The long-awaited residential format MDP (Management Development Programme) for the year 2024 commenced on 29th July with our largest batch size ever of 47 participants from Band 2C & 3A across Thomas Cook, SOTC and TCI. This year’s event drew nominations from three major divisions, to help their next generation leadership to upskill themselves. The energy at the program was palpable, with participants eagerly absorbing insights and engaging in a mix of serious learning and lively fun. It is these events where diversity blooms, as the employees hailed from all over the country, including Nepal, enabling us to get the best of all worlds.
The journey embarked with a thoughtfully woven pedagogy involving experiential classroom trainings, high energy simulations, team-building activities with insightful sessions from senior leaders. The event was graced with senior Execom members, Executive Chairman Madhavan Menon, Managing Director (SOTC) Vishal Suri, President & Group Head, Marketing, VAS Abraham Alapatt, Chief Financial Officer – TCIL Brijesh Modi, President and Group head, HR Mona Cheriyan, Executive Vice President, Leisure (TCI) Neeraj Bhatt, and Senior Vice President & Head – HR (SOTC) Deepti Sheth.
Madhavan believes in the MDP curriculum and says, “The MDP program is an important methodology that achieves several objectives at the same time. The classroom environment combined with project planning and execution gives the participant an opportunity to visualize and co-work with their colleagues. It gives the participants the opportunity of identifying the strengths of each of their colleagues. From a Management perspective, Leadership potential and traits can be identified and used to develop and plan careers of every individual in the organization.”
This was further supported by 6 senior leaders, VP, Group Finance Controller Bhavik Bhimani, VP & Head Marketing (SOTC) Asif Riaz, VP, Corporate Travel Prasad Shriyan, Executive VP, Leisure (TCI) Neeraj Bhatt, AVP, Foreign Exchange Jayesh Shetty and VP, Leisure Travel (TCIL) Suhas Shetty. They truly are the champions who spared time from their busy schedule to mentor the groups which were divided in 6 teams on their cross functional projects.
The MDP was a power-packed learning experience supported with a world-class modern state of the art learning facility, Kautilya Learning Centre amidst sylvan surroundings. The event generated extreme levels of energy through the course of 6 days, and each one involved left with abundant learning, great food and innumerable memories to cherish. The beaming faces at the end of the MDP were a clear testament to the program’s success, and a true pay-off for the hard work of the HR team which worked tirelessly behind the scenes.
Wishing all the very best to the participants expecting them to hold onto the learning just as tightly as the memories, and apply them within their circles of influence, moving closer to becoming exceptional leaders. We look forward to making the MDP 2025 experience even better.
–Inputs by Ketan Pawar-General Manager & the L & D Team–