Industry bigwigs to mentor MDI students

30 HR Leaders meet at MDI to strategize and strengthen ties

Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon, India’s premier B-school, today organized the Industry Acharya Meet to strengthen the established relationships between current HR students and their industry mentors. HR heads from leading organizations such as IBM, Accenture, GE Energy, HDFC, Samsung, Hero Honda, Bharti-Airtel, Hay Group, Quatrro, LE Group, Aircel, Max Group, Schneider Electric, SRF, Siemens, Pantaloons, Bharti Retail, Bharti- Comviva Technologies, Avon, Abacus Consultants etc. were present to meet their mentees and formalize the process of handholding and guiding the students during their learning years at MDI and before they step into the corporate world.

This intervention to have HR leaders mentor management students was conceptualized by MDI Gurgaon in the year 2005 after the commencement of Post Graduate Programme in Human Resources at the institute.

Prof. B A Metri, Dean-Graduate Programmes, MDI, expressed happiness on seeing the industry veterans showing enthusiasm in becoming mentors to the students. Prof. Jyotsna Bhatnagar, Chairperson PGHR programme organized the meet and shared the sense of commitment which Industry mentors enthused, and how some mentors have sustained relationship with MDI.

During the meet, a panel discussion on the Mentoring Process and experience sharing was held. Mr. P Dwarakanath- Director, Group Human Capital, Max India, National Past President, National HRD Network; Mr. Suresh Tripathi- President, HR, SRF & President Delhi Chapter, National HRD Network, Mr. Dipak Roy- Head, HR, Mobile Services, Bharti Airtel, Mr. S. Varadrajan, Executive VP, Chief HR officer, Quattro BPO and Secretary, National HRD Network, Oscar De Mello, Country Head-Reward Information Systems, Hay Group, gave insights on how mentoring is performed in corporate and talked about their experiences of mentoring MDI students over the years.

Sharing his thoughts on the mentor-mentee relationship Mr. P Dwarakanath said, “The relationship should not be restricted to students’ 2 years term at the institute, Mentors should look at building lifelong relationships with the students and create a mentor in future out of their mentees.” Talking about the corporate experience Mr. Dwarakanath said that as soon as a fresher joins an organization they have distance in interacting with the senior management due to position barriers. However because of the Mentor-Mentee relationship at MDI the senior industry people have a feel of the younger generation which they cannot have in their corporate organizations.

The panel discussion was followed by an open house session where students shared their experiences with their mentors. The mentors spoke about how the relationship has evolved from a secondary to a primary level. The mentors and mentees discussed how they would like to take this process forward in building strong ties with each other.