Learning Through Industry Visits! - IIM Sirmaur

Experience is the best teacher. In the second term, Prof. S Venkataramanaiah was one of the extraordinary minds, who taught us Operations Management. Operations management is the administration of business practices to create the highest level of efficiency possible within an organization. It is concerned with converting materials and labour (inputs) into goods and services (outputs) as efficiently as possible to maximize the profit of an organization. Having experience in various projects and consulting firms, Prof. Venkat advised us to start taking up various issues and problems faced by the society and industry and trying to solve those. He opened our minds to the limitless possibilities to where the operations management can be applied starting from simple tea making to a rocket launch.

IIM Sirmaur, being located in the industrial belt of Himachal Pradesh has an added advantage. Also being located at the heart of the industrial region it has always an opportunity for more growth. And how to grasp this advantage was taught to us by Prof. Venkat. Although he was a visiting faculty, he was so much enthusiastic about contributing that within his hectic time schedule that he made it possible for an industry visit to a pharma industry in the Paonta Sahib. Though our concepts were clear from the classroom teachings but for us it was a great learning experience where we could understand various operations concepts and its application in how the medicines were manufactured, analyse the processes involved, how the vendors were managed and how the medicines were further transported. Prof. Venkat also inspired us to find out the areas in which further operations improvement can be done. We gave our suggestions to the factory head. The managers of the pharma company were also equally enthusiastic to host us and also welcomed the suggestions from us which we made for improvement in the operations. This was a unique experience for us to learn something beyond the four walls of the classroom which was only possible due to Prof. Venkat and the unique locatoin of our college. This was something that students do not expect in the education system and it caught us by immense surprise. He also suggested us to take up problems faced by the local hospitals and the Paonta Sahib Gurudwara.

I want to join Aditya Birla Health Insurance Co. Ltd. of Aditya Birla Group because being a fortune 500 brand it will be a privilege and honour to work for it. With the health insurance sector boom and a huge investment in it by the government as well as the inclusion of 49% FDI in this sector, it is expected to rise at a faster rate by 2020. Working in the health insurance sector will provide me the platform to serve the people in a better manner at the ground level and Aditya Birla Group will help me in developing and providing me with the platform to excel in this sector and help me achieve my long-term goals.

-Sourav Biswal