Vikas Mulchandani, the Director of Business Operations at Swiggy spoke about the nuances of body language which is difficult to grasp in the absence of actual physical interaction. “58% of one’s communication takes place through body language when we interact with others in the workplace be it through coffee break chats, offline seminars, rapport building sessions, face-to-face meetings and more”, he explains. Mulchandani offered tips on how one can be more effective via virtual conversations and the importance of communicating the right emotions through an email or text message. He also went over text and email etiquette, developing relationships and trust online, posture in a video conference call and emphasized on the importance of professionalism at all times.

The next few episodes of the series will feature senior resource persons from Ikizia Advisors, Muthoot Fincorp, Yes Bank, Lupin Pharma, Unilever Global companies. The live webinars are held on a regular basis.