The partnership between The Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore (IIM-B) and France’s Toulouse Business School (TBS) has contributed to professionalizing managerial talent in the Indian aerospace and commercial aviation sector through their management education programme.
Speaking at the international conference on ‘Future of Aviation & Aerospace, 2019’ held on Saturday, Dr Raghunath S, Professor from the Strategy area GMAE Director at IIMB, said, “The passion, creativity and interest that the institutions have in common to promote aviation knowledge and understanding has led to the celebration of thought leadership through the future of aviation conference.”
“The constant interactions has brought together key stake holders unravelling brighter possibilities and opportunities of India’s nascent aerospace and fast growing civil aviation sector,” he said.
The meet organised by IIM-B for the second consecutive year, which coincided with the premier aviation event Aero India, saw participation from aviation experts from across the world, executives from major airline companies, alumni of the General Management Programme for Aerospace Executives (GMAE) at IIM-B and the present batch of students of the programme.
There were panel discussions on various topics including, ‘Looking to India: Next Growth Opportunity, R&D in the Aviation Sector’, ‘Managing Talent in the Industry’, ‘Driving Real Insights Through AI, AM, IOT & Big Data’, ‘MRO – Opportunities/Challenges’ and ‘Redefining Customer Experience: Indian Market Opportunities’.
At the inauguration, IIM-B Director Prof G Raghuram, who sent his video message, highlighted the need to study the aviation value chain. “We need to encourage start-ups, and the right talent to bring in expertise to the aviation sector,” he said.
In his key note address, Ajay Mehra, Bombardier-Commercial Aircraft, said the sector faced the challenge of protectionism. “Along with protectionism, we face a key issue with manufacturing while there are large opportunities out there. We need to build on long-term institutional structures that will be implemented to address the cost issues in the sector.”
“We have signed a successful partnership with IIM-B, which has already witnessed 4 cohorts in the GMAE programme, forming a strong alumni network. Through this programme, we have successfully been able to cater to the skills that the industry requires, placing our students across leading players such as Etihad Airways, Jet Airways etc.,” said Professor Francois Bonvalet, Dean – TBS France.
Dr. Christophe Benaroya, from TBS France, spoke about the need to explore industry from a marketing perspective. He said, “As much as policies are important for the sector, it is equally important for our services to be more customer driven. The data derived from the services should be rightly shared across supply chain to understand industry trends.” He added that the industry required talent management and leadership skills, and emphasised the need to bring diversity across workforce.