Coca-Cola, ISB to set up retail academy
By IANSMonday, January 10, 2011
HYDERABAD - Beverage major Coca-Cola has joined hands with the Indian School of Business (ISB) to set up a retail academy at the latter’s campus here, officials said Monday.
The Coca-Cola Indian School of Business retail academy will offer a six-month programme to train mid-level professionals in retail management.
Top officials of Coca-Cola and the ISB dean announced signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to set up the academy.
A governing council comprising retail practitioners and academicians will govern the strategic retail management programme. The academy will also conduct retail research and online training.
The first session of the programme will commence in June with 50 professionals. The intake will be scaled up in the next three to four years, ISB dean Ajit Rangnekar said.
The fee for the programme would be Rs.500,000 and the eligibility for the course is minimum four years of work experience.
“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,” Rangnekar said.
“ISB will provide them cutting edge pedagogy that will help them to drive the capability of retail sector and benchmarking them globally,” he added.
“The initiative is mainly to bring about a well rounded retail management training programme to contribute towards the quality of future retail managers,” said Ahmet Bozer, Coca-Cola’s group president for Eurasia and Africa.
“We may also be able to absorb students from the school once they are through the course,” said Atul Singh, president and chief executive officer of Coca-Cola India and Southwest Asia.
Bozer also said Coca-Cola India was monitoring the impact of high input costs.
“We have a very large manufacturing base in India and any fluctuations will create an impact. To manage the commodity costs and procurement side efficiency, right pricing levels need to be decided,” he said.
The company is also looking at scaling up its pilot project and increasing the production of mangoes and oranges with farmers across the country.
