L.N. Welingkar Institute of Management: A Blender of Skills

A towering white building with a cavernous mouth for an entrance and green and purple patches of colour on its façade distinguish the campus of L.N. Welingkar Institute of Management from the other colleges lining L.N. Road in Matunga in central Mumbai.

"The idea was to create open spaces while also providing the feel of walking into an educational institution," said Uday Salunkhe, director of the institute, explaining the campus design.

"It's all about vertical growth in Mumbai," he added.

For Welingkar's, vertical growth has been as much about its swanky new building as about its fast rise as one of the country's finest management schools.

In the second HT-TNS survey this year, Welingkar's ranked 16, climbing 27 rungs from its 43rd place last year. The institute prides itself on constant innovation, the most likely factor helping it gradually consolidate its position.

"It's critical to identify new areas and move away from the typical management silos," said Salunkhe, also an alumnus of the institute. "We have understood that people need a blend of skills, beyond just functional expertise in one area."

The newly instituted post-graduate diploma in management (PGDM) in e-business is the best example of this - marrying a technical and a management syllabus.

"Our credo has been to constantly challenge our own position and to ask ourselves how we can add value to what we are already doing," said Salunkhe.

Part of the strategy to push students into thinking differently is by approaching management education through diverse positions - from "immersive thinking" to mind mapping to case study.