The Certificate Awarding Ceremony of the Executive Business Management Programme (EBMP) is a truly momentous and joyous occasion for the Indo German Training Centre. On the 15th February, 2017, 47 Managers from 17 companies in Pune were awarded their certificates amidst a lot of cheer and joy.
Frank Hoffman, Regional Director, Indo-German Chamber of Commerce (IGCC), Pune welcomed all the dignitaries, business heads from the organizations, the EBMP participants’, family members and all the faculty. After congratulating the batch, he motivated them saying ‘Dedication, Passion and Perseverance- Organizations that succeed have these qualities. They make excellent products and that stands out in the market. Your companies have sent you for the EBMP programme because they saw these qualities in you and that is what makes you stand out. You are sitting here today evening because you have successfully completed the programme proving your companies right.’
It was then time for Radhieka Mehta, Director, Indo-German Training Centre to share her experience of the EBMP Pune Batch 2016. She resonated the thoughts of the IGTC staff and faculty saying “With the EBMP programme, we have understood that once in class everyone is a backbencher. There is a continuous fight for the AC remote, tea breaks are very important, maintaining punctuality is as difficult as with our 21 year olds PG batch. It is interesting to see you all fight over small projects, stand up and make an opinion, if someone talks a little longer, the rest of the class is restless. The faculty and we at IGTC have thoroughly enjoyed your participation, the questions, and the way you interacted and made the class a strong learning experience.”
She then introduced the EBMP participants, who would share their journey of the last one year, through a presentation called ‘From Concepts to Capstone.’ Shreyas Cadambi, Divisional Manager, Mercedes Benz India Pvt. Ltd. began by quoting Benjamin Franklin ‘We are all born ignorant, but one must really work hard to remain stupid.’ He went on to explain that it was their decision not to remain stupid and in order to do something about it, they decided to go back to school.’
The 5 power women of the EBMP batch shared their journey of realizing dreams that seemed improbable to achieve. “In a fraction of a second, there is dream to achieve, a dream between ambition and emotion, professional and family, between self and selfless, between a giver and a go-getter, and we transitioned through this year. Today, as we stand with this scroll of honour in front of you, life rewinds itself to this day when we took this decision to step into the unknown. The path was not easy and we knew it but we feel that if life doesn’t challenge you it doesn’t change you. A roller coaster of a ride which presented a lot of punches. But to take it on your chin and meet the hardships heads-on teaches you a lot of adaptability and flexibility. Every day of this year was a new learning and a new discovery and we stand here having achieved a wonderful dream. In the end we leave saying –if you want something you never had, you have to do something you have never done.”
Vaijnath Sangekar, Deputy Manager at Thyssenkrupp Indistries India Pvt. Ltd. said “In the last one year, I am now an ordinary employee converted with extra-ordinary features and smart working capabilities. The biggest gift I got was the gift to read.” The entire batch profusely thanked all the faculty members for their invaluable contribution to their lives.
Mangala Krishnamurthi, Deputy General Manager for Financial Controlling, Bosch Ltd. addressed the audience to share her experience as the business manager to Rajender Kirrola, deputy manager at Bosch Ltd. She gave us an account of his transformation “Being from an accounting background and a controller, the first thing any controller does is to say no to any proposal because we have to save cost. But now Rajender is very different. He looks at a problem from the entire business point of view. This has made a big impact to our business as he comes up with new solutions and this is only possible because of this one year EBMP course.”
After the journey from ‘concepts to capstone’, the dignitaries took to the stage. Chief Guest Mr. Andreas Lauermann, President and Managing Director, Volkswagen India Pvt. Ltd. in a motivating speech urged them to keep on learning as the world is moving faster according to him “What we are facing in our economies and the world is more complex because we are living in a big network and this gives us a lots of challenges, but every challenge is a chance. We now have technological megatrends and new things are coming especially with digitalization. Digitalization is completely a game changer even in the automotive industry. Surrounding markets are changing as now we are facing an intense and global competition, and this is all part of globalization. Lastly, regulations around the world are changing and it’s getting stricter and has to be for the betterment of the environment and this brings complexity to the business. Connectivity is important in today’s day and hence companies like Tesla have an edge and are able to compete with established automobile organizations.” Mr. Lauermann concluded his speech by saying, “There one famous sentence that I remember – Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere. Through this programme we expect that we bring more entrepreneurship in our company again and hence this programme is very valuable for us.”
Guest of Honour Mr. Ravi Kirpalani, Managing Director and CEO, Thyssenkrupp India began his speech by stating, “More than 50 years ago, Peter Drucker in the year 1964 said two things about the future – it is not easy to know what the future is going to be like and more importantly it’s likely to be different from what we know and think today. There two opportunities that we can leverage from this uncertain future, the first is to exploit the gap between when a discontinuity appears and its full impact. And the second is how you can impose with your ideas on a yet unborn future. A completely new idea that will help change what the future might look like.”
He then moved on to explain what it will take to develop a leader of such an uncertain and unknown future. “The role of the leader of the future is somebody who creates an extraordinary intent at its core, who has the courage to go beyond the drift, and finally it’s about taking risk, to anticipate and deal with ambiguity. But the most important thing is to have the passion to make your dreams come true.” Mr. Kirpalani then also elaborately spoke on about the 4 bits – physical, mental, emotional and spiritual capacity – that are ideally required to win. He concluded his speech with a profound quote from the Upanishad which says that your ‘Deepest desire becomes your destiny. As you desire so is your intent, as is your intention so is your will, as is your will so is your deed and as is your deed so is your destiny’.
After the speeches, it was time to hand out the certificates. The certificates were handed over to the participants as their family members, faculty, colleagues and company mentors cheered them on. The pride and sense of accomplishment in the eyes of the participants was palpable.
