The Indian Institute of Management Calcutta was established in 1961 by the Government of India in collaboration with the Alfred P.Sloan School of Management, MIT; The Ford Foundation and leading Indian business houses. Over the years, the Institute has developed into one of Asia’s finest management schools.

I am pleased to introduce to you a very innovative educational program specially designed for the Indian manufacturing sector and its associated sectors in the country. Leveraging on its long experience of providing high quality management education to practicing managers, IIM Calcutta in collaboration with IIT Kanpur and IIT Madras launched the one year full time residential Post Graduate Program for Executives for Visionary Leadership in Manufacturing (PGPEX-VLM) in August, 2007. The PGPEX-VLM Program was launched under the aegis of the Government of India’s National Manufacturing Competitive Council (NMCC) and the Ministry of Human Resource Development with the support of industry. The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) have provided us considerable support in launching this innovative program.

One of the distinctive features of the programme is the module on ‘Breakthrough Management’ and the ‘Five Step Discovery Process’ conducted by Padmashri Prof Shoji Shiba, who along with his colleagues at MIT, USA, had successfully developed the “Leaders for Manufacturing” program now known as MIT LGO. A world renowned management Guru, Prof. Shiba, has also been instrumental in starting the PGPEX-VLM programme. The Gurukul approach of this module lays the foundation of a change in the mindset of students and helps them transcend from being functional leaders to change leaders.

The class of 2017-18 (11th batch of 40 students with 5 female students and the average age of 28 years) has been selected on the basis of academic merit, experience and professional achievements, diversity and leadership potential through a rigorous admission process. The average professional experience of the class is about 5.9 years. The current batch of students worked in executive and managerial position in industries spanning a number of areas including Metal and Mining, Automobiles,FMCG, Heavy Machinery, Electrical Automation,Materials Handling, Energy, Power, Infrastructure, Operations,Supply Chain Management, Project Management, Automation, Planning and Quality Assurance.