As IGTC nears its 25 years of excellence, a lot of things have changed. But one thing that has not changed since inception, is the endeavour to give a new flavour to classroom learnings. To aid the same and as a highlight of the New Year, IGTC unfurls a lecture series on “Best Practices in German Organisations”. With real corporate stories coming straight from industry leaders now holding distinguished positions within their organisations, the series for Batch 2014 – 2016 has helped the students to connect classroom theories to real time industry practices.

Where books that stand tall on the library shelves speak volumes of knowledge, industry experts speak of applied knowledge.  This lecture series is therefore piloted by senior managers from our partnering training organisations to give the students a real-world view of Best Practices within different areas of an organisation.

The series is conducted over September and October 2015. Following are some of the key speakers:

Nurturing Talent for Leadership

Ms. Sujatha Patel, Senior Vice-President, Human Resources, ThyssenKrupp India

While most companies today wish to hire an individual for his/her core competency, there are a few who would also like to base their selection on moral values of the individual. A session on Moral Leadership was a complete eye-opener for the students. Ms. Sujata Patel brought back students’ attention to core values that drive individual decisions. The idea was communicated positively by pasting posters of famous leaders on the classroom walls, understanding and questioning leadership at workplace driven by a highly interactive session. The class was filled with positive energy to learn and lead in the future.

Supply Chain Management

Ms. Jane Nazareth, Head Logistics & Factory Supplies- South Asia Clusture, Siemens Ltd. and Alumni Batch 1996 – 1998

Industry today has experienced a great shift in product availability. With emphasis on building a strong SCM network, companies have gained an edge over others. Ms Jane Nazareth facilitated an engaging session that highlighted important factors in planning a supply chain route. She covered technical aspects such as capping the cost, geographies and concept of “TOCO” or Total Cost. She also described the need of shift from ‘price based’ to ‘value based’ buying mentality in SCM. She ended the session by educating the students on how to deal with uncertainties in SCM.

Sales Force Automation and Change Management

Mr. K.S. Harish, Country Group HR Head, South Asia, Bayer Group

Change is a given in any environment within which a company operates, in this session students learnt about how to leverage it for company’s best. Mr. Harish took the students through the Bayer Value Chain – from seed to harvest and made them revisit their childhood images of a farmer and a postman.  He conveyed that success depends upon developing new age competencies and that data synthesis is the step towards innovation and differentiation. He also put forth a viewpoint that biggest resistant to change are people but communication and building trust amongst them can facilitate it.

Organisational Excellence

Mr. Georg Sparschuh, President, SCHOTT Glass India

A session conducted by a German Speaker, was a different experience for the IGTCians. Having worked in German companies, in close association with structured German systems, Mr. Sparschuh’s session led the students by example. With his vast experience and enormous international exposure, he portrayed to the students a great example of excellence, hard work and dedication. Students appreciated his brilliant style of presenting the topic and enthusiasm with which he interacted with the entire class.

Careers in the General Insurance Industry

Mr. Saptarshi Bhattacharya, Head-Talent Acquisition & HR Analytics, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Company

The students were really impressed with Mr. Saptarshi’s presentation who was one of the youngest leader to address this lecture series. His session set the tone for industry expectations for a candidate in a General Insurance industry. His knowledge about the Insurance Sector was immense and was well received by the students.  He also played a video on how Bajaj Allianz made a difference to the lives of J&K flood victims in times of crisis and helped them to understand the importance of crisis management.

Role of Communication

Ms. Ramya Rajagopalan, Head Communications and Government Affairs, Siemens Ltd.

‘The communications team is the custodian of the reputation of the company’

Corporate Communications is a fairly nascent and comparatively lesser known function in the Indian industry. The students gained a lot of value and perspective about the function and its peculiarities from the interactive session.  The discussion on current brands in crisis as well as relation of campaigns such as ‘Customer First’ & ‘1:16’ which have been implemented at Siemens India Ltd. ensured the concepts were understood in a practical light. This synced well with the theoretical & practical method of learning at IGTC.

Excel based Data Processing and Analysis

Mr. Jaywant Yewale, Assistant Manager- MIS, B|Braun Medical India

The insights and expertise in the field of MIS and MS Excel helped the students get better knowledge of the field and broaden their horizon. The shortcuts as well as concepts of Filter, If, VLOOKUP and Pivot Table will aid them in their corporate life. The class unanimously appreciated the ease with which the concepts were explained and the simplicity in the manner it was delivered.

Compliance and Legal

Ms. Raelene Anto, Senior Manager, Law and Compliance, Bayer Group

Compliance, its importance, the pillars, potential risk factors and the legalities was explained through a case study which was an effective way to grasp these important concepts for the students. The learnings regarding compliance at our work place will guide the students to be successful and proficient professionals.

Talent Acquisition and Performance Appraisal

Mr. Rupesh Basu, Chief Manager – Human Resources, Siemens Ltd.

Performance Appraisal is an important aspect of one’s career. As the students gear up to join the corporate world, appraisals will be the basis of their progress as well as a gauge of their learning which was effectively highlighted by Mr. Rupesh Basu. He pointed out important aspects for a student such as need to know what to expect out of a review with your manager as it makes the objective clearer; career anchor exercise conducted gave the student a clearer picture of which functional department they are looking at. Mock interviews were conducted to gain a perspective on how to present and showcase one’s candidature. What the students learnt will go a long way not only in their present functional capacity but also when they conduct appraisals.

Sales and Marketing

Mr. Ankush Sane, Senior Manager, Sales and Marketing, Automotive Aftermarket, Bosch Limited

Mr. Yashovardhan Bichu, Territory Manager, Sales and Marketing, Automotive Aftermarket, Bosch Limited and Alumni Batch 2011 – 2013

Bosch values, ethics and work culture were seamlessly explained by means of various real life case studies. The Bosch Distribution Model and its functioning at Pan India level was extremely interesting for the students to understand. The encouragement and education given to new employees as well customers (both distributors and retailers) with the Sales Force Academy and with effective online tools respectively was outstanding. As stated by the German Chancellor Ms. Angela Merkel: ‘Researchers here in Germany are probably wonderful and great, but those in India are quite creative and innovative.’ This fascinates the students to look forward to Bosch Limited as the most admired company in India.

“The ‘Best Practices Series in German Organisations’ has been the most interactive sessions at IGTC. We got an opportunity to listen to industry experts about real life examples in their organisations and how they dealt with crisis situations. It was also inspiring to see how leaders have paved their way in the industry. We are thankful to the management at IGTC and industry speakers for their insights.”

– Aakanksha Varude, trainee with Bosch Automotive Electronics India

“The series was truly an enlightening one. It gave us the knowledge and exposure of the key people in various industries. An important insight which we got from the series is that many companies are proactively driving change management in their organisation. To be the best in the organisation today, one need to create a sound strategy. We need to focus, create value, and develop a vision and mission with core values in place. There is a lot of focus on working in synchronization and building interpersonal skills. In a nutshell, we have learnt a lot and are now inspired to lead.”

– Richa, trainee with SCHOTT Glass India