PIM develops Hayleys Managers

Thursday, 26 July 2012 01:25 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The Postgraduate Institute of Management (PIM) focused much on management development programs (MDPs), particularly during the last few years, as there was a considerable demand from both the private and public sector organisations to enrich their management staff with a set of conceptual skills, backed by experiential learning. Developmental inputs like case studies, assignments and group presentations were markedly featured in the programs.

Hayleys PLC., being committed to and acknowledged as a leader in sound enterprise governance, joined hands with the PIM, the nation’s school of business, with the objective of enhancing and improving the soft skills and upgrading the managerial competencies of the company’s key managerial personnel.

PIM Manager, Training and Publications K.A.I. Kalyanaratne stressed the relevance and importance of MDP programs, as they deviate from the oft-conducted training programs, which are basically aimed at developing skills and competencies to help trainees perform their routine tasks. He said that decay, growth and maintenance managements aim at repetitive and incremental improvements, while the emphasis of the PIM’s management development programs is change management, to instil the necessary conceptual, attitudinal and behavioural changes in the participants.

In a market place where there are more new idea, more new competitors in the market, and also where there is cost – time – service pressure, and customers demanding more for less, what is expected of an MDP is change management that facilitates spending less time tackling ‘crisis-situations’ and more time providing forward-thinking leadership. He said that the particular program has been designed to lead in ways that support institutional objectives, enabling the participants to incorporate larger strategic considerations into management decisions.

Sunil Dissanayake, who represented Hayleys, said that although training and development had been conducted periodically, the management has now decided to make it a continuous and an on-going process.

All the participants nominated to follow the program attended the inaugural session. The program contains such modules as strategic planning/sound business judgment, customer-focus and customer relations management, creativity and innovation, quality and productivity, leadership, communication, cost management, achieving personal excellence and best management practices.

The concluding session will be a comprehensive examination and group presentations. Some unique features of the program will be the inclusion of learning diaries, to facilitate participants to recap what the participants would learn in the sessions.

The program delivery also contains a variety of approaches including presentation sessions, video presentations, case studies, discussions and workshops as well as individual and group presentations.