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Friday, March 09, 2007

RELATIVE STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF ISB

I think I am in a situation where I can sit down and look back at what I liked the most in ISB and what I disliked.

STRENGTHS

The most striking feature of ISB is the quality of faculty. It all started in April last year when we entered our first term. In the very first term we were exposed to the likes of Prof. Finn, Bob, Richard and Rakesh Vohra. Teaching is not about reiterating the theories, it is about inspiration, passion and enthusiasm…and this is what I appreciate the most about such Professors. Soon terms proceeded and each Professor was unique in his/her own respect. I can still hear the trade mark lines which distinguish one master from the another. It is definitely a rare opportunity to learn from the long list of such distinguished academicians… Profs. Krishna Kumar, Asim Ansari, A.K. Shivakumar, Suren Mansinghka, Venkatraman, Ramavelamuri, Jagmohan Raju, Kenwyn Smith, Tom Noel, Jay Russo, Jay Anand, Cathy, Damien, Sridharan, Rajiv Banker….the list is really long. As I am about to leave ISB, those prized classroom moments where I spent attending these lectures will always occupy a very important space in the memory lane. Apart from these, the guest lectures ensured that we had the opportunity to listen to some of the most respected figures of world business.

The next thing which comes to mind in ISB is definitely the peer group. The inspirational major from the Indian Army, the ever smiling and caring civil service officer, the doctors from the Indian Navy and the Airforce, the friendly IT people, sincere chartered accountants, master mariners and sailors, real estate experts, economists, engineers, architects, media people, marketers…the diversity of the batch was simply awesome. It was a great experience to know so many people within the short span of one year. I also realized that IITians and the CAs are NOT the only smart people in the campus.

And what an amazing campus is this. Anyone who visits the campus falls in love with the beauty of the campus. Every morning when I wake up, my eyes cannot help gazing out of the windows. Very few places can be as beautiful as this place. And to add to the beauty of the campus, the professionalism and the efficiency of the ISB staff ensures that we need not worry about anything related to the "non-MBA part" of our lives. No wonder the ISB student who leaves for exchange studies keeps on reminding us what we will miss when we leave this place. The efficiency of the housekeeping people, operations team, IT department, LRC, recreation center, Sarovar…always deserve a very special thanks from us.

And to end, the placements of ISB were as rocking as ever.

WEAKNESSES

It can be really hard to find something which you will genuinely dislike at the ISB. There were tough days when too much stress on grades, placements etc. made life horrible. But that’s a part of life in an Indian B-School. Another thing which we should work on is to develop traits like punctuality. There are times when some people walk into the class well over time. Things are getting better but a lot depends on the subsequent batches on how they develop these traits. Discipline, punctuality etc, are the basic prerequisites we need to imbibe within ourself before we start ourselves benchmarking against the global big names. Even if a few people walk into the class late, it will affect the image of the entire batch. Most of the professors and visitors are global and a lot of reputation depends on the image which these people carry.

Although international applicants have been increasing, it will take some time before ISB really picks up on the international front. Although the campus is always full of global participants, exchange students etc., yet the number of full time international students is not good enough. But I am sure, it is just a matter of time, before ISB picks up on this regard too.


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