1 INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT (IIM) CALCUTTA

WHEN UTTAM Kumar Sarkar joined IIMC in 1997, management education in the country was mostly confined to the core theories of marketing, finance and human resources. India’s nascent economy was thinly connected with the global economies and the influence of global management practices on local professionals was rudimentary.

Years later, as he steers the institute as its Director, Sarkar and his team of management pundits face a vastly different world. The Indian economy is now deeply connected with global economies and, thus, more susceptible to the massive volatilities that the world of business currently finds itself in. And the management courses have undergone a sea change as newer avenues of business—new age start-ups in the fields of e-commerce, digital tech and Metaverse—have rapidly emerged over the past few years.

In spite of that, IIMC continues to enjoy its position at the top and not without a reason. According to Sarkar, the key to its continued success lies in its ability to gauge emerging trends and challenges early, and incorporate necessary changes in its curriculum. Sarkar, who has a PhD in computer sciences and engineering from IIT Kharagpur and has been teaching management information systems for years, says IIMC’s pioneering initiatives over the years have yielded rich dividends—both for the institute and its students. While it was the first B-school in India to introduce a tech-focussed management programme over 20 years ago, now IIMC is well equipped to arm the future management leaders with its course on business analytics in collaboration with Indian Statistical Institute and IIT Kharagpur. “The rate at which things have changed over the past five years is much higher than what one can absorb. This programme has been introduced to counter that challenge,” he says.

Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, when campus hiring had taken a hit, IIMC continued to place 100 per cent of its students within the first few days of its placement week. To avoid inconvenience to the recruiters and to its placement cell, the committee now allows only a select few companies that it finds fit as per demand among its students. “It is the students who now choose the recruiters as the demand (for IIMC graduates among recruiters) is much higher than the supply,” is how Sarkar puts it. While earlier students were more inclined to choose investment banks and consulting firms, of late they are increasingly opting for start-ups.