India Manufacturing Talk

Visionary Leaders for Manufacturing

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• Author: Nikhil
• October 10, 2008
• Category: Goverment Policy, Industry News

A recent press release from the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) announced the launch of a pilot programme – designed under the CII Mission for Manufacturing Innovation – to develop Visionary Leadership in the SME segment.  Citing figures of 14% growth in the Indian manufacturing industry and the need to sustain this growth, the report states that Indian manufacturing needs transformation through policy changes, infrastructure development and a strong thrust on building competitiveness.  An important aspect of developing competitiveness is the development of a set of Visionary Leaders capabale of Innovation and Breakthrough Thinking that will result in future concepts and products and in the process transform the Indian Manufacturing Industry.

The Visionary Leaders for Manufacturing (VLFM) Programme as it is called is focused on meeting this requirement by developing at least 200-250 Visionary Leaders in India in the next two years. It is designed to be the most advanced and innovative management education system especially devised for creating the future leadership. The VLFM is a national programme to develop Leaders in Manufacturing under the Indo-Japan Cooperation Agreement 2006, signed by the Prime Ministers of India and Japan. It is a partnership between the Indian Industry, Academia, the Indian and the Japanese Government. The collaborating institutions include:

* National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council, Government of India
* Japan International Co operation Agency, Japan
* Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India
* Confederation of Indian Industry
* Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur
* Indian Institute of Technology, Madras
* Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta
* Japan External Trade Organisation, Japan
* The Association for Overseas Technical Scholarship, Japan

The faculty for the programme includes Chief Advisor, Professor Shoji Shiba – an international expert in TQM and Breakthrough management, industrial experts in the form of Visionary CEO’s and experts from Deming and TPM awarded companies and leading faculty from IIT Kanpur, IIT Madras, IIM, Calcutta and CII counselors.  Prof Shiba is Professor Emeritus, University of Tsukuba, Japan and Advisory Professor, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China. He was also the Adjunct and Visiting Professor at MIT from 1990 to 2004. In 2002, he was awarded the Deming Prize for Individuals and was nominated as a member of the International Academy for Quality in 2003. For his contribution of over two decades, the President of the Republic of Hungary conferred upon him in 2006, the Grand Cross Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary, the highest decoration for a foreigner.

The programme has five modules – each being of three days duration – covering philosophy, innovative product/business development, operations, and marketing strengths. The first module was held at the CII Naoroji Godrej Center of Excellence in Mumbai from September 26 – 28, 2008. Two mentors from the academia and five from the industry spent these three days with participating SMEs helping them define their goals and build a road map to achieving these goals.

Having joined the VLFM Community, the participating SME’s have access to a pool of over 150 VLFM practitioners created over the last one year. Members of the VLFM Community follow a give-give philosophy and are committed to transforming India’s manufacturing sector. For example, the alumni of the VLFM Programme have already started diffusing their learnings within their organisations and amongst their suppliers, expanding the VLFM community and benefiting a larger number of organizations.

It is hoped that the VLFM programme will have the same effect as the now successful CII Cluster Programme which resulted in companies like Sona Koyo transforming themselves into world class organisations. Speaking on the occasion,  Prof. Shoji Shiba who has decided to participate in the transformation of Indian Manufacturing towards becoming more competitive and to create a unique ‘Indian Way’, said:

“Normally, when we are creating history we do not realize it.
This is a day when the Indian industry, academia and the government
have shaken hands for the development of the nation.”

Four different courses are being planned under the VLFM Program  to meet the needs of a cross section of the manufacturing industry:

1. Programme for Visionary CEOs in Manufacturing
2. Programme for Visionary Corporate Leaders in Manufacturing
3. Programme for Visionary Managers in Manufacturing
4. Programme for Visionary Entrepreneurs from Small and Medium Enterprises

These programmes are being designed based on the results of a nationwide survey conducted by CII under the aegis of the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council (NMCC).

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