UK students visit India for study excursion

As a part of their Global Business Experience (GBE), the students of London Business School tried to understand business profile and functioning of companies in Aurangabad and Mumbai. Globalisation has brought together countries and its businesses under one dynamic roof. As a result MBA graduates, who will eventually drive companies towards profits, need to get an overall understanding of the economic world around them.

Keeping this in mind, three years ago, the London Business School (LBS), introduced Global Business Experience (GBE) in their curriculum. Under the GBE, students take a week-long learning trip to a country which is an emerging economy. “Faculty chooses the country of visit, from the point-of-view of the economic interest it will bring to the students’ academic understanding. Companies to visit are chosen based on the theme of the trip,” explained Madan Pillutla, Professor, LBS, who accompanied a team of 80 students to India. This year’s theme was Innovation and change.

In the first half of their trip, students visited Aurangabad-based Sterlite Technologies, a company that develops and delivers products, solutions and infrastructure for telecom and power transmission networks, globally. According to Pillutla, witnessing a manufacturing unit in a Tier – II town of India was an ideal example of the progress the country has made over the years. “Most of our students are aware of the metros like Mumbai and Bangalore, which are finance and IT hubs respectively. However, to witness a business of global stature in Aurangabad was certainly an enlightening highlight of the trip,” he stated.

The professor’s sentiments were shared by his students. “The tour of the facility was valuable and getting to know the business operations in depth was a revelation. I was surprised to see this kind of cutting edge innovation come out of India, that too, based out of a remote area like Aurangabad,” said Christina Brigati, a New Yorker who studies at LBS.

Another student Adam William Hearne, who is originally from Brisbane said, “The facility is of another level and I am glad that the leadership team interacted with us and shared their future plans. The capability and the level of professionalism were praiseworthy. I believe working here would be a great experience.”

Based on their interaction with the personnel, students are open to take up case studies and projects with the company at a later stage of their course. For Switzerland’s Manuel Anmasohn, “It was great to witness a part of India that is truly different. The peek into the facility and the labs left us asking for more. I would like to hop on board with this amazing organisation and be a part of this dream.”

Though they have had students from Indian B-schools coming to them for project inputs and visits, it was for the first time Sterlite Technologies hosted a class of this size at their commercial campus. “It was a two-way learning process. Intelligent questions posed by the LBS students to us, did give us certain points which may make us rethink our strategy in a few areas of business,” mentioned Anand Agarwal, CEO, Sterlite Technologies.

In the second half of the visit the students headed to Mumbai, for a meeting with Tata Group personnel to understand about innovation followed by the famous ‘Mumbai Dabbawala’ to understand the complex nature of handling logistics flawlessly.