Adding Social Dimension To Business

Founded in 2015, IIM Bodh Gaya has covered a long distance in providing quality management education through well-conceived and developed programmes, its highly qualified faculty and its tie-ups with national and international organisations. Director Vinita Sahay sheds light on these facets, in an interview to BW Education. Excerpts:

What is the institute’s core objective? What need is it fulfilling?

The mission of IIM Bodh Gaya is to develop mindful leaders of business and social relevance in the global economy and to enhance academic excellence in learning practices and research. While all B-schools emphasise on developing business leaders, IIM Bodh Gaya consciously chose the value of mindfulness as its focus area. Consequently, mindfulness was introduced in IIM Bodh Gaya’s mission statement after rigorous brainstorming with all stakeholders. In line with its mission to develop mindful business leaders and ingrain the value of mindfulness among the business community, IIM Bodh Gaya has taken multiple steps to achieve these outcomes such as setting up of its own Mindfulness Centre – Samatvam, introduction of mindfulness-related courses in MBA, PhD and IPM programmes, etc. and organising conferences, workshop and FDP on mindfulness. Through this, IIM Bodh Gaya wishes to add an important social dimension to business and management and create a greater consciousness on the triple bottom line of people, planet and profits.

Further, IIM Bodh Gaya ensures relevance in cutting edge business trends through participation from industry to keep the students abreast with latest issues, concepts and models existing in dynamic and complex business environment. This facilitates bridging the gap between industry and academic and ensuring relevance and currency of the pedagogy.

IIM Bodh Gaya also endeavours to develop socially responsible business leaders and its emphasis on societal impact is reflected through its vision, mission and program learning competencies. To develop leaders of social relevance, IIM Bodh Gaya believes that contributing to society is as imperative as academic achievements. As responsible future managers, it is a prerogative of every individual to contribute to society. IIM Bodh Gaya has actively participated in various social initiatives like ‘a river cleanliness drive’ and ‘rural welfare programme’ attempting to influence others’ lives and leave an indelible mark on others’ lives.

The common thread of academic excellence binds all the activities undertaken at IIM Bodh Gaya. This is predominantly accomplished through its unique and innovative pedagogy involving an immersive learning experience.

Provide a glimpse of the range of programmes that are offered.

The flagship MBA programme of IIM Bodh Gaya equips a student for industry and services-led career in the global environment. The programme enhances theoretical and practical erudition of different functional areas of management endowing the students with an overall approach to management functions and managerial skills. It is designed to equip our students with a strong awareness and knowledge about the socio-economic environment both at national and global level. The objective is to bring into being a global manager not only with strong analytical and decision-making skills but an overall personality with socially enviable values and ethics.

In line with the growing need for trained managerial talent, IIM Bodh Gaya started a five-year integrated programme in management (IPM) from academic session 2021. The objective of the programme is to prepare candidates from a foundation level for taking up leadership positions in corporates and government organisations. With an early induction to the programme and a rigorous and holistic curriculum, our students will demonstrate problem solving skills supported by appropriate analytical techniques and will use ethical and socially conscious judgement while analysing business situations. Candidates successfully completing the course requirement of the integrated programme in management would be awarded bachelor of business management and master of business administration by IIM Bodh Gaya. Candidates opting for exit after completing the requirement of the first three years would be awarded a Bachelor of Business Management.

The PhD programme in Management at IIM Bodh Gaya is a full-time residential programme that aims to foster high-quality researchers, innovative thinkers and touchstone academics. The programme offers the chance to delve into multidisciplinary research in the domain of management education. Its purpose is to imbue learners with the necessary analytical and research skills required for a career in academics, management and industry.

How did Covid affect IIM Bodh Gaya? What infrastructural developments have been made specially in the post-pandemic period?

Considering the global Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown, IIM Bodh Gaya was agile in arranging the online classes with the required infrastructure, procured e-books for students, organised FDPs in online mode. Faculty interviews were also conducted through online mode. As the state government of Bihar relaxed the social distancing norms and advised to start schools and colleges, the institute invited students back to campus in a staggered manner and started hybrid model (online+offline) classroom sessions. IIM Bodh Gaya organised International Management Conference 2021 and International Research Conference on Mindfulness 2022 which were held in virtual mode. IR temperature sensors and mechanical sanitiser dispensers were procured by the institute to ensure the safety of staff and students in campus during Covid pandemic. The classrooms were fully sanitised after every online class to ensure safety of faculty and staff members. Staggered/flexible timings were adopted wherever possible for staff and faculty members during high-risk period.

What is the strength of faculties and what is the students’-teachers’ ratio?

All faculty members of IIM Bodh Gaya are PhDs from institutes of national and international repute. The faculties have strong research aptitude and are well trained with teaching, training and consultancy competencies. Our faculty members regularly publish their research output both in national and international journals, including ABDC-listed journals. Besides research papers, the faculties regularly publish books, book chapters and cases. The teacher-student ratio at IIM Bodh Gaya is currently 1:17.

Are there any new programmes in the offing? Also, please provide insights on industry collaborations.

IIM Bodh Gaya is launching three new executive certificate programmes on artificial intelligence & machine learning, business management and digital marketing for business in the current academic year. The programme in artificial intelligence and machine learning for business will enable professionals to be data-fluent managers and deal with fundamental aspects of data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence. The programme will incorporate several state-of-the-art tools and techniques used in the industry for analytics applications. The programme on business management endows participants with industry-relevant practical and theoretical knowledge to help them make the right business decisions and help their businesses sustain in this competitive world. The programme on digital marketing for business focuses on building skill sets to hone analytical, strategic and entrepreneurial thinking and competency.

We have MoU with academic institutions like the Indian Institute of Technology, Patna and All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna to collaborate on interdisciplinary research and teaching. We have also signed MoUs with more than 22 international institutes for research and teaching activities. Faculty and staff members are part of these exchange programmes with international partners.

The University of Derby, UK, collaborated with the institute along with a couple of other institutions across the world to organise an online workshop in July 2021 to develop a network of international academic researchers to promote research collaboration in the area of Operations and Supply Chain Sustainability. Our Economics department, in association of the University of Cambridge and CEENRG, is organising an International Conference on Sustainable Goals 2022 in September 2022. The same department, in association with Waikato Management School Hamilton, New Zealand, is organising a conference on Contemporary Issues in Emerging Markets Conference in October 2022.

We entered into a partnership with the State Health Society, Bihar in 2021 to provide management solutions to address their grass root problems associated with limited reach and lack of motivation and engagement. Our faculties provided management expertise by designing and delivering management development programmes for the employees of State Health Society, Bihar. In 2022, IIM Bodh Gaya provided training sessions for local budding entrepreneurs for micro and small enterprises in aspects related to management under the Chief Minister Entrepreneur Scheme of Govt of Bihar.

Please shine light on some of the achievements of the institution.

The institute has achieved 100 per cent placements in all years since its inception. The average graduate salary is also showing an upward trend. The average median salary for the current 2020-2022 batch was 12.3 lakh per annum. The highest package for the current batch increased to 30.2 lakh per annum. There is a healthy mix of strong recruiter partnerships built over the years coupled with the induction of new-age, new sectors into the recruiting pipeline that match our graduates’ aspirations better.

In the past five years, the faculty of IIM-BG have produced over 588 items classified as intellectual contributions (ICs). This includes 494 publications in peer-reviewed journals and 94 other contributions. The faculty of IIM-BG have 22 patents to their credit