Padma Shri Dr Bala V Balachandran in conversation with DNA reiterated growing importance of management in today’s increasingly global business environment. Balachandran is the Dean – Chairman and Founder of the Great Lakes Institute of Management, and also the J. L. Kellogg Emeritus Professor of Accounting and Information Management, in Illinois in the Northwestern University.
The Great Lakes Institute of Management
“The changing geopolitics of global businesses today necessitate having a core foundation in management and leadership principles, team building, communication and cross-cultural collaboration,” Balachandran further added. The Great Lakes Institute has formulated a dynamic curriculum to understand the changing roles of management in organisations. In addition to the SAQS global accreditation, Great Lakes is the youngest B-school in India to have received the prestigious AMBA accreditation. The institute has the first LEED platinum campus in South Asia, instilling concepts such as sustainability amongst the students from very beginning.
Karma Yoga
Integral to the Postgraduate Program in Management (PGPM) and Postgraduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) at the Great Lakes Institute, Karma-Yoga is a one of its kind Leadership Experiential Project (LEP) connecting students with the on-ground realities and experientially learn transformational leadership. Students get a first-hand experience visiting the 24 villages adopted by Great Lakes around the Chennai region, on facets such as the socio-economic and political and cultural conditions and the lifestyle of people in these adopted villages close to the campus.
Did the MBA degree lose its purpose/prestige?
Indeed it has, as almost every B school offers the degree. Business schools need to constantly revise their curriculum for comprehending the changing industry requirements and the dynamic business scenario. Lastly, Balachandran added: “Many innovative programs such as the Technopreneurship and Business Analytics courses at Great Lakes etc, have to be consistently devised and delivered for capably countering the changing turbulent times for the global business community.”
