Management Education with a Difference
The student body of Prin. LN Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research (WeSchool), Bangalore, is busy coordinating the 19th edition of WeCafe. The Dean and Director of the college, Anil Rao, explains that WeCafe is an offshoot of the popular television show Koffee with Karan. But instead of grilling film stars, here the students take on the role of the host, and in the interviewee’s seat is a head honcho from a corporate organisation. Since inception in 2010, the students have invited managing directors and vice-presidents of many an Indian and multinational company like Puma, Titan, Tommy Hilfiger and Volvo, to name a few. “This time around we have invited S Vaitheeswaran, MD and CEO of Manipal Global Education Services,” says Rao.
WeSchool is a part of Shikshan Prasarak Mandali, a private educational society in Pune, with campuses in Mumbai and Bangalore. Its Bangalore campus, established in 2008, is known for such programmes that focus on nurturing the vital education-industry nexus. The Management Development Centre on campus is worth a mention. Rao says the centre, within just six years, has worked with companies like Infosys, Robert Bosch, Titan, ITC Infotech, Dell, Biocon, Ernst & Young, Fiat, Hewlett Packard and General Electric.
Courses offered
The institute’s flagship programme, Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) in Business Management offers specialisations like Marketing, Retail, Finance, HR, Systems and Operations. “We teach subjects like Strategic Management, International Business, Business Ethics, Leadership, Advanced Tax Management and Entrepreneurship Management which are constantly evaluated based on industry needs,” says Rao. Then there is the PGDM in E-Biz which focuses on Business Analytics, Human-Computer Interaction, Digital Marketing and IT Security, Compliance and Governance. The programme in Business Design guides the students in creating new products and services and managing business transformations. The annual course fee is Rs 4.3 lakh. All of these are residential programmes and the cost of accommodation is Rs 1 lakh per year.
Placements
The placement cell at the college focuses on providing career guidance and training to the students. The placements start in the last week of November and the college has a track record of achieving 100 per cent placements every year. Says Rao, “The students are placed in various sectors like consulting, banking, FMCG, IT/ ITES, manufacturing, retail, pharma, market research and real estate. Infosys Technology, Deloitte Consulting, Accenture, Tech Mahindra, Croma, Fidelity Investments, MTR Foods, Cognizant, Dell, Ernst & Young and Mahindra Reva are some of the companies that recruit our students. The pay package ranges anywhere between Rs 4.25 lakh and Rs 11 lakh.”
Campus Facilities
The school is set up on a Rs 1.5 acre property in Electronic City, Bangalore, in the vicinity of over 180 IT companies. The building is an all-glass structure housing classrooms that facilitate collaborative learning through virtual teaching facilities. The campus is wifi-enabled and has an innovation and prototype lab to encourage organisational learning.
The Learning Resource Centre is well stocked with over 11,500 books on different aspects of management education. In addition to this, the college subscribes to over 76 Indian and international journals in print form and more than 5,000 e-journals. Students can also access five online databases for industry, company and statistical information.
The college has a cafeteria called Unwind and a ‘Hobby Kitchen’ where students can prepare food for themselves. The hostel has sports facilities like gym, table tennis, swimming pool, a football ground and a billiards room.
Life on campus
Apart from classroom education, there is a lot of emphasis on practical learning, says Mitesh Chitale. A student of PGDM E-Biz, he says, “Most of our time on campus is spent on completing our projects. We are required to work on case studies from time to time and hence we do a lot of reading and research in the library. But apart from studies, we have fun too. For instance, we have an AV room where we can go watch movies.”
Being a residential school, there are over 300 students studying at WeSchool, all from different parts of the country. According to Amrita Nandi, a student of PGDM-Business Design and Innovation, this diversity in the student population is a great learning experience. “I have learnt to be a team-player which has contributed a lot in leveraging my people skills. We are exposed to various ethnic cultures, as the students are from different corners of the country,” she says.
WeSchool is only seven years old. But this institution has earned the distinction of being one of the top management schools in South India today. Says Rao, “Our main aim here is to nurture design thinking and innovation, be it through research activities, case study development or other co-curricular and extracurricular activities.” He adds, “We will continue to work with top corporates for management development programmes, thereby improving the pedagogy and striving for an outcome-based learning atmosphere. We also want to expand our innovation and prototype lab by setting up an incubation centre where students can collaborate and co-create various business models.”
svetlana@newindianexpress.com