IIM-A plans operations club to tap e-commerce

Club to keep students update about recent happenings, share industry info

While there have been sector-specific student clubs in areas like finance, consulting and marketing, the emergence of the e-commerce industry has motivated the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) to set up an operations club.

Apart from striving to keep the students updated with recent happenings in emerging avenues like e-commerce, the Ops Club will also focus on sharing industry information and create awareness about career options.

Talking about the operations club, Sarthak Phadke, member of the students' affairs council at IIM-A said, "The club is disruptively different from similar clubs at various other institutes as only a few of them focus on Operations as a domain of study or career. The entire focus of the club will be towards sharing the latest knowledge from the industry with the students and to create awareness about a different career option. Along with traditional knowledge of operations, the club will strive to keep the students updated with recent happenings in emerging avenues like e-commerce."  To be run by the students, the operations club will see three faculty members act as its guide including Chetan Soman, Debjit Roy and Sachin Jaiswal.

Among the various activities planned as part of the club are speaker series by eminent personalities in the field of operations, and publication of latest trends and developments in operations, apart from conducting national level simulation competition and case study competition.

"The club is in talks with some corporate houses to form a long term partnership with them. This is with the sole aim learning the industrial application of knowledge and to promote the interaction between the company executives and students. The club will act as a platform where students interact with the corporates in the operations sector, and get to know more about them and the opportunities in this sector. The club stands as an indicator of student interest in the field and will help the students to be better prepared for their future roles," said Phadke.

IIM-A currently has a total of over 34 clubs and committees across a diverse set of interest groups.

The clubs comprise of a mix of hobby-based societies such as the Literary Desk, Music and Dance clubs as well as bodies dedicated towards the professional development and knowledge sharing in particular sectors such as the Consult Club, BETA - the Finance & Investments Club and Marketing Club, among others.

Moreover, some of these clubs also play a dual role at ensuring the nurturing of student interests while at the same time providing them an opportunity to further their professional growth such as the Entrepreneurship Cell, apart from others.

While the number of members in each club is variable and depends on the requirements of each club's individual requirements, the average size of team is roughly between 15-30 members.

Meanwhile, talking about the membership, Phadke said, "As it is in its inception stage the focus is more on the commitment of members rather than just numbers. Thus clear focus is on quality and not quantity. As of now we are looking at some number around 25 people."