Pedagogic Innovations at SPJIMR, Mumbai producing Business Leaders and Not Just Managers

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MBAUniverse.com News Desk |
November 16, 2018
Non-Classroom Learning (NCL) pedagogy initiative at SPJIMR Mumbai is producing more business leaders than just managers. What none of the IIMs have been able to achieve, has been done by SPJIMR Mumbai which has focused on five key initiatives on Non Classroom Learning that include Science of Spirituality; ADMAP; DOCC; Abyudaya and PG Lab. The last date to apply for SPJIMR admission is very near and will close on November 23, 2018
Pedagogic Innovations at SPJIMR, Mumbai

Do you want to become a Business Leader or only a Manager after doing your MBA? This you need to decide as SPJIMR Mumbai through its Non-Classroom Learning (NCL) pedagogy aims to produce more business leaders than just managers. What none of the IIMs have been able to achieve, has been done by SPJIMR Mumbai. SPJIMR Mumbai has focused on five key initiatives on Non Classroom Learning which include Science of Spirituality; ADMAP; DOCC; Abyudaya and PG Lab.

Non-Classroom Learning, often referred to as NCL at SPJIMR offers three distinct levels of learning:

  1. Self-awareness: How do you understand yourself?
  2. Self-management: How do you reflect this awareness in your behaviour and interactions with others (inter personal) and with yourself (intra personal)?
  3. Societal awareness: How do you understand societal systems and needs, like the idea of India along with the idea of Bharat? 

Sharing on the concept of Non-Classroom Learning and how it grooms a business leader, Dr. Ranjan Banerjee, Dean SPJIMR says, “Authenticity is the courage to be who you are in a variety of day to day situations...NCL builds a holistic leader, an individual with courage and heart.”

The pedagogic revolution at SPJIMR Mumbai has become a model for various B-schools who have started to rationalize their pedagogic structure now. The pedagogy at SPJIMR is not focused just on class room lectures, books and regular assignments but lays great emphasis on Non-class room learning through real life experience. The Non-Classroom Learning initiatives help the students bridge the gap between classroom learning and real life learning.

This is the reason that SPJIMR Mumbai is known as more a Research Institute with innovative ideas leading to production of business leaders than just the managers.

While it takes many class room sessions at IIM Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Lucknow and others to understand the intricacies of management, SPJIMR students learn it with various practical experience which go beyond class room lectures. The clarity and grooming of  students’ leadership abilities are simultaneously accomplished with the non-classroom teaching methodology.

But before we dive deep into the Non-Classroom Learning initiatives adopted by SPJIMR, let us know how the pedagogic initiatives at SPJIMR Mumbai help the students to bridge many gaps of class room teaching and how the successful alumni of SPJIMR feel about it:

The Need to Lay Emphasis on Non-Classroom Teaching 
SPJIMR goes beyond the horizons of simply imparting class room teaching clubbed with few practical experiences or industry lectures. Why such a great emphasis is laid on Non-Class room learning is explained by Prof. Bindu Kulkarni, Associate Program Head-PGDM at SPJIMR Mumbai, who said, “It is in SPJIMR’s DNA to go beyond what is conventionally done and accepted. All our non-classroom based experiential activities will be integrated to help students acquire a growth mindset.”

Sharing the innovations at SPJIMR, Prof Kulkarni said, “The quality of the student living experience will be significantly better. All students, in small groups, will be assigned a faculty mentor who will engage meaningfully with them throughout the two years.”

In fact the innovative idea of laying greater emphasis on Non-Classroom Learning had started way back when Dr M L Shrikant was the dean of SPJIMR. Sharing the legacy on adopting the Non-Classroom learning pedagogy, Prof Kulkarni adds, “Our honorary dean late Dr. M L Shrikant is credited for everything that SPJIMR stands for today. Dr. Shrikant worked tirelessly to integrate the idea of service to society and responsibility into the MBA curriculum. He designed several pedagogic innovations and non-classroom learning methodologies that have been recognised as pioneering steps in building value-based leaders.”

How does the NCL approach help to create better Leaders and Managers
The innovative idea of Non-Classroom Learning (NCL) is not without substance at SPJIMR. The institute wants to bridge the gap between what is known and what should be known by a business leader. Sharing the objective of Non-Classroom Learning, Prof Kulkarni said, “We at SPJIMR believe that students should hit the ground running. There is a vast gap between what contemporary B-school graduates know versus what they ought to know to excel and have successful careers. NCL helps students bridge that gap.”

“The SPJIMR Initiatives like ADMAP teach students how to apply influence without power. Abhyudaya drives home the fact that urban poverty is a pervasive and important issue. As future leaders, it’s important to understand this issue from the grass root level” Adds Prof Kulkarni further.

Alumni View: How NCL Helped to Make a Better Business Leader?

Ms. Ratika Gore, SPJIMR Alumna, Class of 1997
Ratika has over 20+ years of diverse global experience in education and running businesses in USA, Europe, Philippines, Singapore and India. Currently she is a core faculty & Dy Chairperson at SPJIMR. She is also a consultant, a certified coach, a certified trainer, a doctoral scholar, and an erstwhile business owner. Sharing about how the Non-Classroom Learning has helped her, she said, "Looking back on our 20th year reunion, most of us agreed that strongest memories were of the rural internships (DOCC) and of the Spirituality classes. I think DOCC helped influence my world-view and build empathy. The spirituality classes needed quite a bit of reflection but honestly, they helped shape my guiding principles. While life in B-schools is insanely busy and the focus is on knowledge and skills, I feel the 2 years on SPJIMR were unique and gave us enough opportunities to also work on our personal growth."

Ms Pratima Sinha: SPJIMR Alumna, Class of 2015
Ms. Pratima Sinha, SPJIMR Alumna, Class of 2015 is the Co-founder, Nurture India. She has Professional experience of close to 3 years as a Strategy Consultant in Deal Advisory, KPMG India. Sharing on her experience on Non-Class room Teaching initiative especially the PG Lab, she said, “One of my biggest takeaways from SPJIMR’s NCL was through the PG Lab. All the sessions from the stage performances to the treks and outdoor group activities made us identify and support one another’s strengths as well as complement them with our own. Today as an entrepreneur and team member I am required to do the same and I feel it’s the most important step to get effective output. It gets different skills and perspectives together and helps one hone their strengths further!”

5 Initiatives of Non-Classroom Learning at SPJIMR
The five initiatives taken by SPJIMR to groom its students into a better business leaders are based on the process of introspection. There is a time when we look inward and learn to balance outside reference points with the inner thirst, a hunger to go from outer success to inner satisfaction. So the journey towards excellence begins once you have defined your concept of enough and your spirit is hungry for what it truly wants. These 5 initiatives attempt to satisfy this hungry spirit.

Science of Spirituality
It helps in accepting one’s reality navigating through life effectively. The success of any organisation depends upon the extent to which the leaders are in touch with certain realities about the nature of the self and the world.

Dr M L Shrikant who led SPJIMR for 28 years, successfully devised and taught a course called ‘Gita Shibir’ and then the ‘Science of Spirituality’. This was delivered to hundreds of students across several batches and programmes for over 15 years. The current 'Science of Spirituality' course offered at SPJIMR is in line with the spirit and vision of its creator but also offers revised content. The course experiments with innovative ways of delivering this knowledge.

The vision, short and long term goals, relating to people within the organisation, decisions, actions and responses to challenging outcomes are then based upon an appreciation of realities and not upon a distorted or narrow view.  The realities about the self and the world presented by Eastern wisdom traditions unfolded in ancient texts such as the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita can help students of management to fundamentally shift to a more objective, responsible and meaningful paradigm. Accordingly, this course is an attempt to address the innate human quest for purpose and inner fulfillment and at the same time provides practical tools to build leadership capacities.

ADMAP
ADMAP refers to influencing without power and getting things done. The Assessment and Development of Managerial and Administrative Potential (ADMAP) is a course born out of SPJIMR conviction and affirmation towards creating leaders, entrepreneurs and managers who can "get things done". ADMAP is widely considered as the poster-boy of SPJIMR’s Non Classroom Learning. It teaches the art of administration to business students in a fun, experiential way.

ADMAP introduces the participants to ‘self-learning’ and ‘management of the self’ through the prism of ‘doing, observing, reflecting and recording’. The learning is intended to inculcate the ideology of ‘getting things done’ and ‘getting along with others’.

Leveraging upon individual strengths, ADMAP endeavours to impart skills that encompass the three important roles in any organisation; leader, entrepreneur and manager. It enables and channels the minds of the participants to understand the importance of each in any organisation.

Through its accent on theoretical frameworks, it enables participants to understand the ‘administrative construct’ comprising processes, roles, context and strategy.

It builds upon combining theory with practicality by teaching the participant to understand organisational structure and identifying the presence and importance of positional power circles. By creating situations through which decision-making is taught, it strives to create a complete executive -- appreciative, empathetic and inclusive of the self and the subordinate.

ADMAP is a three credit course spread through the first year of the two year MBA curriculum. It has a learned rather than a taught pedagogy and it transfers the learning responsibility to the students.

DOCC
It is an initiative that enables you to apply managerial principles in unstructured environment. Development of Corporate Citizenship, or DOCC, is a course that aspires to sensitise SPJIMR students to the Indian ethos and culture by working as a partner with development programmes and projects in the non profit sector and related stakeholders.

In addition to involvement with several development programmes, the Centre also facilitates and provides experiential learning to its PGDM and PGPM course participants. Accordingly, DOCC works as a bridge between rural stakeholders and budding managers and leaders from the participant base of SPJIMR.

SPJIMR students learn about ground level conditions, challenges and opportunities, notably in rural India, while NGOs get managerial inputs from SPJIMR Students during the DOCC internships.

Abhyudaya
The initiative helps to develop ability to mentor and shape someone’s future and ‘BOP’ Insights. Abhyudaya is a unique pedagogic innovation of SPJIMR that aims to foster social responsibility among B-school students through experiential learning. It is a major differentiator among other business schools and in the industry.

Abhyudaya is a 1.5 credit, year-long mentorship programme through which first year MBA students  at SPJIMR mentor bright, underprivileged children (whom we call Sitaras) from the neighbouring schools. 

SPJIMR is the first and probably the only B-school in India, to launch a mentorship programme aimed at preparing its participants for top management roles as part of the curriculum. 

PG Lab
The initiative helps in identifying own strengths and Appreciating individual differences. The PG Lab is a comprehensive course that helps build personal leadership and team skills through indoor and outdoor activities, psychometric tests and experiential exercises. 

The course is delivered in one of the most exciting formats, with participants take on an outbound in the hills near Mumbai at the start of the programme. The journey for each student of SPJIMR begins from "me" and goes through the PG Lab to harness the power of "we".  Participants are known to recall their PG Lab experiences repeatedly during the programme and long after at alumni gatherings.

Among the many factors, the success can be attributed to four key areas at SPJIMR Mumbai: Innovative Pedagogy with greater emphasis on Non-Classroom Learning, Innovative placement approach, Profile-based student admissions and choice of specializations at the application stage. The Placements of 2018 in SPJIMR compare well with top Business Schools such as the premier IIMs and XLRI. 

Read More about the innovative placement approach at SPJIMR
SPJIMR wishes to look at the candidates from a holistic perspective and not just focus on test scores.​ Noted for its pedagogic innovations, SPJIMR uses unique teaching-learning methodology and is moving ahead with its mission of influencing practice and promoting value-based growth.

The Profile-based student admission is a unique process that was pioneered at SPJIMR and is yielding good results. 

Read More about the SPJIMR Science and Art of Attracting Bright Students

Choice of two specializations at application stage at SPJIMR is an innovative approach leading to admission despite moderate CAT/XAT scores. You can apply for admission to PGDM 2019 at SPJIMR Mumbai till November 23, 2018.

Read More about SPJIMR Mumbai wants you to be clear about your career, even before you enroll

From this article, it will be clear to you that Non-Classroom Learning pedagogy at SPJIMR helps to groom a business leader with real life experience. Next few articles will discuss the academic rigor, student life at SPJIMR.

Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more updates on SPJIMR Mumbai