KIAMS Director Dr. C.N. Narayana shares his views on the KIAMS differentiation in the coming year

“In KIAMS vision of ‘Excellence’, my focus is primarily to build the academic rigor to give KIAMS students the skills needed to succeed in the competitive world and to reach the pinnacle of success”, says Dr. C.N. Narayana, Director KIAMS, who has recently joined the institute. He was sharing his understanding of the vision of KIAMS is to provide society a center of learning that excels in Management Education, Research, Training and Consultancy. His efforts are directed towards encouraging the faculty members to bring more output on research and publications. “Training and Consulting will automatically follow once we excel in Education and Research”, he adds. KIAMS has the Centre for Executive Education, which is clearly focusing on Executive Education.

KIAMS, Director, Dr. C.N. Narayana believes KIAMS offer an edge over other institutes: “With KIAMS, students have the option of choosing minor electives like Marketing, Operations or even Finance, along with the major electives. This gives them a better opportunity to succeed at the time of placements”. KIAMS also has a unique Industrial Study method, wherein the students are expected to look into the excellence model of specific organizations under the framework of CII and they are encouraged to learn how ratings are done in manufacturing and other industries. In addition to this, it has an 8-week summer Internship across various industry sectors. This gives every student a deep understanding of how various industries work on a day-to-day basis before they begin working toward final placements. KIAMS continually upgrades its curriculum to meet the industry norms. Beginning in the next academic year, the institute is migrating to a semester system and a 4-month LIP (Long Internship program), which will further strengthen opportunities for both the corporate and student community as a whole. These changes have been implemented with industry inputs to make them more relevant.

Dr. C.N. Narayana shares his opinion on PGDM, saying that the program has a stronger focus on industry and student needs, vis-à-vis MBA programs. It has a highly dynamic curriculum focused on industry inputs. PGDM also includes better evaluation methods, case-study teaching and application focused delivery. These Diplomas are recognized by AICTE and commands better acceptance in the corporate world and amongst the student community, as the education and placements are better, too. He believes PGDM has and will continue to have its edge over university offered MBAs.

Work opportunities are growing today with the economic growth of the country. Employability, however, is a function of a student’s performance. Explaining the grading system at KIAMS, Dr. Narayana said that in Management Education, especially in PGDM institutions, both relative grading and CGPA is widely used. KIAMS uses a CGPA out of 4 for every subject. A+ denotes 4 grade points, A denotes 3.75, B+ is 3.25, B is 3 grade points, and C is 2 grade points. Finally, a D is 1 grade point and an F is 0 grade points. According to Dr. Narayana, this shift in grading makes sense: “ This is undoubtedly better than the 35 percent pass marks of the university grading system. The evaluation criteria is different – if you look at passing, which is equivalent to a “D”, this will be more than 45 total marks. CGPA indicates better educational performance in terms of quality. But from the organizational perspective for the recruitment of quality students, it is just the first filtering criteria.” In addition to CGPA, employers also look at aptitude and attitude when making recruitment decisions. Dr. C.N. Narayana is looking forward to leading the institute towards excellence and meeting the challenges of the dynamic world of business. “KIAMS strongly believes in shaping future leaders with holistic development apart from building budding managers. KIAMS has a consistent record of placement and has an edge over others in terms of corporate relations with the backing of Kirloskar Group.” These words, coming from an evidently sure leader and visionary, set the stage for a new way of looking at education in the 21^st century.

Mr. Raj Vijayan talks about a career in Operations, urging students to focus on learning in the workplace rather than focusing on a placement with an established brand name.

Mr. Raj Vijayan is a KIAMS alum who, after dabbling in different fields for a time, eventually found his calling in Operations. He first gained exposure to the corporate world during his days at the institute through a three-month internship with Satyam Computers. He then earned a campus placement with Odessa Technologies, which, he admits, worked well for him. Reflecting on this experience, he says, “I had an engineering background, so I was looking for an opportunity where I could use both my degrees and deliver.”

Since his first job, Mr. Vijayan has built a strong portfolio for himself and today works as the Manager of Supply Chain Integrations at Flipkart. He had chosen Operations and Marketing for his PGDM and now is happy that he can follow his passion to the hilt with a big name company. “For me it wasn’t a market-driven decision to choose the subject at KIAMS; I have genuinely been interested in it, always,” he explains. “Operations management can be used across different functions of the organization and I was inspired by the scope it offers.”

Mr. Vijayan has good news for aspiring students. He believes that with several foreign companies setting up their base in India along with the expansion of Indian corporates, there will be a growing need for professionals who can manage the operations. He himself has worked with top brands like Lenovo and Adidas; however, he admits that being associated with Flipkart is the most exciting. “What makes it different is that I work for an end to end supply chain,” he says. “My role is to see technology and automation projects happening across Flipkart’s supply chain.. It has been a thrilling experience so far.”

Working with a brand like Flipkart offers Mr. Vijayan plenty of opportunities to learn, and as a manager he has to adapt with the changes the business demands. He admits that at the rate at which the industry is growing, they have to continually improve from  process and technology perspectives. It is hard work and, at times, fast-paced; but, he continues to look forward. This is clearly seen in the mantra that the successful manager follows: “My focus is on learning new things and being open to new technologies. I want to contribute in achieving Flipkart’s goals and be part of India’s e-commerce story.

In spite of his prolific CV, Mr. Vijayan is keen on learning every single day at work. And that’s what his advice is for young students who tend to focus on big brands, especially in the first phase of their careers. “At least in the first few years you need to focus on learning and adapting to the corporate environment, “ he advises. “If you have that opportunity with an organization, that should be good enough. Once you have that understanding, you can go for whichever brand you want to work with.”

Mr. Vijayan also recommends that management aspirants should find out more about the career they want, from the challenges to the responsibilities, before taking the plunge. “If you think that a particular field will give you enough opportunities that you will enjoy, be responsible and accountable; then go for it. Always follow your instincts,” he encourages. He agrees that student perspective  should be different, they should pay  more attention to the career opportunity; rather than too much of a focus on the brand name.

Looking back on his time at KIAMS, Mr. Vijayan has many fond memories. He remembers the moments shared with his batch mates, which is one reason why he feels a deep bond with the institute. He visits the campus twice a year and interacts with the faculty and students. Ask him about his biggest learning at the institute, and he quickly replies, “The importance of teamwork. We learned how to work together as a team and towards a common goal. That learning will always be with me for the rest of my career.”

Dr. Gopal Iyengar, Director,KIAMS talks about “MBA Vs PGDM – facts and fiction”

With numerous nomenclatures for a post-graduation in Management all over the country, things often become incomprehensible for an aspirant. MBA, PGDM, PGDBM, PGPM, PGDIM, MMS… the list goes on and on. Over a period of time some myths have been repeated so often that they have ended up as gospel truth. First things first, are MBAs or MMSs recognised Masters degree programmes, while PGDM and other programmes simply diplomas?

“There is no difference between the two, in terms of validity or certification,” clarifies Dr. Gopal Iyengar, Director, Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies. KIAMS is one of the foremost B-schools in the country, mentored by one of India’s foremost corporate conglomerates – the Kirloskar Group. “The difference essentially has been created by AICTE so that the source of the certification is known. While universities give MBA degrees, AICTE recognised independent institutes confer a PGDM. Independent AICTE recognized institutes like KIAMS, give you a PGDM, while Delhi University or Mumbai University confer MBAs on their students.”

Is there by any chance a disparity in employability? According to Dr. Iyengar, the employability quotient is not dependent on the PGDM/ MBA status. Instead, factors like the brand, credibility and pedagogical excellence of the institution are the deciding factors. How about for higher studies, like those wanting to do a Doctorate and Post Doctorate? We have all heard that a PGDM is not recognised as a Masters programme by universities.

Dr. Iyengar insists that students who do a PGDM from a renowned B-school are much better off than those getting an MBA from a university.

“On an average, the university MBA lags behind non-university management (PGDM) education in terms of adapting and adopting. In progressive B-schools like KIAMS we can see pedagogies, processes and content continuously evolving in step with industry requirements. The tremendous potential of the internet in providing data and information on one’s fingertips, as well as in facilitating professional networking, is also much better harnessed by the top-notch B-schools as compared to universities. The system is closely moving to education in a partnership mode, which includes the institute, industry and the student. As we have had industry acceptance globally for 15 years, surely we must be doing it right!”

Dr. Iyengar points out that a good B-school which employs proper methods, processes and structure actually puts all its cards on the table. So, aspirants must not overlook any information – or lack of it – before taking a decision.

“You will find the audited placement records of KIAMS available in the public domain with the Indian Placement Reporting Standards (IPRS). Please visit http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/iprs/ for details of 2011-12. Good B-schools attract better summer internship offers. Of course, we have the advantage of having a mammoth industry partner of the stature of the Kirloskar Group, which ensures that embedded in the delivery are practical assignments and a wealth of internal, exhaustive case studies.”

Dr. Gopal Iyengar believes that clearly, any premier management institute, seeks to be well endowed in the four resources – people, processes and systems, technologies and relationships – the best bet to deliver quality management education. These are the exact parameters which industry looks for and on which aspirants would do well to assess their options. Then the debate of MBA vs PGDM fades into insignificance.

Prof. Sunaina brings to KIAMS her grasp of the entire expanse of management through years of quality job experience in world class organisations like Accenture

The most remarkable thing about Prof. Sunaina Kuknor is that her journey as a teacher has been of barely three-and-half years, but in this short duration she has taught almost the entire spectrum of Management. From General Management subjects like, Organisational Behaviour, Business Communication, Business Ethics, Company Law, Personality Development; to Human Resource specialisation papers like Career Planning, HRM, Performance Appraisal, Group Dynamics, Industrial Relations, Leadership styles- Prof. Kuknor has seen it all. The latest addition to the faculty strength of KIAMS – she joined in May 2013 – Prof. Kuknor says that joining KIAMS was pretty much case of first impressions being the best impressions.

“I recall my very first visit to the KIAMS campus in September 2012. The quality education imparted, the ambience, the well structured work allotment and autonomy given to the employees with utmost belief in their abilities… all these aspects make KIAMS a very desirable destination for any teacher of business and management. So when I decided to switch over, I could think of nothing but KIAMS.”

Prof. Sunaina owes her grasp on almost the entire expanse of management mainly to the three years of quality job experience she accumulated prior to becoming an academic. Not only has she been a Recruitment Administrator in Accenture, she has also executed the role of Senior Market Analyst. A Trainer for PG-CET/ MAT in Analytical and Logical reasoning, Prof. Kuknor got her UGC NET/ JRF qualification in June 2011. She is currently teaching OB & HR in KIAMS.

“HR today has moved way beyond the basics of mere hiring and, therefore, application of Information Technology in HR functions and practices is fast growing. E-HRM is concerned with supporting business processes by means of training, recruitment and performance management. Emergence of new concepts like Six Sigma, TQM in HR, and HR and Kaizen have led to improvement in  the quality of work and the employees. Competency Mapping has gained a lot of popularity in recent times. Aligning competencies and strategies, recruitment of employees on the basis of job and culture fit, planning for career and succession, and aligning the personal goals of employees to organisational goals have all gained importance. The list of expectations of the HR department is never-ending these days. It is for such a dynamic and evolving profession that I prepare my students.”

 Prof. Kuknor believes that companies today, more than ever before, need to develop a strong corporate philosophy and live by it.

“The focus has to be on active, intentional and ongoing engagement, with diversity in people, curriculum, co-curriculum and in communities – with which individuals might connect – at the centre of the HR philosophy. This will lead to greater awareness, content knowledge, cognitive sophistication and an empathetic understanding of the complex ways individuals interact within systems and institutions. When you choose a career in HR, always make sure you are well acquainted with the basic HR functions. You can always start as a specialist in any one function and then move on to becoming an HR generalist. As an HR professional, understanding organisational behaviour and dynamics is a must.”

Considering that HR today is unanimously looked upon as a strategic partner across industries, Prof. Kuknor’s vision and philosophy of HR will certainly hold KIAMS students in good stead when they step out into the corporate world.

“Sometimes, I just keep staring at my gold medal, reliving those moments at KIAMS auditorium when my name was announced and I couldn’t believe it.” says Shruti Jain,Gold Medallist,Batch of 2011-13

The name rang out loud and clear in the hall. Shruti had heard it being called out, but was completely frozen. The KIAMS auditorium erupted into congratulatory clapping, but Shruti sat there… transfixed like a doe in the glare of headlights. A nudge from her batch-mate seated next to her confirmed that it was truly her name being called out. Waking out of her self-imposed stupor, Shruti regained enough composure to walk up to the stage. By the time she had reached on-stage, tears had welled up in her eyes. She couldn’t stop them from streaming down her cheeks as she received the Gold Medal for earning the distinction of being the 2013 course topper of one of India’s topmost B-schools, Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies.

“It was as if I was in a dream-world. While receiving the Gold Medal, I was continuously trying to trace my parents in the crowd, but the tears in my eyes made it really difficult. Once I traced them, I just kept looking at them. It is an honour no doubt, but the pride it has brought my parents is priceless. The feeling is indescribable. Sometimes, I just keep staring at my Gold Medal relive those moments when my name was announced and I was completely frozen and couldn’t believe it was me. I was determined to perform well and learn as much as I could in KIAMS. That this would result in a Gold Medal was beyond my expectation. It’s the best gift and memory KIAMS has given me to cherish for the rest of my life.”

Clearly, it is a gift that Shruti Jain has earned by something more than just hardwork. So what goes into the making of a topper?

“KIAMS transformed me from a Dreamer to Achiever. With every assignment, every presentation, and every exam the sense of accomplishment grows. KIAMS gave me the perfect platform to understand my talents and abilities; something I would’ve never known. Being part of various activities and the Marketing Club Lead showed me the career path of my interest – Marketing. While my dad has been an inspiration right throughout my life, exemplary mentors like Dr. Gopal Iyengar, Dr. V.S Pai, Dr. Pinak Kulkarni, Prof. Satish Irde, and Prof. Siva have made me adept at application based learning. Last but not the least, it all boils down to the friends who are a part of your one-night-before-exams study group.”

A BBA (Marketing) from Surat University, Gujarat, Shruti scored a 91%ile in XAT, and converted quite a few of her target management colleges.

“Among all the institutions, I found KIAMS to be the best. It looked like a hidden treasure; only the truly willing could find it as KIAMS doesn’t over-emphasise on publicity. From the very day I entered KIAMS, I’ve never regretted my decision. I find myself to be a different personality now filled with confidence and ready to enter into the corporate world.”

Shruti’s mantra for success for her juniors is what she calls the “3 C’s”.

“Be Calm – Even in the worst of times; be Confident – in oneself as well as in the system one is living in;  and practice Concentration – one should never lose his/ her focus from his/ her Goals.”

5 years down the line, Shruti sees herself in a position of responsibility in the advertising industry – coaching other employees and managing more people in the same industry. At the same time, she harbours the dream of opening a school for differently-abled children. She believes, it will help them be more confident and less dependent.

“KIAMS Gives Me The Freedom To Come Up With Something New For Every Batch. This Increases My Own Learning Opportunities.” Says Professor Anand Ellur,Faculty, KIAMS

Professor Anand Ellur joined Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies ( KIAMS ) about 2 years back, and, in his words, the journey ever since has been ‘simply great’. A Textile Engineer with a PGDM in Operations, Professor Anand Ellur didn’t start out as an academician, but – very much on the expected lines – in the corporate world. In fact, out of his 12 years of work experience, 4 years have been in the corporate sector with companies like Shahi Export House in Bangalore, GTN Textiles, Hyderabad and Richa Global, Bangalore. Prior to KIAMS, most of his teaching experience was in university affiliated colleges – barring a stint with IIM, Kozhikode.

“In university-affiliated colleges, you have to pretty much stick to the syllabus, but KIAMS gives you the freedom to do so many things with your PGDM classes. I don’t have to teach the same things. I can come up with something new for every batch at KIAMS. It increases my own learning opportunities.”

This freedom at KIAMS helps him carry on with his exploration of new ideas and areas of expertise – something which started way back in 2006, when he won the first prize in the Teaching Assistant’s category for essay writing on the topic “Global Issues – World from our Eye” during CONFLUENCE 2006 hosted by IIM, Ahmedabad.

While his current research at KIAMS is focused on Open Shop Scheduling and Job Shop Scheduling, Professor Anand has, in the past, researched on topics ranging from E-governance (papers published on E-voting using Biometrics;  to Swarm Intelligence . He has been the conference convener for National Conference on ‘GREEN’ Management – Vision 2020, conducted at Bapuji Institute of Management, Davangere . More recently, Professor Anand Ellur was the coordinator of the Boot Camp, MDP, conducted by KIAMS, for the Graduate Engineer Trainees of various Kirloskar Group Companies.

As a teacher of subjects relating to Operations at KIAMS, Professor Anand Ellur finds merit in teaching not just the Operations aspect, but also the Finance and Marketing applications of subjects like Statistics or Decision-Making models. However, the same cannot be done for a Manufacturing-specific subject like Inventory Management or Logistics & Warehouse Management.

“Subjects like Inventory Management are specific to Operations, unlike subjects like Decision-Making models in management. At KIAMS, whenever I’m teaching topics like Transportation model – which comes under Decision-Making – I make sure to bring in problem solving issues related to Finance or Marketing, as well.”

Mafoi Next Stop For Drishya Vijayan

Drishya, a management graduate from KIAMS, recently was selected for the position of Account Manager at Mafoi. She got this opportunity through campus placement. “Though I was not very keen on giving interviews to the recruiters who came down for campus placements, my family and friends thought I should give it a shot and I actually made it,” said Drishya.

Asked about her professional journey so far, Drishya said she joined Infosys after her graduation. Working at Infosys gave her good experience, but she soon realized in order to grow professionally she would have to get more education and eventually decided to join a management program at KIAMS.

“Joining KIAMS was a wise decision. I have learned a lot during my two-year stay at the campus,” said Drishya. She said it has been a great experience studying at KIAMS. Drishya spoke at length about how they worked in teams which gave them good exposure to team dynamics. She praised the KIAMS faculty for being supportive and co-operative. “KIAMS teachers are wonderful,” she said.

Asked about her interview rounds and experience with the interview panel at Mafoi, she said students first appeared in a group discussion round and their performance in this round determined who was selected for interviews. In the interview, she was asked questions related to her work experience at Infosys and her experience at KIAMS. Drishya said: “They asked about my experience at Infosys and the add-ons that I got from KIAMS. They basically wanted to understand if I met their expectations”.

Drishya is really thankful to the faculty members and her seniors at KIAMS who helped her learn and grow as an individual and made her confident enough to face the challenges that may arise in her professional career. She said at KIAMS she learned how to strike a balance between her personal and professional life.

Drishya will be joining Mafoi Management Consultants Ltd., Chennai, on April 2 and is really looking forward to assuming the role given to her.

“The Present Moment is Inevitable …Crack It And Then Move Ahead!” – – Vineesh , Team Lead, Infosys Batch 8 (2007)

A Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies alumnus from the 8th Batch, Vineesh is refreshingly happy-go-lucky, despite the fact that he is a Team-Lead who provides critical research insights to the Infosys leadership. With flexi-working hours, and no typical day-of-work, Vineesh makes working at Infosys sound like fun. Probe deeper and you realize that as a Consultant, he has to clock a quarterly average of 9 hours, 15 minutes per-day. It could be a normal ‘enter office, check on calendar, plan meetings and assign tasks’ schedule, or round-the-clock crisis management situation.

For Vineesh, Infosys was a campus placement at KIAMS. “Really, I have no idea how I cracked it. I just went for the interview and it naturally happened!” He attributes his chilled-out-yet-methodic approach to Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies.

“The most important skills that I acquired at KIAMS were Time Management and the ability to prioritize and focus. I specifically enjoyed the strategy classes, where the most inspiring situations and things happened. Infact, all the learnings that I’m using… all the managerial skills… I learnt them at these strategy sessions in KIAMS. You see, if you are only learning things from books, you’ll never understand. Only when you start working, will you start correlating the theory and practice. Then, you will naturally adopt the change and internalize. That is what happened to me at Infosys.”

Vineesh attributes his ability to see the fun and enjoyable side of work to the Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies, as well. “We had organized a rural marketing fair at KIAMS called ‘Pragati’. Most of the students were involved with it. I was a part of the promotion team, and we had promoted the event at all levels. The fun part was going down to the streets of Harihar and Davangere, and putting up posters on every street and wall. There was a lot of laughing and shouting! That was probably the best part of being in KIAMS… we never lost out on seeing the fun-side of every class, every day and every event.”

Vineesh strongly advocates the ‘never-lose-the-big-picture’ approach, to the current batches of Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies. “Don’t be very particular about specializing in a specific stream. Management students at KIAMS should have an integrated feel – they have to be flexible enough to learn everything within the management spectrum. For example, if you are focusing on Finance at KIAMS, you should also get the overall managerial picture including Marketing, Strategy etc. Specialization is not the buzz-word in the current times.”

No wonder therefore, that Vineesh speaks about seamlessly moving into a bigger and more exciting role. “For the next 5 years I want to build a career in the Consulting space, and then I’ll be looking for opportunities on the Sales front. You see, the Sales team brings in the business, and the Consulting team conveys the idea of that business to the Delivery team. So Consulting is an intermediary, but you get to know the delivery stream – the people working on the ground. From there you can go onto an increasing role, that is – direct interaction with the client… which is more exciting! Down-the-line, after that… I will start my own venture.”

“My mantra is that the present moment is inevitable. Just crack it, and move on to the next step. Don’t plan too much.”

Clearly, Vineesh is a perfect example of the ‘Teach to Think’ credo of Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies.

Negotiating through Newer Relationships and Capabilities: A Talk with Prof. Akash Mathapati of Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies

Kirloskar Insitute of Advanced Management Studies (KIAMS) has all that it takes to build and foster a successful manager – for the stakes are high. Research shows that between half and three-quarters of business alliances fail due to poor relationship marketing. Today’s economic climate requires them to have a quick turnover while lowering costs and increasing the amount of functionality they can deliver. This climate thus mandates that organizations master at least three critical skills to ensure that performance goals are being met: metrics, negotiation and relationship management.

To address the topic of how to make alliances or relationships succeed, we spoke to Prof. Akash Mathapati, Sr. Lecturer, BBA, MBA who teaches Relationship Marketing, Marketing Management and Brand Management to the students of KIAMS. With 6 years of rich industry work experience behind him, Mathapati gives us fantastic insight into the emerging need of relationship management and outlines what students and budding managers can do to move this from an individual skill into the realm of an organizational capability. He is also a frequent writer and speaker on issues of Brand Personality and Consumer Buying Behaviour, having presented papers in International Conferences and Research Publications.

“When I talk about Relationship Management” he says, “I incorporate it as a holistic distinction between two different kinds of RM. The first kind is focused on a particular transaction or relationship say, with a customer. The second is focused on organizational capability, i.e. what processes, tools, and skills does the organization need to have in place with its suppliers, vendors & other stakeholders to have a truly effective RM.” said Prof. Mathapati.

He adds that, “Ultimately, the cost of a bad relationship can be the outright failure or sub- optimization of the enterprise or effort.” Simply put, a poor relationship can prevent an effort from delivering up to its potential. “The fact that individuals and organizations have different interests, cultures etc. is the reason you need a RM. We all have different sets of experiences, and we interpret data in different ways and thus form conclusions. All of these differences need to be managed.”

Indeed the job opportunities are fairly moving up in this vertical (such as Banking, and IT and ITes Services) as more and more companies are realising to the inadequate attention of the working relationship as being a major cause of failure of an alliance, be it with a customer, supplier or a vendor.

Prof. Jha on Maths in Marketing, Realizing Potential of Brand India and Teaching to Think

While most of the faculty and MBA-grads at Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies or KIAMS, find Professor Bidyanand Jha’s mix of Marketing and Mathematics, fascinating, Professor Jha himself doesn’t.

“After my BSc and MSc in Mathematics, I chose to do MBA in Marketing, out of interest. There is a lot of analysis in both. Marketing requires a lot of calculations, lot of formulas are inter-related… number crunching, you know. Happens in Finance also, but Marketing attracted me, because of the different kind of challenges. Actually Finance becomes an office job, while I love travelling, roaming around and talking to people. That was my skill and I found that it could be used in Marketing.”

As a core faculty of Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies, Prof Jha teaches Sales & Distribution Management, Brand Management and Retail & Franchising Management. He is particularly bullish about career opportunities for branding ‘India’!

“The Government of India is focusing hugely on Tourism, be it sight-seeing or Health Tourism. But we’ve got to brand tourism properly. Infact India is globally branded as the centre of economic growth, and this needs to be brand-managed as well. That’s why at KIAMS, we believe that Brand Management has immense scope, not just for branding a product, but branding a community, a country, or even a system.

Not surprisingly, therefore, Prof Jha finds Franchising Management as the next big thing. The number of foreign companies queuing up to do business in India – but not willing to ‘manage’ it – is on the rise. Such companies are always in search of innovative entrepreneurs willing to promote their product, as well as become a part of their system – an opportunity for which students are prepared at Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies.

But what interests Professor Jha the most, are the teens of India. Infact, both the research projects currently being pursued by Prof Jha at KIAMS – learning style of the teens and purchase decision making of the teens – revolves around them.

“There was a time when decisions were made by elders and passed on to the teens, but now teens are self-dependent. This is the new India, which hasn’t been explored much. What is the Teens’ perception? How do they see the Indian market? How do they perceive a product? How do they make a purchase decision? They are habituated to a certain learning-style in the classrooms and school. What impact does it have on their selection of marketing messages… their interpretation of advertisements – in conventional and in new media? How the perceptions of the advertiser differ from the person watching the advertisement? Teens are the Centre of my research at KIAMS, because tomorrow they will be the main consumers in India, atleast.

With KIAMS for a year now, Prof Bidyanand Jha resides within the campus of Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies.

“I get good sets of students to teach, good peer groups to work for… KIAMS is a motivating factor for me to do better.” He advises the outgoing batches to map the difference between their perception and the reality of the outside world, before they step out of Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies.

…And for the incoming batches at KIAMS?

“They should unlearn things they’ve learnt outside and relearn new things. At KIAMS, We ‘teach to think’. We all are different individuals with different caliber of solving problems with success. The Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies doesn’t teach that ‘this is the fundamental process of solving a problem’ and that’ you should handle this problem in this way’. KIAMS grads are taught the process of decision-making that leads to a good decision, when a problem comes their way. The students design their own boundaries.”

Clearly, at Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies, you will have to be creative in solving problems on your own!