We had the India Group Completion stay in Passau for the period 12th July to 20th July 2022.
The entire programme was organized and co-ordinated by Team ICUnet - Thilo, Lena and Suryaa from our India office who is visiting Germany and was in Passau for supporting and helping with this Group. These 8 participants are entrepreneurs and business owners where the majority were from North Indian cities like Delhi, Noida, Jaipur, Bhilwara and Mumbai in Western India. With a varied background in different industries from Manufacturing, Handicrafts, Textiles, Export and Consulting to name a few.
They arrived in Passau on 12.07.2022 to a Welcome Dinner at Bierra Venti Tre (which eventually turned out to be the go to place for the Indian Group for their meals so we arranged their Farewell Dinner there too!)
On 13.07. 2022, we had a busy day with a training session I the morning by our internal Trainer Mr. Gurdatar Singh Bal followed by our 01st Company visit which is a Hidden Champion - Stela Laxhuber at (Massing near Eggenfelden) with the owner Mr. Thomas Laxhuber and his colleague. A tour of the factory, explaining the drying process for various industries, the digital machinery and tools used with the employees monitoring every stage of the process, says a lot about the keen quality standards of German manufacturing!
14.07.2022 was a very busy day with 3 Company visits lined up. 02nd Group Company visit @ Langleben Aronia Hof which explained the concept of Diversity and Inclusion in farming the locally grown Aronia berries which produces a healthy immunity booster juice drink. The philosophy is to provide employment and a means of income for people with a disability and help the community at large. The philosophy of “closeness to Nature” and promoting a concept of chemical free organic farming, the natural way. A tour of the farm conducted by Mr. Peter Röhl, followed by a visit to their processing plant, storage facility and ended with a tasting of this health drink..so refreshing in the cool shop which was formerly an old stable / barn.
The 03rd Company visit at INN.KUBATOR where the delegates learnt about how Inn.kubator is helping Start-ups with innovative ideas – (breathing life into them that will eventually become a reality if nurtured and guided properly provided there’s a market for it! )by promoting development, meetings with Ange investors for funding and increasing their networking along with the benefits of operating in a state funded and private sponsorship model at a Co-working space. The concept is to encourage the local start-ups in the Bavaria state smoothen their initial years of setting up a business with state of the art facilities and minimal rent for office space. A presentation of the operations, funding and operations process model followed by a tour of the building by the lively hostess Ms. Tamara Schneider.
The day ended at 4Process a local IT Company – which is an established SAP service provider with a predominantly regional focus in south-eastern Bavaria. As a full-service ERP provider, 4process offers its customers a holistic solution and consulting portfolio in the following business areas: 1.ERP - Enterprise Resource Planning. 2.BI - Business Intelligence. 3.HCM – Human Capital Management and 4. SAP Cloud Solutions. A presentation of the Company overview and a very candid and open sharing by the Managing Director Mr. Gerhard Steinhuber about the operations, challenges faced by the company during pandemic.
On 15.07.2022, the Indian Group met the Founder and CEO of ICUnet Group – Dr. Fritz Audebert who shared his entrepreneurial journey and had a carefree chat with all the participants. Snacks and refreshments served at the terrace in the HQ of ICUnet overlooking the beautiful River Danube. This was followed by session with one of our internal Trainers Debora Guerrero Liera who took a wrap up and feedback for week one.
Weekends were for cultural activities for the group to explore the city or nearby areas on their own or carry on with their networking meetings. For those who stayed back with the Group, a lovely 2 hours boat river ride on River Danube where we passed scenic castles and villages into the Austrian border. Lunch was at the Restaurant in the castle on top of the hill (Veste Oberhaus) where we get panoramic views of the meeting of 3 Rivers - the Danube, Inn and Ilz.
The last Company visit on 18.07.2022 was at Thomas Krenn in Freyung. This group learnt insights into how a small IT Company in Germany is coping with tough markets globally and their strategy and innovation to keep up with the global trends. Thomas-Krenn.AG is a leading manufacturer of individual server and storage systems as well as a provider of solutions for data centers. Their online shop (thomas-krenn.com) offers customers a unique opportunity throughout Europe to configure customized servers with tested components in the shortest possible time and install them the very next day. The company produces all servers in Germany at the Freyung location. Since its foundation in 2002, Thomas-Krenn.AG has been growing steadily on its own.
Post visit at Thomas Krenn, lunch was thoughtfully organized at an Indian restaurant – Indien Dish, keeping in mind the cultural background of the group and the delicious heavy meal was fully digested with a walk in the Bayern Forest National Park near Freyung!.
The last day of the Programme was a Feedback session and training on current market trends in Germany by Thilo Beyer in the presence of Ms. Amal Othman, the GIZ representative who was in Passau for the presentation Certificate ceremony.
Some of the participants had arranged their individual B2B meetings with prospective clients and a deal or two with orders were also struck! This is the main purpose of such programmes organized by GIZ.
Feedback shared by some of the Participants reg. what they liked about the Programme or areas of improvement:
“Fantastic hospitality overall. Regarding B2B and the programme, I wish we had more handholding and support to reach out to potential customers because I certainly feel there is tremendous potential to add value to Germany.”
“The intention behind the programme, the arrangement for stay and most importantly all the mentors from ICUnet and GIZ.” – Mr. Jay Shah.
“Duration of stay has to be longer, extended support after training and Alumni network has to be built.”
“The cross cultural training, it helped me to understand German culture. Visits were nicely planned and the companies were warm to answer questions.” – Mr. Puneet Batra
“Earlier the programme was of 4 weeks and now of I week. The earlier programme helped to understand the German culture more than before. Also, the cooperation programme from ICUnet should be post 6 months from tis completion stay in Germany.”
“I Like the help and support given by Suryaa from India here in Germany. I came to know the German culture. I liked the panoramic views of the confluence of the three rivers in Passau.” – Mr. Arjun Agarwal.
