Keeping the Business Education Ahead of Time
Jaipuria School of Business (JSB) is a premier management Institute in Delhi-NCR area, founded by renowned Industrialist Late Dr. Rajaram Jaipuria in the year 2008. Located in the lush green campus at the posh Institutional area in Indirapuram, Ghaziabad, the B-School is one of the youngest among the Jaipuria Group of Educational Institutions set up by the House of Jaipurias, headed by Shri Shishir Jaipuria, Chairman and Managing Director of Ginni Filaments, a reputed Textile Company in India. Accredited with ISO 9001 certification, the JSB runs a two-year full-time PGDM programme, which is duly approved by AICTE with an operating capacity of 120 students.
While the world is in need of global thinkers than ever before, Indian business education is still running traditional management programmes that are not adequate to develop efficient managers. Dr. SK Mahapatra, Director, Jaipuria School of Business, opines, "The education system that exists in India today rewards students who can store and reproduce more information in the examination paper. Whereas the requirement of the world of work is for the graduates who can use the available information more at work and create real value for business and society." Like Dr. Mahapatra, most management gurus today, believe that there is apparently a huge disconnect between the syllabus and its practical utility. Indeed, it is true. Dr. Mahapatra adds, "Like the shelf life of any product or service, today the shelf life of knowledge-in-use is short."
In its short span of only nine years of existence, JSB has been able to consistently place near cent percent students from the campus.
Despite being a young business school in the country, the JSB has challenged the conventional methodologies of management education and achieved enviable results. Today, the students of JSB are not mere learners. They are thinkers and doers who know how to make business succeed. Through innovative coursework, access to the modern technologies and participation in internships and entrepreneurial activities, JSB students become experts in their chosen field while gaining a holistic understanding of the business. They know how to reach across to all business functions and connect the dots, build relationships and solve global business problems. "True excellence comes by practice, practice and more practice and that is what we have adopted as our succeed-mantra of for grooming our students,� claims Dr. Mahapatra.
Practice-Oriented learning
JSB has a state-of-the-art infrastructure with a sprawling campus spread over 5.5 acres at Indirapuram, Ghaziabad within Delhi NCR. Ergonomically designed and equipped with advanced safety features and facilities for 'differently-abled' people, the campus offers many opportunities for students and faculty members to take up cutting-edge practical studies. The Institute has five Centers of Excellence, established as Laboratories of Practice for the students, as it is widely felt in the corporate world that the classroom inputs for managerial aspirants have to be supplemented with hands-on practice.
"We have created these Laboratories of Practice, which are also referred to as Practice Centres to develop Excellence, to help the students practice in a focused manner," says Dr. Mahapatra. The Centres focus on five drivers of business success and sustainability. These are; Centre for Advanced Data Analytics, Centre for Creativity & Innovation, Centre for Change & Development, Centre for Diversity & Inclusiveness and Centre for Leadership Excellence. Dr. Mahapatra adds, "The case study method and simulation games are pass" now, as the uncertainties and imponderables are just too many to handle. Our five centres are the key differentiators acting as a bridge between theory and practice. The focus of each Centre is on a specific area of practice, which carry the roots of sustainability of success in future."
Located in the periphery industrial area of the National Capital, JSB students get easy access and opportunity to visit Industries nearby and work hands-on, in live projects to gather experience. Besides, the students' exposure to top corporate leaders is very high as the institute is able to bring to the campus CEO/CXO level people almost every week as part of their Leadership Talk series. The biggest advantage of our location is its proximity to the Thank Tank of the Nation. JSB regularly hosts Leadership Conclaves and Round Tables on Campus. Being part of NCR, the exposure of our students to the best resources of knowledge is a given reality," states Dr. Mahapatra. The number of corporate headquarters in NCR is very high and the higher the concentration of corporate companies in the vicinity, the greater is the chance for the students to get exposure for final placement and internship opportunities as per their natural inclination and choice.
An Excellent Faculty Team with a Well-Structured Curriculum
The academic architecture of the JSB is designed to excel. The PGDM syllabus of the institute inculcates the 21st-century competencies under the guidance of the Academic Advisory Council and Area Academic Advisors, comprising of eminent thought-leaders from academia, corporate and consulting domains. The PGDM curriculum consists of five components: Core Courses, Elective courses, Summer Internship Project, Immersion Courses and Personal Growth Labs, which are spread over six trimesters.
Indeed, the curriculum development process at JSB is unique. The academic architecture is approved by the Academic Advisory Council, which formally meets every year before the commencement of a new academic session and ratifies the syllabus and curriculum proposed by the Faculty. Currently, the JSB offers specializations in HR, Marketing, Finance, IT, Operations and LSCM. Each faculty area has a Domain Advisory Group consisting of senior corporate managers and eminent professors form peer campuses, to seek advice on a continuing basis for enriching the content and pedagogy, making it more relevant and useful. The Academic Advisory Council has equal representation from the industry and academia at the level of CEO/Director/Professors from reputed corporate firms and institutes.
Delivering the well-crafted curriculum of JSB is its excellent pool of faculty members. They are not only equipped with impeccable teaching skills, but also hold a tremendous acumen in research activities. "Research is an integral part of the phenomena of knowledge creation and it is essentially a collaborative process. The ideas can generate at some place, but it can incubate and grow at different places, in R&D centers within and outside the campus and country," opines Dr. Mahapatra. The faculty members of the Institute have outstanding credentials of collaborative research and publications, both at the national and international level. Dr. Timira Shukla, our Dean of Academics has been recently awarded at the Global Education and Skill Conclave for her outstanding contribution to Research." "A major step forward has been taken to create an institutional partnership model for research collaboration. We have signed MoUs with University of Central Missouri, U.S., and European Business School, Paris for collaborating in faculty research and intellect exchange programs," says Dr. Mahapatra.
By organizing National and International Conference on the areas of practical interest for society, the institute has been able to get excellent response from researchers worldwide. On 15 April 2017, Shri AN Nanda, Secretary, Govt of India, Prof. Dr. Pami Dua, Director of Delhi School of Economics and Prof IM Pandey addressed the National Conference on 'Financial Inclusion in Digital India' that saw a huge turnout of intellectual audience congregate at the India International Centre. The latest issue of the international journal of the Institute " OJAS, was released at the Conference. JSB is all set to hold an International Conference on 11th Nov 2017 at New Delhi and bring out a Book on "Changing Global Economic Scenario: Strategies for Business Sustainability". The International Conference is likely to see an assembly of most eminent intellectuals in India exchanging their thoughts.
At JSB, the faculty members nurture the students like a Gardner. "Each Faculty at our Institute has a formal role to mentor a certain number of students and the relationship begins right from the day the student gets into the campus. By the time the student leaves the campus, the mentor becomes his/her de facto parent," says Dr. Mahapatra. They guide the students through each task. Through the Summer Internship Projects, the students get a first-hand exposure to deploy research methodology which they have learned from faculty in undiluted form, live. "This helps them to stay objective in their approach to decision making in their future management career", opines Dr. NK Gupta, the Dean of Administration & Chief Mentor for SIPs.
Turning Career Dreams into Reality
"The days of tying up with Captive Recruiters are gone. The tie-up advantage of the past is considered now bondage for the future. The new way is building a sustained relationship with the corporate world," opines Dr. Mahapatra. JSB has a Corporate Relations Center (CRC), headed by a professional manager who maintains regular liaison with industries and acts as a listening and learning post for the Campus. The CRC finds out the needs of the corporate companies and offers solutions often going out of the way. Dr. Timira Shukla, Dean of Academics & Professor of Marketing, explains, If a company wanted deployment of a few students for mapping the market for certain products, we are ready to give them time-off from class and equivalent credit for experiencing a corporate duty. More often than not, such students draw early attention of the corporate and bring them to campus for hiring."
"We take special care to groom our students from greenhorns to business leaders through a unique programme of personal growth. Our Training and Placement Center has a policy of first listening to the requirements of corporate recruiters and then arranging for additional training inputs specific to the corporate, testing and making the student industry-fit before allowing the student to participate in the formal process of campus hiring by the recruiters," says Dr. Shukla. JSB has an excellent track record in grooming students and placing them. In its short span of only nine years of existence, JSB has been able to consistently place near cent percent students from the campus. Now, Dr. Mahapatra has a different challenge in his hand. He says, "The challenge is now not getting all the students placed, but in raising the bar in terms of quality of placements matching with individual aspirations as well as encouraging 'entrepreneurship' riding on the wave of 'start-up India'."
JSB does not run a separate program for entrepreneurship, as the institute believes that it has already created a good enough climate for the entrepreneurial seed to germinate and grow. "Innovation cannot be taught as such, but the stories of innovation and the biographies of great innovators can inspire the students to walk that path. Coupled with this strategy, if the right kind of questions is brought before the class, innovation would not be a far cry," states Dr. Shukla. The Centre for Creativity and Innovation at the JSB provides the ambience and the environment to tickle the brain and the students often get into the "exploring and imploring" mode to find new ways of solving the problems. To quote anecdotal evidence, recently, the JSB students worked on a project titled, 'Best out of Waste' and came up with many innovative ideas to channelize the waste products from daily use life for beneficial applications for society.
"Suffice it will be to mention that few of the alumni have become extremely successful entrepreneurs, having crossed the millionaire milestone and are running their own businesses as CEOs now. Many more are on the way, as we are working towards gifting a few entrepreneurs to the nation out of every batch passing out of our institute," shares Dr. Mahapatra.
The Future of JSB
Today, JSB aspires to be a future-ready academy. In its extended articulation, the institute has set a vision to become a fully integrated, socially responsible, contextually relevant, and value-based management institute of national reckoning by meeting the growing and emerging needs of industry and business through contemporary innovative management teaching, training, research and consulting. "Our aim is to be looked upon as a future academy on a mission to Mars. Our journey is into the future and hence it is a never-ending story for us and we cannot afford to take our guards down or keep our eyes off,- says Dr. Mahapatra.
JSB has identified the source of sustenance for the future and established the five practice centres around the five core themes, which will keep them always contemporary. "We are focused on excellence in leadership, change management, diversity and inclusiveness, tracking advances in usages of data analytics and fostering creativity and innovation; Not just in theory, but in practice as well, these traits are honed as our core strength for walking ahead into the future with confidence," concludes Dr. Mahapatra. JSB is indeed a B-School to watch.
Dr. SK Mahapatra, Director
Dr. Mahapatra has held leadership roles, in the corporate sector as well as in the academia. After a remarkable career in management at public sector behemoth SAIL for 17 years, he moved to academics as a Professor in HR at XIM, Bhubaneswar in the mid-career. His second stint in Corporate as Head of HR lasted for 12 consecutive years at four different places with reputed companies like Tata Metaliks, POSCO-India, Jindal Steel and Bajaj Power, until his final return to academia as Director of JSB. Dr. Mahapatra is a Past President of National HRD Network, BBSR Chapter and currently, he is a Senior Vice President at the CEGR. He has been on the board of several companies and academic bodies at several Universities. An alumnus of Hindu College, Delhi University he holds four postgraduate degrees and diplomas, and was awarded a Ph.D. from Utkal University.
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