ISB executive education programmes a huge draw

The Indian School of Business (ISB) not only churns out executives for the corporate world but also attracts working professionals for executive education programmes at its campus in large numbers.

Since the end of 2001, around 800 companies and 3,000 professionals have participated in 125 programmes that the school has organised.

And according to Deepak Chandra, assistant dean for executive education at ISB, the number of programmes has also seen a year-on-year growth of 60 per cent.

The programmes at ISB range from open and general management to customised ones. And while the school has organised such programmes for Indian companies, it has done a few for international ones too.

Says Chandra, "As compared to other B-Schools in India, we may be the biggest in terms of revenues from executive education programmes and the reason for this is that while earlier companies had to send their executives abroad for such programmes, now they do not find the need to."

The programmes done at ISB are basically for middle and senior level managers and therefore, the executives who come as students here are usually in the age-bracket of 30-45 years.

"Sixty per cent of our participants are repeat customers. This includes companies like ONGC, LIC, Airtel and even international ones like P&O Ports Private Limited," he adds.

P&O Ports is one of the leading international companies in cargo handling and according to Nikhil Naik, deputy regional director of the company in South Asia and Middle East, the company has been organising such programmes for its executives since a long time. In India, however, it is only with ISB that the company has these programmes.

"Such initiatives help us share ideas and learn as company executives from across the world participate in these programmes. Besides, we also discuss case studies that help us analyse what went wrong or how issues should be handled in certain situations," Naik adds.

ISB is doing these customised programmes for P&O Ports in association with the Australian Graduate School for Management.

"This is our first association with ISB and we hope that we continue this association in future too. The centre of gravity is shifting to countries like India and China and even among the two, India stands at an advantage because of the language," Robert Wood, professor, University of New South Wales, Australian Graduate School of Management, says.

According to Chandra, the benefit is mutual as besides the revenue that such programmes bring in, it is the partnerships with international schools like the Australian School and the exposure that ISB gets to international participants that drives the success.

"We are now looking at having a dominant position in this sector in Asia," he added. On international grounds, ISB has done such programmes for companies like Emirates Bank and Omantel and is now looking at entering the Far East as well.