This was an excellent Program designed and coordinated by Dr. J. K. Jha, Assistant Professor, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur and Dr. Jitesh J. Thakkar, Associate Professor, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. In today’s business environment, organizations and managers are looking for structured, logical and evidence-based decision making due to unparalleled growth of businesses. Consequently, industrial and academic research facilities need to apply rigorous analytical methods to business decision problems for systematic ways of managing the organization.

The purpose of the five-day short-term course on Quantitative Decision Modeling was to equip participants with the advanced analytical tools and background needed to analyze and solve business decision problems.

These are the some of the major learning outcomes:
• Introduction to Quantitative Approach of Decision Making
• Modeling with Linear Programming and Graphical Solution Approach
• Simplex Method and Special Cases
• Revised Simplex Method
• Theory of Duality, Sensitivity Analysis and Post Optimality
• Transportation Problem and Its Variants, Integer Programming
• Assignment Problem
• Integer Programming
• Queuing Theory
• Heuristic Methods in Operations Research
• Hands on exercise using CIPLEX /EXCEL

The first session was done by Prof. C K Sabharwal who set the right platform by sharing his thought on Future of Marketing. He presented the mixed view of what marketing guru, Philip Kotler reflected in his book Kotler 3.0 and his own visualization about the future of marketing. Faculty members of marketing area shared their views in the form of presentations of the topic in their chosen areas of interest. Every presentation by the faculty was thrown open for the discussion among the participants followed by the valuable comments by the Industry experts.

Mr. Ajay Duggal, Ex-GM, Berling Chemine, New Delhi, Mr. Vikash Bagga, Ex Head-Marketing, Tata AIG, New Delhi , Mr. Sanjeev Shukla and Mr. B. D. Nathani, CEO, G & D Shoes (Disney), New Delhi were the guest from the industry in the panel of experts. Dr. Sujata Khandai, Principal UG Campus was invites as an in-house expert for the FDP. She has contributed a lot by giving her valuable suggestions and comments. Deliberations on Co-creation of value in marketing by Dr. V. N. Bajpai, Cause marketing by Dr. Satish Kumar, Permission marketing in hospitality sector by Prof. Lalit Sharma, Visual merchandising as tool for sensory marketing by Prof. G. N. Srivastava, Ethical issues in Pharmaceutical industry by Prof. Vineeta Srivastava, Return on marketing Investment by Dr. Mukesh Porwal, Measuring Customer satisfaction in Banking Industry by Dr. S. Bhattacharya, Managing Innovation by Prof. A. P. Tripathi were the eye opener in terms of future ahead. Prof. Sweta Bajpai and Prof. Priyanka Lawania from I.T.S UG Campus attended the FDP.

The FDP was really interesting, thought provoking and was very well co-ordinate by Prof. C. K. Sabharwal and Dr. Mukesh Porwal.

The FDP was inaugurated by the Keynote speaker Prof J K Mitra Ex Dean, FMS, Delhi University with an overview of relevance of case teaching in Management Education. The second session was taken by Dr. A.K. Puri, Director General, ITS. He emphasized on the various techniques for teaching a case. The post lunch session was conducted by Dr. Harsh V. Verma, FMS, Delhi University. His session was very lively as he had a unique style of presentation, involving every faculty with the counter question and raising many issues and finally winding up with a common solution.

The second day started with a novel way of case writing skills taken by Dr. Mukesh Pandey, Associate Professor-College of Agribusiness Management, Pantnagar University, Uttarakhand and Dr. A.K.Puri, Director General, ITS. They both helped us to focus on identifying the core issue as the first step and to quote the facts without being beased and opinionated. The workshop was than divided in small groups and was personally guided on the leads by both of them.

The third day began with the discussion of the case “Fresh Field Crops” developed by Dr. Mukesh Pandey. He explained the business model to understand the case. Through this case he streamlined how to structure the case and then develop it further. The afternoon session gave a practical awareness by taking up presentation of each lead discussed, a day earlier. The cases developed by the faculties were given a serious thought and suggestion flowed in from everyone to enrich the case further.

The FDP concluded with the distribution of certificates to all the participants. The final touch was given D.G. ITS by sharing the various tips and steps to make the case studies more effective. Prof Anusha Agarwal and Prof Nitin Saxena coordinated the workshop.