Hyderabad|India|November'2011: In recent years there has been a proliferation of management institutions being set upon our country. India has more than 1250 management institutions providing undergraduate and post-graduate level courses. Nearly four lakh management graduates pass out of these institutions each year with their employability being just around 25%. Many are jobless. That is because most of these passing out management students are not industry ready.

Since the management students produced by these institutions are primarily absorbed by industry, there is a growing need to match the curriculum and structure of management education to better fit the needs of Industry and make it sensitive to the changes in both, the manufacturing as well as the services sectors. In light of this background, the Institute of Management Technology (IMT) Hyderabad is organizing a 12-day long Business Orientation Program 2011 informed Dr. V. Panduranga Rao, Director – IMT Hyderabad while addressing a press conference in city today. Starting from 8th November the program will go on till 19th November, where ten renowned industry experts from across various industries will visit the IMT Hyderabad Campus located at Cherlaguda village in Shamshabad Mandal and address students on wide variety of subjects and will interact with them, added Dr. Rao.

These experts, Dr. Rao informed, include Mr. Madhu Kannan, MD & CEO of Bombay Stock Exchange, Mr. RVS Ramakrishna, MD of ITW Signode, Mr. V.B. Gadgil MD of L&T-Hyderabad metro, Mr. Abheek Barua, Chief Economist HDFC Bank, Mr. Sashi Krishnan CIO Bajaj Allianz, Mr. Manohar Bhat, Commercial Business Head (South), Maruti Suzuki among 10 other business leaders, who would engage the first year management students at Institute of Management Technology (IMT).The leaders hail from sectors like Insurance, Manufacturing, Infrastructure, Banking, and Automobiles to upcoming areas like business analytics, Private Equity, Hedge Funds among others. The program will be formally kicked off on November 8.

The Program is designed with the objective of helping the students understand and appreciate the ‘big picture’ of business in the sectors; to enable the students to evaluate the diverse career opportunities that the sectors would provide; to inspire and motivate them by listening to the life experiences of these accomplished persons. The program would give the students an opportunity to interact with the who’s-who in the business world, discuss issues of a contemporary nature, debate on issues of importance in these sectors and also raise questions that concern them.

We believe that textbook knowledge is not all that a student of Management should rely on. To be successful manager, students must be exposed to real world practices so that they are well prepared for the future. Guest lectures are organized to supplement the theoretical knowledge of students with practical inputs provided by experienced managers coming from reputed organizations. Many executives and eminent personalities from the corporate world are invited to the Institute regularly for interacting with students on relevant topics and particular aspects of management said Dr. V. Panduranga Rao.

Academia- Industry Interface should be interactive and collaborative arrangement between academic institutions and business corporations for the achievement of certain mutually inclusive goals and objectives. Traditionally, business schools are looking for placements and internships for their students and the industry for fresh recruits who are well trained and equipped with the right KSA (Knowledge, Skills and Attitude) to be able to contribute to organization’s growth observed Dr. Rao.

The IMT Hyderabad’s s 2 week long Business Orientation is nothing but ‘working closely with employers’ and would help in understanding the constantly changing needs of the industry. This feedback and input would help in making their fresh recruits productive from the day one and thereby reduce the subsequent training costs.

This program, Dr. Rao informed, is one among the few initiatives taken by IMT Hyderabad, which offers full time residential Management program spread over two academic years with two semesters each.. The program has an innovative and industry relevant curriculum supported by a pedagogic approach which is student centric, participative, experiential and team-based. The curriculum has integrative courses that provide a holistic picture and learning about real life business situations and problems. Diverse learning opportunities are provided through case studies, simulations, real-time projects, seminars, workshops, and interaction with industry professionals. In each of the courses, 25% of the sessions are delivered by the practitioners from the corporate world. The program has a 14 week faculty supervised industry internship program at the end of the first year. The institute aims to develop socially responsible and innovative business leaders.

Apart from the traditional functional specialization, IMT Hyderabad offers courses in specialized career oriented elective streams in the field of Business Analytics and Investment Banking. The market for investment banking is showing encouraging signs of growth given the investments programs by government and corporate sector. Business Analytics is another growth area and India is expected to develop into a global hub for analytics. Both the fields have extremely attractive career options and provide good job opportunities. IMT Hyderabad is planning to introduce more such specialized career oriented elective streams in the future.

IMT is a leading educational establishment rated among the top 10 business schools in India, with campuses in Ghaziabad, Nagpur and Dubai, besides Hyderabad.