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CII Consulting Initiatives at IIM Lucknow In an information-driven economy, competitive advantage is derived from agility and the effective management of human knowledge capital. Small and Medium Enterprises are ideally placed in terms of flexibility and entrepreneurial benefits to succeed through a quick response strategy which is the need of the hour. Though their contribution to industrial growth and employment has been significant, these enterprises have traditionally been denied their due in an economy focusing on capital intensive industries. More importantly, traditional managerial thinking, dominated by the benefits of 'scale economies' has always ignored what is small. Popular perception about the crème de la crème of business education is that while students remain focused on high pay packages offered to them by blue chip companies, the faculty is interested in doing consultancy work only for the corporate giants. However, the Indian Institute of Management Lucknow in partnership with CII (Confederation of Indian Industries) has recently taken a significant step to change this view. The Consulting Club, IIM, Lucknow, has successfully launched the "CII Live Projects Initiative", with ten projects on stream for various Small and Medium Industries. The initiative that is the first of its kind across B-schools in India, has started a silent revolution, taking IIM Lucknow closer to their cherished dream of providing quality managerial inputs that benefit the society and the economy of the nation. The program was designed with two chief objectives in mind, the primary being to provide cost effective consulting services to small and medium enterprises in the country. These enterprises, which have a major stake in the economic development of India, rarely have access to good quality management advice. The second objective is to provide a consulting experience to the students, where by they can implement and test the management principles and tools that they have learnt during their stay here. According to the director of IIM Lucknow, Dr Pritam Singh, "Our institute has always had a larger goal in imparting education to our students. We are in the business of transforming and renaissance, not just knowledge alone. In this respect, the SMEs provide a source, which the students will be able to derive more expertise from. The SMEs present an ideal challenge for our students, as there is a paucity of resources at the disposal of these enterprises. In such a scenario, our students can act as agents of change and help these enterprises in their endeavors." Projects are allocated to student teams on the basis of proposals submitted to the concerned company. Proposals are expected to contain a complete analysis and implementation plan. Students have shown great enthusiasm to undertake projects spanning a variety of streams including Finance, Marketing, Operations, Human Resources and even business level strategy. Once assigned a project, a team works in close coordination with one or more faculty mentors who aid them in the execution of the projects. According to Mr. Dayal, whose firm, Dayal Fertilizers has commissioned a project in Marketing Strategy, "It is gratifying to see students from the elite IIMs taking the initiative to lend their abilities and expertise, that too without charging a fee. Their inputs offer a refreshingly fresh perspective. More power to such initiatives." Prompted by the interest shown by local entrepreneurs, the Consulting Club has launched the Local Business Empowerment program to provide consultancy services to small businesses. For students, the projects provide exciting prospect to see the practical application of theory, sometimes even improving on the existing body of knowledge. Not to mention the opportunity to contribute to the society. For Peeyush Mohit, who is working on production processes enhancement for a telecommunications equipment manufacturer, it is the sheer contribution to the grassroots that fires the imagination. "The unique feature of the live projects that we are working on is the impact that we see on the lives of those working at the SMEs. Suggesting methods that make their work that much more productive, and the consequent rise in their self-worth and remuneration is immensely fulfilling." The final word is gives by Dr. Pritam Singh, "There is a still larger perspective to this initiative in that we live in a world with a surfeit of problems, be it the environment, the task of population management or the core issues in governance. Our hope is that the students of IIM Lucknow will be able to gain the requisite wisdom from here to be able to confront these questions with answers that enrich the entire community." Contributed by: - |
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