The faculty for the Programme includes senior industry leaders from India and Japan. The faculty from Japan comes under the technical collaboration and support from Japan International Cooperation Agency.

Prof. Shoji Shiba, a world-renowned authority in Breakthrough Management personally guides the programme. The first batch participants from the programme received overwhelming response and recognition from the industry. Prof. Shoji Shiba, Professor Emeritus, University of Tsukuba, Japan and Advisory Professor, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China, was also the Adjunct and Visiting Professor at MIT from 1990 to 2004. In 2002, he was awarded the Deming Prize for Individuals and nominated as member of the International Academy for Quality in 2003. He has published his book titled “Breakthrough Management” in Japan, India, USA, China and France.

Having decided to dedicate his time to India in 2004, Prof. Shoji Shiba formed a Learning Community of manufacturing companies along with CII. In 2006, Prof. Shiba decided to participate in the transformation of Indian Manufacturing sector towards becoming more competitive and to create a unique 'Indian Way'. The culmination of this decision is the VLFM Programme.

Apart from Professor Shoji Shiba, other proposed faculty in this programme includes Japanese experts, Indian industry experts and faculty from IIT Kanpur, IIT Madras, IIM Calcutta and CII.

Some of the Japanese experts who supported the programme for Batch 1 include the following:

• Mr. Kenji Murakawa
• Mr. Takeyuki Furuhashi
• Mr. Keniichi Mori
• Mr. Katsuaki Tsurushima
• Mr. Geiichi Marushima

All Japanese experts visit the programme under the Technical Collaboration with and support from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

Each Module is guided by a Module Director who is a senior leader from the Indian manufacturing sector. The following persons supported the programme in Batch 1:

• Mr. Kiran Deshmukh, Deputy Managing Director, Sona Koyo
• Mr. G.Sunderraman, Vice President, Godrej & Boyce Manufacturing
• Mr. Saideep Rathnam, Dean, Anand University
• Mr. Dinesh Sharma, General Manager, Sona Koyo

For batch 2, the faculty includes Module Directors and Deputy Module Directors, who come from the 1st Batch of the Programme.

A number of senior industry leaders such as Mr. Jamshyd N. Godrej, MD, Godrej & Boyce, Dr. J.J.Irani, Director, Tata Sons, Mr. Anajani Kumar Chaudhuri, Vice President, Mahindra & Mahindra, share their experiences with the participants.

The programme also includes sessions with Art Historians, Dance Exponents, Sports Personalities and experts in Global Etiquettes and Social Cultures.