IIM-Lucknow to set up centre to train CEOs

Rajeev Jayaswal in New Delhi

Keeping in view the need of chief executive officers (CEOs) to upgrade their skills, the Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow (IIM-L) is planning to set up a Centre for Business Leadership and ‘CEO Club’ in its satellite campus at Noida.

The Centre and the Club will organise a series of workshops and seminars for top-level executives in order to keep them at par with their global counterparts, IIM-L director, Dr Pritam Singh, told The Financial Express.

“In India, we don’t have a single centre which is in a position to train CEOs, and therefore CEOs go to Europe and US for training. The Noida campus is an effort to fill this gap,” he said.

The management school has recently set up a campus in Noida to undertake educational programmes for working executives.

“The Noida campus will not duplicate IIM-L activities. It will primarily focus on global MBA programmes for practicing managers, weekend executive MBA programmes, and as a centre for faculty development for other management schools,” Dr Singh said.

Stating that IIM-L’s vision is to become a world class business school, Dr Singh said: “Our vision and thrust are global because we believe that the key to be counted among the league schools of the world is global course content and global orientation. The entire IIM-L community is working hard towards this and I’m sure we’ll achieve our objective in three-four years.”

Elaborating on IIM-L’s initiative towards globalisation, Dr Singh said, “In the next three years, we expect about 50-75 students every year to study a part of their courses at business schools abroad.” IIM-L has student exchange alliances with business schools from Canada, France, Spain, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and about 30 IIM-L students are currently studying at these schools.

In order to upgrade IIM-L’s activities to match the best business schools abroad, the institute has appointed a committee to suggest changes in its curricula. “We have appointed a committee under Prof Vipul to look into our curricula and suggest changes. The idea is to have a global approach,” Dr Singh said.

Stating that management education in India is primarily focused on concepts and not action, Dr Singh said: “Interface between industry and management schools is at a low and needs tremendous strengthening. In fact if this is done, both parties would gain, and I feel the industry stands to gain more as it will get students of higher quality.”