JBIMS: Preparing Future CEOs

There seems to be a persistent and perhaps silly myth that Indian industrialists and business families, unlike their counterparts in the West, have never really bothered to give back to society by investing in education and centers of excellence. That’s simply not true. The Tatas and the Birlas have incubated and financed institutions of global excellence ranging from BITS, Pilani to Tata Institute of Fundamental Research.

The Sarabhai and the Sriram families too are just some of the few that have invested in a big manner in education, arts and culture. To this distinguished group of philanthropists belongs to the Bajaj family. One of the most famous institutions founded by the late patriarch Jamnalal Bajaj, a friend of Mahatma Gandhi, has been the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS) that was set up in collaboration with Stanford University way back in 1965. It has been an official part of the Mumbai University for a long time.

There is a reason why JBIMS has earned an enviable reputation as the “CEO Factory”. Located in the heart of south Mumbai, it has offered a unique opportunity to students over the decades to interact with the top managers and CEOs of India, who had offices in the same area. The location advantage actually enabled some of the best known CEOs and professionals to find time to personally interact with students through guest lectures and other activities. Needless to say, the proximity also helped students rub shoulders with the most sought after CEOs. No wonder JBIMS has delivered a filtering array of industry leaders that the institute and its stakeholders are proud of. Some of the better known people who have passed out of the portals of JBIMS are Ajay Piramal of Piramal Enterprises, Chanda Kochchar of ICICI, Harish Manwani of Unilever, Sam Balsara of Madison and even noted film maker Mani Ratnam!

Some of the better known programmes offered by JBIMS are: MMS or Masters in Management Studies is the flagship course of JBIMS, conducted as a department of University of Mumbai. It is a two-year full-time post-graduate degree course in management with 120 students. Started as early as 1965, the course has been modified continuously and appropriately to suit the contemporary corporate world needs and has been able to nurture prominent leaders of the same. The institute offers specialisations like Finance, Marketing, Personnel, Operations and Systems in the second year of the MMS course.

The Master of Science in Finance course is structured to deliver a strong foundation in the principles and practice of finance. The objective is to help individuals enhance their effectiveness in finance. The MSc Finance course is designed to combine rigorous academic work with real-world relevance and practical application to ensure that content is intellectually demanding, while being related to the practical world of finance.

JBIMS offers part-time courses in MHRDM (Master in Human Resource Development and Management), MMM (Master in Marketing Management), MFM (Master in Finance Management), MIM (Master in information Management). The doctoral programme has facilitated substantial research and has produced several successful Ph.D recipients. They have contributed extensively to a number of contemporary and relevant areas.

The famous alumni of the institution got together recently and organised an effort to raise more than Rs 45 crore for a new campus of JBIMS that will housed in the official campus of the Mumbai University. Proximity will play a big role here too as the new campus is virtually next door to the new corporate cum financial hub of Mumbai known as BKC!