BANGALORE: They have traversed through the most difficult terrains, weathered storms, fought enemies, taken bullets and foregone their sleep to ensure that the nation soundly sleeps. These brave jawans have fought tooth and nail, but after certain years of serving the country, they now feel the need to step into corporate shoes for plenty of reasons.To gain the understanding of the corporate environment, a batch of 40 officers (that includes seven women officers) from the armed forces that includes 24 from the Army, eight each from the Air Force and the Navy are part of the Executive Business Management Programme for Armed Forces introduced by the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, in the year 2007. The management programme, divided into four terms of six weeks, commenced on January 10, 2011 and will culminate on June 24.The programme emphasises core skills in management disciplines that include finance, human resource management, economics, communication, business statistics, organisational behaviour, operations, project management and marketing. The course also allows participants to choose three electives in alignment with their career goals and objectives. City Express caught up with the students to find out the reasons behind the transition and the value addition that they can offer to the corporate world.“Management is a philosophy that comes from the armed forces,” says 43-year-old Wing Commander Venkatesh. He served in the Air Force for 21 years. The transition from the Air Force to the corporate world for Venkatesh is because of his family. “I contributed 21 years of life to the nation. Now I have to take care of my family,” he says. He was in the administrative field of the Air Force, and he is looking at Human Resources as a career option and is open to all sectors in the corporate world. Twenty-nine-year-old Captain Ashutosh Ranjan Kar who is the youngest in the batch and also an MBA graduate has served in the army as short service officer for five years. “After my five-year term was completed, this course will help me get back into the corporate world,” he says. He further says that honesty, integrity, and loyalty are the qualities that he has garnered through his experience in the army, and those are what he can bring to the corporate table. Kar is looking at starting off at the middle management and then graduate to being an entrepreneur in the near future.“In the armed forces we learnt how to react in an ambiguous situation when there is an information vacuum. This is an ingrained quality that will come in handy in the corporate sector when they are handling a crisis or managing change,” says Commander Ajai Vadakkadh (42) who served as a naval officer for 22 years. According to him the corporate field is no less than a battlefield. He decided to leave the Navy as his child is autistic, and he says he wants to be there for him and his family. Thirty-five-year-old Roli Rathore moved to Bangalore in October 2010, with an MA in psychology and a diploma in counselling. Her husband, a gallantry award winning Electrical Mechanical Engineering officer lost his life during his service in August 2010. She says she is pursuing the management programme as she wanted a window to the corporate world. “I want stability in my life and want to take care of my two children. This course is a very good exposure to the corporate world. The course is motivating. Life for me is moving forward,” says RathoreColonel SAVN Rajah (42) wants to rediscover the world from a different angle. At the age of 10 he joined a Sainik school. That’s when he decided to join the army. He has served in the army for 20 years and 10 months. He is a second generation officer in his family. “After having a satisfied professional life in the army, I wanted to spend more time with my wife and family,” he says. Rajah further says that India is yet to tap the rich potential of the armed forces who choose corporate life as their second option. “In the GE company in the United States, one in every 14 US employees is a US military veteran,” says Rajah.Currently out of the batch of 40, 10 have been placed in varied field such as operation, HR and business engineering. Others are still on the look out for jobs.
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