The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCC&I) and Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIMC) organized a Discussion Forum: Multinational Enterprises and Their Subsidiaries: The Changing Role on 18th February 2014 at The Park Hotel, Kolkata.

IIMC had authored a case study about multinational Global In-house Centres (GICs) with a focus on the transformation at Microsoft India. The Case Report was released in Kolkata on this occasion. The Bengal Chamber hosted the programme.

The GICs that began by doing back-office operations have moved a long way to become key players in the global design and growth of the company. GICs have matured over these years. They have built expertise; have developed leadership and credibility that are integrated with the parent company. More important, the median age of GICs in India is 8 to 10 years and they have moved from execution centres to expertise centres.

The Bengal Chamber is always eager to embark on endeavours to develop and share knowledge which will lead to sustainable development of our business and economy and this was an outcome of this though process.

Shri Partha Chatterjee, Hon’ble Minister-in-Charge, Information Technology and Electronics and Parliamentary Affairs, Government of West Bengal was the Chief Guest. Shri S C Tewary, IAS, Principal Secretary, Information Technology and Electronics, Government of West Bengal was present. Dr. Saibal Chattopadhyay, Director, Professor of Operations Management, IIMC; Mr. Raj Biyani, Managing Director, Microsoft IT India and Mr. Salil Dave, Senior Director, Microsoft IT were also present. Dr. Indranil Bose, Professor of Management Information Systems, Coordinator of IIM Case Research Center, IIMC who was the architect of the Case Study made a presentation on the theme. Mr. Rafeeq Ellias, noted Documentary Maker, introduced a documentary on the transformation at Microsoft which was also shown to the audience.

The programme got wide coverage in the media. Over hundred guests attended the programme including some very senior representatives from the IT industry and IT user sector (corporates).