Professor (Dr.) S. Neelamegham is currently a distinguished Professor of Marketing and President of NIILM Centre for Management Studies. He is the Co-Founder of the Academy of Indian Marketing. He has been Dean of the Faculty of Management Studies of the University of Delhi.
He has vast and varied experience in teaching, research and consultancy in several countries. He has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Wisconsin (USA), Concordia University, (Canada), Curtin International (Australia), University of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), School of Tourism Organizations (France), Case Method Programme of Harvard Business School and Durban University, South Africa.
He has served as a Consultant to UNDP, ADB, Economic Commission (Africa), Asian Productivity Organisation, Commonwealth Secretariat, Asian Center for Development Administration and on the boards of several private and public sector organizations. He was instrumental in setting up the School of Business Studies at the University of Zambia of which he was the Founder Dean. He was also the Chairman of the committee which prepared the blueprint for setting up of the fifth IIM at Indore. He has authored numerous publications. His current areas of interest include, Global competitiveness, Strategic Alliances and Changing Face of Indian Marketing.
On behalf of Management fraternity, we interviewed him. Following are the excerpts of the talk :
Certainly, whatever education we offer it has to be related to our own environment. That is the reason why we use number of Indian Case Studies to reflect what is happening in the Indian environment and the companies also prefer students who are well-versed with the Indian situations rather than western situations. Gone are the days when we used to fall in western case studies. Today we only deal with Indian situations, at the same time there has to be a global focus. From the view point of India, it is necessary to look at the global perspective.
Our curriculum, for instance, not only includes Indian case studies but we also teach a course “The Indian Art & Culture”. Various aspects of Indian heritage are focused under it. In addition to this our students take various live projects which are socially oriented programmes like women’s development, poverty alleviation, village development etc. In order to really understand what is happening around us and not only that we also get people from various bodies like Art of living, Brahma Kumaris, in order to give them an exposure to the spiritual element. So that people may learn that whatever they have learnt, it has got applicability in to the Indian environment.
We focus at the integrated learning at NIILM. It is the constant updating of your skills & activities throughout your life and you have to add on to whatever you have learnt constantly.
We also do not make our students specialists. You cannot call them marketing man or production man or HR man. We give them a holistic perspective, so that they become able to handle whatever job they want. “We give our students a holistic perspective, so that they become employable. We follow, Something of Everything & Everything of Something”
Other areas of focus are ethical values, personality development, transparent administration. It’s an open environment here. When an open & transparent environment is created, people learn a lot & they also learn certain soft skills, in respect of communication & analytical skills.
What we teach, is although Indian curriculum but we add on global perspective to it. Students are exposed to what is happening around the world. For instance, a group of our students returned from an educational tour from France. They spend there few weeks and learn what is happening there. Therefore, at the end of the programme, student’s personality is groomed and developed, they acquire new knowledge & also trained in skills required by the corporate world along with the essence of global perspective.
Business firms look for resourcefulness in the candidate. Resourcefulness means we must have common sense or general knowledge about what is happening around. Candidate must be able to adapt knowledge acquired by him to the environment.
Another important element, that corporate looks for, is communication skills, on which Business firms emphasizes a lot. If you are not able to communicate both orally and in writing, then you will not be considered. Therefore, how far you are able to communicate your views, this again is very important element.
Then comes, how far can you think logically, it estimates your analytical thinking.
“Along with CAT score & GDPI, if one is able to demonstrate his / her resourcefulness and possesses good communication & analytical skills, then he / she is the right candidate to be selected for the admission in MBA”
MBA equips the students with the skills which no other prograamme can. Major proof is Decision making skill. One of the crucial problem, a manager confronts is how to decide; therefore decision making is the pulse beat of the manager. In this two year programme, in every subject, the students learn how to decide, given a situation with different options, which option he must choose.Then it develops your analytical skills, It makes you learn how to analyze because it is not about just learning a formula but how to apply it in real life situations.
At NIILM, we have close connections with the industry, hence the student got to understand better about the industry. Every week some people from different industries come and interact with the students. There are certain sessions where students have face to face interaction with the executives. Constantly our students undertake projects related to different industries. So this makes MBA students to stand out of the rest as by the time they complete their MBA, they know more about business education, they have ability in tackling the real greater live problems. Then they also acquire ability in making presentations of whatever decisions they have made. So this make MBAs more competent, compared to those who have not undergone business education.
When it comes to sectorial division of the MBA in terms of marketing, finance, HR etc., it is of no use in today’s scenario. Today recruiters don’t look for the specialization in MBA, but they demand deep knowledge of the industry they are engaged in from the candidate. If one is interviewing for the telecom sectors then he must know each & every aspect of the Telecom Industry.
MBA is something which will make you move on faster. Even the engineers from IIT go for MBA, because they know that it will help them grow faster. Getting fat salaries out of degrees depends on the Brand name. Even the good brands at graduation level may get you good salary but it’s not about salary but the education you get from an MBA institute. Look for the good career prospects in to an institute rather than getting job opportunities.
MBA aspirants should develop quality communication skills by reading. Reading is an important habit one has to develop to make a good score in MBA programme. Participate in group discussions and become a little extrovert. Do interaction professionally and develop social networking. Although all these skills are developed after getting an MBA but if one develops these in advance one can easily to get admission in reputed MBA Institute.