For 27th May: Foundation day of Pune Management Association

The Distinct journey of Pune Management Association

It was in 1965 at Pune, when Pune, the cultural hub was leading the region in multiple areas such as Education, Social, Political etc. The Industry and Trade from and around Pune was a matter of discussion at national level and it even had some global footprint. The need was then felt very strongly that the industry expertize along with the skill and dedication and consistent quality was required to have the back up of Management bandwidth. This need was discussed at length and thus came the concept of formation of Pune Management Association (PMA).

27th May is the foundation day of PMA and it will be pertinent to recap the scene and scenario which resulted into formally establishing the PMA as the Management Forum at Pune.

The initially the activitiesof PMA were supported and even carried out at Bank of Maharashtra office premises and was supported by Kirloskar Group of Industries. Based on the initial response and momentum, it was during 1972 when the Industry and Tradestalwarts from Pune such as PadmabhushanShantanuraoKirloskar,Founder of Bank of Maharashtra C. V.Jog, along with the then leading industrialists comprising of Dr N. A. Kalyani, C. .S Kiroskar along with V. S. Vaidya ,Promoter of Swastik Rubbersdeliberated in detail and thus the PMA was formally formed and stated functioning.

The major milestones for PMA has been it’s shifting to its own office premises at Shivaji Nagar, Pune in 1972 followed by PMA getting registered at a Trust under Bombay Trust Act in 1977.

Since its inception, PMA has been consistently supporting and contributing to strengthen the performance and functioning of industry in the region by extending the Management Bandwidth by sharing the expertize across the Industry . This was further enhanced by adding PMA activities such as providing the reference and research, organising the knowledge sharing and workshops, exchange of thought processes and success stories etc. This was much needed that time and thus the activities and initiatives by PMA were getting strengthened.

In the next phase and in order to respond the changed and added requirements of the members, PMA started organising multiple type of activities such as advanced functioning of trade and industry, improving the systems and quality, improved way of working, finance and taxation, sales and marketing, industrial safety and environment management, HRD and employee development, skill enhancement through training sessions and workshops etc. The PMA thus became the effective link between the members and subject matter experts in almost all the fields related to the industry in general and members in particular.

PMA has got the rich legacy of leadership since its inception as the prominent past Presidents of PMA include persons such as C. S. Kirloskar, C. V. Jog, S. H. Talwalikar, M. V. Patwardhan, P.M. Parkhe, VirenSheth, DilipBorawake, Dr.MangeshKarad, Dr. Ganesh Natarajan etc. The tradition of leadership legacy at PMA has been since maintained

Currently, Bal Patil, Ex. JtDirector of Industries- Maharashtra is the president of PMA. The vice presidents include prominent persons like Pradip Tupe, Sanjay Gandhi and Prashant Pund. Sunil Harpude is the Honorary Secretary and the executive committee members include Dr. R . M. Chitnis, VaibhavMogrekar , Vinay Kelkar and Priti Kale. The advisory committee of PMA comprising of subject matter experts from various disciplines and specializations related to business and industry make the functioning of the association effective in multiple ways.

In order to extend the customized and special guidance to itsmembers, PMA had established internal forums such as “ Maha Trainers “ & “ Maha Engineers’ wherein the customized training and interactions are planned and offered to the professional from Learning- Training and Engineering and Technology respectively. The advisory committee consisting of subject matter experts from all the areas related to business and industry adds to the member’s capability building initiatives of PMA. So is the case of Mentoring offered to the professionals and entrepreneurs for their specific and planned development in time bound way.

To add to the above initiatives and to respond to the latest expectations of the member industries, PMA since last over one year has established and successfully implemented functioning of various Centre of Excellences as one of its core activity.

The various initiatives in the form of verticals mainly include CoE for Career Planning and Guidance, Innovation & New Technology, Civil Issues, Sales & Marketing, Skill Development, Quality Management, HR, Entrepreneurship Development, Academics, Information Technology , Financial Management etc. This has now equipped PMA to cater the needs of variety of members and industries in almost all the business specific concerns.

The distinct feature of the CoEs under PMA is that the activities of the centres are managed by the professional and subject matter experts from various business areas. About 90 qualified and experienced professionals are voluntarily involved in the functioning of CoEs. They also get the satisfaction of giving back to the society what they have acquired from their professional functioning and expertize.

During the critical Corona era lasted for over one year, various CoEs of PMA had organised about 200 webinars covering all the vital areas of business through web based platforms and thousands of participants were benefitted by their participation in such webinars. These webinars also include customized web sessions organised by PMA on Entrepreneurship as the Career Option particularly for the needy persons who got very badly affected post Covid-19 pandemic. This has established the uniqueness and utility of the CoEs under PMA in comparatively short span.

In order to extend the benefit based on the business and professional expertize across the industry and professionals, PMA has offered the customized member’s specific to Corporate Membership, Individual Membership and Student Membership. Over and above PMA has planned the Student Chapters at the selective campus. This has paved the new avenue for the membership and spread of PMA to cater the wider requirements of various sectors in the society.

Dattatraya Ambulkar

Dattatraya.Ambulkar@gmail.com

9822847886