"Life is a series of ups and downs. Life has the irritating and unnerving habit of throwing at you an unexpected surprise and you are expected to deal with it, resolve it and move on. I like to look at these ups and downs as experiences, which are necessary to widen your perspective, infuse a certain maturity of thought into your system and finally, through all these experiences propel you to take on initiatives that give you satisfaction and enrichment," says Prof. Bala V. Balachandran, Founder and Dean, Great Lakes Institute of Management, "Great Lakes Institute of Management is one such an experience."
Owing to its real-life based model of learning, the institute witnessed an astounding placement season in 2013 with over 200 corporations visiting the campus for recruitments. In the graduating batch of 358 students, 314 students took up job offers on campus, 15 returned to companies with which they were working prior to the program and 21 took up offers off-campus. 8 students set out on entrepreneurial journeys. The average CTC of the 2013 batch was Rs. 11 Lakhs.
What makes Great Lakes a Recruitment Hot-spot?
Great Lakes observed an increase of 28 percent in the number of recruiters during this season, spread across various sectors. The reason why the students of Great Lakes seem like metal to a magnet � the recruiters is its emphasis on development of its students with "a Global Mindset and Indian Roots," which is also the institute�s motto.
"Having realized the need to reinvent management education by offering academic programs that were impactful to students and would put them on a solid footing in the corporate world, Great Lakes started innovative courses to suit today�s requirements," says Prof. Balachandran. "Our curriculum has been tuned to fit the global standards with its fundamentals in the Indian roots for business and management," he adds. Great Lakes' flagship full time Post Graduate Program in Management (PGPM) helps transform high potential professionals in to competent business managers and decision makers in a short span of 1 year. The program is designed to make the students business-ready and capable of responding to complex business requirements that arise in a changing global business environment. Throughout the course of study, emphasis is placed on skill development, team-work, inclusivity principles and value-based management creating Business Ready Managers.
"The industry interaction at Great lakes is unparalleled. We get the opportunity to meet CEOs, Entrepreneurs and senior folks from the industry. The infrastructure, faculty and curriculum are top notch," says Tejas Deshpandey, Great Lakes, Class of 2013. The curriculum and goals of Great Lakes are designed after consultation with some of the foremost individuals that serve on the Business and Academic advisory board. The Business Advisory Council lists names such as Ratan Tata and Narayan Murthy among many other accomplished CEO�s and corporate gurus, and the Academic Advisory Council, headed by Dr. Bala V. Balachandran, lists numerous professors and academic experts from Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Kellogg and other prominent B-schools. The presence of these experts in the boards of the institute�s integral councils allows the students to gain crucial insights from them and experience valuable idiosyncrasies that are particular to the business world.
Akin to the degree of variety in its two councils, the faculty of Great Lakes consists of professional academicians who have degrees from leading American institutes such as Carnegie Mellon University, University of Maryland, Temple University, University of Tennessee, Kellogg school of Management and leading Indian B-schools such as the IIMs, upholding its motto of �Global Mindset and Indian Roots�. The faculty is actively involved in publishing leading journals worldwide on a consistent basis. While some full-time faculty - armed with a PhD from leading schools - have considerable research experience, others have extensive corporate experience in some of the finest companies, and thus ensuring students get an eclectic perspective of business issues. Full-time faculty undertakes consulting assignments for leading Indian and multinational companies which is an added bonus for the ecosystem. The institute also has
visiting faculty from the leading B-schools in the world such as Kellogg and Stanford.
Great Lakers� advantage � Diversity in Opinions
The Great Lakers do not fall behind when compared with the faculty and the curriculum of the institute � they come in all shapes and sizes; and every one of them has their own opinions.
"Only a handful of schools in India provide you with an opportunity to have such diverse group of people with industry experience as your batch mates," Sijo Kuruvilla George, CEO, Startup Village. (Alumnus of Great Lakes Institute of Management)
"It's up to the students to take advantage of what Great Lakes has to offer. You have access to good faculty, good colleagues and good infrastructure. Doing well in Great Lakes (not just academically) is probably a good indicator of your ability to do well in the industry. This is something that became clear very early in my year at Great Lakes and it has helped me in the long run," says Sitashwa Srivastava, Co Founder and CEO, Jade Magnet. (Alumnus of Great Lakes Institute of Management)
"Great Lakers are made up of a hoard of people from various backgrounds. We have IT professionals, dancers, journalists, and fashion designers. This allows us to get exposed to various thought processes and opinions, which is a step closer to the real life work scenario," says Tanushree who is currently pursuing her MBA in Great Lakes.
In hindsight, it is not quite surprising that Great Lakes Institute of Management has such immersive powers towards the recruiters and corporate firms with its iconic decision making councils, exceptional faculty members, and diverse group of students in the hands of a management guru as the Dean of the Institute. Great Lakers are truly in good standing as far as placements are concerned, in fact, one can go as far as to say that they are well set charge head on as life comes their way. The proof lies in the success of its alumni.
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