Export-Import Workshop

The much anticipated import and export workshop started on Wednesday, 14th January, 2015 with joint efforts of the volunteers, who managed to bring an experienced industrialist as well as a professor to renowned institutions Prof Saibal Chatterjee. The workshop continued for five days which included a last day factory visit.

Day  1 (14th January):

Prof.  Saibal Chatterjee, shared his experience on global trade and discussed about various aspects of global trade. The real life examples projecting such aspects were explained vividly. The culture of various countries affecting global trade was included in such professional discussion. The discussion included certain interesting personal experiences too. The aspects included language, currency, culture and technological aspects. He further added that international trade comprises of certain primitive factors like TIME, which is regarded as religion, CLIMATE, which dictates culture and choice of CURRENCY which is of utmost importance when it comes to international trade. Although these are basic factors but has a very big influence when it comes to international trade.

DAY 2 (15TH January):

On the second day, he equipped the students with the knowledge about how to start off a business from a “scratch” and the formalities leading to its beginning. He gave a brief idea about what is a business and explained its pros and cons as well. He further explained the need to make the business international and shared his personal experience of making it so. Basically to make the session quite interactive he showed a power point presentation, which was based on the topic “why go international?”, which vividly described almost all the factors affecting international business. He said factors like customer requirements and its fulfillment, identifying customer expectations and exceeding them are the most vital factors required in order to be successful.

DAY 3 (16TH January):

On the day 3, of the workshop Sir Chatterjee, threw light on some basic principles of business. Making it very clear to the students that business is just not about profits but about the dream to expand it beyond all the boundaries on the virtue of its GOODWILL, showed his true entrepreneurial skills .He mentioned that in order to be a successful trade person “uncompromising quest for quality” should be ones dream. He further discussed that a choice of the product and its life cycle in market should be analysed carefully before trading in it. He discussed about all the various challenges one might come across while importing and exporting and also the ways to overcome them.

DAY 4 (17th January):

The 4th day of the workshop dealt with documentation required in import and export business. He vividly described all the steps and documents required in the process like enquiry, quotation, identification of going rate pricing, market skimming and its penetration. He further went into the depth of pricing and its correct quotation importance and effect in the process of documentation. He made the students actively participate in his session by answering to their various queries and making it more interesting to them by sharing his personal life experience. He even drew up the logistics and introduced certain new INCOTERMS to the students issued by the International Chamber of Commerce to give them a clear logical view about the whole process and how to go about it.

FACTORY VISIT:

The students from the BESC were taken for a factory visit as a part of Export-Import Management workshop on 18th January of 2015. The factory named “Lokenath Chatterjee and Sons” situated in a small area near Kidderpore.

  The journey started with two buses. The duration of the visit was from 10 am to 12:30 pm. A total of 60 students visited the factory accompanied by Prof. Dilip Shah and Mr. Vijay Kothari.

 All the students and Prof. Dilip Shah and Mr. Vijay Kothari were welcomed to the factory by the company owner, Mr. Saibal Chatterjee. The students were assembled in his office where a brief idea about the company was given. The students then further proceeded to see the factory. The students saw the CNC (Computerized Numerically Controlled) room which included CNC machines by which the raw steel sheets were given the required shape. Basically the factory manufactures the best quality of tool holders required in automobiles. The factory was equipped with Swiss and German imported automatic machines. The students were also shown the manager’s room where the walls were covered with the requirements of consignment of products to the foreign dealers. The students went around the factory, clicked pictures. Finally students went to room upstairs where a discussion and a question- answer, doubt solving session was conducted. Then while departing the students took photos with Saibal Sir.

 All the students enjoyed the visit and returned to college by buses. In the factory visit all gained knowledge on how to develop strategies to enter foreign market and had much fun. The visit, being a part of Export- Import Management workshop, boosted the students to look forward to foreign trade.