SPJIMR: Values And Versatility

Established more than 37 years ago right in the centre of India’s corporate and financial capital Mumbai, SPJIMR boasts a high degree of integration with industry, thanks to its consistent record of recognising industry requirements and responding quickly and appropriately by making necessary alterations/ innovations in their course curriculum.

Says Ranjan Banerjee, Dean, SPJIMR, “We are doing a lot to keep our curriculum industry relevant, and are ahead of the B-school curve.”

SPJIMR’s flagship programmes include the one-year, full-time Post Graduate Programme (PGP) in Management; two-year full-time Postgraduate Diploma in Management, which devotes the highest number of credits; and the Postgraduate Management Programme for Women. While the first enhances the general management perspective and prepares the participants to take on a broader leadership role, the second sensitises its students to management’s larger purpose in society. SPJIMR’s centre in Delhi focuses on Executive Education Besides, SPJIMR has introduced minor specialisations in analytics, consulting, finance and information management along with new compulsory courses.

SPJIMR owes a lot of its edge to its faculty body, which has a mix of researchers-and-practitioners-turned-academics. This according to Banerjee ensures that “what is taught in our classrooms is current and relevant”.    

The institute’s faculty stay abreast of industry trends by spending voluntary time with specific companies to stay in touch with current practice. “Some faculty members are in fact coaching industry leaders for transition to the next role,” informs Banerjee.

Apart from full-time faculty, the institute often has visiting faculty from top international institutes such as London School of Economics, Cornell University and University of Minnesota. All of this benefits students and helps them gain a global perspective.

The institute’s academic advisory councils for each area involve faculty, students, alumni and industry leaders sharing best practice and reviewing latest trends together. It has partnerships with the best industry players such as Perkins, Ashland, Ambuja Cement, Pidilite and Medtronic, who are new long-term partners for our executive MBA programme.

The institute has also partnered with Mahindra & Mahindra for medium-term programmes to create a new generation of women leaders. The B-school has 11 such partnerships with the likes of HSBC, Axis, ICICI, Beiersdorf who will work with their ‘Program for Returning Women’.

An international partnership with Landmark to offer executive education to middle and senior leaders and a partnership with the Times Group to offer long-term programme on media management are in the pipeline.

SPJIMR, since its inception, is known for innovation and social sensitivity. The institute was the first to introduce new industry-centric courses: design thinking and a new course in management in the liberal arts; not to forget the new programme for emerging women. It is the unique immersive non-classroom programmes that strengthen values and attitudes that makes them distinctive.

The feedback of the industry also suggests that students from SPJIMR are grounded, strong on values, and geared to get things done at the grassroots level.

“We follow a hybrid of Indian and Western models and have a majority of faculty with illustrious work experience (hence, we bring current practices into the classroom). Our students see us as an institute that is strong not only on knowledge, but also on attitude and values, and high faculty-student connect,” concludes Banerjee.