In a market cluttered with b-schools, ISB&M; Pune (Nande) is an institute with a difference. The difference lies not in its physical infrastructure but in the way it thinks. Quite in line with the 3V Framework of Prof. Nirmalya Kumar, London Business School – ISB&M; has clear understanding of who is its Valued Customer, what is the Value Proposition she needs to be offered and how should it be delivered or in other words what should be the Value Network.

An ISB&M; student has high career aspirations and is passionate about achieving her aspirations. She is not the average MBA applicant who is looking for a decent career with an MBA tag. Maybe she has missed out on an IIMA because she was not that studious during her school or college days, but her aspirations are in no way less to those of an IIMA student. Intellectually she may lag behind an IIMA student, but she is willing to try that extra-hard to compete. She is somebody, who learns not just through classroom learning, but also through action-learning. ISB&M; respects this aspiration of its valued customer and has put in place a process which ensures that this aspiration is fulfilled.

ISB&M; Pune has a sprawling campus with wi-fi connectivity, accomplished faculty, hostel facility, huge auditorium, swimming pool, amphitheater, excellent library, journals and electronic databases, an AICTE-approved PGDM program and to top it all a great placement record. Infact, it has all the elements of the value-proposition of any top-of-the-class b-school. Then – what is different ! Different is the end product a management graduate with the right attitude and ability to deliver from day one. And, this is what the industry wants, which today has no time to train a fresh recruit from the campus.

The challenge is thus – how do you produce this end product which is different. Or in other words where is the difference in the value-delivery network. Besides the normal course work, there are the Centers of Excellence in various hi-growth areas like Healthcare, Retail, Tourism, Financial Services which provides a student to develop areas of special interest. At ISB&M;, it is not just class-room learning, it is also action-learning. The student community takes responsibility in running various activities on the campus of both short term as well as long term nature. It is a great learning experience sticking to budget, maintaining quality, driving people to work together and deliver the best result.

The challenge for the institute is to ensure that every student gets involved in all these activities it should not remain isolated to only a handful of students. A student is also graded for such outside-the-classroom activities. A novel course Professional Leadership Course – has been introduced to this effect – possibly the first time any b-school in India has done so. The philosophy in this course is not just to pass but to excel and hence the pass mark is much higher as compared to other subjects.

It is a great challenge for the faculty too follow such kind of process of delivering value. The focus is not just at the level of the batch or the class it is at the level of the individual student. Understanding the strengths and weakness of each student and to prepare her in the right way so she meets her aspirations is quite a task.

But then this kind of individualised attention results in a bonding between the student and the institute which goes beyond the first job ! Students get back to us for career advice even when they are making the first-change or the second-change of even the third-change and thereafter. This also results (besides also the alumni information database route) in the institute having a better feel of the kind of career progression an average ISB&Mite; which infact is better than the industry average. ISB&M; alumni are there all around the world and are in general, doing extremely well.

The institute of fully geared up to welcome the new batch sometime around end June and work towards meeting their career aspirations too.

The article is written by Dr. Anirban Sengupta, Director, ISB&M; Pune (Nande)

(Note: This is a sponsored article and has NOT been written by the PaGaLGuY Editorial Team. It is intended from an informational perspective only and it is upto the readers to research and verify the claims and judgments in the article before reaching a conclusion.)