Team InsideIIM conducted an interview with Ranjeet Nambudiri, Chairperson, IPM IIM Indore. Here's what he has to say about the programme -
-IIM Indore is the only IIM in the country to offer an after-school programme. Please take us through the genesis of the programme.
The five Year Integrated Programme in Management (IPM) was launched in 2011 to serve two purposes. Firstly, the objective was to have a set of students with a strong foundation of social sciences. In the first three years of the program the participants undertake courses in Economics, Psychology and Sociology in addition to a variety of courses in Mathematics and Statistics. The participants are integrated with the PGDM batch from the fourth year onward. Since these 120 participants have gone through a variety of subjects from the afore-mentioned domain, it brings a lot of diversity in the MBA class. Secondly, it was felt that by starting early (entry age of 18 years) the participants would be in a better position to internalize issues related to business ethics and corporate governance. Furthermore, the programs aims at grooming business leaders with a strong sense of social responsibility. The aim was to offer an innovative programme that identified the leadership potential of young men and women in India and prepared them to shoulder challenging managerial and administrative responsibilities in the Indian and global societal context.
-How different is the IPM’s UnderGraduate phase from the BBA which is offered on a pan-India level?
IPM is entirely different programme from a BBA in terms of profile of applicants, selection process, programme design, content and delivery, and integration with the PGDM.
To begin with the first three years of the programme cannot be equated to a BBA because, unlike in the traditional BBA program, IPM participants undergo courses that are considered foundational disciplines of management. The three pillars of management are Economics. Social Sciences (Psychology and Sociology), Mathematics and Statistics. The IPM participants undergo extensive courses in these three domains. In addition to this there are a lot of skill building and perspective courses from domains like Languages, Communication, Information Systems, Humanities, Performing Arts and Sciences. Additionally, the participants go through two internships during the 5 years. The first is a social internship after the 3
rd year and then a business internship after the 4
th year. IPM is a niche program that is one of its kind designed to define and provide holistic education through a wide variety of courses and pedagogical interventions.
-What criteria is taken into consideration while admitting students into the 5 year programme?
Candidates satisfying the following criteria are eligible to apply for the Five-Year Integrated Programme in Management of IIM Indore.
- General and NC-OBC Category: Minimum 60% in standard X/ SSC and standard XII/ HSC or equivalent examinations, Maximum 20 years of age as on July 31, 2016
- SC, ST and PWD (DA) Category: Minimum 55% in standard X/ SSC and standard XII/ HSC or equivalent examinations, Maximum 22 years of age as on July 31, 2016
The candidates are selected on the basis of overall performance in Aptitude Test and Personal Interview
-Please tell us something about the structure of the programme.
The Programme consists of 15 terms spread over a period of 5 years, with each year having 3 trimesters. The first three years build a foundation, and the last two years focus on business management domains.
After 3 years of intensive study of foundational disciplines, the IPM students train as managers along with the students of the Institute’s 2-year Post Graduate Programme in Management (PGP), undertaking the same course package in management studies in years 4 and 5.
IPM students are required to complete a social internship at the end of year 3, and a business internship between years 4 and 5. This experiential learning inculcates leadership qualities in them and hones their managerial skills further.
-The programme was launched in the year 2011, since then what measures have been taken to strengthen the programme and what changes could be introduced in future?
As a part of IIM Indore’s endeavour for continuous improvement, the institute undertakes a thorough review of the programme taking inputs from different stakeholders viz., students, parents, faculty and programme administrators and benchmarking against various undergraduate programmes with similar ideology across the globe. Accordingly, IPM curriculum has also undergone review and been restructured in 2016, after the completion of one cycle of the program, to suit the evolving requirements of the industry. The restructured IPM will include options for international exposure through exchange programs, bridge courses that facilitate the transition to PGDM, greater opportunity for industry interface and contemporary course inputs.
-Please throw some light on IPM Placements
The first batch of IPM participants bagged offers from marquee recruiters like Credit Suisse, Deloitte, Nomura, JP Morgan, HDFC, IndusInd Bank, IBM, ICRA Management Consulting, Tata Sky, UAE Exchange among others. The feedback received from the recruiters in the first placement season of IPM has been encouraging. A leading credit rating agency remarked “We found the candidates to have a good understanding of concepts and confidence to face the demand of the corporate world.” With majority of offers being rolled out from Finance domain, the average salary of the batch stood at 11.96 LPA, including International offers such as EA to CFO & MD by a leading international foreign exchange company.