In an interview with MBAUniverse.com, Dr. Stefano Caselli, who is the Professor of Banking and Insurance at SDA; & Academic Director of SDA Bocconi Asia Center, shares the progress that institute has made during last one year. He also speaks on his experience of the Indian MBA market, and the corporate linkages that SDA Bocconi Asia Center has established in last one year. Dr. Caselli also shares key information on admission process, fee structure and other developments on the academic aspects of SDA Bocconi Asia Center.
Q: It has been one year since SDA Bocconi Asia Center started its MBA programme in Mumbai. How has been the experience?
A:
The experience we had was exciting and we have learnt a lot. We stood firm on our commitment, our energy and our passions in dealing with education of young generations as we have been doing for one century in our country and in Europe. We learnt a lot because the interaction with candidates, students and corporates generated a lot of commitment inside the Indian market, to establish good roots for a long presence here.Q: What are the key learnings from the ‘India MBA Education’ market?
A: Every market is very specific but it shows in the same time general issues common to young and brilliant new generations. I do believe that the willingness to grow and the aim to be international are very specific drivers of the Indian Education market as well the desire to coordinate the openness to global perspectives with local roots. I think that the capability to combine tradition with innovation, local culture with international culture is an extraordinary mix able to generate a lot of value.
Q: The MBA programme at SDA Bocconi Asia Center is highly industry-driven and industry-centric. How have been your industry associations. Please name a few Indian and International associations which worked well in the interest of the institute and students.
A: SDA Bocconi Asia Center benefits from a very wide business network and reputation at international level related to Bocconi University. The strategy to deepen the linkage with industry has been based on three levels.
From one side, we created Center of Excellences to generate awareness and platform to generate debate and strategic thinking on relevant topics. We launched last October the first Center devoted to Insurance, with the presence in the board of top management coming from: Avantha-Ergo Life Insurance, ICICI PruLife, Swiss Re Services India, Howden Asia, HDFC Ergo General Insurance.
On the other side, we strengthened important ties with many corporations to run first-class internships for our students. To mention some names, we have on board: Axis Bank, Casa Decor, DY Works, Ferrero, FIAT Group, Go Air, HSBC, ICICI Bank, Luxottica, Magneti Marelli, MCX Stock Exchange, Merck Sharpe & Dohme, Nokia Siemens Networks, Piaggio Vehicles India, Prysmian, SAS Institute, SREI Infra Finance, TARZ Distributors India, Tata Consultancy Services, Techint, Yen Capital.
Last, we started delivering executive education programs, tailor made for Indian corporations and banks, based on our relevant expertise like family business, retail management and branding, finance, leadership and operations.
Q: How is student-industry interaction at SDA Bocconi Asia Center?
A: We also invite guest speaker to conduct lecture and interact with students. Some of the guest speakers that we invited include Arvind Vashistha, Director of UBS Investment Bank India; Ashok Kumar Jha, Chairman MCX Stock Exchange, Bhavesh Shah, Associate Director, CRISIL rating division; Deepak M. Satwalekar, Independent Director at Infosys, K. Ramkumar Executive Director on the Board of ICICI Bank; Mahesh Aras, CEO and head of global knowledge network at JP Morgan India; Saugata Bhattacharya, Senior VP and Chief Economist at Axis Bank, and Shashank Srivastava, MD at Accenture India amongst others.
Q: What is the fee structure for your MBA programme for the academic session 2013-15. Please also mention eligibility criteria and cut-off scores of MBA written tests.
A: The students are subject to an admission fee of Rs. 200,000 upon accepting the admission to the PGPB. After that the 1st module tuition fee (Rs 900,000) and the 2nd module tuition fee (Rs 700,000) are divided into installments. Moreover, SDA Bocconi Asia Center offers merit-based tuition waivers to candidates with an outstanding profile as we have been doing in Bocconi from ages. The selection is based as well on merit, combining both CAT and GMAT with challenging interviews and a deep analysis of the CV.
Q: Do you also intend to increase the batch size this year? What are your initiatives towards student acquisition?
A: Our strategy is to increase every year the quality and the motivation of the students. As we have in Milan a very big campus of more than 15,000 students, we don’t need big numbers but we have only the pressure to recruit very brilliant students. To recruit students we use several initiatives: visits in colleges, open Saturdays at SDA Bocconi Asia Center, ad hoc meetings, recruiting seminars through many cities in India and social events. Our ambition is to get a chance to a very wide audience to know and to meet us.
Q: You are organising workshop in different cities. What is the theme of these workshops and what it is aimed at?
A: Through workshops, we desire to explain our values, the sense of SDA Bocconi Asia Center and the contents and the characteristics of the PGPB. We also want to give a first-hand sample of our contents to give a chance to students “to taste” our expertise and capabilities.
Q: What is your message to the students who wish to join SDA Bocconi Asia Center?
A: I suggest aspirants to ‘Be global, be Indian’. We do believe that the future stands in the hands of this new generation which is quite capable to combine knowledge with imagination, responsibility with entrepreneurship, and memory of the past with the ambition of the future. SDA Bocconi Asia Center is in this sense the concrete example of a very old tradition and reputable B-School that decided to create new roots in a new country, with respect and responsibility as well with a sense of doing something relevant with passion and quality.
Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more news and updates from B-schools in India.
