One of my friend working in Mumbai informed me about the transfer of my ex-boss, from MADC to Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. He knew my boss because of the series of news carried out by the newspapers after my abrupt transfer from Nagpur to Mumbai and then subsequent resignation. He asked me why MIHAN is under MIDC, when it is so big project?
Firstly, I had a good laugh and then I told that MIHAN is a separate entity under a state government undertaking MADC (Maharashtra Airport Development Company Ltd.) whose name is usually mistaken as MIDC. His next question was why the project hasn’t yet taken off? And I had many reasons to be given as I had spent more than five years with the company on the same project.
According to me, the DNA of the company is such that it doesn’t accept the reality. Whatever may be the market situation, the management of the company want to do as per its wish, although the money it uses is public money. It spends a lot on studies and surveys of non-revenue generating projects within the company (some of them may be due to political obligations). The officers and staff of the company are clueless about the perception MIHAN carries in public. But one thing is very true, every Nagpurianirrespective of whether s/he is hopeful of MIHAN’s success, wants MIHAN to be successful. That’s mainly because they look forward to MIHAN as an opportunity to get a job, prosper in business and develop Nagpur and Vidarbha.
However, in order to make MIHAN, a success story for Vidarbha, there can be few strategies that can be adoptedand implemented immediately for the project to succeed:
Firstly, the name of the company needs to be modified from MADC in order to differentiate itself from MIDC and get an independent identity. Even MIHAN India Limited when termed MIL is confused as MIAL, the company operating Mumbai International Airport. And the MIHAN Project can be certified under ISO certification to streamline the activities and Standardize the processes. This certification can also be used as a marketing tool to attract new companies to MIHAN
The decision maker for the MIHAN project (An experiencedprofessional in ecosystem development) should at least be
based at Nagpur, so that companies can get the approval within least time improving
ease of doing business(EODB) in MIHAN.If that seems to be difficult dynamic decision making at local level to be encouraged in order to speed up theprocess of allotment and approvals. Retired staff from government organizations, out of which some of the staff is taintedwith suspension under corruption charges should be immediately replaced with young experienced officers.
A separate department having experienced officers and staff for providing exact information about the companies to the job seekers and arranging trainings for the incumbents for the positions available in various companies can be created. The department should to work hand-in-hand with the business development team responsible for bringing more and more organizations in MIHAN project.Continuity in business has to be ensured particularly with the investors, which is lostdue to the transfer of key officers. Accordingly, succession planning has to be done in order to strategize the future path of the company
Since Nagpur is at the geometric centre of the country, after GST, there is enormous scope for the e-commerce players to set up their warehouses in MIHAN. Accordingly, warehousing sector may be promoted tweaking few rigid policies and discounting the land rate increased due to Patanjali’s land allotment.I still remember, a delegation of American Companieshad visited MIHAN in the year 2014, due to which Amazon started its warehouse inMIHAN. Similar conversion of leads is required in double digits to bring topcompanies in MIHAN.
In my opinion, these strategies can be adopted with immediate effect without any major budget sanction, in order to revive the MIHAN project and make it a success story for Vidarbha region.
– Atul Thakare
