Student Experiences

In an increasingly globalized business environment, it is imperative for any student graduating out of business schools to develop a greater appreciation of different cultures and international business practices. This is even more important for participants of one-year MBA who are likely to be exposed to international business as they directly move into middle management roles. To support this, a few leading business schools in India have tied up with international partner schools to give all their students an international exposure as part of their one year MBA programme.

But how does this play out for the students? To understand this better, we reached out to graduates from the 15-month PGPM course at one of India’s leading business schools, S P Jain Institute of Management & Research (SPJIMR). Post Graduate Programme in Management (PGPM) is a one-year full-time management programme preceded by three months of online learning. It is an immersive, cross-disciplinary, hands-on experience designed for young professionals with a minimum of five years of work experience across all professional backgrounds seeking career acceleration.

PGPM at SPJIMR has International Immersion as a mandatory module where the entire Class completes three credits of their specialization phase at top global b schools. Students from this programme currently go to leading partner schools in USA universities including Cornell University, University of Texas and Michigan State University.

We spoke to some of participants from SPJIMR’s PGPM and asked them to share their experiences on the International Immersion programme offered. Below are their experiences:

Vishwajeet Sinha

IM International Immersion

McCombs School of Business, the University of Texas at Austin, USA

PGPM Class of 2019

After a hectic seven months of studies on campus, it was finally time for us to fly to US for a three-week international immersion at McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin (also known as UT Austin). The weeks spent at the University were a paradise like experience for a free-market advocate like me. Some of the finest professors at UT Austin taught us business strategies and digital technologies, and how they create exponential wealth for our society.

Our learnings focused on innovation and social media analytics, business analytics and decision making, and strategies for networked economy. We deep dived into the success stories and failures of the biggest global organisations, analysed their data, the decisions of their leadership, and took away insightful learnings. Our cohort visited GE Avionics to learn about their analytics strategy from members of their C-suite.

The specialization in Information Management at SPJIMR, followed by the international immersion at UT Austin, played a major role in building the required foundational context for global best practices across industries. The experience and learnings I gained, allow me today, to help global CIOs drive the right conversations with rest of the C-suite and enable them to plan and execute their strategies for business growth and transformation.

Abhishek Chattopadhyay

Operations and Supply Chain

Eli Broad College of Business Michigan State University, USA

PGPM Class of 2019

Our cohort headed to Eli Broad College of Business, Michigan State University, USA for a three-week international immersion, something that we were really looking forward to after our rigorous general management phase.

During these three weeks, we covered a range of Operations and Supply Chain topics, with some of the best faculty for the specialization. The teaching format was an amazing combination of classroom sessions, supply chain simulations using cutting edge software and industry visits (including the visit to Ford Motor Company’s manufacturing facility in Detroit). This was instrumental in not only giving us a flavour of how we could manage complex supply chain organisations, but also helped us understand how geography and culture played a pivotal role in shaping a successful supply chain, in comparison to the practices in the US vis-à-vis those in India.

In those three weeks we interacted and learnt about operations and supply chain from some of the most accomplished professors in the field and obtained three credit points as part of the course. But more importantly, what will remain for life are the strong bonds that we developed with our hosts, the alumni status from the Michigan State University and the camaraderie that we forged between ourselves.

Rohan Prabhudesai

Finance

Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management, New York, USA

PGPM Class of 2019

For every MBA aspirant, studying in an Ivey League college is a dream. My dream was fulfilled when we went to Johnson School of Management at Cornell University as a part of our International immersion. We were there for a total of three weeks, which included learning and applying the  learnings through presentations every day. We covered courses such as FinTech, Fixed Income, Financial Statement Analysis, IPO, leverage buy out and Portfolio Optimization and Asset Management among others.

As part of the learning we were taught with live case scenarios and also put these into practice with presentations on the same. This was a learning for us as we got to know where we were lacking and the points which we missed when analysing the cases. The key takeaway was a perspective on how an international b school works with its student, while on a personal front it was a memorable experience as it was my first stint in USA and at one of the best MBA schools.

Taher Ahmed

Marketing

Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management, New York, USA

PGPM Class of 2019

The Marketing cohort of SPJIMR’s PGPM programme, a group of 20 students from diverse backgrounds made their way to S C Johnson School of Business in Cornell University, an IVY League university, as part of their international immersion. An Ivy League education is a distant dream many MBA students harbour and the PGPM programme ensures that the students get a taste of the best there is to offer.

The three-week immersion saw the students attend classes at not just the main campus in Ithaca (which is an experience worth cherishing), but also took us to the Big Apple, NYC, where we felt the real-world hustle which we would eventually become part of.

The programme exposed us not only to theory, in the form of courses such as Analytical Tools For Marketing, and Behavioural Science for Marketing Decision Making, but also ensured we put these classroom lectures to use in the business arena. The courses were taught by seasoned professors of Cornell, sharing their wealth of experiences.

Coming up with a practical business solution to Cornell’s in-house entrepreneurs challenged us to expand our horizons, with the batch divided into teams and competing to provide a feasible solution as part of the Entrepreneurial Marketing Practicum. It does make me feel proud to see that our solutions were implemented and small businesses are now thriving.

The team also conducted an on-ground study in NYC (part of the Retail Brand Audit Practicum), interacting with locals and getting a feel of how it is to run a business there, assisting businesses which are close to a century old and adapting to modern conditions.

About SPJIMR 

S.P. Jain Institute of Management & Research (SPJIMR) (http://www.spjimr.org ) is a constituent of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan and is ranked among the top ten business schools in India. As a premier school of management, SPJIMR is noted for pedagogic innovations and pioneering programmes, which have helped the Institute stand out for its unique and distinctive path in management education. SPJIMR’s mission is to ‘influence practice’ and ‘promote value-based growth’. The Institute currently operates from its 45-acre campus in Andheri, Mumbai, and a campus in New Delhi. To avoid confusing us with any other institution, look for the five strokes logo and the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan association.

By Nandkumar Verma From OneYearMBA.co.in