Shastirian values are driving LBSIM towards excellence

Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management, Delhi is amongst the highly reputed Management and Information Technology Institutions in India. Our top priority is to produce quality manpower for the industry as well as Academia. Dr. Praveen Gupta, Director, LBSIM, an industry veteran and a visionary, has an unwavering commitment to take his Institution to the greater heights. In a candid conversation with the OPEN Magazine, he shared the core values and vision of LBSIM.

How will you describe LBSIM’s eventful journey since the time of inception?

The institute was established in the fond memory of India’s Second Prime Minister, Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri. He was the man of masses, value, integrity, hard work. He demonstrated firmness with humbleness. We imbibed his value system as the foundation stone for our institution to produce responsible corporate citizens.

Since the time of inception, our institute has adhered to the basic principles of Shastri Ji. We made a modest beginning in 1995 with a small premise and a batch of 60 students at R K Puram. Since then, our Institute has grown. By the next year, our student intake will be 400 for the five different programs.

The journey of this institution has been eventful and it has shown a consistent growth. Simultaneously we have been developing our infrastructure. We have benchmarked our performance with the industry standards. LBSIM management has been responsive and proactive to the changes in general and the industry’s demand in particular. So, we have designed our course structure and value-added programmes accordingly. We have a team of well qualified faculty members and state of the art infrastructure. Our Institute is working on the latest technologies.

We are launching two new programmes – PGDM (Artificial Intelligence & Data Science) and PGDM (E-Business) next year. We are aware that technology is getting integrated into the management education. So, we are with the time or sometimes ahead of it.

How the LBSIM has become the preferred choice for the meritorious students?

We have been imparting Quality education and that is our USP. We have never compromised on the quality of education being offered to our students.

No compromises have ever been made on industry exposure, essential for any B school.

As mentioned earlier, our thrust has always been on inculcating values like integrity which the industry appreciates. One may comment that such values are from the old school of thought. You may remember the 2008 financial upheaval in the US market that impacted the whole world. It was also an example of lack of integrity.

Commitment towards the society, the environment and sustainability are intrinsically connected to integrity. At LBSIM, we are focusing on all these important aspects. Before the industry, society and government the burning issues like sustainability, disaster management and corporate governance are at the core of learning at LBSIM. We have a process where we introduce new electives in our curriculum which is regularly upgraded and brought in sync with the industry requirements. We invite top resource persons from IITs, FMS, MDI and senior industry people for getting their inputs in course curriculum revision. Based on their valuable inputs, we have introduced courses on corporate governance, sustainability, change management and disaster management as a separate paper.

Project management has been made a compulsory paper from 2021-22. So, for us the aspects that attract students are:- 1. Shastrian values, 2) Responding to the industry requirements, 3) Interventions from academicians and Industry experts 4) Corporate interface as well as 5) Rural Intervention and Outbound Leadership program that we have started from 2021 in association with Tata Steel Adventure Foundation.

What might be the reason behind IIMs always gaining the top slot in attracting the best minds and NIRF ranking. Could you share your thoughts on this?

As mentioned earlier, five aspects differentiate our institution from others. A few even look at the RoI as a parameter. Our Tuition Fees are still 30-40 percent lower than our rivals and competitors. I teach my students to forget about RoI in terms of salary, package as all these are little things in life. You should measure RoI in terms of overall personality, skill development, developing yourself as a good human being, responsible for the society, the industry and the family.

I ask my students: If you achieve something great in the industry and perform badly on the home front, what will you achieve.? We hear of burnouts and fatalities among young managers, mental and health issues, discord with the employer and the spouse. So, I feel RoI should not be the ultimate objective.

The number of new companies as well as student’s placements have increased at LBSIM. What factors could be attributed for this growth?

It is true and I am optimistic about a substantial jump in the number of placements during 2021-22 as well as the handsome package that our students are likely to get. It has been made possible due to the quality intake of students. They are being admitted through CAT, XAT, and GMAT examinations. And further, the transparent approach and rigorous selection process have also resulted into the quantum jump in our placements.

Most IIM’s are having 100-200 acres of campus but we have a strong teaching methodology, vibrant culture, dedicated faculty members and a fantastic industry interface even within our limited campus.

Being in Delhi, we are in an advantageous position than some of our competitors from the smaller towns. Whereas if you look at most of the reputed B Schools, they are situated more than 50 km deep into the city. The CEOs and CXOs are easily accessible in the current era of digital connectivity. That, too, is to our advantage.

Our management and leadership have a vision, legacy and are well networked. We invite the top professionals from the industry and from all walks of life. We have also instituted Lal Bahadur Shastri Award for Excellence which is being awarded either by the President or the Vice President of India.Such events have given a lot of confidence to our students. Further, we keep our students engaged with the webinars (earlier seminars) every week. Recruiters are satisfied with our efforts and looking at these developments positively. Over the years, we have made our team robust by putting new systems and processes in place. I wish to submit with pride that our efforts have shown the desired results.

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