Córdoba business leaders to train in Japan

The Agencia Competitividad Córdoba (AC) held a meeting where eight local executives and business leaders, who will travel to Japan on scholarships in the coming weeks, heard from past recipients and received key information about the trip, required documents and the training program. The meeting was led by AC President Fernando Sibilla, with the participation of the provincial agency's technical teams.

These scholarships are the result of a partnership between the ACC and Japan's Association for Overseas Technical Cooperation and Sustainable Partnerships (AOTS), the country's largest private-sector international economic cooperation organization, which promotes technical collaboration through training programs in Japan and abroad. Through this program, the ACC aims to foster the exchange of knowledge, experience, tools and corporate best practices, strengthening local talent through training that improves Córdoba's competitiveness.

This edition offers 25 places for all of Latin America, which makes it all the more significant that eight of them went to representatives from Córdoba. Sibilla noted that "sending these eight Córdoba companies to Japan will let them experience one of the world's leading cultures in productivity, organizational transformation and knowledge management."

"We have asked these companies to go and take in everything Japan is doing in these areas, and to share all that knowledge with their respective industries", the ACC president added.

For their part, the scholarship recipients agreed on the importance of this opportunity to gain new knowledge and on how useful that learning will be for their companies.

"We hope to gain a lot of experience from everything they show us in Japan: learning new management and leadership methods, and everything related to the great importance of people in companies", said Mauricio Giletta of Akron S.A, an agricultural machinery manufacturer from San Francisco, Córdoba.

Madelaine Montagner of Industrias Cormetal in Villa María, which makes semitrailers and trailers, sees the scholarship as a chance to "learn from the world's leading companies so we can adopt new technologies and disciplines".

Martín González, representing Centro Tecnológico Agropecuario in Hernando, which processes and exports peanuts, highlighted the value of "going to a place where people pursue the ideal in processes and leadership, and where people are taken into account in the workplace" when making decisions, which is "what we want to go and learn, and bring that knowledge back to our beloved Córdoba so we can keep growing. In return, we can contribute an Argentine's flexibility and problem-solving mindset."

The program is co-funded by AOTS, the ACC and the participants themselves.

The Córdoba participants will attend the Program on Organizational Revitalization for Latin America (LAOR). The eight selected are Juan Pablo Scavolini of Map S.A.; Mauricio Giletta of Akron S.A; Pedro Arnoletto of Cheapsun; Madelaine Montagner of Industrias Cormetal S.A.; Fernando Ascanelli of Ascanelli S.A.; Martín González of Centro Tecnológico Agropecuario S.A.; Jose Rolón Bustos of Corrugadora Centro S.A.; and Pedro Álvarez of Chammas SRL.

LAOR aims to help participants understand the attitudes of leaders who drive organizational revitalization, learn from Japanese companies that have embedded their management philosophy and implemented organizational development initiatives, and recognize their own leadership role in revitalizing their organizations, improving productivity and developing specific action plans.

The two-week program runs from February 21 to March 5 at the AOTS Kansai Kenshu Center (KKC) in Osaka, Japan.