The participants of the third batch of Management Programme in Manufacturing and Operations (MPMO) got practical industry lessons in management, by Mr Vipin Sondhi, Managing Director & CEO JCB Indian Limited. Mr Sondhi addressed the inaugural session of the third batch of MPMO comprising the mid and senior level professionals across private and public sectors. MPMO is a programme under the aegis of Munjal Institute of Global Manufacturing at ISB, to create future leaders with in-depth understanding in manufacturing, operations excellence, and supply chain management.

Mr Sondhi started the address with a story of his life, when as a young manufacturing professional he accompanied his boss to an agitating situation and saw him settling it with his leadership skills by connecting with the people at ground level. The lesson that he learnt that day, something he still firmly believes in, is that most challenges are to do with people and it is very critical for leaders to connect with their people. It is people at the end of the day that matter. He further spoke about JCB’s success story, the challenges that company faced initially and how it established itself as a market leader, over a period of time.

While addressing the MPMO participants and taking them through JCB’s success story, he also shared important insights about the manufacturing sector and life. Some of the useful insights that he shared were how JCB as a company believed in India’s growth story and saw the opportunity even when people were not aware of their own infrastructure needs. He said “Opportunities are to be seen. Either one sees a problem or one sees an opportunity.” Emphasising on being persistent with efforts he said, “Even if an idea fails, you must try again without giving up. Not trying is as good as failure”. He asked the participants to have self-belief in whatever they do.

Talking about the micro, small and medium sized industry, Mr Sondhi said that MSMEs are the backbone of any industrial society and he was happy that institutes like ISB are working in such specific sectors. He also said that manufacturing industry going be a service industry in future.  He touched upon the future preparations of JCB India and culminated his session by asking the audience to focus on the present, be connected with people, and prepare for the future.