The Bangalore-based Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (SIBM Bangalore), not to be confused as SIBM Pune's counterpart, is just five years old and has managed to place itself among one of the top business schools in the region. Situated in close proximity of most MNC giants, the institute enjoys rich industry interaction. Its strategic location might be of help in terms of placements too with companies such as Accenture, Deloitte, HSBC and Wipro recruiting from the campus. Rajesh Panda, an IIM-Ahmedabad alumnus and the current director of the institute, has some intriguing plans for the years to come which he shared with Business Line on Campus. Excerpts:

What are your immediate plans for the institute?

Over a period of time, we would like to increase the faculty strength and encourage them to do more research with increasing focus on peer reviewed journals. This will bring name and fame to not only the professors but also the institute.

Second, from the students' point of view, to give them a holistic view of the business, we have planned various academic changes, to introduce content on liberal arts. B-schools are mainly known for making managers, sometimes they create managers with a mind but not with a heart. Such people do not understand the societal structure. When I talk about liberal arts, I am talking about politics, society, and anthropology also. Therefore, you just don't study marketing, finance, operation and IT systems, you are being exposed a little bit to society as well. The third aspect would be industrial linkages. We are looking at industry linkages in two ways. One, of course, they will come for recruitment and summer internships, and that's not a worry. But we are interested in people coming and sharing their experiences not just during the forums and festivals but during day-to-day activities where experts can come and share their learning and issues related to specific fields such as digital marketing or analytics. There are various fields such as sports marketing and marketing for movies, where there are no structured theories developed in academia which faculty can teach.

Another aspect is interface with corporates. Our faculty not only do research they are also involved in corporate consulting, and we try to bring back the knowledge gained through such consulting assignments to students.

Do you plan to start any new courses or introduce new subjects to the current students?

We are trying to incorporate subjects such as geo-political environment, and culture and media. These subjects also break the monotony of studying just management subjects.

What is the current student-to-faculty ratio in SIBM Bangalore? Is it on par with the ideal?

Right now our student to faculty ratio stands at 25:1, which needs to reach 15:1 to 10:1 in the coming semester. Today this ratio may seem skewed but I don't look at it as a disadvantage. It, in fact, is an advantage, as we can afford to bring more people from industry who can come and deliver a full credit subject. This allows them (industry personnel) to own the entire process of creating their own study material, take classes, give assignments, and evaluate the students. Are SIBM Pune and Bangalore one institute with two campuses?

SIBM Pune and Bangalore are two stand-alone individual institutes, but a commonality remains, as we have the same board of studies, and we are governed by the same university. So, our rules and regulation about admissions and academics are all uniform. However, when it comes to the curriculum, students, faculty, and industry inter phase development all these things are taken care by the two institutes individually.

It is being said that the golden days of an MBA are over and it has lost its sheen. What do you think?

Whenever there is a crisis people who have been doing the things right survive. At the same time the business schools which were created to just fulfill the profit motives … it is a difficult time for them. Nobody knows how many business schools we have in India because there are so many who are not affiliated to AICTE or UGC and are privately functioning. Students are also naive, and believe such institutes can bring them greater career prospects.

The industry will always have requirements but when the requirement goes down students from institutes other than the top 40-50 will suffer. In the top schools the average salaries may go down but students will not suffer in the long term.

Have you noticed any recent change in trends in the management education arena?

Students are becoming more aware and exposed. The existing pedagogy in business schools has to change. Now we don't just need teachers but facilitators who will also co-create ideas in the class.

Also, industry requires people who are utilising both their left and right brain. They should not be only numbers or quant-driven but should have risk-taking abilities and lateral thinking.

The next thing which B-schools already have started addressing is the gender ratio. Companies today emphasise a healthy gender ratio, and if they don't find a similar trend in the business schools, they might experience the talent crunch.

But do you think it is right to skew the admissions criteria to get more women in business schools?

The industry has a certain kind of requirement today and as a provider we need to offer the kind of assortment it is seeking. Students are not our clients, they are our products whom we groom into the candidates industry is looking for.

At the same time, if we look at the admissions process as just a leveller, business schools tweaking the criteria to bring more women may sound unfair. But as long as the institutes are communicating the tweaks prior to admissions, I think it is all right.

Were placements a worry this year? Have you managed to place all the students?

Placements have never been a worry for us. We never work towards placement, we believe placements is a by-product. If your students are able to deliver than the industry will come. But then we also have to be good in terms of managing the show and inviting the companies and instilling in them a confidence that they are going to get the right kind of candidate. So, operationally, yes, we have to do a substantial amount of work by arranging the platform where companies can come and recruit.

So, how is the industry feedback?

Most of our recruiters are repeat recruiters and they are coming back because they are happy with the candidates. At the same time there are a few coveted recruiters whom we would like to bring to our campus and we are working towards it. In due course, we shall be able to bring them too.

What is the student mix? Are most of them engineers?

About 60 per cent of our students are engineers and 50 per cent comes with work experience. Out of these 25-30 per cent are with more than one year of experience. The interview call for admissions is sent out primarily based on their SNAP scores and academic profile.

“The industry requires people who use both the left and right sides of their brain. They should not be only numbers- or quant-driven but should have risk-taking abilities and lateral thinking.”

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