Winds of Change in Private B-Schools this year

The course MBA is more than 100-years old now and the qualification has dramatically changed from the time it first began to be taught. Once upon a time, MBAs were intended for jobs in banks, finance, consulting etc. Now you have MBA courses tailor-made for those who have to enter the public sector, for budding entrepreneurs, even for NGO management.  Indian B-schools too have felt the winds of change and have started introducing new, relevant and interesting courses and out-of-the-box/out-of-classroom teaching methods to keep at par with each other and with global schools.

Such changes have emerged mainly in the private schools since they are autonomous and can tweak their curriculum whenever they want. Based on suggestions and opinions from the students, faculty, alumni and the industry, many initiatives are being added to various schools’ MBA programs this year. Let’s take a cursory glance at the new courses being introduced by different b-schools:

Xavier Labour Relations Institute, XLRI, Jamshedpur has introduced as well as revamped existing courses:

• ‘Sustainable Development as Corporate Strategy’ is a course that has been refashioned to focus on the environmental impact of corporate initiatives.
• ‘Managing Redundancy’ is a course that has been introduced to teach MBA-HR students to deal with the challenges arising due to the increased use of technology.
• ‘Ethical Ways of Running a Business’ is a course that is mandatory for all students.

Out-of-Classroom initiatives include making students spend three nights in a village where they’re encouraged to interact with the villagers and get to know their problems. XLRI also has collaboration with the Tata Steel Adventure Foundation (TSAF), run by the legendary Bachendri Pal. All XLRI students have to attend an adventure camp which includes water sports and rock climbing, supervised by TSAF.

Management Development Institute,(MDI), Gurgaon has introduced 2 new courses in their HR program : ‘Management of Creativity & Innovation in Organizations’ and ‘Employer Branding”. MDI has also introduced a course called ‘Social Conscientization’ to focus more on ethics in HR. There is a new course in Operations as well; ‘Manufacturing Process Management’ is all about the use of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP).

Symbiosis Centre for Management and Human Resource Development (SCMHRD), Pune has introduced a couple of interesting courses in Marketing and HR: ‘Luxury Management’ that offers insights on management of luxury brands and ‘Idle Time Management’ that deals with utilization of the non-work times in the IT and the manufacturing industry. Apart from these new courses, SCMHRD has increased the weightage of a course in Finance ‘Infrastructure Management’ to 100 credits and has also increased the focus on the environment aspect of its course ‘Infrastructure Management’.

S. P Jain Institute of Management & Research (SPJIMR), Mumbai has made ethics an integral part of the curriculum with a weightage of almost 40% in a trimester. It has also introduced a course ‘Management through the Bhagvad Gita’ where students analyze the Gita text for management lessons. SPJIMR also has an outside-classroom program called ‘Abhyudaya’ where students mentor 150 students selected by the b-school from various municipal schools in Mumbai. Students have to compulsorily spend 2 hours every 2 weeks with their ‘mentees’, guiding them academically and in their extra-curricular activities.

Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS), Mumbai is also planning a course on Ethics along the lines of SPJIMR's ‘Management through the Bhagvad Gita’ course. It has also increased the component of ethics in the mandatory course ‘Corporate Social responsibility’. In Marketing, it has introduced a ‘Sports Management’ elective that evangelizes the use of sports as a long-term strategic platform to engage consumers of different categories. NMIMS has also made the marketing simulation game ‘Markstrat’ a compulsory part of their curriculum. The course ‘Environment Management’ has been made compulsory for all students. In addition to this, there is the ‘WeCare’ initiative, where NMIMS students spend three weeks working in an NGO. A remarkable learning methodology/non-classroom initiative they have involves sending the students on a treasure hunt around the city of Mumbai, where they have to use local transport and communicate in the local language (Marathi) to ‘find the treasure’.

Mudra Institute of Communications (MICA), Ahmedabad has introduced a couple of interesting courses in Marketing: ‘Luxury Management’ that offers insights on management of luxury brands and a ‘Sports Management’ elective that evangelizes the use of sports as a long-term strategic platform to engage consumers of different categories.

It is apparent that across various management schools, Ethics and HR policies are undergoing a revamp, with equal stress being laid on Environmental Sustainability and off-campus learning initiatives. What remains to be seen is whether these courses will add value to the MBA program.

Author: Nishatha Abraham Bijeesh