Customised course: IIM-A to re-look at executive education

IIM-A will look to move towards a learning and development solution provider for select companies

At a time when executive education in India has seen an influx of nearly a dozen global institutes such as Wharton, INSEAD and Harvard Business School, premier B-school Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A) has decided to up the ante.

IIM-A will re-orient its short-term executive education programmes - management development programmes (MDPs) - towards training higher, middle and senior executives from this year.

The IIMs and other B-schools have been offering open and customised MDPs for training company personnel at various levels. MDPs, with duration ranging from three days to three weeks, are known to be one of the major sources of revenue for B-schools.

"Many global institutions are seeing executive education in India as a profitable market. At one point, many went to China for similar reasons. It will not be appropriate for IIM-A to remain purely business and profit-driven. We need to look at social contribution and surplus generation through that effort," the chairman of executive education of IIM-A said.

While the institute had the bulk of its MDPs look to train lower level management so far, it will now design its programmes to bridge the leadership gap at various levels. The institute is going to do this through reforming the programmes.

The B-school is increasingly looking to provide in-depth learning and development, coupled with intellectual mentorship to senior and top-level management at some of the leading companies in India.

To attract senior-level management from top companies, IIM-A will identify targeted contacts and market its MDPs. Moreover, the B-school will be now looking to move towards a learning and development solution provider for select companies on a long-term basis. It will reduce emphasis on one-off programmes, especially in the lower and middle-management levels.

For IIM-A, instead competing with global institutes like INSEAD and Harvard, it will play a complementary role by offering greater in-depth learning. The institute looks to differentiate itself based on the learning and development it looks to provide to middle, senior and top managements.

Moreover, the institute has also set up an executive education committee that will focus on three major verticals, including government and public sector, private sector (large and SMEs), and international. With the government looking to make public sector units accountable for performance, IIM-A expects an uptake in learning and development requirement among PSUs, too.

Meanwhile, B-schools estimate an over 25 per cent rise in enquiries and interests for MDPs from India Inc due to recent changes in laws governing companies, as well as the overall growth in the economy.