This is, of course, not to say that these workshops are of no use. On the contrary, if properly conducted, these essentially brainstorming sessions do go a long way in brightening up the scene. They also come in useful in refreshing your knowledge base of the latest tools and techniques in communication, motivation and leadership.
Arindam Choudhuri is the newest kid on the workshop block. The leading light behind Planman Consulting and dean of the Centre for Economic Research and Advanced Studies at the Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM), Choudhuri conducts a two-day workshop on strategy and motivation.
Understanding global management cultures and stylesYou can attend only if you are managing director, president or vice-president of your company or a senior manager with strategic responsibilities and a minimum of five managers reporting to you. Planman also reserves the right to screen applications before accepting them.
Says Choudhuri, ``This stipulation might seem to be a little harsh, but we insist on the participation of the very top management as issues of vision, strategic management and long-term motivation can only happen at that level.''
Planman Consulting started its operations as an offshoot of IIPM, a couple of years ago. The manpower consulting division of Planman also provides staff consulting services. It also organises training and development through executive developmentworkshops for clients in various areas of management operations, including Business Policy and Strategic Management, Finance, Behavioural Sciences (executive communication, motivation and leadership skills), Operations Research and Organisational Development.
Apart from using the skills of IIPM's faculty in its consulting and training activities, Planman has recently coming out big on the Arindam Choudhuri workshops. Says Choudhuri, ``This was a natural outcome of our activities in manpower training. In conducting and attending various workshops and seminars, we realised that Indian corporates are wanting in evolving strategic vision and ways to motivate the people they are working with in order to realise the aims of the company.''
The insistence on the participation of the top management is due to the fact that Choudhuri feels this requires a basic attitudinal change that has to happen at the top to be really effective.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the workshop is the Personality Mirrordevised by Planman. ``Once we determine the personality type, it becomes possible to develop the special skills of particular types that can then be used to the maximum advantage,'' says Choudhuri.
For mid-level managers, Choudhuri recommends the part-time MBA course offered by IIPM. ``Unlike most others, this is an accelerated two-year course, and tailored to specifically fit the needs of a mid-level manager,'' says Choudhuri.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
Printer-friendly page
