IIM Lucknow just declared its list of shortlisted candidates. Greetings and congratulations!

Many of you might have been shortlisted for the PGP-Sustainable Management course at IIM Lucknow and might be speculating about the specifics of the same. PGP-Sustainable Management is a two-year full-time residential programme being conducted by IIM Lucknow at its Noida campus. The programme helps students develop an ethos of the environment and social responsibility of businesses and equip them with holistic thinking and skills. The well-designed curriculum focuses on developing the capability to recognize the interconnectedness of economic performance of business with social and environmental systems. Businesses are being driven by sustainability and inclusive development. Various national, multinational and international organizations are adopting policies and programmes with a focus on the accomplishment of SDGs. In order to run a business sustainably, legitimately and successfully there is need of bright minds with knowledge and skills of management and positive attitude towards social and environmental issues.

1. Campus Life: PGP-SM is offered at Noida Campus of IIM-L. Noida campus was chosen for this programme, keeping in mind its proximity to Delhi NCR and Corporate Offices. The campus is spread over 20 acres and has the academic block, library, executive hostel and center, and faculty block. Students of PGPSM and IPMX are full-time residents of campus. WMP students (WMP is part-time executive education programme) visit campus on weekends.

2. Placements: Unlike PGP and PGP-ABM, PGP-SM has a different Placements committee for a simple reason that PGP-SM is a specialized course in Sustainable management and the type of roles offered are unique to this course. Many companies in consulting domains, FMCG, Renewable Power, etc. are hiring from PGP-SM because of the variable courses being taught in sustainability and a good mix of experienced professionals. Sustainability is emerging as a new vertical for many firms and immense opportunities are coming up in this field.

3. Courses: PGPSM provides a unique blend of core management courses like finance, marketing, HR, Operations, Strategy, Statistics, and IT and sustainability-related courses. The curriculum of PGPSM is rigorous and is designed to equip students with the multiple facets of management such as operations, strategy, finance, ethics, economics, decision making & sciences and marketing with the thorough understanding of business sustainability & public policy in the hindsight.

In the second year, every student has an option of selecting electives. The students have electives ranging from marketing, strategy, and operations to finance and economics. The pedagogy followed is Case study method. Case study methodology helps infuse analytical thinking among students.

4. Clubs & Committees: The clubs and committees in IIM Lucknow, Noida Campus has representation from all the batches. We get to organize the annual fest along with year-long events. Various festivals and occasions are celebrated with enthusiasm and fervour. SAC runs various committees on campus, by conducting various activities throughout the year. Every batch contributes with their ideas and experience in this process by becoming members of various student-run committees.

5. Unique features: Unlike PGP and PGP-ABM, there are distinctive features of this programme ranging from Integrated Project, Leadership Talk Series, and International Immersion

5.1 Integrated Project: The Integrated Project (IP), running in the corporate space throughout the second year, provides an opportunity for the students to implement the skills and techniques developed during the course of academic interaction.

5.2 Leadership Talk Series: Leadership Talk Series (LTS) is a lecture cum interaction held with various industry experts to facilitate corporate linkage with the institute as well as learning of students. Leaders from the energy sector, HR, development sector, start-ups, and consulting domains have visited the institute and interacted with PGPSM students. LTS is designed to be a complementary educational platform to the classroom pedagogy as speakers talk about ground challenges and industry insights by bringing in their own experience. The location of the institute in Noida allows LTS to attract speakers from all over the NCR region.

5.3 International Immersion: It is a two-week visit to Scandinavian countries to observe the best municipal and corporate practices in the field of sustainability. Interaction with industry leaders and academia are organized for the exchange of ideas. Unlike student exchange programs, this immersion program is not restricted to a few students but is an essential part of course for every student.

6) Future Prospects: While a B-School is a launch pad into the professional world, your progression thereon depends on how you perform in the corporate world. In the previous years, companies have recruited in varied roles of operations, marketing, and finance gave the overarching domain of business sustainability. This programme imparts knowledge and skills enabling students for broad functional roles like advisory, consulting, project management, policy planning, and execution, strategy formulation etc. Furthermore, this programme is designed to open up opportunities in the fields of renewable energy, green building, circular economy, CSR, social sector development etc.

With increasing emphasis on business and environmental sustainability, inclusive and equitable growth and corporate responsiveness roles of managers with knowledge of sustainability are expected to become crucial in ensuring survival, excellence, and sustenance of businesses.

All the best to everyone.

Stay positive and happy!

SHRIYA KANNAUJIA

PGP - Sustainable Management In IIM Lucknow