December will see, corporate honchos of different sectors of hobnobbing Xavier Labour Relations Institute (XLRI).

Sapphire, an XLRI Students’ Association on the B school is a two-day national conference from December 20 to promote human resource management, Human Resources and Industrial Relations.

Corporate bigwigs, including Chief Executive Officers and managers from different sectors to participate in the conference and their experience in human resources, issues and challenges in managing and facilitating the processing and organizational change.

XLRI has been organising the seminar since 1997 in an interval of two years. In the past, the B-school has obtained an overwhelming resonance with nearly 150 speakers and delegates from industry to participate in the conference.

Members of the Organizing Committee said invitations were sent. The assembly delegates have confirmed their participation, vice-chairman of Larsen and Toubro, Yogi Sriram, Group Vice-President (HR) Tata Sons Satish Pradhan, and the president (HR), AV Birla Group, Santrupt Misra. Delegates from Wipro, Infosys and Hindustan Lever Limited have also confirmed participation.

This year’s conference are not a “group of players or moderator. The participants were a free hand to decide in the sub-themes, then rendezvous with the cross-fire.

According to the conference coordinator and professor of organizational behavior and strategic management Madhukar Shukla, the conference is based on the structure Harrison Owen “Open Space Technology (OST), which allows each participant to choose a theme and to identify and work with other, similar concerns.

Sapphire plans to use OST, one of the best brains in the conference.

“A broad discussion would be floated between delegates and debates begin. During the discussion, subtitles would be emerging as a separate space and will contribute to this sub-theme in this direction, “said Shukla.

Secretary General of the Organizing Committee of Manas Mishra, said the conference would be organized in compact discs, so that they are made available to delegates.

Members of the Organizing Committee said efforts are also references to the use of satellite technology during the seminar.

“Those who can not make the campus during the conference may be their views with participants from the studios of Hughes Escorts Communication Limited, Bangalore, Mumbai and Gurgaon,” said one member.

One of India’s leading business schools and corporate breeding grounds is run by men who have taken a vow of poverty and are strictly forbidden to open bank accounts.

Multinational companies and top Indian private sector firms flock regularly to Xavier’s Labour Relations Institute at Jamshedpur, 200 km from Calcutta, to sign up fresh MBAs and other graduates with degrees in personnel management, human resources development and industrial relations.

But what distinguishes the budding venture capitalists, investment bankers and fund managers from the institute is that they are trained how to rake in profits and run businesses successfully by Christian priests who have renounced worldliness and materialism.

Not surprisingly, even on the campus, there is a big difference between the lifestyles of teachers and students.

The teachers - Jesuit priests who have taken the legacy of educational excellence to the forefront of business education in India - live in spartan rooms with only the bare necessities of life.

But their students from affluent backgrounds have air-conditioners and cars while the hostel’s backyard is littered with empty scotch bottles and packs of expensive cigarette brands such as Benson & Hedges and Rothmans. “Ours is a religious culture and we are giving training in corporate culture. It is difficult to reconcile the two worlds but the common principles are hard work, duty and loyalty,” institute director Father Thomas said.

“The Christian idea of servant leadership is important - not to lord it over but to be at the service of others. We don’t teach it in religious terms but as something that we say is noble,” he said.

The training, undertaken by men who have taken vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, emphasises business ethics, social responsibility, spirituality and maintaining emotional balance in the cut-throat, high-stress corporate world.

Oddly enough, the institute is the oldest management college in India.

It began in 1948 when Sir Jehangir Gandhi, managing director of Tata Steel, India’s biggest steel plant in Jamshedpur, requested the Vatican to consider sending a group of Jesuits to start a school for the children of mill employees.

Of course, the first Jesuit priest to come to India was Francis Xavier soon after the Society of Jesus was founded in 1540. Gradually, Jesuits founded dozens of reputed schools and colleges in all parts of India, including St Xavier’s College in Calcutta. They were traditionally in the service of Christ and focused mainly on the needs of the poor.

Responding to Mr Gandhi’s request, the Vatican despatched American Jesuits who set up St Loyola school in Jamshedpur. Among them was Quinn Enright. Like many Jesuits in the United States, he had an interest in labour unions. And soon enough, Father Enright taught labour laws to Tata mill employees, making them aware of their rights and showing them how to negotiate with the management.

It was Tata Steel which provided a sprawling campus to Father Enright and his band of priests to start the institute. The first personnel management and industrial relations course commenced in 1953.

By 1964 it was recognised by the Indian government as an autonomous management institution.

Within two years, the institute launched its own MBA programme on the government’s request to fill the void in business education in India. Today, it has nearly 300 students and a dozen Jesuit professors in the 40-strong teaching faculty.

True, the students are mainly interested in pursuing courses which will land them highly paid jobs. Even if God were to teach MBA and personnel management and industrial relations students, His values will not sink in or be taken too seriously in the short run, said Father Ignatius, a theologian who teaches business ethics.

“But in the long run, they do understand the central values we try to inculcate in them,” he said.

Father Ignatius said the institute’s students invariably acquire the so-called soft skills - communication and working well in groups - the intangibles which become increasingly important in the business world.

Xavier institute is ranked fourth among India’s top 20 business schools, just behind the three government-run Indian Institute of Management at Calcutta, Bangalore and Ahmedabad.

Would you like a training directly from IIMS, XLRI, Manipal IIFT or university? If the answer is “yes” and if you’re a graduate, you can follow such education by DirecWay Global Education (DWGE), education arm of Hughes Escorts Communications Limited (HECL), a unit of Hughes Electronics, USA . DWGE which so far has offered management programs for executives only work opening up these programs for young graduates at the end of January 2005, pointed out, Pankaj Aggarwal, consultants, HECL.

The list of settlements he has cooperation with DWGE is very impressive. It is IIM Bangalore, IIM-Kozhikode, XLRI Jamshedpur, IIFT Delhi, Manipal University and Narsee Monje Institute of Management Studies, to name a few. The Vice President, Consumer HECL, Srikanta Acharya said: “So far we have the mediation of various certificate, diploma and degree level courses in streams General Management, Sales & Marketing, management software, financial management, strategic management, Human Resources and international companies, these courses are very popular with Labour and managers to give added value to their skills and expertise. “He adds:” It is, of course, but only to extend the benefits of these programs Freshers in some improvisations on the structure of the nomenclature and, of course, of course, who are in the phase of development by institutions participants.

But the improvisations returning from the institutions concerned. According to Aggarwal, “This is because the institutions are responsible for the design of the course contents and the fixing of fees for programs while we are responsible for the provision of programmes.” He noted that most programs require that graduates of 50 percent marks, while this percentage to be relaxed for certain programs.

In addition, students must be qualified, or an examination and interview, or would only ask for an interview or a written examination, according to the industry or the establishment, they were in the inscription, Aggarwal noted.

“As HECL in business broadband, how the implementation of programmes is quite unique in itself, was not followed so far, everything in India,” Aggarwal mentioned. Preparation aspect concerning the provision, he said: “We have 42 centres or classrooms across India, we use a technology that allows each student is equipped with a computer and headphones, while Hooked On east at conferences by eminent professors and IIMS beaming other institutions and all classrooms at the same time. If a student wants to ask a question, in the midst of a class meeting room, he or she must simply press a button, a student may also send an e-mail to the teacher, whose teachings, the result is a virtual classroom is created, interactive learning that can be done. ”

As part of their study, students have the opportunity to bid on the functions of institutions that monitor their progress. Regarding the placement of students, DWGE would be the establishment of a High-Tech-cell position, said Aggarwal. He pointed out, “As we ourselves belong to the industry and how we have partnerships with some of the best B schools in India, find internships will not be difficult, but the final result will depend on how students in their studies collective agreement

Dr Santishree Pandit of the University of Pune and Dr Abhijit Gangopadhyay the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, India, the visit of the Indian school in the next month.

While Dr Pandit is an expert in the field of higher education and is the Director of International Business Centre and member of the Board of Trustees of the University of Pune, Dr Gangopadhyay, is a professor and head of department management human resources and industrial relations at TISS.

The latter was responsible for the creation of the Indian Institute of Management, Indore, and worked as a dean, higher education in the same establishment for two years.

“These are a series of workshops and seminars from the school of the Faculty,” said the chairman of the school PV Radhakrishna Pillai. “Bringing high-level expert training in the school for the exposure vis-à-vis the school at the beginning of the fraternity is on the agenda, as well as visits to doctors and Gangopadhyay Pandit is a suggestion in this regard. ”

He says Pandit, a seminar for leaders of the teachers during their stay here.