IMC Awards 2015 : Finalists to be announced soon..

IMC Award 2015 Finalists will be announced this week and will be invited to present their cases at the 6th IMC Conference on July 29-30.

IMC Awards 2015 saw 60+ nominations from B-schools from all parts of India on three contemporary themes: ‘Making Industry-Institute partnerships work’, ‘Attracting ideal Participants Profile in MBA class’ and ‘Innovations in Teaching Methodology’.

Award Jury Dr Shekhar Chaudhari, Former Director, IIM Calcutta (Jury Chair), Mr Sanjeev Kumar Gupta, Managing Director – H&PS, Govt Relations and Corp Affairs, Accenture India and Dr Sesha Iyer, Former Director of SP Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR) are in the final stages of selecting the Finalists. Emphasizing the importance of IMC Awards platform, Dr Chaudhari said, “The core objective of IMC Awards is to identify, document and recognize the Best-practices and successful initiatives undertaken by Indian B-schools on contemporary themes.”

Awards 2015 received an overwhelming response. Let’s look at the three themes and participating institutions.

IMC AWARDS 2015 THEMES OVERVIEW

Theme 1: Making Industry-Institute partnerships work: Lessons from Successful collaborations 
The importance of building strategic relationships with Industry cannot be over emphasized. It can positively impact the curriculum, facilitate research and knowledge creation, improve employability, raise funds for new infrastructure, and many other areas. However, B-schools aspiring to get engaged with industry partners must answer a pragmatic question – why should industry, ever short of time and bandwidth, engage with them? Are you likely to solve problems in areas like providing skilled talent that require less training, or conducting research in areas of a firm’s strategic interest or contribute in some other areas that firm values? If a B-school can be the Solution, and not just be a Seeker, the chances of deeper engagement with industry will be much higher.

Award 2015 Nominees have effectively engage with industry, in areas such as:

1. Launching Joint-Programs with Industry Partners
2. Developing Center for Excellences to create industry-relevant research & knowledge
3. Curriculum development through industry consultation
4. Comprehensive industry exposure through innovative internships & live projects
5. Any other approaches to deepen Industry-Institute engagement

Participating institutions in this theme include BML Munjal University, Gurgaon; Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai; Hyderabad Business School, GITAM University, Hyderabad; IES Management College and Research Centre, Mumbai; IFIM Business School, Bangalore; Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Kashipur; Institute of Management Technology (IMT), Ghaziabad; Institute of Management Technology (IMT), Hyderabad; Symbiosis Centre For Management And Human Resource Development (SCMHRD), Pune; Symbiosis Institute of Media And Communication(SIMC), Bangalore; Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication (SIMC), Pune; Symbiosis Institute of Operations Management (SIOM), Nasik; Symbiosis Institute of Telecom Management (SITM), Pune; Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar (XIMB); XLRI, Jamshedpur. (all names in alphabetic order).

Theme 2: Attracting ideal Participants Profile in your MBA class
Attracting the ideal participants for a MBA class is perhaps the most strategic input that goes into building the competitiveness of a B-school. B-school leadership & Admission Heads have twin challenges to handle – to boost the overall application size, at the same time improving the quality & diversity of applications.

Progressive B-schools in India and Abroad have taken strategic initiatives to successfully engage with prospective applicants for different objectives. Let’s review a few.

Gender Diversity
Women candidates make up a high 41 % of Harvard Business School’s class of 2016! At Wharton, and at Stanford Business school, the corresponding numbers are 40 percent and 42 percent. By comparison, IIMA and IIMB admitted only 21 and 27% of women candidates in 2015. Still not satisfied with 41 women candidates in its class, HBS has taken a new initiative in 2015 titled HBS PEEK Weekend, an on-campus 5 day educational experience for only women college students to increase their knowledge and engagement with management education.

Attracting younger/older student profile
Getting candidates with diverse work experience is challenging. Indian School of Business (ISB) created Young Leaders Programme to expand their catchment to undergraduate students. This course makes undergraduate candidate eligible for guaranteed admission to the one year PGP at ISB, if they complete 21 months of work experience. This has created a new segment for ISB.

Past IMC Award winners like Symbiosis Institute of Media & Communications, Pune (‘Campus Connect’) and TAPMI (‘Experience TAPMI’), which won 2014 Award have designed similar programs for prospective student engagement.

Award 2015 Nominees have effectively engage with industry, in areas such as:

1. Digital Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Mobile Marketing, deploying CRM Tools etc
2. Targeting new applicant segments & designing segment specific marketing plans
3. Designing marketing and engagement programs to attract International Students
4. On-ground innovative initiatives to engage with prospective candidates
5. Any other approach to enhancing quality and size of applicant pool

Participating institutions in this theme include Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan’s Usha & Lakshmi Mittal Institute of Management (BULMIM), New Delhi; Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai; Jaipuria Group of Institutes; JK Business School, Gurgaon; Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (SIBM), Pune; University of Petroleum and Energy Studies (UPES), Dehradun (all names in alphabetic order).

Theme 3: Innovations in Teaching Methodology
While there is a broad consensus on what must be taught in a B-school curriculum, ‘how we teach’, or the Pedagogy, makes a big difference to student satisfaction and employability. Across the World, in addition to traditional approaches like Case-method or Lectures, there has been a call for innovation in teaching methodology.

While HBS, Darden, and closer home IIMA, thrive on Case-method, Lectures dominate Chicago BOOTH, Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School and IIM Calcutta. These two predominant tools are undergoing innovations with Video-cases, Flipped-classrooms etc. Of late, Experiential approaches like team challenges, simulations, field work, industry-focused immersion experiences, career treks have caught on. HBS Dean Nitin Nohria famously initiated the Field Immersion Experiences for first-year students, which offers small-group learning experiences.

HBS’s Dr Srikant Dattar and others are championing the use of ‘Design Thinking’ in MBA curriculum which allows students to develop basic skills in creative problem solving, innovation, and human-centered design thinking. Technology aided pedagogical tools like advanced Learning Management Systems (LMS), M-Learning, flipped-classrooms, leveraging MOOCs are gaining currency too.

Closer home, in India, Great Lakes ‘Karma – Yoga Leadership Experiential Project’ which won IMC award in 2013 has successfully innovated to create an immersive socially-relevant leadership development experience for its students.

Award 2015 Nominees have effectively engage with industry, in areas such as:

1. Developing & Leveraging Cases
2. Leveraging Experiential tools & Action Learning
3. Integrating Design thinking and other problem solving concepts in classroom
4. Leveraging Technology to aid teaching-learning process
5. Other areas of pedagogical innovations

Participating institutions in this heavily contested theme include AIMS Institute of Higher Learning (AIMS), Bangalore; Amrita School of Business, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore; Apeejay School of Management, New Delhi; Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan’s Usha & Lakshmi Mittal Institute of Management, New Delhi; School of Management, BML Munjal University, Gurgaon; BNM Institute of Technology, Bangalore; Dayananda Sagar Business School, Bangalore; IES Management College and Research Centre, Mumbai; IFIM Business School, Bangalore; Jagannath International Management School (JIMS), Kalkaji, New Delhi; Jagan Institute of Management Studies (JIMS), Rohini, New Delhi; K J Somaiya Institute of Management Studies & Research, Mumbai; Mulshi Group of Institutes, Pune; National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE) Mumbai; S P Jain Institute of Management & Research (SPJIMR), Mumbai; SCOPE Institute of Business Management, Bhopal; Symbiosis Centre For Management And Human Resource Development (SCMHRD), Pune; Symbiosis Institute of Media And Communication(SIMC), Bangalore; Symbiosis Institute of Operations Management (SIOM), Nasik; T. A. Pai Management Institute (TAPMI), Manipal; Vignana Jyothi Institute of Management (VJIM), Hyderabad; Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS), Mumbai (all names in alphabetic order).

As per the rules of IMC Award process, the Jury will be selecting the top initiatives in each of the above four categories, and will be inviting them to make a presentation at the 6th Indian Management Conclave on July 29-30. Based on the presentations, Jury chair will then decide the IMC Gold and Silver Winners in each category.

 

Source : mba universe

Date : June 23, 2015