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Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is one of the world’s leading information technology companies. One of the companies that participated in RSM’s recent Living Management project, TCS’s Head of HR (Benelux), Rajiv Kumar, describes the project as a win-win situation.
“At TCS, we have participated in projects with European business schools in the past, but none of these were like the RSM’s Living Management project. The unique thing about this project was that the business case was real and current. It was based on an existing challenge at TCS encompassing the various cross-functional aspects of an organisation, and we were pleased to know that the students found it extremely challenging.
We decided to get involved in the project for the access it would give us to a group of very diverse minds. The students came from many different countries and various industries; they are very bright, and they have done well in the field they have chosen. We had a particular challenge in mind, and wanted some independent, creative solutions on what the correct thing to do was, rather than what we wanted to hear. To have 45-50 student consultants working for us – that is a very unique situation.
Our particular challenge was regarding the establishment of a global development centre in Budapest, in Hungary. We have established the centre in order to offer better service to our European customers: by improving operational efficiency through better proximity and cultural fit. Our vision is to develop our Budapest centre into a 1000-strong centre in the next two years. For this we have to consider sales because customers drive growth, we need to align our marketing efforts, establish a local market presence, and create leaders who can take it all on. These are the challenges that we face and we wanted the students to address that.
There were some differences in the quality of analysis/suggestions presented by the different groups, however overall the results were of a very high quality. The students worked extremely hard and gave their heart and soul to the project. The quality of research carried out by the students was fantastic.
What we were really impressed with was that they understood a very complex and multidimensional problem that affected everything from marketing to finance to human resources. The solutions they gave us were holistic, covering all the functional areas. Also, we were pleased to see how well they worked as teams considering that each team had such a mix of people from different backgrounds. We could see these international perspectives coming through in the proposals. This was very valuable for us in terms of insights, because with people from diverse backgrounds, one tends to get richer and more innovative solutions.
Will we implement their recommendations? We are definitely looking at implementing some of the solutions, and are right now investigating its practical implications. We will pick up elements from all the different groups. For us as a company, it was a fruitful experience. It seemed to be a positive experience for the students and I think they learned a lot. We feel this will go a long way in building the relationship between TCS and RSM.
About the Living Management Project
Extensive research and benchmarking confirms that recruiters of MBA graduates are looking for people with more than just analytical skills. RSM Erasmus University has designed the Living Management Consultancy Project (LMCP) with the objective of enhancing the capacities of its MBA students to develop these complex skill sets. The project provides students with the opportunity to develop and test consultancy skills in the context of a live business management problem, in a reasonably ‘risk-free’ environment.
