European biz school makes Indian foray

After Harvard Business School and Tuck School of Business, India's developing corporate scenario has now attracted France-based ESCP-EAP European School of Management to hold executive education programmes for corporates in India.

In early 2008, the school is starting its first Problem Solving Decision Making (PSDM) programme in Mumbai. It will be conducted by its senior faculty from the London Campus.

"PSDM is designed for professionals who need to develop key management capabilities like communication, team effectiveness and decision making. I am sure many companies in India would like to send their professionals for this programme. It is suitable for professionals from engineering/scientific background or with a specific role within an organisation who need specific skills to move into a general management role. It is apt for young professionals, recently graduated as well as new starters in companies and professionals changing jobs or moving into a new organisation," said professor, Davide Sola, director, London Campus.

The school is also looking at academic tie-ups with B-schools in India. "We are certainly open to the idea, but the B-school has to be a reputed one, meet international standards and have synergy with us in terms of the programmes being offered. The tie-ups would primarily be for our Masters in European Business (MEB) programme as that is suited to the Indian pattern of education," added Sola.

The school has about 3 per cent Indian students on its London Campus and it is targeting at increasing the number to 5 per cent this year. "Marketing efforts are on in India by way of presentations in reputed colleges. This is primarily for our Masters in European Business (MEB) programme which is a one-year two-country, two-campus programme," said Sola.

MEB develops knowledge and skills in management for internationally recruited participants coming from a broad range of educational and cultural backgrounds. It adds a strong international dimension to personal development through studying in two countries.

In addition to a focus on managing and doing business in an international context, the MEB programme has a strong action learning emphasis, including a minimum 3-month company placement.

The school is also investigating the interest of a number of major Indian corporations in writing "business cases" to be taught in its classes.

"Furthermore, we are investing time and resources, in partnership with Indian professors, to develop joint-research projects on cutting-edge topics such as Market entry strategy, Business transformation, said Sola.

However, the B-school has no plans to be physically present in India. "We are definitely looking at working closely with India but right now we do not have any plans to set up a campus there. Indian students are already at all our campuses and we are planning to increase those numbers, specially in London," added Sola.