Principal Speak: Shikha Jain, director, IMDR: Only way to learn how to do it... is to do it

PUNE Shikha Jain’s resume is filled with a list of degrees that ensure her heading IMDR is the perfect fit. Two decades of work in the field of management education, higher education administration and business research, has seen Jain scale the heights of Economics, Marketing, International Business, and Research Methodology. In her capacity as director, leading the execution of evolved academic processes is at the top of the list.

The elevator pitch on IMDR in 2020?

The Institute of Management Development and Research (IMDR), Pune, is a pioneer in management education, established in 1974, as a constituent unit of the Deccan Education Society. We offer a two-year full time PGDM program which is approved by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and recognised by Directorate of Technical Education (DTE), Maharashtra. We offer dual specialisation, where students opt for major and minor electives in the fields of Marketing, Finance, HR, Operations, International Trade, and Systems. From 2020-21 we are offering two new specialisations – Business Analytics, and Entrepreneurship and Startup Management.

If you had to pick a USP for the organisation?

Dual specialisation and a choice-based credit system ensures that learners are able to design their career in accordance with their preferred job roles in the corporate world. In the current academic year, IMDR contributes to society its 45th batch of management students. Over four decades, the IMDR legacy reflects in the aspiring management professionals through their values, thought process, and decision-making. A vast network of alumni spread across the country and the rest of the world echoes of a living, thriving and an ever-growing, well-bonded IMDR community. 

Does the curricula have room for upgradation?

At IMDR skill development in students is designed to integrate industry requirements on one end, and individual learner’s personality leanings on the other. Formally structured into curriculum, our skill enhancement initiatives have multiple facets, delivered through diverse pedagogy. Technical competence insync with job requirements are balanced with soft-skills training, enabling development of high performance individuals who are better engaged with their job roles and business organisations. Generic skill development is collaborated with domain based skill sets to ensure task completion effectively within team settings. A multidisciplinary and experiential learning approach in skill development supports a holistic view to problem solving in the students. All of this follows the instructional system design methodology with a student driven campus ensuring that the learner drives the process and the outcome. 

Is the IMDR platform ready for innovation in the fast-evolving world of management education?

The academic landscape is fast evolving with multiple platforms for learning and wide variants of blended formats. Adding to the intricacies is the ever-increasing learner expectations and demands from their corporate recruiters.In this scenario IMDR promises to drive learning and innovation by crafting virtuous circle of interactions among stakeholders, thereby establishing deep professional ties of trust and shared benefits. Added to it will be flexible and agile learning environments which are inherently capable of responding to the dynamism in business and economy. At the core will lie, the preparedness of the learner to move beyond just “best practices” and familiar routines, and comprehend new and innovative ways to relate to their work contexts and perform.

What next?

At IMDR we are supremely conscious of a world with ever-increasing unpredictability and higher complexity, and as to what kind of workforce do we need to have in such scenario. Consequently, we groom and train students who can understand and be aware of the challenges, but not be threatened by them, managers who want to break out of the mould and create opportunities for growth and not wait for it to happen; managers who are bold and entrepreneurial and who are skilled in application of new techniques and processes. It reflects in our commitment to crafting our academic environment as an interface between stakeholders which builds sustainable learning communities. Systematic efforts incorporate the outlook that there is really only one way to learn how to do something and that is to do it. This is why we enable the crucial intersection of the traditional boundaries between industry and academia, which allows either side to crossover to the others’ space for structured engagement, striking a balance between academic learning and workplace experience.