Hyderabad|India|June'2012: Institute of Management Technology (IMT), Hyderabad organized a Panel Discussion here in city at its premises in the city outskirts at Cherlaguda, Shamshabad Mandal on 30th June. The Topics for Panel Discussion were 1. “What industry expects from B School students when they step out into the job market (Knowledge, Skills and Attitude)”; 2. “What should students focus on in the next two years at the B school to improve their overall personality and prepare themselves for a corporate career”.

The speakers for the Panel Discussion included Sanjay Upendram Co-Founder and CEO, Amarthi Consulting; Seemant Jauhari CEO Apollo Hospitals Education and Research; Amit Chandola VP Global Retail Risk at HSBC and Vijay Pasupalati – Moderator; VP WinzestEdutech Pvt Ltd.

Speaking on the occasion Mr. Vijay Pasupalati said what industry expects from B Schools is the ready to be employable management graduates so that they don’t need any additional coaching or tutoring. Industry expects productivity from the day one from the management graduates. Are those 5 lakhs graduates who pass out every year from 2500 plus Management colleges from across the country are ready for the productivity from the day one they are hire? Answer is BIG NO. Not more than 25 per cent of these graduates do not even have employable skills he said. What more industry expects from B Schools is to groom management students with tomorrow’s knowledge today. They need to abreast with the latest skill sets and knowledge. The B Schools must bridge Industry—Academica vaccum. They must press into the services of industry experts to guide students.

They also felt that top corporate organizations are increasingly moving towards and encouraging it's staff to have ethical practices, value –based management, harmony with environment and many such things. In other words, corporates are expecting high level of soft skills in management trainees. So, in order to meet the expectations of the corporates, students just can't afford to ignore the behavioural aspect of work-life.

Speaking on the occasion Mr. Sajay Upendram said academic training and technical knowledge contribute to less than 7% to our personal and professional success. And emphasized on building skills and positive attitude. Seemant Jauhari said if you are clear where you want to go and what you want to achieve, that solves half of your problem. He told them to follow their guts, identify differentiating factors, nurture inner talent. Asked them not to emphasise too much on the study of the case studies. Amit Chandola told them to open to the idea of failure. Not to afraid of failures. You need to be brave, stay hungry and keep the spirit of adventure in life.

Speaking on what management students needs to focus on is building skills, analytical abilities, ability to take risks, ability to face challenges, failures. They must identify of their differentiating factors and constantly hone them. They must nurture their inner talent, they observed. They must inculcate positive attitude. Students passing out B Schools every year needs to check “How employable they are?”. Must be able to study trends and equip with latest knowledge, skills and talent. It is a competitive environment. Only fittest will survive, they said. Have a control on your emotional brain they emphasized. 80 to 85% of your success is driven by your emotional brain. So take care of it, they said.

They also observed that they must have fine balance between Career, Financials, Social, Family, Health and matters related to experience. Each one of you should have your own balance in life, the said.

Each speaker spoke first for about 20 minutes each. This was followed by a discussion between the panelists for 30 minutes which was moderated. And followed by an open house for student questions for 45 minutes. Students have participated in the Q&A session with lot of enthusiasm posing wide range of questions from Success Manthra to How to cultivate positive attitude to many things.

Majority of the students also felt that syllabi of management as well as many professional courses are not in tune with industry. They felt that the subjects taught must be relevant to the industry. B-Schools need more number of industry -experienced faculty. Most of the Indian B-schools fail to attract good faculty and most of them who teach do not have any industry experience. They urged the managements of B Schools increase the industry-academic interface.

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

-June 2012