Indian Railways project: training on the right track

The journey that Indian Railways and SDA Bocconi started together four years ago has reached yet another stage, adding another important result to a profitable collaboration in terms of training and managerial innovation. SDA Bocconi welcomed the Divisional Railway Managers from Indian Railways, who attended the Indian Railways Leadership Program, a tailor-made executive education journey designed by SDA Bocconi.

About 30 Divisional Railway Managers from Indian Railways were involved in a very active and challenging learning experience, based on company visits across Italy, guest speakers’ lectures, face-to-face training, case study analysis, and discussion. The training course was designed, organized, and fine-tuned according to the specific needs of Indian Railways, it was led by SDA Bocconi’s senior faculty, and it offered the most solid and satisfying learning experience for that business context, for the challenges that it will face in the near future, and for the role of its managers.

Diversity, contamination, the sharing of experience, and the transfer of managerial tools are the key ingredients of the Indian Railways Executive Leadership Program. “The reasons for the Program is to expose the participants to the rules of management in a global context, from a global school,” Ferdinando Pennarola, Program Director, said. “In any multinational company it’s important to put together managers from different divisions to discuss about interfunctional processes.”, Giovanni Tomasi, Director of SDA Bocconi Corporate Custom Programs, added. “It’s a good way to improve knowledge, skills and networking among people.”

And the positive feedback came also from the class itself. For Saumya Mathur, Divisional Railway Manager, this program was “a chance to stop and think about what we are doing.” Another manager, Ranganathan Rajagopal, defined the program “a revelation”. “Relevant, useful, highly interactive” or “rejuvenating, reflective, energizing” are some of the adjectives shared by the participants to define their training experience at SDA Bocconi.