Indian Railways, the world’s largest commercial employer with 1.4 million staff, has signed a five year contract with HEC Paris.

HEC Paris will provide international learning programs to its middle and senior management. The first set of programs will train managers in a range of key markets around the globe. HEC will become Indian Railway’s biggest supplier of external learning for managers.

« Indian Railways has undergone radical change in recent times which has seen it turn operating losses into a US$5 billion profit over the past four years », Sandra Nichol of HEC Paris says. « They are now keen to build on this achievement by challenging themselves in new ways and further breaking down departmental silos within the organization. One of the most effective ways of doing this will be to expose high potential managers to similar businesses in major countries in Europe and on the Pacific Rim. This is exactly what the new programs are designed to achieve. »

« It is common in large state owned businesses for managers to believe they operate under a fundamentally different logic than commercial entities, » says Nichol. « The focus of the learning will be to counteract this effect by encouraging officers to re-think conventional ways of analyzing situations and making decisions, allowing them to see their position as one of many competitors in the transport, rather than just the railway industry. »

According to Bertrand Moingeon, Deputy Dean of HEC Paris, the Indian Railways programs are important examples of how ambitious organizations around the world are still investing in customized business education despite the downturn. « In this sort of business environment it’s vital that companies can take a step back, evaluate the big picture and work out how to react to extraordinary circumstances. Our role is not to try to provide managers with some sort of tool box to fix individual problems but to give them an opportunity to reflect on their current practices and circumstances, then work out their future strategy and how to implement it. »