OEC Oertli Consulting

Report by Dr. Peter Oertli

H.E. Dr. Abdul Kalam, President of India, flanked by the Swiss Ambassador to India, H.E. Dominique Dreyer (right) and Peter Oertli, in discussions with the Executive MBAs.

For the second time running, OEC was assigned the task of organising an educational business tour of India for a total of 48 Executive MBAs from the University of St. Gallen. This time, the focus was to see India’s booming economy, industry, culture, and politics from many perspectives, also from opposing angles, including insights into NGOs showing the situation of the poor. The topics included BJP’s Hinduism and its influence on Indian Politics as well as the visit of the jewels of Indian industry and institutions such as TATA, TCS, Moser Baer, the Swiss Embassy, ICICI Bank, Amarjit & Ass, IKEA, UNICEF, Nestlé, the President of India, Kutub Minar, the Taj Mahal, Gandhi Peace Foundation, Confederation of Indian Industry CII, Kerala Hightech Industries, the Marxist Chief Minister of Kerala, Infosys, IIIT-B, Biocon, Bharat Fritz Werner, and CMTI. Compared to the previous visits to India, a huge leap forward in India’s economic development could be observed. However, the infrastructural development is still lagging behind in many areas. The political conclusion of the visit was that both Europe as a continent with multiple diversities and India share an old historical heritage. They pride themselves on the same basic ethical values of democratic freedom of choice, secular tolerance, non-violence, social responsibility and sustainable development, that could and should become a new paradigm for the rest of the globe in the 21st century.

For the full report download the PDF file here.