ISB: A Leading Business School in India

Case Code: BSTR106 Case Length: 17 Pages Period: 1995 - 2004 Pub Date: 2004 Teaching Note: Not Available

Price: Rs.300 Organization: Indian School of Business Industry: Higher Education Countries : India Themes: Corporate Strategy

Abstract Case Intro 1 Case Intro 2 Excerpts

Excerpts

ISB's Course Curriculum and Faculty

In February 1997, the International Academic Council (IAC) was constituted to design the course curriculum for ISB. The council comprised 21 faculty members from leading global B-schools such as the University of Chicago, Harvard Business School, Stanford, Kellogg and Wharton. Moreover, several members of the ISB governing board, some distinguished entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley and important ISB donors were also actively involved in designing the course curriculum. In November 1997, ISB entered into affiliation agreements with two of the world's most prestigious B-school institutions - the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. These tie-ups helped ISB to facilitate communication and sharing of knowledge among their faculty and sharing of library facilities and global best practices in imparting management education...

ISB's Teaching Approach and Methodology

ISB used a blend of orthodox and unorthodox methods of teaching. The teaching activities involved the conventional way of lecturing, reading and analyzing a published article, real-life simulations, field studies, role-plays, seminars and engaging in video-conferencing chats with professors from various parts of the world. The critical business issues and challenges faced by leading global organizations and the strategies adopted by them were discussed in classrooms. Case studies were used to discuss the real-life problems and challenges faced in business. The case studies also enabled the students to experience a particular business situation as it happened in reality, and enact their way of dealing with the situation in different capacities like leaders, managers, or team members. Students learnt the intricacies of the concept 'think local, act global.' Godrej said, "...students at ISB will have more of a global perspective than students elsewhere... a global perspective with an Asian touch will be the distinctive factor..."

Infrastructure at ISB

ISB had excellent infrastructural facilities, on par with any world-class business school. These included an academic and learning centers and facilities for information technology (IT), housing and entertainment for students. The centrally located academic center at ISB included six lecture theatres with connectivity to a broadband communications network. These theatres had a seating capacity of 70 and offered state-of-the-art audio-visual and video-conferencing facilities with modern gadgets like LCD projectors, photographic equipments and a touch-pad system...

Placements at ISB

ISB followed a unique placement model. In its communication to prospective students, ISB wrote, "ISB's placement model is uniquely differentiated. The school has rolling placement, which is distinctive from the practice of 'placement week' followed by other B-schools. At ISB, we are open for 3 days - Friday, Saturday and Sunday - every week, for placement-related activities, be it pre-placement talks (PPTs) or interviews, and do not generally allow recruiters on other days." The rolling placement program (RPP) was primarily instituted to boost lateral hiring in companies, since ISB students, with an average work experience of five years, were more suitable for middle and higher-level management positions...

The Problems

Some analysts opined that the core and elective courses of ISB were not organized well. According to them, the inclusion of subjects like investment analysis, microeconomics, management accounting, and managing in emerging markets, in the core courses curriculum was surprising. On the other hand, subjects like fundamentals of e-commerce and technology, intellectual property strategies for e-commerce, cross-cultural negotiation, strategic advantage of IT, managing e-business, and B2B marketing were consigned to a lower position by including them in the electives...

The New Initiatives

In August 2003, ISB decided to introduce GAMP jointly with INSEAD. GAMP was a three-week program priced at Rs. 600,000 and targeted the top brass of Indian companies with a presence abroad. ISB planned to introduce this program from March 2004. Elaborating on the program, Viswanathan said, "The program will be especially designed to focus on strategies for tackling challenges and seizing prospects in today's turbulent global business environment. It will also deal with strategies for overseas acquisitions. It will be simultaneously held in different countries by different B-Schools in association with INSEAD. All of them will spend the last week at INSEAD campus in France debating and sharing their thoughts..."

Exhibits

Exhibit I: ISB's Governing Board (Partial List)
Exhibit II: Elective Courses of Post Graduate Program
Exhibit III: Faculty at ISB

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