Jamshedpur, September 24: XLRI Jamshedpur, India’s oldest B-school with a 75-year legacy of management excellence, hosted its annual flagship product management conclave, Aurora 3.0, organized by the PGDM (General Management) batch of 2025–26. The event, themed “Designing What’s Next: Product Leadership for a Changing World”, explored key trends and challenges in product leadership, including the rise of AI, resilient strategies, ethical innovations, and career pivots in a dynamic marketplace.
The conclave began with a traditional Lamp Lighting Ceremony, attended by XLRI’s academic leaders including Dr. Sanjay K. Patro (Dean Academics), Dr. P. C. Padhan (Associate Dean, GM Programmes), Dr. Sunil Kumar Sarangi (Co-Convenor, Placements and CEO, XCEED), and Dr. Giridhar Ramachandran (Associate Dean, XLRI Online Learning), along with industry experts and distinguished speakers.
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In his opening remarks, Dr. Patro highlighted that “Product management today is at the heart of organizations, where strategic agility and fast-paced decision-making define leadership.” Dr. Ramachandran urged students to focus on problem framing, quick decision-making, and managing stakeholder trade-offs as essential skills for future product leaders.
The conclave featured four high-impact panel discussions:
1. The Agentic Future: Product Evolution in the Age of AI
Speakers including Prakash Kumar (Google), Shruti Jain (Publicis Sapient), and Rahul Jain (Razorpay) discussed responsible AI adoption, personalization, fraud detection, and inclusive technology, providing insights on navigating the AI-driven product landscape.
2. Leading Products When the Ground Shifts: Strategies for Resilience and Relevance
Panellists Manish Sharma (Pine Labs), Arvind Nair (Tata Digital), and Pooja Bhatnagar (SAP) shared strategies to maintain speed, adoption, and resilience during market volatility.
3. Product with Purpose: Ethical and Sustainable Technology for a Responsible Future
Speakers Vivek Rao (GreenTech Solutions), Ananya Sinha (FutureTech), and Shreya Gupta (Infosys) emphasized ethical innovation, sustainability, and designing products that balance profitability with social and environmental responsibility.
4. From Doing to Leading to Redefining: Career Pivots and Failures that Future-Proof Product Leaders
Panellists Siddharth Mishra (Zomato), Kavita Sharma (Amadeus), and Rohan Kapoor (OpenText) shared inspiring stories of resilience, learning from failures, and reinventing careers to thrive as future product leaders.
The Prodzion Committee concluded the event with a Vote of Thanks, led by Dr. Kanagaraj Ayyalusamy and Mr. Shownu Winstington, expressing gratitude to the distinguished speakers, XLRI leadership, and the student community for making the conclave a resounding success.
Aurora 3.0 offered students and professionals a comprehensive platform to explore emerging trends, gain insights from industry leaders, and understand the skills and strategies required to lead in an evolving product landscape.
