Partnerships

Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) is a leading research-led world-class management Institute, rooted in the context of emerging economies. Research outcomes have to be relevant to practising managers, leaders and policy makers in India as well as internationally. Hence, corporate connections and relationships with society at large, both in India and abroad, are inextricably linked with research, teaching and consultancy at IIMB.

Content is in the context in management. Therefore, organisational structure, systems and processes are designed to facilitate members of the Institute to relate to external stakeholders. The institutional strategy is to reach out to external stakeholders to participate in activities such as visioning, strategy building, knowledge generation, knowledge usage, knowledge dissemination, admissions, placement, securing financial and other resources. The Institute's core values – a deep and abiding respect for knowledge, readiness to learn from everyone, integrity, inclusive growth and contributions to society – guide its corporate and societal connections.

Corporate connections at IIMB are structured around the IIMB Board, long-duration programmes, its seven centres of excellence, research chairs, faculty, alumni and students. In addition, the Institute journal, IIMB Management Review, is a forum for relating to the corporate world.

The Institute’s policy is to encourage faculty to actively interact with the corporate world. Faculty members are allowed to spend one day per week or 52 days in a year on consultancy assignments. The Institute strongly believes that a consultancy assignment is not only a source of revenue, but helps the faculty to be aware of current corporate problems and challenges. In addition, a consultancy assignment provides the opportunity to apply one's knowledge to solve complex organisational problems. Many of these consultancy assignments are converted into cases with the approval of client organisations.

The Institute also encourages faculty to invite practising managers as guest lecturers. A faculty member can invite practising managers to conduct about 15 per cent of the sessions in a course. The Institute insists on the practice of managers from the industry teaching practice-oriented subjects such as advertising.

The Ministry of HRD nominates corporate leaders to be Board Members so that they can participate and influence the governance processes at the Institute. It also creates a window to the world of business and industry. Alumni, especially senior corporate executives, are actively involved in the admission process and review process of long-duration programmes. Indian companies and multinational corporations are invited to participate in the placement processes. Thus, the Institute ensures that corporate leaders are actively associated with policy-making processes and major activities.

Corporate Connections in Governance

Corporate connections at IIMB start right from its governance structure. The IIMB Board of Governors comprises industry leaders, government representatives and leaders in society. IIMB BOG Chairmen have invariably been renowned senior industrialists. The Board enables IIMB to integrate the corporate, government and societal perspectives into its strategy and policies.

IIMB invites industry leaders as chief guests and keynote speakers to address important academic and institutional events such as the inauguration of long-duration programmes, student orientations and reorientations. Corporate leaders are invited as keynote speakers at the Institute's Foundation Day and Convocation. Some such leaders include Mr Bhargav Dasgupta, MD & CEO, ICICI Lombard Pvt Ltd; Mr Shibulal, Founder-Director, Infosys Technologies; late Dr U R Ananthamurthy, Jnanpith awardee; Dr Devi Shetty, Cardiologist and Philanthropist; Dr Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Chairperson and MD, Biocon; Dr D. Subba Rao, former Governor, Reserve Bank of India; and Dr Ramachandra Guha, Historian and Writer.

Corporate Connections through Research Chairs

IIMB has 6 corporate-sponsored research chairs, set up by corporates, banks and government departments to promote research in specific fields. Research conducted by the chairs is shared with the corporate world through research seminars, working papers and donor reports.

List of Corporate Endowed Research Chairs

• RBI Chair in Economics - Reserve Bank of India, New Delhi
• Canara Bank Chair in Banking & Finance - Canara Bank, Bangalore
• Mphasis Chair for Digital Accessibility & Inclusion – MPHASIS F1 Foundation, Bangalore
• Jamuna Raghavan Chair of NSRCEL – Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore
• DIPP Chair in IPR – Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, New Delhi
• HP Chair Professor in ICT for Sustainable Economic Development – HP Inc. India

Course Design

Programme Chairpersons, faculty and review committees for long-duration programmes collect feedback from the industry and other stakeholders to remain contextual and sensitive to their needs and expectations. From its very inception, the Institute has been actively involving corporates in the design and delivery of its long-duration programmes. When the manufacturing industry felt the need for engineers with managerial skills in the early '90s, the Institute started a nine-month certificate programme, 'Management Programme for Technologist' (MPT). Over a 10-year period, the programme has trained about 350 managers who are part of the industry and have progressed well in their careers, making significant contributions to their respective organisations. In fact, MPT led to many such programmes by multinational corporations such as ABB, Siemens, Bharat Electronics and Reliance Industries.

The Post Graduate Programme in Software Enterprise Management (PGSEM) was conceptualised and designed in close collaboration with leaders in the information technology industry. The industry had experienced phenomenal growth in the late '90s and had felt the need for leadership capabilities and domain expertise in management. Wipro, Oracle, Sasken, Sun Microsystems, Infosys and Motorola provided support to the PGSEM in multiple ways. These organisations sponsored their employees, provided feedback on programme content and also provided faculty support to the programme. Infosys even provided office space and classrooms to deliver the programme at the Infosys Chennai campus for five years. During the last 15 years, about 1,200 software professionals have completed the PGSEM.

IIMB started the Executive Post Graduate Programme (EPGP) in 2009. But before that, industry leaders were contacted for their suggestions about the programme design. Some of EPGP’s unique characteristics such as the seminar series and the international immersion module emerged out of deliberations with industry practitioners who wanted a programme that balanced the rigor of world-class learning and the practical applications of such learning in world-class organisations. These industry leaders also wanted IIMB to ensure that the participants were able to work in global environments, particularly in emerging markets.

In the past, feedback from corporate leaders showed that IIMB’s PGP students were excellent in analytical and conceptual skills, but there was scope for improvement in their leadership and teamwork skills and their ability to make career choices. It resulted in strengthening the Career Development Services at IIMB and the creation of several programmes focused on delivering leadership courses to the students, an illustrative list of which is provided in Chapter 3. The Institute also offers a number of courses related to managing career which are in great demand.

Project Work

The curriculum of all IIMB programmes is designed to ensure that students get adequate industry exposure during their coursework so that they can understand the practical significance of what they learn in class. Many courses have a significant project component that involves identifying and studying real-life problems in organisations within the domain of the subject being taught. This often requires students to interact with organisations and industry practitioners.

Participants of EPGP, PGPPM and PGSEM spend their last term(s) in the study and analysis of real-life organisational problems or industry characteristics that necessitates extensive interaction with industry practitioners. These projects culminate in theses and presentations. Organisations find these project outputs to be highly relevant and useful and many organisations write to the Institute in advance, offering a particular organisational challenge to be studied by the students. Corporates often request IIMB to float a student project on their behalf. Such requests exemplify their engagement with the Institute. EADS Europe (now Airbus), which is the major sponsor for the Supply Chain Management Centre, floats company projects each year. Recently, Dr Devi Shetty of Narayan Hrudayalaya Hospitals engaged two students to undertake a country entry strategy evaluation for them, which was successfully completed. Two students completed a project on Cloud-based Strategy for NASSCOM. Another group of students conducted a market survey for a start-up during the festival UNMAAD and delivered a report on product introduction strategy.

Contemporary Concern Study (CCS)

PGP students have the option of taking up a Contemporary Concern Study (CCS) in lieu of a course, where students can select topics of their interest and conduct an in-depth analysis under the guidance of faculty members. CCS topics focus on challenges faced by organisations, and involve interaction with key players in organisations, analysts and industry associations. In 2012, a CCS Project titled 'Bilateral Relations & Opportunities for European Firms in the Indian Civil Aviation Industry' by a team of four PGP students under the guidance of Professor A Damodaran won the Best Project Award from HEC Paris under the IIMB-HIEP Programme.

In the PGP admission process, weights given to various components such as quality and length of professional experience were increased in order to admit a greater percentage of students with good quality corporate experience. It was felt that this would enable the students to have a better appreciation of organisational issues when they are discussed in class and this would enrich the quality of interaction in class. PGPEM and EPGP are programmes which require a minimum of two and five years of professional experience respectively at the time of admission. Interestingly, both programmes attract participants with much higher levels of experience, about seven years and 10 years, respectively. Alumni are invited to be part of the admission interviews for PGP, PGSEM and EPGP to assess the applicants’ quality of experience.

The Institute appreciates the need for students to interact periodically with corporate executives in the classroom. Hence, as mentioned earlier, the Institute encourages about 15 per cent of sessions in every course to be taken up by corporate executives so that the participants are aware of current challenges and business practices in the given field. Some of these courses were fully taught by corporate executives.

Indian and international organisations visit IIMB to recruit students who are reputed to be one of the finest in terms of intellectual abilities. Students are recruited for two-month summer internships as well as for permanent placements. The first point of contact for such organisations is the Career Development Services office, where the faculty and administrative staff make them aware of the activities of the Institute and various opportunities of working with IIMB.

The Career Development Services office works towards enlarging the scope of relationship with every organisation that approaches the Institute so that organisations can move beyond the transaction of recruiting students to having multiple touch points with the students and the Institute. Organisations are encouraged to meet the students formally (eg, during placement talks given by company representatives) and informally (eg, during social events with senior management of organisations) as well as interact with students through e-mail, videoconferencing, podcasts and Twitter. Senior management is invited to talk to students on organisational practices and innovations through workshops and seminars organised on campus. The Career Development Services office also puts the organisation in touch with faculty members to explore possibilities of collaborative research, case development, executive education and conducting guest lectures.

The ten centres of excellence at the Institute focus on research and knowledge dissemination. Each of these centres is created in collaboration with the corporate world and they focus on corporate challenges, strategies for industrial growth and well-being of the society at large.

List of Centres of Excellence

• Centre for Capital Markets and Risk Management
• Centre for Corporate Governance and Citizenship
• Centre for Management Communication
• Centre for Public Policy
• Centre for Software & Information Technology Management
• Centre for Supply Chain Management
• Centre for Teaching and Learning
• India-Japan Study Centre
• Israel Centre
• NSRCEL

IIMB has 6 corporate-sponsored research chairs, set up by corporates, banks and government departments to promote research in specific fields. Research conducted by the chairs is shared with the corporate world through research seminars, working papers and donor reports.

List of Corporate Endowed Research Chairs

• RBI Chair in Economics - Reserve Bank of India, New Delhi
• Canara Bank Chair in Banking & Finance - Canara Bank, Bangalore
• Mphasis Chair for Digital Accessibility & Inclusion – MPHASIS F1 Foundation, Bangalore
• Jamuna Raghavan Chair of the NSRCEL – Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore
• DIPP Chair in IPR – Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, New Delhi
• HP Chair Professor in ICT for Sustainable Economic Development – HP Inc. India

Ninety one  permanent faculty members possess rich corporate experience. Faculty members have worked in the public sector, private sector, government and cooperative organisations. A number of them have worked with multinational corporations in India and abroad. Some of them have worked as independent consultants and with consultancy organisations. With such rich experience and superior understanding of working in the corporate world, faculty find it easy to reach out and relate to the corporate world. The faculty undertakes corporate and Institute-supported research projects. During the last few years, the Institute faculty has substantially increased their efforts towards writing cases on Indian organisations. Institute faculty is also invited to be members of the Board of Directors of corporates and professional bodies.

Consulting assignments are an important component of the Institute’s activities.  Several projects were completed for international institutions such as the University of Exeter,  IFPRI, Washington and International Growth Council, UK.  During 2017-18,  IIMB partnered with Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India, National Stock Exchange, Association of Health Care Providers (AHF), Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation (BMRCL), Tamilnadu Urban Finance & Infrastructure Development Corporation (TUFIDCO), Deendayal Port Trust, Kutch and TVS Motors.

During 2017-18, IIMB completed 15 projects for agencies like HAL Bangalore, Department of Electronics & IT, Government of India, IGIDR, Mumbai, L & T (Hyderabad) Metro Rail Ltd.,  EPFO, Ministry of Labour, Government of India, Coal Mines Provident Fund, Dhanbad, RITES India Ltd., Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion, Government of India, TTK Healthcare, Chennai, Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Ltd., and Indian Machine Tool Manufacturing Association.

Students at IIMB engage with corporates on various fronts, complementing the corporate relationships developed and nurtured by the Institute and faculty. Students have constituted more than 20 clubs and chapters of societies which regularly invite industry practitioners. Three of these clubs – the Students Cultural Committee (CulCom), the Forum of Industrial Interaction (FII) and the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Cell (EnI) – conduct events titled UNMAAD, VISTA and EXIMIUS, respectively. The students work closely with industry while designing and organising these events, raising sponsorships, inviting speakers, arranging workshops, seminars, conclaves and events. These events provide the students with a unique opportunity of not only developing their managerial skills, but also understanding the dynamics that are involved in working with organisations and corporate resources.

The students' consulting club, ICON, was constituted to provide IIMB students with opportunities to solve organisational problems in a consultative mode. Over the last few years, ICON has been involved in several consulting projects with commercial and voluntary organisations that have provided its members tremendous scope of learning and interacting with corporate decision-makers.

Students across all the programmes are encouraged to organise/conduct/participate in talks and seminars to facilitate interaction with industry thought leaders. One such example is that of the PGPEM Student Affairs Council which launched a new Talk Series titled 'Leader Speak,' hosting people from the industry such as the former Director (Healthcare) at Philips Software Division and the former CEO of Yahoo India. The PGPPM has started a 'Speaker Series' to organise public policy seminars and guest lectures on topics ranging from security challenges to innovating for India. The EPGP 'Seminar Series' is one of the highlights of the programme, in which thought leaders from diverse fields share insights with students.

IIMB Alumni take active interest in the Institute's programmes and activities. Some activities in which alumni are regularly involved are:

Admission process: Alumni participate as interview panel members for selecting students to the PGP, EPGP & PGPEM programs (100 + alumni participated). Every panel has a combination of faculty and alumni of that programme. They provide valuable feedback about the quality of work experience of the candidate and become brand ambassadors of the Institute during the interview.

Executive Education Programmes: For the first time, the alumni office in association with EEP organized an exclusive five-day programme for IIMB alumni on “Effective Teaching”. Senior alums travelled from across the world to attend this programme.

Alumni Engagement Activities:

• Saturday Musings:  This is an activity that is held every month in the IIMB auditorium. It is a platform to connect alums, faculty, industry experts and students. The program is live streamed to alums across the world and the video recording of the session is uploaded to the IIMB alumni office YouTube channel.
• Webinars: The alumni office has developed a webinar solution that allows alums to take webinar sessions from any location in the world. The participants can log into these live sessions from any location. This initiative has been highly popular amongst alums and the sessions are archived for future viewing on the alumni website.
• iWall: iWall is a creative retail fund raising solution that was conceptualized and launched in Oct 2017. This allows donors to contribute retail funds for various causes through a user-friendly interface. This is a virtual, scalable solution that allows donors to have a permanent virtual presence and acknowledgment in the online world.   
• LSquare: This is a monthly e-newsletter that captures the spirit of being an IIMB alumni. The newsletter carries many sections themed around happenings on the IIMB campus, conferences and seminars, alumni achievements, faculty developments, reunions, alum books, alum interviews, etc.
• Mobile app: A mobile app was launched in March 2017. It enables alums to get to speed on various happenings on campus, read blogs, post jobs and share their experiences. We have iOS and Android versions of the app.
• External Collaborations: The alumni office collaborates with other external stakeholders to bring unique experiences to IIMB stakeholders. We organized two pan IIT/IIM events in IIMB that were themed around Agriculture and Water in Nov 2017 and April 2018 respectively. We also organized a pan IIM event on start-ups in March 2018. An event on Education in collaboration with Rotary is being planned for June 2018.
• NSRCEL: The NSRCEL and the Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer (FITT) at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi signed a MoU in Jan 2018 to jointly mentor start-ups at their respective incubation centers. IIMB alums in Delhi have taken in the lead in making this happen and have taken ownership of the various activities as per the MoU.

Executive Education Programmes (EEP) provide IIMB an opportunity to work along with corporates and make an impact through knowledge-sharing, problem-solving and knowledge creation. For instance, the Institute offers a large number of customised programmes for Indian and international corporations. These programmes are designed after in-depth discussions and multiple visits to the corporations for whom the programmes are conducted. Organisational systems and processes are studied and current challenges and priorities are understood. Often, organisation-specific case studies are developed. In many programmes, participants are encouraged to write a case around the work challenges and problems being experienced by them. The premise is that if the participants take the initiative to be aware of their environment, they become better equipped to bring changes as required in a given situation.

The Institute has been working with a large number of corporates on leadership development programmes at middle and senior management. ABB, Apollo Tyres, British Aerospace, Oracle, Randstad, Reliance Industries, SAP Lab, Siemens and UTC Aerospace Systems are some of the organisations for whom the Institute has conducted leadership development programmes. These programmes are delivered in multiple modules spread over four to six months. Multiple interventions such as development-cum-assessment centres, 360-degree appraisal, case writing and project work on live organisational problems are conducted as a part of the leadership development programmes. Participants are helped to capture their learning from the programme and are encouraged to develop specific action plans to be implemented in their respective work settings. In some programmes, participants are provided support for effective implementation of projects. These programmes have played a significant role in strengthening linkages with the corporates.

The Institute offers a large number of long-duration certificate programmes such as Executive General Management Programme (EGMP), Advanced Management Programme (AMP) and General Management Programme for IT Executives (GMITE) simultaneously delivered at multiple locations using web technology. In addition to delivering leadership pipeline for the corporates, these programmes also act as a big source of data for research. Participants are encouraged to define their challenges and problems. Building on these cues, faculty initiate new research projects and case studies.