Everything in tune

CAMPUS RAKE ISB HYDERABAD

Nobody runs and runs to catch up with the sun around here. At least not visibly. Not on this campus "" the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad. To any visitor, this is odd. For it's a rapid-run one-year MBA you earn here, condensed so tightly as to leave you decidedly short of breath. After all, it's only the "work-ex types" who ever get in, and time is something they have already learnt to budget for. Down to the nanosecond.

How do they ever manage to look so relaxed? "We have become good at managing time," quips Rajesh Mani, an aspiring entrepreneur, with a half-shrug. He ekes out a couple of hours every day for "relaxing, reading fiction or freaking out with friends". So if it's not a music session, it's a trip to Paradise, the boom city's famous Biryani joint.

One can't escape the grind for long, though. The typical campus scene is one of students lugging mountain loads of study material about. But what sets ISB apart, really, is that theory and practice coexist in the most pragmatic way.

"We have introduced Competitive Strategy early in the ISB curriculum," Professor Akbar Zaheer tells the fresh students just in, "as it gives you the necessary framework, perception and the big picture of the problem."

Groans, if any, are inaudible. What's palpable instead is the enthusiasm. The effect, perhaps, of the class average of five years' work experience. To Aravindan, who quit Wipro to join ISB, for example, this is a big investment of time and money "" and wants to cut to the chase.

Dropping the "techie" tag is his immediate objective, and it sure helps that he has a psychologist and fighter jet pilot, among others, for campus company.

It also helps that risk is considered inherent to business; ambitions on campus tend to be entrepreneurial as much as corporate. Mani sold his six-year-old call center operations in Chennai to join ISB, and expects to more than make good his sacrifice once he's done.

Another striking aspect of ISB is the age group variation. Of the 349 students at ISB, as many as 90 stay on campus with their spouses and children. It's another sign of the slice-of-real-life approach that characterizes the school.

Getting students to engage real business issues beyond the classroom is another endeavour. That's where the Experiential Learning Projects (ELPs) come in "" which turn students into part-time consultants to corporate clients. "This time, we decided to block an entire week for this purpose," says Joseph A. Hopper, who runs the ELPs.

The tall red ochre stonewalls of the main building are witness to a fair degree of revelry too. But don't be mistaken. Those minds are ticking away in a way business will soon be talking about. This is the first in an occasional series.