Dr Hardik Vachharajani

In April, Hardik Vachhrajani delivered a seminar to Corporate HR team at IBS Software Services’s head quarters at Trivandrum in Kerala.

Session titled ‘Not letting go – 15 roles for HR in 2015’ focused on area of employee retention and 15 roles HR managers will have to play in the coming year.

Seminar was attended by corporate HR team of Trivandrum and also by core HR teams from Bangalore and Kochi campuses.  “The seminar was very interesting and gave some really amazing insights into the role of HR in the coming year”, said Aravind TU from Trivandrum team.

IBS is a leading provider of new-generation IT solutions to the global Travel, Transportation and Logistics (TTL) industry.  With offices in India, Middle East, Europe and USA, IBS is one of the fastest growing IT companies in the domain.

In November 2014, Hardik Vachhrajani successfully completed a unique course titled ‘MOOC on MOOC for Development’ offered by Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IITK), Commonwealth of Learning and Knowledge Incubator for TEQIP.  The course was attended by teaching and learning practitioners from across commonwealth of nations. Hardik completed the course with Distinction.

The Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) is a new online medium for course delivery and learning. It enables thousands of learners to participate in the same course with high quality content and interactive tools for learning. On this scale, a MOOC can offer a better user experience as compared to a standard web-based course. Possibilities for rich mentor-learner and learner-learner interactions are unlimited.

Course was facilitated by Prof. Prabhakar from IITK and was supported by Dr. Balaji and Prof.. Chang from COL; and Prof. Sodhi and Prof. Agrawal from IIT system.

Course covered all important areas related to MOOC and how to develop and execute it. Key areas included;

• Different types and styles of MOOCs
• Key aspects of content authoring and pedagogy
• A variety of methods for grading, assessment and certification
• More effective peer-to-peer learning and online mentoring
• Technology components that go into a MOOC and platforms
• How to participate in a MOOC more effectively
• The basics of copyright and intellectual property matters in MOOC content
• Costs and resource management of a MOOC

About the Institutes :

Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IITK), a premier research university in India, is a pioneer in offering MOOCs. It is among the top 50 Asian universities in QS Rankings.

Commonwealth of Learning (COL) an inter-governmental organization in the Commonwealth family, is globally known for its efforts and advocacy to improve access to learning at all levels.

Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme (TEQIP)is a national programme of India, under the Ministry of Human Resources Development. The aim of this programme is to enhance the quality of teaching faculty in institutions of technology in the public sector. KIT (Knowledge Incubation for TEQIP) offers a platform to host quality courses, specialist lectures, research interactions and workshops

In June 2014, Pierre Coupet, Founder and Chairman of Virtual Organization Management Institute (VOMI), USA appointed Hardik Vachhrajani as Honorary Global Ambassador, India on the Global Ambassadors Committee of  VOMI Global Think Tank and Advisory Board.

VOMI is the world’s leading and only global 100% virtual educational institute, think tank, professional association, certification and accreditation provider, and conference producer strictly dedicated to the modern virtual organization management discipline founded and pioneered by its founder since 1997.

I am very pleased to announce the appointment of Hardik Vachhrajani, said a release by Pierre Coupet.

As global ambassador, Hardik will advise and council the chairman.  He will provide valuable insights to the chairman on virtual management issues from India in general and Asia Pacific in particular.  He will also advise on research, consulting and training aspect of the subject.

During mid May, Hardik Vachhrajani visited Royal Thimpu College in the Kingdom of Bhutan. Royal Thimpu College, popularly known as RTC, is Bhutan’s first private college. College is supported by the royal family of Bhutan.

College offers world class infrastructure as well as teaching and learning environment. Though, college offers international standard undergraduate programs, it remains rooted in Bhutanese values and culture.

Hardik Vachhrajani met dean of the college, Professor Shivaraj Bhattari. Professor Bhattarai briefed Hardik about system of tertiary education in Bhutan. Both discussed on wide ranging areas including opportunities and challenges faced by higher education in general and South Asia in particular.

On 30/January/2014, Global Innovation Management Institute (GIMI) bestowed upon Hardik Vachhrajani global credential of ‘Innovation Management Catalyst’.

Hardik Vachhrajani cleared the certification exam by securing 84% marks.  The certificate is offered by GIMI in collaboration with HULT International Business School and Innovation Excellence.

GIMI is created by a group of innovation executives, academics and consultants from around the world and its mission is to help individuals, companies and regions develop world class innovation management capabilities through global standards, testing protocols and certification.

Certificate evaluates experience, knowledge and skills demonstrated in Innovation Management area.  The certificate will remain valid till 29/January/2019.

Between December 11-13 December 2013, Hardik Vachhrajani participated in International Symposium on Corporate Social Responsibility (IS_CSR) organized at Bangalore by Amrita University, India and Deakin University, Australia.

Symposium was inaugurated by Dr. Bhaskar Chaterjee, Director-General and CEO of Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs. Some of the leading names in CSR graced the event. Event also featured lecture by Dr. Wayne Visser, leading international think-tank of CSR.  CSR practitioners from public and private companies from across India and abroad presented their experiences and best practices.

Hardik Vachhrajani also chaired academic session on CSR motivations in companies.  Paper presentation was followed by facilitated discussion.

(Above : Mr. Matthew Tukaki, UN Global Compact, Australia ; Mr. Poonam Pandey, UN Global Compact India; Mr. Anil Rao, Wellinkar, Bangalore)

Case study co-authored by Dr. Hardik Vachhrajani received runner up award at International Case Competition 2013 organized on November 9, 2013 at Hyderabad in India.

The competition was organized by ICBM School of Business Excellence, Hyderabad in collaboration with Academy of Management Professionals, India and ACBSP Accreditation, USA.  Award included cash prize along with certificate and citation. Winning cases will feature in forthcoming issue of a partner journal.    

The case was based on innovation journey of ‘Food Packs Indiana’, a small food processing enterprise based at Kothamangalam, Kochi.

There were around 30 cases in the final competition round including from Indian Institute of Managements, public sector units and number of top business schools of India.

Link to Certificate

In October, Hardik Vachhrajani visited University of Bologna in Italy for a month as visiting academic. Visit was part of Erasmus Mundus Fellowship offered by European Union.

Visit involved working on cross-national research project studying innovations in food processing enterprises of the Emilia-Romagna region. Dr. Hardik Vachhrajani was hosted by Professor Enrico Supino of Department of Business Management. Visit involved data collection, interaction with various stake holders and understanding innovation eco system of the region.

Dr. Hardik also had a detailed discussion with senior officials of ERVAT, regional development authority of the Emilia-Romagna and was made aware about activities which they were doing to promote innovation in the region.

Continuously operating since 1088, University of Bologna is arguably western world’s oldest university. It is consistently ranked in top 200 best universities of the world in QS rankings. University boasts of very high quality research and prominent alumnus like G. Marconi, inventor of radio and famous middle age poet, Dante.  

Hardik Vachhrajani participated in the roundtable on ‘The Poverty and Youth: How new leaders will put the poverty into museums?’ organized on 25 September as part of Challenge Future Summit.  In the roundtable, youth presented their ideas to business school leaders from across the globe present as part of PRME Summit at IEDC Bled School of Business, Slovenia.

Students and educators exchanged ideas on how business school curriculum can be upgraded to make youth job creators rather than job seekers. Participants represented 35 countries of the world.

Hardik Vachhrajani stressed that models of sustainability and innovation should be indigenous and trying to implement models which are successful in Western context, won’t solve the problem which is unique to every country. The roundtable was moderated by Prof.  Al Rosenbloom of Brennan School of Business, Dominican University, USA.

On September 25, Hardik Vachhrajani will share platform with some of world’s leading practitioners to judge final three ideas for Challenge:Future Make.it.Work Competition.  “During the past year, competitors have been challenged to develop and implement their solution in order to fight youth unemployment. They had to make it work and test it in real life”, says Dan Croitoru, Competition and Alliance division of Challenge:Future (C:F).  The winning team will receive EUR 3.000 Prize to further develop their idea. 

During the summit, Hardik Vachhrajani will also address a roundtable on ‘The Poverty and Youth: How new leaders will put the poverty into museums?’.  The round table will be moderated by Al Rosenbloom, PRME Working Group Co-coordinator. Other speakers in the panel include, Danica Purg, President of the IEDC-Bled School of Management, Jonas Haertle, Head of PRME Secretariat and Milenko Gudić, PRME Anti-poverty Working Group Coordinator.

C:F  is a Slovenia based youth think tank.  The event is part of a unique C:F Summit 2013, where a group of exceptional individuals under the age of 30 will come together with educators, business and political leaders to explore global agenda and ignite business growth. This global event will be held in 3 cities of Slovenia – Maribor, Ljubljana and Bled, between 20th and 26th of September 2013. The summit is the pinnacle of almost year-long activities for youth around the world who worked on creating and implementing solutions how to fight youth unemployment, envision new education and increase global competitiveness.

Program also includes meetings with President of Slovenia, Mayor of Maribor and Ljubljana.