FLAME University: Industry-Institute Engagement; top Business Icons, Tools & Projects put MBAs on fast track

Industry engagement is a key facet of any top quality B-school, be it IIMs or XLRI or any other Top 25 B-schools. Conventional wisdom is that it takes decades to build effective Industry-Institute engagement that really helps students. How does a very new institution like Pune based FLAME University ensure that its MBA program has deep industry engagement? What are the effective approaches and strategies? MBAUniverse.com asked FLAME Vice Chancellor Dr. Devi Singh, former director of IIM Lucknow and MDI, to share the mantras that are putting its MBAs on a fast track.

But before we talk about industry engagement strategies at FLAME, lets know a bit about it. Pune based FLAME University was established as a State Private University in 2015 under an act passed by the Government of Maharashtra. TheUniversity offers MBA programs with specializations in finance, entrepreneurship, marketing, human resources and operations.

FLAME says that there are many initiatives lined up to ensure that MBA students get the maximum exposure from leading business icons and CXOs. Lets learn more about it.

Top CEOs and Entrepreneurs address FLAME MBAs Its one thing to see top business icons in pink papers and business news channels every day, and its quite another to listen to them in person and get inspired! Indeed folks at FLAME are lucky ones as they get to meet the whos who from corporate India.

Industry stalwarts like Deepak Parekh, Chairman, HDFC; Narayana Murthy, Co-founder, Infosys; Dilip Shanghvi, Founder, Sun Pharamaceuticals; Uday Kotak, MD, Kotak Mahindra Bank; K. V. Kamath, Former MD, ICICI Bank; V. G. Siddhartha, Founder, Caf Coffee Day; Aditya Puri, MD, HDFC Bank; Subhash Chandra, Chairman, Essel Group; and Shikha Sharma, MD, Axis Bank amongst many others have interacted with the students of FLAMErecently and have shared their rich perspectives.

Its not just the grey haired business owners and icons that have travelled to FLAME. Quite a lot of young and dynamic CEOs and VPs have recently engaged with the students here too. Rajeev Dubey, President, Mahindra & Mahindra; Pranay Chulet, Co-founder and CEO, Quikr are a few prominent ones among other such names.

And finally its not just business icons only, but some very accomplished people like Amitabh Bachchan, Indian film actor; M.S. Dhoni, Captain, Indian National Cricket Team; Virender Sehwag, Indian Cricketer; Harsha Bhogle, Indian Cricket Commentator and Journalist; Gagan Narang, Indian shooter; Viren Rasquinha, Former Captain of Indias national field hockey team; E. Sreedharan, Metro Man and Chetan Bhagat, Indian author, columnist, screenwriter and speaker who have visited Flame University and inspired the students here.

So are you ready for some inspiration and perspective from the best in India! Studying at FLAME Universitys MBA program may be a good bet then.

Lets look at what are other ways in which FLAME links up with industry?

FLAME Investment Lab FLAME runs a number of labs like the FLAME Investment Lab and the FLAME Entrepreneurship Lab that offer learning opportunities to students to gain close to real world experience.

FLAME Investment Lab is guided and supported by some of the most well known names in the Indian financial sector like Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, Partner, Rare Enterprises; Madhusudan Kela, Chief Investment Strategist, Reliance Capital; Vallabh Bhanshali, Co-founder and Chairman of Enam Financial Consultants Pvt. Ltd.; Ramesh Damani, Noted Investor; Chetan Parikh, Director, Jeetay Investments Pvt Ltd; Raamdeo Agrawal, Co-founder of Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd. Ask those who know the financial services sectors in India, and they will agree that these are the biggest names in the sector!

But thats not all. CEOs and CIOs from Indias top banks and mutual funds also support this lab. Some supporters are Sunil Singhania, CIO - Equity Investments at Reliance Mutual Fund and Member of the Board - CFA Institute; Sampath Reddy, Chief Investment Officer, Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance; Vibhav Kapoor, Chief Investment Officer, IL&FS; Sandeep Kothari, Portfolio Manager, Fidelity; Nilesh Shah, MD, Kotak Mahindra Asset Management; Prashant Jain, Chief Invesment Officer, HDFC Asset Management amongst others.

So if you have a keen interest in making a career in the financial sector, FLAME MBA is a right pick.

Best industry databases and learning tools @ FLAME Campus Industry runs on latest information tools and research. To take students closer to the industry practices, FLAME uses latest case studies and simulations. It has licensing arrangements with Harvard Business School Publishing, CRISIL Research, Thomson Reuters and SAP ERP amongst others.

Thus the classroom experience is close to the office experience at FLAME.

Career & Placement opportunities Given the academic rigour and close industry engagement, the FLAME MBA graduates get some good placements opportunities at top companies. Sharing the placement track record at FLAME, Dr Devi Singh says More than seventy companies participated in our placement process last year. On average our students had five interview opportunities and the highest salary was Rs. 28 lakhs and median salary was Rs. 5.3 lakhs. More importantly, some of our students have become entrepreneurs and job creators and are running unique enterprises.

Its not just the final placements that are important in judging the quality of placements in an MBA program. Often, quality of summer placements leads to a lot of good final placements. Summers also help current students to apply the skills they learn in the first year and have better learning in the final year. A such, FLAME takes its summer placements very seriously.

List of summer internship projects offered to FLAME MBA students include Bharat Petroleum; Axis Bank; Forbes Marshall; Anchor Panasonic; BSE; HDFC Bank; Cipla; JSW; ICICI Securities; Reliance Securities; Canara Bank; GSK; Aditya Birla Group; Motilal Oswal Securities; SREI Infrastructure Finance; Aditya Birla Retail; AXIS Bank; Finolex Industries; Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India; Kotak Mahindra Bank; Axis Capital; Thermax; Future Group; Nielsen India; ITC; Voltas; Coca-Cola India; Godfrey Philips India; Deutsche Bank; Pepsico; KPMG; Saint Gobain; Deloitte Consulting; BNP Paribas; Jones Lang Lasalle; IDBI Life Insurance; L&T Power; Honeywell; Religare Securities; Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund; Reliance Industries; Shapoorji Pallonji; DE Shaw; Caf Coffee Day; DHL; Mother Dairy; Alfa Laval; ICICI Prudential; LG amongst others.

So it looks like the strategy of integrating industry with its curriculum and studies at FLAME Universitys MBA is yielding results. Online admission application process for MBA 2016-18 at FLAME University is open. Interested candidates can register on FLAME Universitys application portal to apply online. The university accepts CAT 2015,XAT 2016, MAT 2015-2016, CMAT 2016, MH-CET 2016 and GMAT scores.

Related Article IIM-As Prof PM Shingi to be Dean of FLAME School of Business We will be aspirational destination for liberal education & leadership: Dr Devi Singh, VC, FLAME University

Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more updates on MBA Admissions 2016.