In today’s fast-paced world, businesses need transformational leaders sensitized to local issues, thus equipping themselves with practical problem-solving skills. What makes a great leader today is not just achieving academic excellence but also mindful progress, corporate readiness, a sense of responsibility, a drive for innovation, and a growth and diversity mindset.
IMS Ghaziabad, incepted in 1990, steers away from the cookie-cutter approach adopted by most business management schools where a certain curriculum is blindly followed verbatim. “We envision being a world-class institution, transforming society through value-based education focusing on management and technology, leading to an all-round development of human resources, knowledge, innovation, entrepreneurship, and research,” professes Dr. Urvashi Makkar, Director, IMS Ghaziabad.
Reshaping the Indian Business Management Landscape
With over three decades of glorious academic legacy, IMS Ghaziabad has a three-pronged strategy with an all-encompassing comprehensive approach towards achieving Academic Excellence, Corporate Readiness, and Global Interface, which is interwoven throughout the PGDM Program. The Program has been well-received by the students, faculty members, and well-renowned institutions. It has been approved by AICTE and accredited by the National Board of Accreditation (NBA) and equivalent to MBA by the Association of Indian Universities (AIU). The institute is also accredited globally by ASIC, UK, and is a member of AACSB Business Education Alliance, USA. IMS Ghaziabad is the first Higher Educational Institute in Delhi and NCR to be awarded the elite ISO 21001:2018 Certification, for its conformity to the requirements of the Management Systems for Educational Organisations (EOMS) standard, for its PGDM Two Year Full-Time Program in October 2021. “The institute is being consistently recognized for reinventing management education through a comprehensive focus on Academic Excellence, Global Exposure and Corporate Readiness by eminent bodies like The Times of India, The Week, Outlook, Business Today, BW Business World, Competition Success Review, Education Post, Careers360 and many more,” reveals Dr. Urvashi.
While the nation may be dotted with a myriad of educational institutions, what sets IMS Ghaziabad apart from its counterparts is its consistent record of excellent International and Domestic Placements since its inception, Holistic Development Approach, offering meritorious students Scholarships of up to 2.7 Crore, Competitive Curriculum based on Bloom’s Taxonomy, Experienced and Qualified Faculty, Strategic Location in NCR which is precisely in the heart of an active corporate community, State-of-the-art Campus and Hostel infrastructure, and Highly Equipped Digital Library. `
Continually riding the digitization wave, the institute’s Digital Library comprises a rich source of various online journals, magazines, and other reading materials in the field of Management, IT, and other areas. Courses like Mobile Applications Management (MAM) relevant to the current digital era have been incorporated into the curriculum.
Creating an Experiential, Fun, and Highly Conducive Environment
Much like the famous idiom ‘all work and no play makes Jack, a dull boy,’ IMS strongly believes that introducing elements of creativity and imagination within its teaching and learning process is what helps them cater to the needs of a broad spectrum of learners. “We have embedded several innovative pedagogical tools in our curriculum for inculcating creativity and imagination in students. The activities of the clubs and committees create an environment of collaboration and accountability, encouraging students to work in teams, providing an opportunity to apply their creative and innovative minds,” reveals Dr. Urvashi.
Novel initiatives such as Pre Placement Preparedness Program, Competency Mapping, Personal and Professional Skills Program (PPSP), Placement Readiness & Enhancement Program (PREP), Student Peer Learning Initiatives, have been launched to enhance the self-belief, confidence, ability, and skills of the students. This plays a crucial role in making students corporate-ready and helps ace the selection process. The highly skill-oriented Value-Added Certification Programmes (VA-CPs) and Value-Added Short-Term Training Programs (VA- STTPs) delivered under the umbrella of Skill Enhancement & Corporate Readiness (SECR) impart a distinctiveness to the institute’s unique pedagogy. “Initiatives like Centre for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (CIE), Language Lab, Versant Training for cracking the Big 4, Public Speaking Modules, Mentoring Program, Mock Interview Series, programs for Students Outreach and Grievance Redressal, Life Skills Training, Psychological Counseling further support us in our endeavor to develop the students for the corporate settings and sharpen their professional and personal skills,” adds Dr. Urvashi.
The institute is dedicated to broadening every student’s scope of learning and growing. Keeping this in mind, the Special Talk Series initiative has been sculpted into existence. This unconventional initiative consists of deliberations in five different aspects: Global Talk Series, Expert Talk Series, Corporate Talk Series, Alumni Talk Series, and Entrepreneurial Talk Series. “To further broaden the horizons of our students, we have partnered with reputed Global experts to collaborate with us as Adjunct Faculty for relevant subjects,” informs Dr. Urvashi.
Laying a Strong Foundation
Moreover, the IMS faculty acts as one of the key pillars of the institute. The faculty is an amalgamation of a strong blend of academicians, policymakers, administrators, and managers carefully chosen for the positive changes it can bring to the institution and the students who set out to create a life from IMS. Exposed to a high-quality mix of cutting-edge academic research and best practices from the industry, students are benefitted tremendously. In conjunction with this, the institute also invests heavily in its faculty members to hone their skills and continually stay updated with emerging trends and technologies.
The institute encourages its faculty members to keep themselves updated by participating in various FDP/STTPs and workshops/conferences outside the institute. The institute also organizes an in-house FDP/Training Program to cater to the development needs of faculty members. The institute encourages faculty members and provides financial support to attend such programs via a comprehensive Faculty Development Policy. Faculty members can also avail seed funding, thus helping them write cases and research papers published in classified journals. Dr. Urvashi proclaims, “All faculty members have been provided with laptops to continue their research at ease and enhance their lecture delivery. Pen Tablets are also offered to faculty members to improve the efficacy of classes. All Staff members have been provided with desktops to support their day-to-day operations.”
All in all, state-of-the-art infrastructure in classrooms, library, labs, hostel, facilities for promoting sports, in-campus banking and medical facility, free transportation, and the wholesome cafeteria further boosts the nurturing teaching-learning environment that IMS promotes.
Encouraging students to better carve their career path, IMS extends its flagship training and consulting vertical, Corporate Development and Excellence Center (CDEC), to provide world-class training and consulting services to the organizations by giving bespoke offerings. The institute recently kick-started ‘Peer to Peer Mentoring’ sessions in collaboration with a reputed institute of Delhi University, wherein students of IMS Ghaziabad conducted coaching sessions for their fellow learners. The cumulative wisdom thus boosted creativity and learning for students of both the participating institutes.
Helping Students Become Future-ready
Getting placed in a reputed organization is almost every student’s goal while pursuing a professional course. The corporate resource center or the Placement Cell of IMS plays a vital role in facilitating students to lead their aspirations to fruition. This center has been designed and developed to bridge the gap between the industry and academia by providing Career Counseling, need-based education, and organization support. To enable the students to meet the ever-changing requirements of the industry, the institute offers corporate-oriented Value-Added Certification Programmes such as MS-Office by Microsoft Academy, Digital & Social Media Marketing, Yellow Belt Six Sigma, Financial Markets & Google Analytics by MSME, PREP, CMIE Prowess, SPSS, and GHRDC, apart from the curricular activities.
Additionally, the Corporate Resource Centre and the Pre Placement Prepared Committee conducts numerous workshops on Resume Writing, Group Discussions, and Mock Interviews to empower the students towards a bright career. In fact, Covid-19 had a crippling effect on most institutions in India that were grappling to go digital and ensure job placements. IMS handled the situation with ease. Over 98 percent of the students were placed in elite organizations. “One of the major transformations that we have witnessed is with respect to recruiters visiting the campus. In the pre-pandemic period, we had to limit our pool of campus recruiters due to logistical issues. However, in the post-pandemic period, due to technological facilitation, it is now possible to organize pan India placement drives,” explains Dr. Urvashi. IMS Ghaziabad utilizes several enabling technologies to facilitate its students and faculty. Video Conferencing facility via Cisco WebEx, ZOOM, and Avaya Scopia app has been initiated for interaction, meetings, interviews, summer placements, group discussions, and campus hiring.
Further helping students get a leg up in the job market and work on their startups, an incubation center is in the pipeline. Once operational, the incubation center will help budding entrepreneurs transform their startup ideas into scalable, profitable, and sustainable businesses. Over the following years, IMS will continue to change lives and bright about a difference in the business world.
About Dr. Urvashi Makkar, Director, IMS Ghaziabad
Dr. Urvashi Makkar, with Ph.D. in Marketing and an Executive Program in Human Resource Management from IIM Calcutta, is an academician par excellence. She possesses Leadership Certifications from Harvard University, UK-India Education & Research Initiative (UKIERI). With an ardor for innovative learning and expertise in transforming Management Institutions by focusing on organizational development, she has created a niche for herself in the management education domain.
She is a vivid researcher and has to her credit 13 books published by renowned publishing houses, including TATA McGraw Hill; more than 80 publications in refereed International/National Journals and conferences; has been a Distinguished Speaker/Expert Panellist in numerous Summits/ Seminars/Conclaves; has conducted numerous EDPs/MDPs/Workshops and Consultancy assignments of reputed organizations. In keeping with her journey to contribute in the areas of Research and Consultancy, she is contributing globally in the field of academics as Founder Chief Editor of International Journal of Customer Relations; holding the Chair of Sr. Associate Editor in Editorial Board of IARS, International Research Journal, Malaysia and Member, Board of Editors, International Journal of Environmental and Social Psychology, USA.
In recognition of her passion for providing composite and quality education to young minds, she has been elected to the prestigious Council of Management of All India Management Association (AIMA) as Representative of Corporate/ Institutional Members for 2021-2023.