India’s latest association with Germany in the renewable sector spearheaded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to open up a host of new opportunities. Tapping into this potential, the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, has taken the relationship a step further by partnering with two premier German B-schools —the Friedrich Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg and the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS, Germany, to launch an innovative executive education programme International Management Programme for Technologists.

On this note, Madan Mohan Raj, chief programme officer, executive education programmes at IIM Bangalore shared details on the course.

Excerpts:

What inspired to come up with this executive education programme?

We wished to equip the technology leaders with concepts, tools and techniques to make sense of the global trends and the emerging market scenarios. Introduce them to the management responsibilities related to innovation strategy of the organisation. Educate them on the tools to manage product development cycle and to help build technology adaptation, adoption and innovation as organisational competencies.

How will the participants be benefited by the end of the course?

This will help the participants to become efficient enough to compete by using technology and work in cross functional, cross cultural and geographically distributed economies. It helps them leverage the benefits of open innovation in a sharing economy and promote entrepreneurship. The programme will be delivered using multiple learning methods like workshops, discussions, simulation exercises, site visits, and coaching from highly-rated professors, as well as business technology experts. Participants will get a window to fast-changing technologies and upcoming innovations, through site visits to Fraunhofer IIS.

How did the collaboration happen?

The Erlangen Nuremberg area in Germany is the origin of Industry 4.0, and is known for its manufacturing excellence. Bangalore is home to a vibrant technology start-up ecosystem and is widely considered to be the Silicon Valley of India. Therefore IMPT amalgamates essential elements of Indian and German technologies to deliver the competencies required for global business.

What will be the activities of the programme?

The programme inaugurates with the opening module at Germany, Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg and Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS, in November this year. This module comprises of academic sessions and R&D lab visits at FAU and Fraunhofer IIS. It also includes industrial and site visits at Fraunhofer IIS (one of the world’s leading application-oriented research institutions for microelectronic and IT system solutions and services).

The concluding module will be delivered at IIMB in January 2018. This comprises of academic sessions at IIM Bangalore and industrial visits at Bangalore