Hyderabad: On Monday i.e. January 10, 2011, an official said that the Indian School of Business (ISB) has collaborated with Coca Cola to establish retail academy at ISB campus. As per sources, the academy will be called 'Coca-Cola Indian School of Business Retail Academy'. Further, sources told that the academy will offer a six-month programme to train mid-level professionals in retail management.
The ISB Dean and top officials of Coca Cola have announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to set up the academy. As per sources, the retail management programme will be governed by a governing council made up of practitioners and academicians. In addition, sources informed that the academy will also conduct retail research and online training. Ajit Rangnekar told the sources that the first session of the programme will begin in June 2011 with 50 professionals.
Furthermore, Mr. Rangnekar said that the intake will be scaled up in the next three to four years. Sources informed that the programme fee would be Rs 500000. Candidates who have minimum four years of work experience are eligible for the programme, sources added. Mr. Rangnekar said that the retail sector in India is undergoing a rapid transformation and the next phase of growth will require well trained professionals capable of amalgamating global best practices with the unique characteristics of the Indian consumer.
In addition, Mr. Rangnekar said that ISB will provide them cutting edge pedagogy that will help them to drive the capability of retail sector and benchmarking them globally. Ahmet Bozer, Coca Cola's group President for Eurasia and Africa said that the initiative is mainly to bring about a well rounded retail management training programme to contribute towards the quality of future retail managers. Further, he added that Coca Cola India was monitoring the impact of high input costs. They have a very large manufacturing base in India and any fluctuations will create an impact, he added. He also said that to manage the commodity costs and procurement side efficiency, right pricing levels need to be decided.
