Shillong, Oct. 9: IIM Shillong believes that “cooptition” is the way forward for Sino-Indian business relations as neither competition nor standalone would help either nation.

Yesterday, the B-School inaugurated the third batch (2014-15) of its executive management programme in managing business in India and China. Only eight students were admitted to the programme which was recently redesigned.

The participants of the new batch hail from different backgrounds, bringing with them rich work experiences from various industries and functions.

The 14-month programme, among others, allows students to work on projects both in India and China so that they can absorb and adapt to the cultural contexts and develop an understanding into evidence- based contextual management of business problems.

“Such management programmes foster people-to-people interaction and grassroots-level study of language, culture, history, economy and business practices, resulting in a contextual international business management perspective,” a statement from the B-School stated.

Speaking on the occasion as the chief guest, Deepak Gupta, managing director PDI Ninth House, Middle East, a Korn/Ferry company, gave a clear insight on leadership transition process, implications on organisations and its relevance to growth and sustainability of successful organisations.

IIM Shillong director Amitabha De stressed on the importance and responsibilities of the B-School in not only churning out future managers and leaders, but also have a higher responsibility to the community and region, particularly to the development of the Northeast.

Programme chairman Rohit Dwivedi recalled the amount of homework which had gone into in the conceptualisation of the programme and the farsightedness of the institute leadership in envisaging a gap in the managerial talent pool to take over leadership position across transnational business operations.

He highlighted the relevance for the right kind of competencies which the managers need to possess to be able to take the businesses of India and China to the next level of global competitiveness.

Speaking to this correspondent, Dwivedi said a major component of the programme is the internship where the participants work in global companies, which are operating in both India and China.

According to him, both countries, with tremendous potential, need to learn from each other — China being a giant in the manufacturing front and India a leader in the services sector.

To a query, Dwivedi said: “Neither competition nor standalone would help the two countries. Both have to keep competing, but at the same time, cooperate with each other. The co-optition model — cooperation and competition or cooperative competition — works best.”