Sudhir Panditrao & Mangesh Wagh: A Duo Setting up the New Benchmarks in the Knowledge Sector

Sudhir Panditrao & Mangesh wagh enggenious

The lockdown due to the Covid19 virus has highlighted the need for internet-based learning.  Today, one can get anything he needs with a single click. The education sector is also taking a major part in this digital revolution. While there are several online learning platforms available in the market, users struggle to find a trustworthy platform that can help them in the learning process.

Keeping this need of users in mind, Mr. Sudhir Panditrao and Mr. Mangesh Wagh founded Enggenious, a strategic business unit at SAN Techno Mentors Pvt Ltd (STMPL).

Mr. Sudhir Panditrao is a founder and CEO, STMPL & Enggenious and Mr. Mangesh Wagh is a Partner, STMPL, and Founder, Enggenious.

In a talk with them, we discussed the current industry scenario and how they are taking the users learning experience to a new level.

Brief us about Enggenious.

Enggenious is a learning solutions expert in engineering and manufacturing domains. Enggenious design and deliver technology-enabled learning solutions for the said domains.

With a large pool of subject matter experts (SMEs) with strong industry and brilliant academic backgrounds, experienced instructional designers (IDs), and creative visualizers together; Enggenious creates meaningfully engaging and lasting learning experiences that are beyond books and theories.

Enggenious is a strategic business unit at SAN Techno Mentors Pvt Ltd (STMPL). Founded in 2006, STMPL has been into conventional classroom training and mentoring for engineering and manufacturing companies. Having worked with large Indian and foreign corporations in this space, STMPL is ably equipped with the know-how of designing learning solutions for manufacturing professionals; whether they are freshers graduate engineering trainees or senior, mid, or senior engineers, managers, and leaders.

STMPL is founded & managed by a group of IIT & COEP alumni with long years of professional experience in diverse industry verticals. Team composition – 60 plus ex-IITs, ex-COEP, PhDs subject matter experts with an average of 30 plus years of experience in industry & academia, digital media experts, experienced instructional designers & developers.

STMPL is a part of the SAN Group. Established in 1990 and has 6 companies in product design, electronic manufacturing, industrial automation, data connectivity solutions, instrumentation, and value engineering domains. SAN group has a presence in India & middle-east presence and works with a global clientele.

What were the initial challenges you faced? 

Enggenious always knew that we had the best possible subject matter expertise in engineering and manufacturing domains. Our experts had delivered conventional training and mentoring programs for all types of profiles. However, they didn’t have a feel for developing eLearning content. While core subject expertise doesn’t change, eLearning needs a different view and treatment as compared to the conventional classroom or in-person mentoring. Sometimes your 25th slide of presentation in-classroom training needs to be your 1st screen of the eLearning content package. It took some time and skillful workouts with experts to get them in the eLearning zone.

Which was that point that triggered the growth of Enggenious?

When we were deliberating initially about developing eLearning and other tech-enabled learning solutions in the context of our existing conventional training offerings, we could articulate for ourselves – “This is the opportunity to create a larger value for our clients; high-quality digital learning solutions with pay-as-you-go model”.

This ‘larger value’ statement changed our perspective and triggered the growth. Enggenious now have a catalog of highly effective and engaging eLearning courses. Above that, we are creating awesome blended learning solutions with a well-crafted mix of synchronous and asynchronous modes of learning.

Enggenious is working on the localization of our eLearning courses in Indian regional languages. That will add a lot of value to a large population working in engineering and manufacturing domains.

What is the reason behind Enggenious’s long-standing success?

  1. In one line – we are enjoying what we are doing. Learning is a joy. Ask anyone. You learn something new, you are happy. If you have someone who helps you learn well, makes it interesting, is not preachy but a buddy; you will have a great time learning. This is what our clients have experienced over the years. It has been reflected in the top and bottom lines of clients as well.
  2. We have been constantly looking to innovate at the very core of the learning process – andragogy. It has helped us create some exciting courses on difficult technical subjects.
  3. We have adopted global technological trends well. For example, we have mastered Digital manufacturing, Industry 4.0, and created comprehensive learning solutions on those. Very large manufacturing companies have been continuously working with us to make themselves Industry 4.0 ready. Based on the target audience and learning objectives, we have created learning solutions of small duration like half-a-day to three months long championship programs. Those programs include both synchronous and asynchronous modes – eLearning, live lectures, recorded lectures, hands-on, interesting online gamified assessments, case solving, hackathons, and more.

The law of value: Your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment.

The Go-Giver

What are the products/services Enggenious focuses on?

Off-the-shelf eLearning courses – online subscription or package buying

  • Custom-developed eLearning and microlearning courses
  • Innovative blended learning courses; pre-packaged and custom
  • LMS based competency assessment solutions; pre-packaged and custom

How do you decide to take Enggenious a step further in terms of your products/services?

Our journey has only begun. We look to create an unseen value proposition for engineering and manufacturing domains. Not just a learning solutions partner but a learning culture partner for manufacturing companies, individual professionals, and even for the students preparing themselves for a profession in the engineering fields. We will impact the top lines, bottom lines of the companies with well-researched and awesomely built learning offerings.

One obvious feature would be the use of the latest technology and tools to enhance learners’ experience and retention of knowledge. Continuous innovations on fronts of instructional design, delivery, assessments, and other aspects of learning – that’s assured. We are set to keep creating and maximizing the joy of learning.

Is there any new addition to the list of products/services? Anything exciting you would like to share?

We are looking to create or acquire a comprehensive learning experience platform. Our content will ride on that. We are looking to create cluster packages of courses, for example, a pool of courses for engineering trainees, another one for the beginners in digital manufacturing/Industry 4.0

We are localizing a few of our courses in Hindi and other regional languages.

Can you please brief us about your professional experience?

Sudhir Panditrao, Founder-CEO of SAN Techno Mentors has always been a passionate trainer with industry & academic experience of 34 years. BE Instrumentation & Control from COEP 1985 and later ME Instrumentation & Control from COEP in 2003. He brings this experience and techno-commercial acumen.

Mangesh Wagh, partner at SAN Techno Mentors and founder of the Enggenious business unit comes from the digital technology and media profession with experience of 16 years. BE in Production from COEP in 2001 and later PGDBM in Marketing from Indus Business Academy in 2005. Digital technologies as content development and delivery platforms and digital media expertise – that’s what Mangesh brings in.

eLearning is the need of the hour, a cliché, absolute truth, however. Generic benefits of eLearning like significantly low logistical overheads and hence the lower costs, better speed of training initiatives, ease of tracking, etc and the world knows about it. One of our major turn-ons in eLearning has been the creative visualization aspect. The core eLearning quality comes from there, we think. For the learner to gain complete clarity on technological/ technical concepts or aspects, content needs to be built with excellent creative visualization. After going through our courses when the learner says, “never thought it was that easy”…that’s the kick we live for.

How do you look after your employees? What makes your team unique?

The organization doesn’t look after the team. The team looks after the organization. Openness to ideas, the rewarding mindset of owning tasks, projects have helped us being a cohesive unit. We have a very healthy and happy ecosystem of internal team members, associates, and well-wishers.

Is there any special experience with your clients you would like to highlight?

In an exceptional case, one of our clients referred us to their competitors and helped us get large assignments there. We were doing a long-term mentoring assignment for a client. They appreciated our effort as it added significant value to their business. They referred us to 5 of their direct competitors; spoke to their MDs/Presidents and helped us get large assignments there. They thought of industry well-being rather than a narrow competitive mindset.

One person who you admire the most?

No singling out in this case. We admire ideas that are for large value creation by benefiting a large population including the bottom of the pyramid, as they call.

Whose business story do you find the most inspiring?

Again, nothing specific. But that business story impacted the lives of a large population positively.

Constant vigilance- a need or a strategy? Please share your views.

Being aware, an alert is required. Being suspicious and cautious creates harm.

It’s a rat race out there. How do you cope with that?

A price is a tool for rat-race. Creating more value for your customers is the way to go. From the book ‘The Go-Giver’,

Your income is determined by how many people you serve and how well you serve them. We feel this is the way to look at business and life as a whole. It wouldn’t be a rat race then.

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