The Higher Education Review

Today, students consider management studies as a golden ticket to a white-collar job, and it is the liability of the institutions to fulfill their quench for a successful career. Hence, in order to keep a tempo with the globalization of Management education in India, an international B-school, Firebird Institute of Research in Management was established in the Manchester of India, Coimbatore. The institute has been able to earn an exemplary position in the region by introducing programmes that are fully linked with the industry.

The two-year MBA/PGDM programme offered by the institution is drafted in a manner where each student acquires learning under the mentorship of a corporate executive. “Management education is about generating the human capital by sharpening their business acumen. Our institute guarantees the students to hone their skill sets in a perfect business school set up and multiply their experiences to shape the future managers,” says Dr. S.K. Sundararaman, Managing Trustee, Firebird Institute of Research in Management. The students of Firebird often draw the chance to develop a meaningful association with the industry people during their course of study. The five-month industry internship undertaken by the students assists them to be acquainted with the working environment. Almost all the companies now want to hire someone who has minimal experience and training in the industry. Given that, having the experience of extensive five-month of the internship programme inevitably helps the students to grab a better job in comparison to other B-School graduates.

Significantly, the institution has initiated the Centre for Leadership Development in January 2016, a one of its kind centers to sharpen the leadership skills of executives of all levels in the industry. The trainer of different programmes conducted under the flagship of the CLD consists of corporate leaders and educators from the industry.

Accepting the Challenges of the Industry
“Our students are trained in a manner where after entering the corporate arena, they are able to efficiently identify various issues and come out with the best possible solutions to tackle them through multifaceted skill sets,” claims Sundararaman. However, injecting these skill sets is near impossible if there is no backup of a team of faculty members who are proficient in the teaching-learning process. Where with the introduction of numerous B-schools in the country, the institutions are facing faculty crunch, Firebird Institute is beatified with 25 qualified faculty members to smoothen the instruction process.

In order to meet the needs of global standards, the institute invites an ample number of corporate executives as adjunct professors, along with professors from foreign universities on a visiting basis. The interactions with these pools of talents further enrich and enhance the knowledge and skills of the students. “Promoting diversity and tolerance in the institution, we not only make efforts to invite visiting faculty members from abroad but we are proud to have a French National, Prof. Madoun as a fulltime Professor, pouring insights into concepts which are globally practiced,” shares Sundararaman. The faculty members of the institution are highly motivated to improve the leadership qualities, teamwork and competencies of the students and prepare them to play a critical result oriented role in terms of changing an organization for the better. Boosting the recent trend of research and innovation in the business study, the faculty members challenge themselves on a daily basis to cultivate research- based learning and instigate the students to think innovative.

Mixing the Ideal Ingredients of Success
Established and supported by one of the largest Industrial Conglomerates in South India, Bannari Amman Group, Firebird Institute of Research in Management boasts to own a campus that is built with modern lecture halls, classy cafeteria, computer center, yoga and meditation hall and executive quarters. The library of the institute is stocked with a collection of scholarly books, various functional areas of Management, and off-line and online subscription to more than 500 international journals in Management. The architect, Siddarth G. Sankar who designed the campus of the institute even procured the State Commendation Award from the Indian Institute of Architects. “We presume that the learning environment to a great extent decides the learning outcome of the students, therefore, we have put our best efforts to offer students with all the amenities they desire for,” opines Sundararaman. The impressive learning environment of the institution makes the students industry-ready, resulting into attracting ace companies to recruit more skilled professionals from the Firebird. The institution has signed MoUs with multiple top-tier National and International companies ensuring 100 percent quality placements of the students by strengthening relationship with the industry. Today, Firebird is recognized for maintaining a balance between meeting the needs of the students and matching the expectations of the corporate world through proposing innovative courses for the 360- degree development of the students. “Being an autonomous institute under the approval of AICTE, Firebird has the liberty to decide both the curriculum and teaching-learning process, making it easy to prepare contents which is flexible in nature and is regularly updated in accordance with the industry needs,” concludes Sundararaman.