Industry Visits: Bridging the Gap between Theoretical and Practical Learning Learning from textbooks, lectures and other study material does not suffice for holistic learning. Practical, hands-onlearning is essential for better understanding of work processes and business functions. For students pursuing Marketing/ Finance/Operations/Supply Chain etc., industrial visits help them gain hands-on experience of how industry operations are executed. Industry visits bridge the gap between theoretical training and practical learning in a real-life environment. They provide opportunity for active/interactive learning experiences in-class as well outside the classroom environment. Students are able to better identify their prospective areas of work in the overall organizational function and they also help enhance interpersonal skills and communication techniques. Students become more aware of Industry practices and regulations during Industry Visits and they broaden the outlook of students with exposure to different workforces from different industries. IILM believes in experiential learning where theory is supplemented with practical experience and application of concepts. As part of this thought IIILM has adopted the practice of Industrial Visits as a value-added learning method for management students. IILM took the students on several Industrial Visits where students had a great learning experience. OYO Corporate Office We got an opportunity to visit OYO Corporate Office in Sector 69, Gurugram as a part of Industry Visit. OYO is known as the world’s fastest growing operated hotel chain which focusses on providing standard rooms at affordable price with high quality and basic amenities like air conditioner, Wi-Fi, breakfast, television, etc. OYO stands for 'Own Your Own'. It does not own most of the properties rather it operates them. The objective of the visit was to gain insight about the working of hospitality sector and comprehend the theory studied in our curriculum with practical business environment. We met Ms Pooja Falwariya who was working there as an HR Manager taking care of campus placement and learning. She is an alumnus of IILM, Lodhi Road, 2017 batch. She shared her professional life experience about the internships with reputed brands such as Marks and Spencer, Sterlite Power, Dassault, etc. which helped her
gain practical knowledge and exposure required for corporate life. Since it is a fast changing world, we need to keep ourselves updated with the happenings and focus on acquiring new skillsets. We learnt about the working of OYO hotel chains, its strategies and different business models like OYO Townhouse, OYO Life, OYO Weddingz, Oyo Power Stations. Its hotels are also listed in Make My Trip, Clear Trip and other platforms which helps in increasing its market share. We were amazed with how it was started by Ritesh Agarwal when he was just 18 years old and how he transformed the conceived problem into business opportunity. We wanted to know the role of HR in OYO. We learnt that the role of HR is not just limited to managing people which is considered as the technical definition of HR, rather it is much beyond that.
Students at OYO, world’s fastest growing affordable operated hotel chain
The personal experience shared by Ms Pooja provided an overview of corporate life. Since it is a fast changing world, we need to keep ourselves updated with the latest happenings and focus on acquiring new skillsets. Overall, it was good industry visit. We got an opportunity to learn many new things. We were also able to comprehend the theory studied during our course with corporate world. We would like to thank our college who gave us an opportunity to be a part of such visit. We look forward to such informative visits in future. Winnie Ranjan PG 1
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