We ensure complete readiness of students to join corporate world through Learn-Imbibe-Apply vision, says SBS Director

In a conversation with Director Dr Neha Sharma at Shanti Business School (SBS), Shiksha.com shares how the curriculum is designed at their School that helps them prepare students for the industry. She elaborates on their three building-block strategies and a vision of ‘Lean-Imbibe-Apply’. Dr Sharma has over 25 years of vast academic and corporate experience. She holds a Masters in Business Administration and Doctoral Degree in the area of Services Marketing.

Read the excerpts of the interview below:

Q: What is the difference between the teaching methodology in your institute and others?

A: At Shanti Business School (SBS) the courses which we offer are divided in three building blocks first one is the executive skill block consists of courses to ensure corporate readiness,  such as Advanced Excel, personality development and grooming, numerical analysis, language skills and corporate ingression skills. Second is the foundational building block, where we offer core management courses such as research methods, business ethics, legal aspects, operations research and management principles. And, third is the management domain in which students gain knowledge regarding various functional areas of management such as marketing, finance, HR, Communication and decision science. So, the curriculum every semester consists of courses from each of these building blocks, which helps the students to develop themselves in Industry ready professionals with a holistic understanding of management discipline. The competitive advantage of SBS over others is that we believe in cross-disciplinary learning by deploying new age teaching methods and our faculty team continuously endeavours for innovation in their teaching through relevant quality research work.

Q: How are you preparing your students to be Industry ready?

A: The entire approach of SBS which ensures complete readiness of students to join the corporate workforce as a productive member can be summarised in three words Learn-Imbibe-Apply. We have a robust group of full time, adjunct, visiting and alumni faculty supported by industry and international experts to engage the students. SBS offers a dynamic yet well-structured ecosystem for the overall growth and development of our students through a series of exciting activities, events, workshops, industry and community immersion, summer internship and global exposure. All our full-time faculties have either completed their Doctorates or have submitted their thesis from noted universities of India. A very strong industry perspective provided by the promoters through their multi-sector industry experience also enhances the level of preparations our students undertake to become industry-ready. We also have a unique mentorship programme in place in which students are divided into small groups and each group is mentored by a faculty, it helps the students to better connect with the programme and overcome any hurdles he or she is facing, students are always at the center of our each and every policy.

Q: What quality do your students have which other college students lack?

A: Students at SBS come from all across India after clearing required entrance tests and selection procedure of the institution, so they already possess some amount of analytical and interpersonal skills which we polish further during the course duration. The culture of SBS is such that from day one students start to take initiatives related to curricular and extracurricular activities, one of our annual events Baudhhika is completely managed by our students, other than this we have various student clubs related to academic and sports which our students are running successfully every year. So the quality of our students to take ownership of brand SBS is what sets them apart.

Q: Do you think the curriculum of the courses taught in your institute fits in the requirement of the industry?

A: At Shanti Business School the curriculum that we design is at par with the top-notch B-Schools and universities of India, SBS has always been known for offering unique and industry-relevant courses in all its seven specialisations, in fact, we were one of the initial institutions where the specialisation of Decision Science started. Every year our faculty team in consultation with industry experts redesigns the curriculum to offer such courses which can give a competitive advantage to our students not only in traditional courses but also in emerging areas like digital marketing, business analytics and financial modelling etc.

Q: Is your college receptive to the innovation, technology, science & entrepreneurship?

A: I would like to quote a few examples on how SBS is receptive:

• Innovation and technology use during COVID 19 lockdown: SBS has successfully executed the summer internship training and learning of students by using online platforms, The entire process of summer Internship has been divided into three phases, the first phase is about learning through online certificate courses and online sessions from Industry experts, the second phase is about doing the project work allotted by industry under the guidance of faculty mentor and corporate mentor and the third phase is about suggesting unique insights to the corporate through in-depth research projects which can be implemented by organisations to strategize further
• Entrepreneurship: We offer Entrepreneurship specialisation and we see large benefits for students selecting it, in order to enrich the students with maximum learning our faculties in due course of time have developed a strong orientation and resources to make our student's job givers. We organise Hackathon which is a festival of business ideas and it provides a platform to students in which they can interact with startup entrepreneurs, mature entrepreneurs and they also get practical insights to implement their business ideas. SBS always provide all the necessary support and ecosystem to its students.