French students to study working of Bescom

The Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom) has caught the fancy of students of the HEC School of Management, Paris, who are planning to prepare a case study of the same in association with students from the Indian Institute of Management - Bangalore (IIM-B). The students were in Bangalore as part of the first year of the HEC IIM-B Exchange Programme (HIEP).

Under the HIEP, 14 students of HEC stayed in IIM-B for a week where they visited a number of companies and attended lectures on the business scenario in India. The students plan to analyse the working of Bescom with respect to its strategy, management and organisation structure, and compile its best practices. The project will be co-ordinated between students from both institutes online for the next three months after which a group from IIM-B will go to Paris in December 2009 for study tours and undertake similar projects on the French business environment.

“We are exploring joint projects on subjects like M&A in banks, offshoring in IT services to India, nuclear energy reforms and family-owned businesses,” said Ganesh J, an IIM-B student.

Students from HEC said they were interested in studying the Indian economy to help them understand the global business scenario.

“I am interested in studying Indian products that have international branding capability. Geographical patents are popular in the US and Europe while the concept is slowly catching up in India. This is an element of business that could prove beneficial to Indian manufacturers wanting to sell their products in the international markets,” said Pascal Irazoqui, a student of HEC.

Pankaj Chandra, director of IIM-B, said that the initiative was part of the institute’s effort to become the research school of India. “We have nearly 100 partnering universities where we try to increase collaboration between faculty and students. This not only helps students develop a worldly mindset but also lets the world know about India.”

During the present year, over 90 students from various international universities will visit IIM-B whereas 63 students from IIM-B are presently visiting universities abroad.