The Hindu Business Line : Govt ropes in IITs, IIMs for visionary leaders programme

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New Delhi Feb. 15 To think big, develop visionary leaders first. This seems to be the message from the Government to the country's manufacturing sector.

The National Manufacturing Competitiveness Commission (NMCC) has roped in IITs and IIMs, in collaboration with the CII and a Japanese Total Quality Management exponent, for designing an 18-month `Visionary Leaders for Manufacturing' programme for mid-level managers.

The Tata Group, the TVS Group, Sona Koyo and Ashok Leyland are among manufacturing sector majors that have pledged their support for the programme.

"The NMCC is looking at various ways to improve manufacturing competitiveness at various levels," Mr V. Govindarajan, Member Secretary, NMCC, told Business Line.

"This initiative will help us improve competitiveness at the firm level, which is the most basic."

The programme, which is loosely modelled on the `Leaders for Manufacturing' programme offered at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is expected to kick off later this year, starting with courses at IIT Kanpur and IIM Kolkata.

Some 50 mid-level managers from manufacturing companies will go through intensive training at these two institutes in the first round, combined with breaks to implement the learning at their place of work.

The aim is to produce about 250 visionary leaders across the manufacturing space in three years through a skill-based training system.

In all, about seven two-week modules will be interspersed with six weeks of practice sessions, when the executives return to their respective companies to put into practice whatever they have learnt at school, before they return for the next module.

The programmes would focus on encouraging the managers to think out-of-the-box, especially with respect to creating new business opportunities.