Visionary Leaders of Manufacturing Programme

National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council

Visionary Leaders for Manufacturing Programme (VLMP)

Introduction

While India’s manufacturing sector contributes to more than 75% of India’s total exports, it comprises only about 17% of India’s GDP as compared to the higher contribution made by the manufacturing sector of East Asian economies e.g., China (35%) and Thailand (34%). To match these levels, India will have to enhance its productivity and competitiveness through development of Visionary Leaders capable of Breakthrough Thinking and envisioning future concepts, trends and business, thereby transforming the Indian manufacturing industry. The National Strategy for Manufacturing (NSM) of NMCC has therefore recommended development of leaders for the manufacturing industries:

“In India there is an urgent need for more leaders in manufacturing industries at this juncture. In order to enable development of leaders, special programmes are conducted in the higher learning institutions abroad. It is necessary for Government to encourage some of the premier technical institutions like the Indian Institutes of Management and the Indian Institutes of Technology to collaborate with such institutions and conduct similar programmes in India for developing leadership in the manufacturing industry. The programmes could be designed as a public/private initiative” (Para 4.4.2 – NSM).

Accordingly, VLMP has been developed by NMCC in collaboration with MHRD, IITs, IIMs and CII as a flagship programme to develop Leaders in Manufacturing under the Indo-Japan Cooperation Agreement 2006, signed by Honb’le Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India and His Excellency Mr. Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister of Japan, in December 2006. The VLMP consists of four courses:

.	Opportunity ‘A’: Programme for Visionary Managers in Manufacturing
.	Opportunity ‘B’: Programme for Visionary Executives in Manufacturing
.	Opportunity ‘C’: Programme for Visionary CEOs in Manufacturing
.	Opportunity ‘D’: Programme for Visionary Entrepreneurs from SMEs

The Stakeholders

The Indian side has four entities cooperating for the implementation and sustenance of this programme:


1.	Government of India	.	National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council
2.	Academia	.	Ministry of HRD
3.	Confederation of Indian Industry	.	Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur
		.	Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta
		.	Indian Institute of Technology, Madras
4.	Confederation of Indian Industry	.	Manufacturing Innovation Mission
5.	Indian Industry

From Japanese side, JICA is playing a key role in setting up a framework for implementing the project. Professor Shoji Shiba is a Member of the NMCC Apex Committee on VLMP, who is also JICA Advisor for the programme. NMCC is the coordinating agency for the entire VLMP.

Benefits

This programme aims at

a.	Creating a critical mass of 300 visionary leaders who will transform the Indian manufacturing industry from traditional way to the most advanced way.
b.	Creating a strong partnership between industry and the academia, especially with the Indian Institutes of Technology and the Indian Institutes of Management through cutting edge research and development based on current urgent needs of the manufacturing industry in India.
c.	Providing an opportunity to learn directly from Japanese Experts.
d.	Transferring ‘Best Practices’ from Japanese Manufacturing Industry to India
e.	Sensitizing the CEOs/MDs of Manufacturing Companies and MSME Entrepreneurs on the need for investing in their people.
f.	Assuring quality of the programme.

Important Milestones in the Development of the Programme

In the 5th Meeting of the NMCC held on 05.04.2006, Prof. Shoji Shiba made a presentation to the Members of the Council. Prof. Shiba, an International Expert on Breakthrough Management and Total Quality Management, has had a long time association with the Manufacturing sector from the Indian Industry. It was decided that Dr. Surinder Kapur, Member NMCC along with CII can take the initiative and a meeting can be fixed between Director, IIT Madras and Director IIM Calcutta to work out the programme leading to the Development of Manufacturing/Innovation Centre.

A meeting was held on 14.4.2006 in CII with Prof. Shoji Shiba to discuss the design of the ‘Leaders for the Manufacturing Programme’ in which Dr. Surinder Kapur, Prof. Shekhar Chaudhuri, Director IIM Calcutta and Mr. Rajeev Ranjan, Joint Secretary, NMCC participated. It was decided that a draft paper was to be prepared and discussed with the Directors of IIM/IIT and NMCC for further action. A Core Group was formed comprising of representatives from IIT Kanpur and Madras/IIM Calcutta/CII and after detailed interactions a draft plan was prepared.

This issue was further discussed by Chairman, NMCC with Prof. Shoji Shiba on 22.9.2006 and again on 26.9.2006 in which Dr. Surinder Kapur, Mr. Satish Kaura, Mr. Ravi Mathur, Joint Secretary, Ministry of HRD also participated. It was decided to call a formal meeting of the concerned Directors of IITs/IIM and CII to sort out the issues and evolve a plan of action for the operationalisation of the VLMP.

Chairman, NMCC took a meeting accordingly on 24.10.06 with all the concerned stakeholders in which following course of action was decided:

a.	An Apex Committee may be constituted with Chairman, NMCC as the Chairman and with appropriate membership.
b.	A Sub-Committee may be formed which will thrash out details on various aspects of the programme before putting up to the Apex Committee. Member Secretary, NMCC would convene the meetings of the Sub-Committee as necessary.
c.	Before the Sub-Committee can meet the academic experts would sit together and prepare an Action Plan including suggested course content by 10th November, 2006. CII would also be involved for their inputs. This meeting would be at Kolkata.
d.	This draft plan would be shared with NMCC by 11th November, 2006. NMCC would discuss with Prof. Shoji Shiba who is expected to be in Delhi on 12th /13th November, 2006. The Sub-Committee meeting would be fixed soon thereafter.
e.	The Action Plan should be so designed as to enable starting of the first programme by 1st August, 2007. It should include orientation workshop for the faculty scheduled sometime in December, 2006.

Based on the discussions at NMCC on 24.10.2006, two days meeting at IIM Calcutta was held on 7th and 8th November, 2006 where five faculty members from IIT Kanpur and two from IIT Madras along with several faculty members from IIM Calcutta participated to design the curriculum of the proposed ‘Visionary Leaders for Manufacturing Programme’. The new curriculum has been worked out in line with the academic strength of IITs/IIMs. The duration of the programme is one year with 960 hours of work involved, which is almost like the regular one year diploma programme conducted for PG students.

10.

A further meeting was taken by Chairman, NMCC on 13.11.2006 with Prof. Shoji Shiba and Dr. Surinder Kapur, Member NMCC based on the tentative alternative programme indicated by the institutes. Prof. Shoji Shiba mentioned that there is requirement to look at the customer needs before finalising any curriculum.

11.

After detailed discussions in the 2nd Meeting of the Empowered Sub-Committee of HLCM held on 27th November 2006, the proposal for starting the VLMP and constitution of an Apex Committee was approved. Accordingly, an Apex Committee was constituted by NMCC on 30th November, 2006 with Chairman, NMCC as the Chairman and membership as per Annexure-I.

12.

Another round of discussion was held on 05.12.2006 by the Member Secretary, NMCC with Prof Shoji Shiba and Mrs. Sarita Nagpal, CII at NMCC in which a questionnaire on Nation Wide Survey about Feasibility of the Visionary Leaders for Manufacturing Programme (VLMP) in Indian Manufacturing context prepared by Prof. Shiba in consultation with CII was discussed. It was decided that the questionnaire would be sent by CII to the CEOs/MDs of at least 100 Companies in manufacturing sector on behalf of NMCC. Prof. Shiba has also interacted with the faculty members from IIT Kanpur, IIT Madras, IIM Kolkata and Officials from CII, MHRD and NMCC to gather as much inputs as possible before finalization of the VLMP.

13.

The First Meeting of the Apex Committee on VLMP was held on 16.12.2006 at NMCC under the Chairmanship of the Chairman, NMCC. Prof. Shoji Shiba gave a detailed presentation based on the questionnaire survey and industry/Institute meetings at IIT Kanpur on December 7, 2006, IIT Madras on December 14, 2006 and IIM Calcutta on December 15, 2006. It was mentioned that there are different urgent felt needs of the Indian manufacturing industry which would require varied solutions. Four opportunities ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’ and ‘D’ as outlined in Annexure-II were identified for implementation.

1.	Opportunity A (to be implemented by CII) was identified to develop skills to implement contemporary manufacturing management practices comprising of five modules of one week each spread over nine months. This would meet the expectations of building senior managers from large and medium companies into future leaders.
2.	Opportunity B (to be implemented by IIT Kanpur) was identified to develop next generation of manufacturing leaders through a one year residential programme to be run in an academic environment and targeting middle/junior managers for developing them as future leaders.
3.	Opportunity C (to be implemented by NMCC) would have the objective to develop capability to transfer present business from a future perspective. This programme would be held over a period of four days at an outside location providing holistic inputs for CEO’s/MD’s and senior Managers from large and medium companies.
4.	Opportunity D (to be implemented by IIM Calcutta) would be developed for meeting all the above objectives i.e. develop management competence in the SME’s for meeting growth & globalization requirements.

14.

Chairman, NMCC assured the full support of the NMCC to start the VLMP as per schedule. The Apex Committee after detailed discussion decided as follows:

a)	To implement all the four opportunities simultaneously as they are all important to take care of the felt needs of the manufacturing sector in India.
b)	The nodal responsibility for finalising the programme after taking suitable inputs would rest for programme ‘A’ with CII, ‘B’ with IIT Kanpur ‘C’ with the NMCC and ‘D’ with IIM Calcutta.
c)	Next meeting of the Apex Committee will be held by the end January, 2007/beginning of February, 2007 to finalise the detailed implementation Plan so that the programmes can be started by the middle of 2007.

15.

In pursuance of the decisions taken in the first meeting of the Apex Committee on VLMP, two rounds of discussions have been held on 28.12.2006 and 23.01.2007 at NMCC with the stakeholders from IIT, IIM, MHRD, JICA and CII under the chairmanship of the Member Secretary, NMCC to prepare a blueprint of the entire VLMP in each of the Opportunities ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’ and ‘D’ and its operational plans so that a complete project proposal can be submitted to JICA for necessary Japanese aid through proper diplomatic channel. This will be an addendum to the proposal already submitted by MHRD for originally envisaged VLMP. The funding requirement for the project has been worked out by the academic experts from IIT and IIM which will be placed before the Apex Committee on VLMP for approval.

16.

The second meeting of the Apex Committee on VLMP was held on 09.02.2007 at NMCC under the Chairmanship of Chairman, NMCC to consider operationalisation of all the four opportunities of VLMP and its funding/financial requirements. The Apex Committee after detailed discussion decided, among others, as follows:

.	Opportunities ‘A’ and ‘B’ to start in July/August 2007.
.	Visionary Leaders Transformation Camp under Opportunity ‘C’ will be held in October 2007.
.	The VLMP Opportunity to be finalized quickly.
.	A sub-committee to be constituted comprising of representatives of the NMCC, Ministry of HRD and the Institutions to work out full details of all the four programmes including financials. Shri Rajeev Ranjan, Chief (Joint Secretary) will take urgent action to coordinate this work.
.	The project proposal to JICA should be completed and sent well in advance of the March 2007 Mission.

17.

A meeting was held by the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister on Indo-Japan HRD Cooperation on 6th Feb 2007 in which discussions were held on Japanese assistance for VLMP. Member Secretary, NMCC participated in the meeting.

18.

An interview was held on 15th Feb 2007 between Member Secretary, NMCC and Mr. Motoi Kusaka, Chief Editor, International Development Journal of Japan to cover Visionary Leaders for Manufacturing Programme (VLMP) in the journal. Prof. Shoji Shiba and Representatives from JICA and CII also participated in the meeting.

19.

A meeting was also held in MHRD by Secretary, Education on VLMP on 20th February 2007 to review the various aspects of VLMP Programme B. It was decided to form a task force committee for speedy and successful implementation of opportunity B. The Meeting was attended by Prof. S.G. Dhande, Director, IIT, Kanpur; Prof. A.K. Pal, Acting Director, IIM Calcuatta; Prof. M.N. Pal, IIM Calcutta; Prof. T.T. Naredran, IIT, Madras; Shri Rajeev Ranjan, Joint Secretary, NMCC; Shri Ravi Mathur, Joint Secretary, Min. of HRD and Ms Seema Raj, Director, Ministry of HRD.

20.

As per the decision of the 2nd meeting of the Apex Committee, a completely revised proposal as an addendum to the earlier one sent by MHRD has been sent by NMCC on 23rd Feb 2007 to DEA with copies to the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and MHRD for providing technical support to the VLMP. In the proposal, the scope of the programme as approved by the NMCC Apex Committee on VLMP has been broadened to cover four opportunities ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’ and ‘D’ meant for different target groups.

21.

The HRD review meeting decided as follows:

.	For speedy and successful implementation of the Opportunity –B of the VLMP, a task force committee has been formed with Prof. S.G. Dhande, Director IIT Kanpur as Chairman and Shri. Rajeev Ranjan, Joint Secretary, NMCC as Member Secretary along with 3 other members viz. Prof. Shekhar Choudhary, Director, IIM Calcutta, Prof. M.S. Ananth, Director, IIT Madras and Shri. Ravi Mathur, JS, MHRD respectively. The committee also includes 3 permanent special invitees viz. Prof. Ashok Mittal, IIT Kanpur, Prof. M.N. Pal, IIM Calcutta and Prof. T.T. Narendran, IIT Madras.

.	The Task Force Committee (TFC) would formulate a Detailed Project Report (DPR) outlining the objectives, organizational details, cost estimates etc. to the MHRD and the NMCC.

.	The Pilot Phase of the Opportunity - B programme for a group of 30 participants would be starting from August 2007.

.	The Pilot phase will be executed collectively by the IITs (Kanpur & Madras) and the IIM Calcutta.

.	For hosting the modules (of 4 weeks or 9 weeks) of the Programme, the institutes would reach a consensus for sharing facilities based on the availability of infrastructure, etc.

.	On successful completion of the Pilot phase of the VLFM programme, the MHRD would consider release of Plan grants to the Institutes.

.	The recurring expenditure (excluding industry visits in India & Abroad and the board and lodge charges) of the programme would be met from the fees collected from the participants.

22.

Advertisement with programme details for the VLMP Opportunity ‘A’ has already been released for sending nominations to CII by 31st March 2007. Advertisement for Opportunity ‘B’ is under preparation by IIT Kanpur and IIM Kolkata which is expected to be released in April, 2007. Similar action will be taken in respect of other programmes in due course.

Contact Details of Administrative Organizations:

Opportunity ‘A’: CII

.	Place	:	Mumbai
.	Address	:	CII Nooroji Godrej Centre of Excellence, Godrej, Station- Side Colony, Opp. Railway Station, Vikhroli ( East) Mumbai-400079
.	Tel. Number	:	(022) 25745146 Fax : (022) 25743361
.	Name	:	S D Puranik, Executive Director
.	Email	:	s.d.puranik@ciionline.org/ciicoe@vsnl.net
.	Home page	:	www.ciionline.org
.	Contact address	:	S D Puranik, Executive Director

24.

Opportunity ‘B’: IIT Kanpur, IIT Madras & IIM Kolkata

.	Place	:	Kanpur
.	Address	:	Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur- 208016
.	Tel. Number	:	Fax :
.	Name	:	Prof. Sanjay G. Dhande, Director
.	Email	:	director@iitk.as.in, sgd@iitk.ac.in
.	Home page	:	www.iitk.ac.in
.	Contact address	:	Prof. Sanjay G. Dhande, Director

25.

Opportunity ‘C’: NMCC

.	Place	:	New Delhi
.	Address	:	National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council, Vigyan Bhavan Annexe, Maulana Azad Road, New Delhi-110011
.	Tel. Number	:	(011) 23022530 Fax : (011) 23022531
.	Name	:	Shri Gaurav Dave, Joint Secretary/Chief
.	Email	:	dave.gaurav@nic.in
.	Home page	:	www.nmcc.nic.in
.	Contact address	:	Shri Gaurav Dave, Joint Secretary/Chief

26.

Opportunity ‘D’: IIM Kolkata

.	Place	:	Kolkata
.	Address	:	Indian Institute of Management, Diamond Harbour Road, P.O. Joka, Kolkata-700014
.	Tel. Number	:	(033) 24678310 Fax : (033) 24678307
.	Name	:	Prof. Shekhar Chaudhuri, Director
.	Email	:	director@iimcal.ac.in
.	Home page	:	www.iimcal.ac.in
.	Contact address	:	Prof. Shekhar Chaudhuri, Director

ANNEXURE-I

APEX COMMITTEE FOR THE

‘VISIONARY LEADERS FOR MANUFACTURING PROGRAMME’

1.	Dr. V. Krishnamurthy, Chairman, NMCC	-	Chairman
2.	Shri V. Govindarajan, Member Secretary, NMCC	-	Member
3.	Shri R.P. Agrawal, Secretary, Deptt. of Secondary & Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resources Development/Shri Ravi Mathur, Joint Secretary	-	Member
4.	Prof. Shekhar Chaudhari, Director, IIM Calcutta, Member, NMCC	-	Member
5.	Prof. Sanjay G. Dhande, Director, IIT Kanpur	-	Member
6.	Prof. Shoji Shiba, JICA Expert, Japan	-	Member
7.	Shri Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII	-	Member

ANNEXURE-II

Outline of the Four VLFM Opportunities

	Target
	Function	Size
		L	M	S
C	CEO/MD/Senior Manager
A	Senior Manager
B	Middle/Junior
D	Manager



Objective
To develop capability to transfer present business from a future perspective
To develop skills to implement contemporary manufacturing practices immediately
To develop next generation of manufacturing leaders
(To support development of small scale companies through upgradation of manager's skills)



Process
. Four days at out location . Mutual learning .Holistic inpur
. Five modules of one week each . Skill based training . Contemporary manufacturing practices
. One year residential program . Academic institute environment . Structured Exposure.Familiarity, Mastery approach
(will be determined)

Type	Objective	Target Customer	Process
C	Transformation of the top managers to develop capability to see the present from a dear future perspective of their business	Top manager from larger/Medium sized companies having a minimum 15-25 years of work experience in manufacturing	A four day program at an outside location where an individual connects with his/her inner self through mutual group learning from holistic inputs.
A	To develop senior managers to practice contemporary manufacturing practices through skill based training methodology for immediate implementation	Senior managers from Middle/Small sized companies having a minimum 5-10 years work experience in manufacturing.	A five module course of one week each that focus on contemporary manufacturing practices through a skill based learning methodology supported by industry visits and diagnosis.
B	To develop next generation of manufacturing leaders through a structured one year full time residential academic course that teach intellectual assets of manufacturing	Junior & Middle managers from Large/Medium sized companies having a minimum 5 years experience in manufacturing.	A one year residential program, having structured pedagogical approach of lecture & case discussions supported by academic institute environment.
D	To support development of small scale companies through upgradation of manager's skill	Top managers and managers from small scale companies.	will be determined later.

AN UPDATE ON

VISIONARY LEADERS FOR MANUFACTURING (VLFM) PROGRAMME

The Visionary Leaders for Manufacturing (VLFM) Programme aims at creating visionary leader at the level of senior and middle management of large and medium companies in the Indian manufacturing industry by establishing an advanced and innovative education and training programme with the technical assistance of JICA as one of the initiative of Indi-Japan Cooperation in the field of “Human Resource Development” as agreed during the visit of Hon’ble Prime Minister to Japan from 13^th to 16^th December, 2006. This is in the first ever unique programme jointly run by the Government, Private and academia. Three Apex institutes are jointly running this programme along with CII and JICA. The programme consists of following four opportunities:

(i) Opportunity ‘A’ - Programme for Visionary Corporate Leaders in Manufacturing: The objective of this Programme is to develop senior managers to practice contemporary manufacturing practices through skill based training methodology for immediate implementation. The Programme targets senior managers from middle/small size companies having a minimum 5 to 10 years work experience in manufacturing. For this Opportunity a facility has been set up (at CII Naoroji Godrej Centre of Excellence in Mumbai) for Concept Engineering Lab and conducting classes.

Other Japanese experts visited for interaction with participants to provide an opportunity to absorb the expertise relating to the manufacturing leadership in Japan and transfer best practices from Japanese manufacturing industry to Indian industry. On completion of the training programme for the 1st batch the training programme for the 2nd batch commenced on 26^th July, 2008 for which the response from the industry has been very good.

(ii) Opportunity ‘B’ - Programme for Visionary Executives in Manufacturing: The Opportunity ‘B’ is with the object of developing next generation manufacturing leaders through a structured one year full time residential academic course. The Opportunity targets at junior and middle managers from large/medium size companies having a minimum 5 years experience in manufacturing. The curriculum of modalities of this Programme has been jointly designed by the IIM Calcutta, IIT Kanpur and IIT Madras in collaboration with CII and JICA. The Programme started at IIM Calcutta on 27.08.2007. Prof. Shoji Shiba and other experts from Japan had been visiting for interaction with the participants. The programme concluded in August, 2008 with the award of PGPEX-VLM Diploma. Efforts were made by the NMCC for placement of the students to some of the best manufacturing industries. All 28 students have been successfully placed with the industry with substantial increase in their emoluments. 2^nd batch of the programme has started in August/September, 2008.

(iii) Opportunity ‘C’: The Opportunity ‘C’ is 4 day programme to be designed for CEOs of manufacturing sector for creating innovative leaders. The detailed design of the programme is being worked out by the Indian industry with resource persons of Japan and Indian premier academic institutions like IITs and IIMs.

(iv) Opportunity ‘D’:

· The Visionary Small & Medium Enterprise Programme (VSME) which is Opportunity ‘D’ of VLFM targets potential SMEs to make them world class ‘Locomotive’ SMEs. This is a unique programme to identify early competence to be nurtured with collaborative support system of the Government, Academia and the Industry. The companies and business to be targeted under the VSME programme are basically the mid-size companies and businesses with good growth features for their further accelerated growth to become World-Class competitive companies. As the main focus is on competence with global benchmark, identification of such SMEs will be done in a very careful, well-judged manner using the pull system as against the normal bottom-up approach.

· The programme consists of 5 Modules. Prof. Shiba is coordinating all the modules, apart from the involvement of NMCC, CII, IIT Kanpur, IIT Madras, IIM Calcutta and EDI, Ahmedabad. A new idea of “MENTORING” the selected companies for their growth has been advocated in this programme. At the end of the programme an award/certificate will be given to the participants.

· For the first batch the participating companies were selected on the basis of following criteria:

(i) Company’s philosophy

(ii) Their size/turnover

(iii) Market share

(iv) Number of patents

(v) R&D Budget.

· In the first batch three companies have been selected. From each of the selected company, there were 2 participants for the programme, out of which one was the CEO or the owner of the company and the second one the highest employee or executive of the company which could also be the son of the owner or the CEO.

Learning Convention

Learning Convention of the learning community of VLFM for creating heritage was held on 13^th February, 2009 in Delhi. The learning community comprised of the Directors of IIM Calcutta, IIT Madras, IIK Kanpur and their faculty and coordinating teams, participants, alumni, CEOs of participating companies, participants and their immediate bosses, faculty from industry, PSUs, Prof. Shoji Shiba and his team, senior officers of CII, NMCC, JICA & Embassy of Japan, Ministry of HRD and MEA. During the convention an exhibition was also organized on breakthrough in internship, teaching and business.