Our curriculum design ensures there is least gap in academia inputs and industry expectation, says ISMR B-School Trustee

In a conversation with Shiksha.com, Trustee of ISMR - International School of Management & Research Dr Nilesh Bhutada talks extensively about all the efforts institute is putting to help future managers prepare well for the corporate world. He also shares the mantra for students to get through with the selection process and always stay ahead of others. Dr Bhutada is an alumnus of Symbiosis International University and Sri Balaji Society. He has over 13 years of experience in academia, management and as a motivational speaker.

Read the excerpts of the interview below:

Q: What are the three things that your institute is doing that will enable it to differentiate itself from competition?

A: ISMR B-School is a pioneer in applied management training and education. With the help of simulation techniques, we articulate the business environment in the campus and provide realistic exposure of the corporate world to our future managers. We believe management is the decision science driven by actual data and equipped with computational aids and applied quantitative techniques. Keeping this in mind, we provide our students with unconventional exposure through business analytics techniques apart from the university curriculum. The dedicated placement cell is not merely looking after the placement of students but it also acts as a catalyst in enhancing academic delivery by providing inputs to the curriculum so that the industry-academia gap is minimised.  

Q: What are the top three initiatives undertaken by you that are helping your students become more industry-ready?

A: We design our curriculum in such a way that there is the least gap in academia inputs and industry expectations. In this manner, we try our future managers to get connected with the industry. Our future managers are in constant touch with the corporate personnel either through guest lectures or as routine visiting faculty. This enables ISMR B-School, to bring in industry talent as an opportunity for the students to feel, experience, believe and adapt. We give liberty to the senior corporate stalwarts to interact, guide and groom/prepare our students’ through systemised efforts taken by our board of governance.

Q: What are the key attributes that a student should have in order to qualify for your institution and get good grades?

A: Apart from statutory eligibilities, we evaluate the aspiring students on the criterion of their overall awareness, adaptability and willingness to give their 100 per cent in all circumstances. Irrespective of their existing skillset, we firmly believe in the saying, “when there’s a will, there’s a way”. Our faculties are strong in their teaching pedagogy, they are on their toes to transform the students into future leaders by training and developing in them the industry essential skill sets.

Full or more than 90 per cent attendance is the basic requirement to achieve top grades in ISMR B-School. We also expect disciplined behaviour and active participation of the students in every event or activity organised by and in the institute. These activities are basically the part of our teaching pedagogies which lets us as well as the student themselves know or identify various skills in themselves such as leadership, teamwork and spot decision-making skills. These are few criteria to not only get the top grade in ISMR B-School but also inculcate and enhance various skills among the students. Student development is the primary motto of ISMR B-School. 

Q: Which programmes would you say are your best? What is it that helps your institution differentiate itself for this programme?

A: ISMR B-School provides a Master Degree in Business Administration (MBA) affiliated to Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune and Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management (PGDM) approved by AICTE. We at ISMR B-School don’t differentiate between our programmes. All the students get equal opportunities to learn and to get placed.  ISMR B-School stands ahead from other institutes because of the faculties that we have on our board. The second distinctiveness of the ISMR B-School is the international study tour provided to the students organised at Dubai. Our belief in boundary less teaching and practical teaching methodologies makes us different from other competing management institutions for the teaching pedagogy. We offer high calibre certification courses to the student, example for, MS Office Certification is provided directly by Microsoft Corporation. We also provide certifications from Cambridge for 13 different skill sets. These certifications are add-ons that help our students remain ahead of the curve.

Q: What are you doing to drive better campus placements for your current students and alumni? What kind of jobs routinely come to campus? What would you say are the key recruitment trends for your college (observed over the past five years)?

A: We believe in job by choice and not by chance. We do the SWOT analysis of our students and curate job opportunities fit for them. This activity is completely conducted by third-party HR professionals. We have dedicated industry professionals to our role in building corporate relations. We can proudly say that we have members of various industry associations on our board for facilitating long term corporate relations for our students and alumni. We provided placements to our students in various verticals such as Finance, Marketing, HR, Business Analytics and International Business. Our alumni are working in top-notch companies such as S&P Global, Allstate Solutions Pvt Ltd, Yazaki India Pvt Ltd and Jaro Education. Most of our students have placed in Marketing and Finance roles with the highest CTC up to Rs 12 lakh per annum