October 10, 2023; Mumbai: IIM Sambalpur, one of India’s premier management institutions, officially inaugurated its very first MBA batch for working professionals in Delhi. This marks a significant milestone for IIM Sambalpur where the batch of working professionals and entrepreneurs wish to pursue management education while continuing their respective professional journeys. The main feature of the program is that it provides specialization in data science and product management, Innovation, and Startup apart from the functional domain.
On this occasion, Dr Alok Kumar Mishra, Joint Secretary, Association of Indian Universities, New Delhi emphasized that the credit system introduced in the NEP allows students to participate across institutions within the country and across other countries.
Keynote Speaker Shatanik Goswami, Lead Consultant, Google Cloud Consulting congratulated Prof. Jaiswal on the milestone and discussed the essence of product management. He emphasized the importance of aligning three important elements of a startup, i.e. business, interests, and experience. He stressed that for a startup to thrive, at least two of these elements must intersect. He further said that the role of a product manager involves finding ways to make a product sustainable and profitable and emphasized that product managers are responsible for creating, shipping, and ensuring the success of a product.
Prof. Mahadeo Jaiswal, Director, IIM Sambalpur said, “As the industries are evolving, the need for management education similarly has also evolved. It is important to promote innovation-driven entrepreneurship which has created the need for Indian B-schools to foster innovation and integrity. I think these factors will have a positive impact on the country’s GDP in times to come. We are trying our best to work towards inclusiveness and gender diversity in education. We are encouraging students to adopt an entrepreneurial mindset and create solutions to societal problems while equipping students to lead in digital technologies, sustainability, and innovation.”
Through an insightful presentation titled “Product Management in the Era of Industry 4.0,” Prof. Rajeev Tandon, Former CEO, of SC Johnson emphasized the significance of changing perspectives on brand and product growth. He also highlighted a strategy of focusing on dedicated, high-frequency users to optimize return on investment. This approach prioritizes commercial motives over social marketing and aims to create widely accepted and profitable products.
Deepak Sharma, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of India Accelerator, discussed the concept of innovation-led entrepreneurship, emphasizing the fusion of imaginative thinking with efficient execution. He further explained that innovation involves generating, adopting, and commercializing ideas, while entrepreneurship thrives on resourcefulness and resilience to create value and address societal issues.
At the outset, the program was introduced by Prof. Poonam Kumar, Chairperson of MBA for Professionals, while the vote of thanks was delivered by Prof. SH Rao. The event was moderated by Amrut Mohanty.
The most inspiring part of the IIM Sambalpur’s first batch of MBA for Working Professionals for all students was Mr. GM Gupta, an entrepreneur who is over 80 years old and joined the MBA program in Delhi. Mr. Gupta enthusiastically shared his passion for learning. He mentioned that before joining this course, he had completed his PhD as well. Currently, he owns a startup in the defense sector while he has also worked for a long time in DCM Shriram. Given that he is overseeing a startup, he believes that acquiring new technologies, and knowledge through case studies, and unlearning the old would enable him to manage it more effectively.
It is to be noted that IIM Sambalpur will organise the prestigious ‘PAN IIM World Management Conference 2023’ from 21-23 2023. The conference will focus 2023 on the theme of “Entrepreneurial Innovation and Digital Governance for Inclusive and Sustainable Growth.” The conference aims to harness the potential for innovative and imaginative endeavors.