Stepping into corporate shoes

Mou Chakraborty
Kolkata, June 10, 2007
With armed forces personnel deciding to become managers, corporate houses are falling over themselves trying to recruit them.
This is the case with the 72 officers who are into their second month of their “24-week Management Programme for Officers from Armed Forces” at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Calcutta.
A $2 billion business house from the Middle East — Sharaf Group — on Thursday picked up 7 officers, who are doing the course. They will be flying to Dubai on July 16 for a 3-week project, after which the company will make their final offer. “It seems that recruiters cannot wait for the course to get over. On the third day of the programme, Sharaf Group approached us for recruitments. There are many more companies which are coming for recruitment,” said Prafulla Agnihotri, one of the directors of this course at IIM-C.
But what is the main point of attraction for recruiters to pick up the officers even before their course is over? “People from the armed forces are dedicated, have lots of motivation and discipline. And these are the qualities, which are lacking in the corporate world. They already have good work experience and clubbed with the IIMC training and their hard-to-crack attitude, it is a combination which every company aspires to,” said Kamal Grover, HR head of Sharaf Group. Those who are finally recruited will be placed in either Dubai or Malaysia.
The lateral placements are scheduled to be conducted by July and August. The pre-placement talks and the initial placements for projects are scheduled to be conducted before July 10. There are many more companies such as Tech Mahindra, Mahindra SSG and Cadilla Pharmaceuticals that are lining up for recruitment. The institute is expecting other big recruiters — Aditya Birla Group, Infosys, Satyam, Wipro and ICICI Bank — to turn up for recruitment.
The officers are more than happy. “We never expected to receive placement offers even before our course started properly. This shows the credibility of the Indian armed forces. The companies are hiring us not only for our experience but also because of the time which we had spent in the armed forces and acquired certain skills. They know we are dependable and highly result-oriented,” said Major Biju Balakrishnan, who had retired from the army last year and is currently doing the course.
The officers getting trained at this residential programme are a mixture of engineers, human resource department officials, logistics managers, supply-chain managers and people with various other work profiles in the armed force. “They have enough experience. This course is giving them the theoretical knowledge, familiarising themselves with management jargon and is also equipping them to plan strategy. We want them to complete a portion of their training before they take the next round of campus interviews,” said Agnihotri.
Though the final offers are yet to be made, the officers are assured of a fat pay packet. “The exposure given to us by this course will take us places. The armed forces recruit the most talented people in the country and the IIMC is one of the premier management institutes of India. And since we have been picked up by both at one stage of our life, we feel we have the attitude and the knowledge to make it big in the corporate world,” said Balakrishnan.
mou.hindustantimes@yahoo.com