Study in Latvia centre opens in Chennai

Latvia is the newest name in a growing list of foreign study destinations for Indian students. A conglomerate of seven Latvian universities launched a "Study in Latvia Centre (SLC)" in Chennai last week. 

Latvia University

According to Professor Leonids Ribickis, the Rector of Riga Technical University, Latvia offered "vast education opportunities and international exposure." Imants Bergs, Vice-Rector in Turiba University said that a cooperation agreement between the Governments of Latvia and India enabled mutual recognition of issued qualifications, besides allowing Indian students to apply for Latvian government scholarships.

The Centre is founded by Riga Technical University, Turiba University, Liepaja University, Latvia University, B A School of Business and Finance, Latvia University of Agriculture and Riga International School of Economics and Business Administration, all based in Latvia.

For information on tuition fees and living expenditures, take a look at the University of Latvia information sheet on fees for 2013-14.

Demand for Management Education Up From 2011: GMAC survey

Demand for graduate business and management education around the world shows signs of renewed growth, as 51 percent of programs surveyed by the Graduate Management Admission Council report more applications than last year.

Overall demand — as revealed in the 2012 Application Trends Survey — is spread among a greater variety of program types, including part-time self-paced, flexible, and online distance MBAs, as well as specialized master’s degrees in business, including information technology management. 

“As the global business space continues to become more complex, there is a greater demand that business schools today offer specialized and flexible programs to meet corporate and student needs,” said David Wilson, GMAC president and CEO. “Worldwide, these diverse graduate management programs are drawing different kinds of students.  Technology is a part of the solution to this challenge, but it is not the entire solution.  Flexibility in delivery mode, cadence of the program and the characteristics of the class cohort are now all variables in the graduate education solutions being offered.  The message students and companies are sending is clear; one size does not necessarily fit all.”

The annual survey, which charts year-to-year application changes at the program level, shows that specialized master’s programs in management, finance, and accounting continue to show robust growth, and applications to full-time two-year MBA programs appear to be stabilizing globally, with about half of all full-time two-year MBA programs showing increases or holding steady from last year.  

In open-ended comments, admissions professionals responding to the survey noted that economic conditions continued to play a role in student demand for programs. “[A student’s] reluctance to leave full-time position,” cited one admissions professional from a US full-time two-year MBA program. “The economy is picking up and students are finding full-time jobs or have received promotions and do not want to leave to go back to school for two years,” said another. 

A record 744 programs from 359 business schools in 46 countries participated in the survey this year. They include 527 MBA programs, 24 business doctoral programs (PhD/DBA) and 193 specialized masters programs. This year’s survey report includes, for the first time, results for masters in information technology management and masters of marketing/communications.

S P Jain wins international TeamMBA award

After more than 21,000 votes were cast online in May, two business schools ― SP Jain Institute of Management and Research (India) and the College of William and Mary Mason School of Business (United States)―won TeamMBA awards for their community service and social responsibility programs. The winners were announced today by the Graduate Management Admission Council at its Annual Conference, the largest gathering of graduate business school professionals in the world.

A total of 78 service programs from schools around the world were considered for the TeamMBA award. These programs involved nearly 1,500 students who volunteered almost 50,000 hours and raised US$2.6 million.

“In honoring these two great institutions, we  also recognize the tremendous spirit and passion that business school students around the world have for giving back to their community and to their commitment to improving the lives of others,” said Dave Wilson, president and CEO of GMAC. “These are challenging times for many people all over the world and to see the effort that these students are putting in to making a difference is truly remarkable. Today's MBAs and other graduate business students fiercely embrace their obligation to give back and make the world a better place.”

SP Jain won the All School Award, which recognizes a school for its commitment to promoting and supporting social engagement by its students through school-led programs, services, institutional culture and community outreach. Through more than a dozen individual, team and school-wide projects, students at SP Jain worked to improve the lives of women, milk and agricultural growers, disaster victims and rural villagers.

The College of William and Mary Mason School of Business won the All Service Award, which recognizes outstanding projects in categories such as community service, sustainability/greening and consulting, for engaging in a variety of projects, including a mustache auction to raise money to start a microlending account, two blood drives that collected 100 pints of blood, and raising tens of thousands of dollars for local and global charities.

Richard Ivey partners with MDI on case-based learning in India

One of Canada’s leading business schools, the Richard Ivey School of Business has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon, for development and global distribution of India-focused business case studies.

Case-based learning is fast being adopted by business schools across the world. Carol Stephenson, Dean, Richard Ivey School of Business explains, “Case based learning is a highly effective and relevant teaching methodology to make management education more attuned to real world business challenges, particularly in fast-growth and emerging economies such as India.”

Richard Ivey has also set up a Centre for Case Development in collaboration with the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad. The Centre enhances case writing capabilities among Indian academia, and also distributes these cases worldwide.

Richard Ivey School of Business

Globally, Ivey is known for its case-based approach to learning and is ranked the #1 producer of Asian-based cases worldwide and the #2 producer of cases overall.

I spoke to Ariff Kachra, Strategy Professor & Director India Development, Richard Ivey School of Business two years ago when he was putting together Ivey’s India strategy and he said, at that time: “We are very excited about working in India – both on case development (Ivey has several initiatives including partnerships with Indian School of Business and the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore) and executive education.”

Ivey is also working on executive development programmes for Indian companies.

Kachra revealed that the business school has met with more than two dozen companies in India across a variety of industries including software, telecom, manufacturing and in the financial sector. “We have tried very hard to reach a cross-section of companies – some are based only in India, some are Indian companies with branches around the world and some are foreign multi-nationals.”

QS Global 200 Business Schools Report 2012: IIMs feature in Asia Pacific top 10 list

The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) have reason to cheer. The three IIMs at Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Calcutta have been listed among the top 10 in the Asia Pacific region in the recently released QS Global 200 Business Schools Report 2012. IIM-Ahmedabad is ranked second, IIM-Bangalore's rank is fifth and IIM-Calcutta is ranked eighth.

Indian School of Business has been ranked seventh, S P Jain Institute of Management and Research is at 16 and Indian Institute of Foreign Trade at 21.

INSEAD, Singapore is number one in the region for the third consecutive year. Melbourne  Business School (University of Melbourne, Australia), NUS Business School, (National University of Singapore) and University of New South Wales were some of the other institutes that featured among the top 10 in the region.

Throughout the QS Global 200 Business Schools Report, one theme in particular stands out: Indian business schools are fast gaining popularity among MBA employers. In almost all specialisation ratings, Indian schools have climbed considerably when compared to last year. This is even the case for international management, as while Indian business schools feature lower down the rating than they do in other specializations, they are still climbing and showing promise in developing a greater international outlook among their MBA graduates.

India's invisible innovation challenge

True or false: When it comes to innovation, the developed world has a distinct advantage over emerging markets? If you believe this, you’ll be surprised to read new research from London Business School professors Nirmalya Kumar and Phanish Puranam that turns this long-held assumption on its head.

In their new book INDIA INSIDE: The Emerging Innovation Challenge to the West, Nirmalya Kumar and Phanish Puranam, who are also co-directors of the School’s Aditya Birla Centre, make clear that for certain kinds of innovation, the long-held monopoly held by the developed world is over. As a result, the authors argue, it’s now time for Western countries to follow the East’s lead—and in particular, India’s lead—in adopting different processes and developing new responses to increasing shifts in the world market.

But one thing is for sure: India’s invisible-innovation challenge will need a response from Western multinationals and policy makers alike. In India Inside, Professors Kumar and Puranam deliver a much needed wake-up call to thinkers and companies in the developed world.

According to the authors, substantial innovation is taking place in India, but in a form that is invisible to consumers around the world. This innovation takes a rich variety of forms—from novel B2B offerings and R&D services outsourcing to process improvement discoveries and fresh approaches to management.

The authors argue that despite some challenges, India has emerged as the global ‘invisible’ innovation hub. Four new concepts help demonstrate this:

• Global segmented R&D delivery model: How innovative and creative tasks are increasingly being off-shored to India
• Injection of intelligence: How over-qualified people on what were considered dead end jobs produces product innovations in India
• Sinking skill ladder: How by outsourcing the bottom end of the value chain to India, the West will be forced to offshore more strategic and creative activities in the future
• Browning of the TMT: How multinational corporations must transform composition of their global leadership teams as R&D and markets move to India and China

Kumar and Puranam believe that India’s emergence as a global innovation hub has important implications for the developed world. For Western multinationals it means internal stress around talent and the makeup of top executive teams. For Western policy-makers it means the potential loss of dominance in creative, innovative, and high-value-added work. The book provides several potential responses and recommendations for adapting to this new norm.

Through research and extensive interviews with India-based executives from companies like AstraZeneca, GE, Infosys, Intel, and Wipro, INDIA INSIDE presents a clear-eyed view of the challenges and opportunities facing multinationals seeking new sources of innovation in the future.