Exceptional beginnings happen under the most unusual circumstances. At a time, when normalcy is still a desired reality, IGTC Mumbai aspired to work on an ambitious project of expanding its high-impact Weekend Executive Business Management Programme (EBMP), which was confined to a local Mumbai and Pune reach, to an All-India Executive Business Management Programme (EBMP) with a more significant demographical reach. By no means, this was an easy proposition, but then being phenomenal has always been the mantra at IGTC!
Bringing together managers from across the country and facilitating learning and growth, the All India EBMP Batch borrows from the accepted international block or modular approach; the programme spans 16-months divided into 6 blocks of 9 days each to be held every 3 months at IGTC Mumbai.
On 9th January 2021, IGTC opened its doors to 23 seasoned managers from Gurgaon, Jaipur, Kolkata, Rajkot, Bangalore, Nashik, Pune and Mumbai. It is inevitable to say that we created a ‘Little India’ under one roof at IGTC. The inauguration began with the lighting of the lamp. The batch was warmly welcomed with an address by Radhieka Mehta, Director IGTC. In his opening remarks, Stephan Halusa, Director General, Indo-German Chamber of Commerce attested the credibility of the IGTC EBMP and congratulated the managers on surfing the learning wave. Other speakers at the inaugural ceremony included IGTC faculties Shuaib Fakih, Boman Moradian, Dr. Harkant Mankad and Dr. Anita Bandyopadhyay along with many of the HR and Business Heads across the sponsoring companies. All of them endorsed the spirit of being resilient and overcoming the tough year 2020 and congratulated the managers on positively embarking on this journey of lifelong learning.
Since 20 were attending in person at IGTC and 3 of them were attending online, IGTC faculty and team had to deal with the complexity of delivering the programme in a hybrid mode. The first quarter of 9 days introduced the managers to four fundamental modules. Here is what was covered and what they have to say:
Financial and Cost Management by Mr. Shuaib Fakih
Concepts explanation began with basic finance concepts such as Balance Sheet, Profit and Loss Statements, Valuation Ratios, Equity and liability, Performance Evaluation, Profitability, ROCE, understanding the Annual Report. The faculty explained concepts relating it to live examples of Reliance Retail. Concepts learnt in the classroom were then applied to the Joy and Kwality assignment to test conceptual clarity.
Mr. Fakih had the most difficult challenge at hand, of teaching finance to non-finance professionals. The hallmark of a great teacher is to keep it simple, and avoid using the ‘jargon’. And the way he explained the financial topics, from a Manager’s perspective, was astounding. He maintained a bird’s eye view and regularly explained the context and relevance of different approaches like ratios and costs. The examples and the exercises were designed to make us think and evaluate different scenarios to be able to make better financial decisions.
Gary Chandy, Deputy General Manager – Marketing, Minda Industries Limited
Emerging Leadership by Dr. Anita Bandyopadhyay
A highly interactive session with an immersion into several human and corporate themes such as Organization Design & Structure, Strategy, Career Planning, Goal Setting, Performance Evaluation and the Appraisal Process, STAR Technique, Talent Management and Interpersonal Interaction. The Johari Window, an evaluation tool provided them opportunities for self-introspection and insights. The module ended with an assignment on Career Planning, to be studied in light of their current work environments.
“I expected a session on HR topics but I didn’t know that Dr. Anita Bandyopadhyay is a rare breed; she effortlessly combines her core strength i.e. HR with business sense. She explained how our SMART goals should help businesses to grow. With her flair and anecdotes, she made us reflect on our own values, our goals, our communication styles. She singlehandedly raised the self-awareness quotient of the group by more than a few points.”
Subhendu Kusari, Associate Manager, Voith Paper Technology (India) Pvt. Ltd., Kolkata
Marketing Management by Mr. Sagar Narsian
The Marketing module dived deep into concepts such as the Product Life Cycle, New Product Development, Product Value Canvas and Marketing Segmentation. Marketing Strategies, were discussed at length covering Concentrated Marketing, Differentiated Marketing, Undifferentiated Marketing and Custom Marketing. Marketing concluded with assignments on Consumer Research, PESTEL and SWOT analysis.
“Marketing is about ‘meeting customer needs and wants profitably’. And Mr. Sagar Narsian, is excellent at conveying this mantra and ensuring that we imbibe it. From precipitated silica to SCADA systems to manufacturing auto components to fax machines to FMCG, his knowledge in different industries and products was dumbfounding. Apart from marketing strategies and segmentation and product value canvas, topics like Buying Centre were an eye opening and will probably help us in closing deals faster.”
Dharti Rathod, Founder and CEO, Imark Consulting and Training, Rajkot
Managerial Economics by Dr. Harkant Mankad
Dr. Mankad left the batch stunned not only with concepts in macroeconomics but the history behind world economics. The first 2 days of the module took the managers into the major drivers of the modern economy, demography, technology, foreign exchange, digital revolution, political and migration crisis and of course his favourite topics of the Oil-Dollar battle, Globalization and the VUCA world!
“Candid yet profound, Dr. Mankad seems to have the world history and economics at his fingertips. He aptly narrates how seemingly unconnected events and causes on one part of the world leads to impact another geographically apart. From him, one can visualize the shape of the world’s future far ahead from the present. I loved his style of being so grounded in his perspectives and had a great time learning from him. Undoubtedly, he had the entire class engrossed in rapt attention.”
Krishnan CL, Deputy General Manager, Bosch Limited, Bengaluru
After this intense classroom experience; the managers returned to their professional lives with new perspectives and learnings that they will continue to observe, practice and integrate in their workplace. This defines the duality of the German Education System, which is the cornerstone of this learning experience. IGTC looks forward to next 16 months journey with the All India 1st EBMP Batch!
The cornerstone of the program, the vastly experienced faculty, exceeded my expectations. They broke down complex topics into easy to understand concepts with practical applications and made the learning fun. Their diverse experience meant we had a plethora of relevant examples from the industry. The IGTC team offered amazing hospitality to what is an eclectic batch of professionals from different industries and domains. I couldn’t have asked for a better start to the program. I am happy that I made the decision to join this program and I am excited about the journey.
Abhishek Gupta, General Manager, SMS India Pvt. Ltd., Gurugram
The programme is very practical and interactive. The faculty and support staff are exceptional, the engagement they have maintained since Day 1 is something that I was not expecting with an executive programme.
Prasad Nawathe, AVP – Research, Decimal Point Innovative Research Solutions, Nashik
This has been by far one of the best courses I have ever attended. The data provided to us is immaculate, clear and in-depth. Faculties keep us more engaged with relevant and real life examples which indirectly attracted our interest towards each module. Thank you IGTC.
Dipika Gavankar, Senior Digital Media Strategist, Pressto Drycleaning and Laundry Services Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai
TYFBA….Thank you for being Awesome!! A BIG thank you for taking care of us as kids!!
Sachin Hon, Senior Manager, Glatt Systems Pvt. Ltd., Pune
Article contributed by Abhishek Gupta, General Manager, SMS India Pvt. Ltd., Gurugram, 1st All India EBMP Batch 2021-2022
