Attitude and aptitude to learn are what we look for in a student, says Dr. Lakshmi Mohan, ITM Business School

In this Take 5-Series with Shiksha, Dr. Lakshmi Mohan talks about what's unique about studying management at ITM, Navi Mumbai; the kind of student projects, internships and placement opportunities that students have; the best programmes to study here and how does one secure admission to them.

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

The landscape of business is ever-changing and innovation is inevitable for the progress of mind and education. ITM Business School allows exploration in a variety of forms by students and faculty, who are our drivers of innovation.

• Five months Internship with Faculty and Industry Mentors for every student makes our teaching highly industry-integrated. It provides a great opportunity for students to acclimatize to corporate culture and provides ITM students an excellent blend of attitude, skill and knowledge and for many, it is a PPO to their credit.

• Live Projects and Operation Workouts provide specific focused experiential learning for students at ITM. Our Retail Lab, HR Lab, Fintech Lab and Entrepreneurship Cell are live learning atmosphere that we have created on campus for students to feel, sense and learn with conviction.
• Entrepreneurship Cell at ITM popularly called E-Cell does commendable work in fostering entrepreneurial mindset. Success and failure stories of entrepreneurs, workshops on idea generation, business plan, funding and most importantly, encouraging students to set up campus ventures are some of the things that the E-Cell does. Realizing the importance of digital marketing, the students were put through online experience with the help of Business Choupal which is a marketing simulation carried out on campus that provides experiential learning of sales and marketing. At ITM, we take pride in continuous transformation and in blending learning to the business environment.
• Leadership Lab was set up this year to emphasize the physical, mental, social and spiritual well-being of students. The lab is action packed with challenges that put the students through self-analysis, leading them to overall development.
• Markedemics was introduced in order to bridge the industry-academia gap to a certain extent. It is designed and certified by certain organisations and was a great hit with students as they were on new learnings like Machine Learning, Mobile Marketing, Content Marketing and others.

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

We focus on ASK- Attitude, Skill and Knowledge Development in every student. We build industry-readiness through various activities, teaching pedagogy, events and take them through an experience.

Live projects with Digicore, ITC, Pantaloons and several organisations gave the students hands-on experience. We approach organisations to provide live cases that students are expected to solve, thus giving them exposure to decision making.

An army of trainers called "Talewind" work tirelessly on improving communication skills and aptitude of students. Every student is provided with a faculty mentor and corporate mentor to provide the right career guidance.

Our curriculum undergoes a 360-degree transformation to tweak the learning to suit industry needs. This is done through our Advisory Board which comprises of senior corporates and alumni who provide valuable inputs to shape and redesign the curriculum.

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

In order to qualify for the institution, a student must have-

• Attitude and aptitude to learn
• An academic score of 50% and above in graduation, as prescribed by AICTE
• Decent entrance test scores

As an institution, we are broad-minded and believe that every student is capable of success if he has the grit to unleash his potential. A composite result of extra-curricular achievements, work experience if any, communication & presentation skills, decent academic and entrance test scores are key attributes to qualify for ITM.

To get good grades, a student should be involved in a variety of learning activities, make serious and sincere efforts, align with the goals of the institution and take up challenges. 

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

ITM offers 10 specialisations and each one is unique in its offering. This year we have added tech-based programs like Business Analytics, Fintech, and Digital Marketing and Transformation. Our innovative culture and unique teaching pedagogy are differentiators. We have more than 350 companies on campus to select our students; such kind of industry recognition is our largest motivator.

Q: What are you doing to drive better campus placements for your current students and alumni? What kind of jobs routinely come to campus? 

As ITM Business School enjoys industry-recognition for being an acclaimed institution for the past 28 years, campus placements are on auto mode. Nevertheless, we have our battalion of campus relations managers working towards placing every student. Our goal is to reach 100% placements and we don’t stop till every student is placed. Industry trusts that ITM can provide the best of candidates only because we have been preparing the students to be corporate-ready with our robust curriculum.

The placement season saw many companies from different sectors visiting the campus for selecting the candidates. BFSI sector has occupied the highest percentage of offers in mid-management roles.

Companies visiting for recruitment

Courses offered by the college